Perish • Ben Parish

06

The darkness turned into light as night ebbed away. 

Ringer had made it quite clear to us that there was nothing left in the caverns for us. Throughout our travels during the night, she'd convinced us that the Other we'd seen wasn't a threat to us anymore. 

It hadn't taken much for me to be persuaded to forget the caverns. The sooner we headed back, the sooner we'd be able to get to Dumbo. 

Zombie seemed to think the same thing because he'd barely said a word since we'd met up with Ringer and Constance. 

Zombie and I had fallen to the back, letting Ringer lead the way to Urbana. 

Once there, we'd get Dumbo and then head back to Grace's house. We needed to get back to try and form some plan. We were running out of time with the Others' complete obliteration of the human race in only a few days time. 

"Zombie?" I said, keeping my eyes trained on the ground in front of me. 

"Mm?" He responded. 

"Do you think we made the right decision to leave Dumbo alone?" I asked quietly. I rubbed my arm, worried. 

Obviously, it hadn't been ideal to leave Dumbo alone. It wouldn't have been smart to have only Zombie or I go find Ringer, which had been our reasoning at the time we'd left Dumbo. But now? Now, there was no way of telling if we made the right decision or not. 

Zombie sighed. "I don't know," he said, his deep voice tinged with helplessness. "I don't know." 

I bit my lip softly, moving my hand from my arm to reach for my gun. 

We were approaching Urbana, the blurred outline of the ghost town coming into our line of vision. And as we moved closer, I began to see the shambles of its remains and the all too familiar deserted streets.

My heart started thudding against my ribcage uncontrollably. Memories of the previous night terrorized my mind. Dumbo falling to the ground. The Other hitting Zombie to the floor. 

I shook my head slightly, forcing myself to focus. Dumbo needed us now. 

"Which way did you say Dumbo was?" Ringer asked, her authoritative voice echoing back to us. 

I tightened my grip on my gun, my jaw setting. "Straight and then in the alley to the right," I said. 

Ringer nodded once, stalking off in the direction I'd indicated. 

A sharp breath escaped my lips. I was already utterly annoyed by Ringer. She had no idea the trouble we went through to find her. And now? Now, she was bossing me around like the good ol' days when we were back at Wright Patterson. 

There were many reasons why I hated my time there. But above them all, it was because Ringer had made it her mission to make everyone else feel incompetent and inferior every little chance she got. 

Part of me had thought Ringer would've changed a little after the effort we put in to find her. But no, she still had the same blasted stick stuck up her ass. 

A warm hand touched mine briefly. I looked up to see Zombie, who gave me a small, reassuring smile. 

I nodded once before letting my gaze rest on the crumbled dirt beneath my boots. I needed to stop getting so worked up about Ringer. My rivalry with her wasn't important right now. 

Eventually, We found our way to the block we'd walked through last night. 

"There," Zombie said gruffly, pointing to the street a couple buildings down.