Red Sun (ON HOLD)

(2) Newcomers

“I know you’re speaking, I see your lips moving, but I can’t understand what you’re saying ‘cause I don’t speak Little Bitch.” I laughed as I heard one of my favourite lines in Supernatural. I’d heard it a thousand and one times but I still laughed every time.

I was standing with my back turned to the small television a box in my kitchen, cooking dinner for myself. Supernatural, my long-time favourite show, was halfway through an episode. I’d watched this episode before — I’d watched every episode before — but I still liked to watch the reruns every now and then. They never got old, not even in the face of the apocalypse.

I turned around to watch the rest of the scene, momentarily forgetting about the soup I was making. When the commercials came on, I turned back to the stove and continued attending to it. It was almost boiling when the generator stopped running and all the lights clicked off.

I heaved a big sigh and flicked my lighter on to see around me long enough to light the few candles I had around me. I took my soup off the burner, more upset about not getting to see the rest of the Supernatural episode than I was about my food.

I could only put in about a gallon of gas a day and turn on the generator once. I usually picked dinner time, about two hours before it got dark. Up until last week, I’d been able to watch my DVR’d Supernatural episodes whenever because I wasn’t nearly out of gas, as I was now.

I need to salvage more an abandoned car soon but I’d already drained all the cars around the few blocks near my home. In order to get more, I’d have to go further and I didn’t like to do that unless I had to.

Mom and dad had warned me, before they died, never to go too far from where I was staying, incase I got stuck and need more provisions or a good place to hide.

I sighed, looking down at my luke-warm, half-a-cup of soup. Things would be so different if I had mom or dad. Or anyone, for that matter.

I miss high school. I used to have all my friends. I was popular and pretty and everyone loved me. I had one small group of really good friends and then a bunch of other people who were just friendly to me because I was popular. I didn’t care, though. I loved the attention. Plus, I’d had the most amazing boyfriend.

Joey was a quarter back. Tall, muscular and blonde, he was everything girls dreamed about. He was handsome and easily the best looking guy in our high school. He was sweet and romantic and smart, too. He’d always take me out to do all sorts of things, and he was always buying me things. When I’d had to move to this junkie apartment, I’d brought along most of what he’d given me. I just couldn’t give it up, and some of it was useful, anyway.

I shook my head, clearing it. This was exactly why I hated not having power. It gave me time to think. No power, means no TV and not enough light to read. I could hold a flashlight to a book and read that way, if only I had any more batteries.

Supplies were seriously dwindling.

I finished eating while I hummed quietly to myself. When the can of soup was empty — and my stomach was growling like an angry bear — I picked it up to take it to the sink.

I dropped it halfway there. I didn’t even hear the tin hit the wooden floor; I was too far gone by the time it did.

“It’s not much farther.” A tall boy said. He looked down at the brunette, who was holding tight to his hand. “When I checked this out a few days ago, it looked like a perfect place to make a pit stop.”

Another boy spoke up. “Perfect? We’re in New York City. There’s no power, this whole place is crawling with Necros, and someone’s already sucked all the cars clean of everything.” He kicked a car’s tire as he passed, as if to emphasize his point.

The first boy shrugged. “What’s the harm in trying it out? We could use a change of pace, for a few days, at least. We can gather what we can, break into a safe house for a little while and then keep going.”

The girl with him nodded her head. “My feet and back hurt and I’m tired of walking. I know I’m complaining a lot, but I don’t have your stamina. You’re killing me here, Kain.”

The man, Kain, shook his head, sighing deeply. “Fine. We can stop for a bit. But only one night. We really need to get going.”

The vision slipped away, my clarity returning slowly. The first thing that registered was that there was something familiar about the guy, Kain. The second thing, was that he had called the Victus Mortuus ‘Necros’. I’d be anything that the name was short for ‘Necroambulist,” which was a commonly used term in the California and a few other randomly scattered states. Most people had agreed not to use that term, as the government deemed it politically incorrect and advised people not to use it as it was “stretching what they really were in order to scare people.”

Necroambulist literally means “dead-walker”. The government thought it was a little harsh to call the Victus Mortuus anything that literally translated to ‘dead’, so they came up with some thing that people wouldn’t recognize as easily.

Before I could continue my revelation, I swayed and felt myself being pulled into another vision. Something was off with this one. I was in it, but I was watching as if from third person. There was no colour to the vision and I couldn’t hear what we were saying.

I was standing on a big, white wooden porch. It looked like the front of a big farmhouse, but I couldn’t be sure because I couldn’t see much of it. It was dark but there was a dim porch light on over my head. There was a boy with me. He was tall, with short dark hair and smooth, tan skin. He was much taller than my height, and I was taller than all of my friends in high school. He was extremely muscled, especially around his arms and shoulders.

I felt a jolt of recognition upon seeing the man from my vision the previous morning but I couldn’t tear myself away from the vision long enough to ponder it too much.

The boy cupped my cheek with his large hand, the other brushing through my hair as he spoke quietly to me. My hair was beautiful and clean, curling loosely down my back. He leaned in and kissed me, his hands going down my sides until they reached my waist. My arms, in turn, moved to wrap around his neck. My hands fisted in his hair and —

A gun shot went off, pulling me so forcefully out of the vision that I fell back, landing on my backside. The tin can had fallen and spilled what was left of it’s contents at my feet but I didn’t have time to pick it up.

I jumped up, looking through the window. It was dark but the moonlight shined brightly on the pale skin of the Victus Mortuus. They were all half-running, half-dragging themselves towards the new sound. There were at least a hundred of them, maybe more.

Knowing who the new comers would be, I grabbed my gun and ran outside. As soon as I was a good distance away from my apartment, I started unloading my clip into the nearest zombies.

The shots all found a target and drew the attention of the remaining Victus Mortuus. I continued to fire at them for a minute before turning around and starting to make a run behind me, back to the apartment. There were too many, I had gotten their attention and given more than enough time for the newcomers to get away and now I needed to get back to safety.

I hadn’t noticed the other Victus Mortuus that had joined us as reinforcements. There were hundreds, all closing in on me.

I couldn’t see a way out. Hell, with panic nearly suffocating me, I wasn’t even sure where my apartment was anymore.

I raised my gun, pointing and shooting, well aware that I only had a few bullets left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's short, I know. Sorry but at least it's finally up, right? (':

Please tell me how you think it's going so far. It might be a touch boring but that's just because I have to do mostly introductions and whatever first. Next chapter will be better, as I'll introduce the rest of the characters and actually start moving on with the story.

Comment & vote and you're more likely to get the next chapter sooner.