Foundered

Yarachmiel VII: Whispers from the Dark

Yara was reluctant to leave the premises of his room. He didn't mind walking into Jasper and Zac again (even though he knew they weren't likely to repeat their mistake again), but he was afraid what the virus would do to him.

It was stupid of me to hide my wounds for so long, he thought, even stupider was me not running uphill to avoid the zombies. But eh, whatever... what's done is done.

He lay in bed for a bit longer, chatting to random people on the internet, playing whatever games he could find, watching random videos. Hours passed by, but he could find nothing to do that could rid him of his boredom.

"You know, my mom used to say if you're sick, you shouldn't be on your phone."

He looked up at Jasper, his lithe figure shining eminently in the light of the morning sun. He had been up on errands it seems, lucky him for not being struck down by fever, and lucky his outfit for being entirely zombie proof.

"Jasper," Yara sighed sat upright, "how's it going?"

"Quite well, I think," he answered, "we're devising a plan to get ourselves royally fucked."

Yara chuckled, "how exactly?"

Jasper sighed, "everyone else is busy running away from zombies, and here we are trying to attract them towards us. That's how stupid we are."

"Makes sense though," said Yara, "we're all ex-soldiers, with plenty of weapons training."

"Yeah, that's right," Jasper took his phone out and did something. "Oh, I forgot to tell you what happened yesterday. France is now officially free from zombies."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah, or so I read. After they decided carpet bombing was too inefficient, they sent the main army across the English Channel: tens of thousands of soldiers from Britain, supported by an equal number of French and Spanish soldiers. They steamrolled through the French mainland and nobody could stop them."

"Well, that's one less horde to worry about. What about Croatia though?"

"The East in general is in trouble."

Yara was disappointed.

"So what do you plan, Jasper?"

Throwing his head back, Jasper drew a long breath. "We do not have enough men to take the land back by force, instead we have to rely on carpet bombing. But don't worry, all we have to do is-"

"Jasper!" a young boy came running to him, "my brother's calling you."

"Oh, he is?" he stood up, "Yara, wait for me. I'll be back in a while."

"Yeah, sure. Take all the time you need."

Jasper gave a last smile and left the room, leaving Yara to his own business. Damn it, what now? Yara wondered, taking his phone out to browse around. A few minutes passed by but Jasper didn't return, probably because this castle was much bigger than their own and it took time to go from one place to another.

***

"Yara," he heard a whisper.

"Jasper?" he looked up, half-asleep. "Are you back?"

"Yara," the voice whispered on, but he was alone in the room.

He looked around confused, the voice was odd, of a somewhat peculiar nature. I must be dreaming, he scoffed, but the voice persisted.

"Yara!"

He heard it, this time clear and loud. He was not dreaming, a faint voice inside his head was talking to him. He was taken by shock. Was he going mad? Was someone trying to communicate with him? A million questions entered and exited his mind.