Dark Wave

Chapter 2

The scream was a white hot bullet piercing the air. And god, why, no, how could I have nodded off? And where was Karla? And what the fuck was Mack doing under that blank--Ohh, oh God, that's what he's doing....

I slapped my palm against my face and shrugged out of the shawl that had randomly appeared on me. I lowered myself out of the cart and stumbled down a small dirt road. "Karla?" I called, "Are you there?!" The next scream was muffled, strained almost, as if the body was running out of air, or lacking it...

"Oh, God, Karla, it's happening again! Mack! Mack, God, help!" I yelled, running down the path, listening to the restraint in Karla's voice, and the trickle of a stream. Birds sang a mournful song above my head, but all I heard was the wind rushing past my ears and into my wavy hair as I sprinted down the path, the blood rushing to my head. I think I saw Mack running behind me, struggling into a limp as he tried to zip up his fly, but maybe that was just my lusty imagination.

When I got to the stream, I saw Karla standing over the zombie, a bloodied rock in her right hand.

"Karla, God, are you ok?" The words slipped free from my mouth before I could think. "Are you hurt?"

She dropped the rock, and turned to me, an arm behind her back.

"What? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." She answered, almost oblivious.

"Okay, Karla, we need to move, we need to get back to the cart and go."

"No." She said back, her eyes widened as she remembered what had happened. She blinked half-a-dozen times, before elaborating. "This zombie mother-fucker chewed off the wheel, it ran off with splinters in its gums. the horses ran off so I chased it down here and smashed its face in with that rock."

I looked at her, worriedly. "Can the wheel be repaired?" I asked.

"No, I can't find it. We need to go on foot. Linda-" She referred to Miss kingsley, "-gave me this before we started out." She took out a map from her back pocket. "We need to follow this trail."

"Karla." Mack started before I could spite her. "We need to go now, before others get here. OK?"

She nodded, and took the lead.

The trees and bushes we passed seemed the same now, the colours blending into what appear as one big earthy mass. And the sky grew darker in rich and subtle tones of vague orange.

"We need to stop, set up some sort of camp. We need food." She added when my stomach growled like a hungry bear. 

"We need to split up." I suggested, and received a glance of plea from Mack and one of disgust from Karla.

"You're just going to find a place in secret and fuck like bunnies on the forest floor." She pouted at me. Mack looked appalled, while my mind tapered with the idea, before...

"No!" Mack blurted out. "I'd never touch her." He announced it like I was some sort of vile creature. That was it.

"Libby, wait." He started as I began to walk away, hot angry tears sprouting in the corners of my eyes, my head ringing. And I swear, I felt her burning glare on my back as I skulked off, and a smirk rising at the corner of her mouth. 

Slaloming between trees as I paced through the undergrowth, I caught snippets of Mack pelading for me to stop, to turn around and look at me. To talk about it.

"Fuck you." I said, and spun around, sending hot licks of fire up his back.

"Libby, I'm sorry, I--"

"I thought you liked me. I'm just a game to you?" Eyes hazy, vision blurry from the tears that threatened to fall.

"No, I--"

"Fuck you." I repeated, spitting the words like venom. I turned again, the heat rising in my throat.

"Lib, please, I didn't mean it like that, it's just... I mean, she's a fucking bitch, did you want me to satisyfy her by saying what I was thinking? What I wanted to do?" That stopped her, He thought.

I stopped, kept my back to him and let a tear fall.

"Lib, we can't do this now, let's just get some--" His eyes widened in horror as he watched Karla-eyes bloodshot and shining blue- race like a cheetah along the side of the forest. Towards me. And when she rammed into me I hardly felt it. And when she raised her hand and hacked at my arm, I wouldn't have known. I did, however, know when Mack ran to her, and slammed his foot into her abdomen, then again into her face. And I did know that her eyes went out when I put the bullet in her head with my gun.

"Lib--"

"Shut up you idiot." his eyes flashed with sorrow. "Just kiss me." He tugged at my shirt a little, bringing me into him, and brushed his lips on mine. My eyes closed involuntarily, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, clicking the safety on, before dropping the gun. His arms moved around my waist, his hands grasping the fabric of my shirt. 

I pulled back a little, losing myself in his eyes, his eyes like a swirling abyss of chocolate brown.

Then he pulled back from the embrace, took my hand and squeezed.

"C'mon, let's go."

It was dark when we found the hut. And it was darker when we finished eating the can of beans I brought with me. And it was even darker when we found the blanket and cuddled together on the floor.

It was light when I woke up.