I wrote this a bit back for a club that I'm in. Please tell me what you think!
By the way, the song Zombies by Family Force Five- it doesn't fit the mood of the story at all, but I can't get it out of my head, so...
Dead Days
The sun began to set over the lonely city, casting shadows that crept, slowly over-taking it all. For the moment, the sky had taken pinched-pinks, vivacious oranges, and cooling blues. The wary group watched from a sky scraper, dreading the twilight’s sinister beauty. Nat and Lynn shuffled silently through rations with thinning, shaking hands. Morgana poured over a tattering book, escaping for just a while to a world not ravaged by some weird necromantic disease. In a corner, Melody scribbled tiny letters into a composition notebook, creating castles and spires of words and phrases. A haunting silence filled the chilly autumn evening, a nippy breeze buffeting over the two figures standing at the building’s edge.
They gazed off, toward the then disappearing sun, which cast bloody reds and deep, aged oranges overhead .The girl wrapped her scarf about her, wriggling into it as she pulled her hood up, over her dark brown hair. The boy next to her did the same, his honey-tinted hair ruffled by the breeze. Both tried to ignore the stench of blood and the blots of crimson stained unto her hands. Her teal eyes were dulled with attempts to strip away her memories. Not long ago, she’d cherished every moment. The trials, losses, and triumphs alike. Not that she really had any idea of trial then. None of them did.
“You tried,” he said to her, still looking forward. “He’d appreciate that, Birdie,” he looked at her, not knowing how the affectionate nick name tugged at her heart. But other lips had spoken it. She thought of him, her other friend, but despite all of the good times they’d had together, now all she could see was her hands in his as his eyes went blank. Then, his jerky, uncoordinated movements as he’d risen to his feet. Lastly, she saw the blood spatter and heard the crack of his skull under the force of her bat. Bile rose in her throat, and she flinched involuntarily. Beside her, the boy couldn’t help but notice as she clenched her rifle tighter.
“This wasn’t what I thought-“she took a shuddering breath, momentarily returning to herself before she threw up the make-shift walls. “It’s only been three weeks since fall started. Since this started.” She finished voice hard and reinforced. There was a trace of tears glowing in the corners of her eyes, out of place on her flat expression. He could tell she was doing that thing where she set herself apart from the others, like she did whenever she was hurt. All the same, it seemed that she was like this more and more. They’d all changed of course, but she had changed most drastically deep inside. On the outside, she was sometimes the same, but he could feel something deep in her that just wasn’t quite right.
Still, he reached over and took her hand, intertwining their fingers. She looked at him and smiled, but it was like a crack on a pretty plate. Like whatever was deep inside, it wasn’t right and it frightened him a little bit.
“It can only get better,” he lied, turning to look up at the indigo, velvet sky.
“Yeah,” she said, pulling her hand away and dropping easily to one knee, propping up the rifle on the building’s edge. He looked on the visage of the girl he’d grown to love, hoping she’d come back someday. He felt that he’d lost two people, that day as she closed one eye in aim. It hurt him, but the hurt made him persevere. It made him stand there with her, and be strong for her. Because he couldn’t bear to watch another friend die on him.
“Don’t die on me,” he murmured, his face obscured in shadows.
The resounding crack of the gun filled the air, falling the first Walker of the night.
