Perish • Ben Parish

07

We headed back to Grace's house, slowing down slightly when the sky started to turn black. Eventually, Ringer made the executive decision for the group to take a break. If it were up to me, we'd just keep going. We were close enough - within hours of Grace's.

"I'm heading over there," Zombie muttered, waving his arm heartedly to a small clearing a little ways a way.

He left without much of a glance in my direction, quietly lumbering off without a another word.

I turned to speak with Ringer, but she was a little ways off, in a deep conversation with Constance.

I pursed my lips, letting a small sigh escape. I took another glance at Zombie, whose silouhette could be seen amidst the trees.

Okay, I didn't care if he wanted to be a lone right now. I was sick and tired of him not communicating with me. I was sick and tired of him having the communication skills of a rock. Especially after Dumbo dying, wouldn't he have realized how important it was to spend as much time with someone as you could?

I shook my head, determined to get some sense into him.

I walked over, making sure to watch where I was stepping. Who knew how close an Other was.

I wound around the trees, peering past one to see him sitting on the ground, with his back up against a tree trunk.

I coughed lightly, trekking over to sit next to him. I settled down to the ground, not speaking until I was fully situated.

"Are you okay?" I asked him softly, my voice hardly above a whisper.

He glanced over at me quickly, "Yeah," he said.

I shook my head, refusing to let him get away so easy. "It's okay if you're not," I said, dragging a stick through the dirt. I dug it as far into the ground as it could go before snapping, the stick crumbling in my grasp.

"I know I'm not okay," I said slowly. "He's gone. After everything, Dumbo is just...gone," I said, brushing my hands off on my jeans.

My thoughts wandered back to Dumbo's lifeless body sprawled on the alley's floor and the trail of blood indicating his struggle. One of us should've stayed with him. There was no need for both of us to go, especially with a injured friend, utterly helpless if anything were to happen. And well, something did happen. And now he was gone, taken to Dubuque.

Zombie looked over at me again, this time deciding not to take his eyes away.

"Fine," he mumbled, sounding as if he was almost ashamed. "I'm not okay." His gaze returned to the his hands resting in his lap.

"I'm not okay. Everyone I seem to know is getting ripped away, killed. Sissy, Oompa, Poundcake, and now Dumbo. And I can't help but think that all of this is happening because of me. Because I keep screwing up. All of this is my fault," he said, gesturing around us.

I shook my head carefully. "That's not true," I said, "You have no control over who lives and who dies."

I frowned slightly. He had been consoling me earlier and now I was doing the same for him. I wondered if there would ever be a time when neither one of us would be worried about something.

Zombie shook his head a bit. "Canary," he said in a hushed, distraught whisper. "I killed them. I know I did. I kill everyone who gets even remotely close to me."

I shook my head again and gently slid my hand into his, moving them so they rested in my lap.

"Zombie, listen to me," I said, "It's not your fault. And I'm still here and I'm not planning on leaving you anytime soon," I said reassuringly.