Desolation ✔️

Chapter 20: Bits and Pieces

"Sorry to wake ya after only four hours of sleep, I shouldn't have even let you sleep that long. I know beauty sleep is about the only thing we can do for our well-being since coping without showers, but the sooner we get to Ostford, the better." Ellis grabs his bag and gun and nods over to the door.

I nudge Ash to get him to wake up more. He groans and rolls onto his back, lifting an arm over his eyes. With his arm off me, I grab my own backpack and push myself to my feet. Ash takes a little while waking up. All I want to do is lie next to him or curl into him, but Ellis is right: we've gotta go.

My leaving speeds up Ash's waking-up process, and soon he meets Ellis and I outside the semi. My body aches from sleeping on the hard truck floor but it's not quite as bad as the flower shop. I pull the map out and follow Ellis with Ash at my side.

"So I know your map says one way, but we can take some shortcuts," Ellis informs as he leaps over a dead body. "Question is, do you trust me?"

I answer "yes" the same time Ash answers "no." Ellis looks back at us and shakes his head. He lets out a long whistle. "Well, I trust myself so that outnumbers ya, officer. We're following Ellis's shortcuts today."

And so we do. We continue along the bridge until it finally comes to a stop and leads into an area dense with skyscrapers and long empty roads. More roads means more dead on the streets, so we have to watch where we walk. We pause often to hide behind stalled cars and abandoned coffee shops before leaping out and lunging at the dead with our guns pointed out. Eventually, we run into a weapon shop and take melee weapons for silent kills. I get the machete, Ash takes the katana, and Ellis opts for a crowbar. Together, we make a pretty sick team.

But even Ellis and Ash notice something strange. At first, they only shoot me odd, questioning glances, but by noon, the issue becomes more than a little concerning.

"Hey, Scar?" Ellis inquires as we pause on the shoulder of another highway. "I can't help but notice your eyes. Not in romantic way, no worries Ash." He pats Ash's arm in reassurance. Ash swats him away. "They're almost...yellow. Is that normal?"

I pause where I am to look at Ellis. "Yellow?"

"Well, not quite yellow, but amber? You seein' this Ash?"

Ash turns to look at me, his lips set into a thin line. His eyes shift between each of my own considerately before he responds. "Yeah. I noticed it back when she was at my house."

"And them biters ain't seemin' to notice you." Ellis secures his hands on his hips and squints at some walking dead down the road. "They snap their jaws at us men, but not you. I'm guessin' it ain't got nothin' to do with gender roles, either."

Their words make my stomach churn like meat through a grinder. If I had a mirror, would the sight frighten me? Would I recognize myself? I'm not sick, I'm positive. Never once was I scratched or bitten. And the eyes of the creatures turn milky-white, not yellow. "What do you think it means?" I ask aloud.

"We'll keep an eye on ya. I'm sure it's nothin'."

"Let's keep going," Ash says, moving his arm around my back to guide me forward. The gesture is comforting, but their words still take root in my stomach and twist it into unsettling knots.

My mind wanders back to mine and Carter's Cali trip. How the convention seemed off. How Carter and I never had to be supervised. How our experiments revolved only around slide examinations. How we had to sign a form before entering stating everything that happened in the labs stayed in the labs. It all just seemed too formal for a senior science internship. And as the thoughts take form in my head, I can't help but wonder if it's connected somehow. Because why else would my eyes be changing color? After all this time?