Decimation (Ianthony Apocalypse AU)

day eighteen

chompers seen: somewhere around five hundred and fifty

chompers killed: 0

near-death experiences: 4

human deaths witnessed: 3         

friends left behind: 4

camps infiltrated: 1

dead friends: 1

The nightmares kept me up all night.

Every time I drifted off for just a few minutes, I was instantly jerked awake by the image of the chomper biting that helpless woman in the shoulder. I would wake up in a panic, my eyes shooting open, and every time, Anthony just held me tighter and whispered that it was okay and we were fine.

I knew he hadn't slept at all. He wasn't even trying. Every time I woke up, he was just staring off at the wall, his eyes droopy and stained with whatever terrible things he had seen the night before.

When I woke up the last time, after probably a full hour of sleep in total, early-morning light rained down from a tiny boxy window high on the far wall, and a few people were milling around, chattering quietly. Anthony was awake, of course, along with everyone else from our group. I think only Lizzy and I had gotten any sort of sleep.

I sat up, Anthony's arm still around me. I smiled internally, surprised beyond belief he hadn't moved when it got bright enough for people to see us in our little corner. He rubbed my shoulder a little before standing up, slowly, groaning with the effort.

I followed with my eyes as he went over to Ken, only a few feet away but too far for me to hear, and he knelt down and spoke to him quietly.

I observed the rest of the room. Most people seemed to be awake but weren't really doing anything. Probably everyone was trying to figure out their next move.

Ken stood up a moment later, his face scrunching in pain as he stood; if I was sore from sleeping on a concrete floor all night, I couldn't even imagine what his poor old man back felt like. Martha followed and Anthony extended a hand to me, then Lizzy, Henry, and Jonah.

"We're getting out of here," Anthony muttered, grabbing his backpack. Unfortunately, I hadn't even bothered to grab my own pack before leaving the house, and no one had gotten it for me (which, I wasn't expecting them to, but Jonah had apologized probably a hundred times already; "I'm so sorry, man, I thought you had it!".)

Without a word from any of us, our group headed for the stairs, keeping our heads down and avoiding eye contact with anyone. I was actually really relieved we were on the same page, because I wanted to get away from all these people, too. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I really only cared about keeping in contact with Joe. And it was a little late for that.

We'd just about cleared the stage when Aaron stopped us.

"Hey, where you guys off to?" he asked, his voice dry and eyes beat red. I could tell he was far from okay.

"No idea," Martha answered, a hint of ironic laughter in her voice.

Aaron scanned the room, biting his lip gently. He lowered his voice and leaned in before he spoke next.

"Look, we've all been through a lot, and I really need to get out of here. Let us go first, just the four of us and make sure it's clear up there. Trust me, we're a lot more experienced with this kind of thing than y'all are. And then, after that, I think we should stick together. Just me, Jenna, Alex, Brandon, and you all. We have tons of supplies and can teach y'all a thing or two about guns. Trust me, it's not a good idea to go out there inexperienced."