Requiem

Chapter Six:

And then his lip stops trembling, stretching back into a small smile. 

I punch his arm.

He yelps, scrambling back. Laughter bubbles past his lips, the sound making my ears burn. I glare at him and sheathe my weapon before the temptation to kill him grows. 

"Jerk," I grumble under my breath, starting to walk away. 

He reaches out, fingers curling around my wrist. With the force he yanks back with, I almost fall back on top of him. He rolls a bit on the ground, like a roll of bread, laughter growing even louder. "It's not funny!" I shout at him. 

He presses his lips together tightly. His eyes meet mine, laughter floating around inside azure. I grit my teeth and fight against the weird, cheeky grin that threatens to take form on my face. His lips curl back, tongue poking through his teeth playfully. "It is too."

"Shut up." I avert my eyes. 

"Admit it~!" He sings, squeezing my wrist lightly. I jolt with surprise and jerk my hand back, ripping my wrist out of his grip. 

I shoot him a swift glare, "Don't touch me."

He rolls his eyes and climbs to his feet, still grinning goofily. I cast him another look, lips twitching. Shaking my head swiftly, I tear my gaze away and cast a long look around. We stand in silence for a few moments. He runs a hand through his disheveled locks and his eyes move between my face and the world around us. 

The trees look grim, shrouded in a cloud of hopelessness. It's depressing to look at. I'm surprised they haven't fallen yet. 

"I'm surprised they survived." I hear Jasper whisper softly. 

"Hm?" I look at him. 

He gestures to the trees. "They're not dead. Some of the older ones have been burned to a crisp, but a tree like this one," He lightly touches a smaller, thin tree, "still has a chance."

And his words are ingrained with truth. I watch, stunned, as he scrapes a little with his fingernail –revealing a bright, solid green beneath. 

My stomach growls. 

As if snapped out of a trance, Jasper's head snaps my way. A coy smirk twitches across his lips. "What was that? Is there another zombie?" 

He's teasing me again. I can see it in his eyes, that sly, almost laughing, gleam. It makes me want to punch him again. 

Wrapping my arms around my midsection –half to keep from doing the former and half to drown out anymore rumbles -I scowl darkly and turn back towards the camp. Monique is finally stirring, spitting her hair out of her mouth and rubbing at her eyes. Sebastian is trying to restart the campfire, blowing furiously on a small pile of smoking twigs. "What's for breakfast?" I ask, ignoring Jasper -who falls into step beside me. 

"How are we supposed to know?" Monique glares at me dazedly. Obviously, someone is not a morning person. She runs a hand through her thick hair and her lip curls back in disgust when her fingers snag in tangles. 

I ignore her, my eyes focusing on Sebastian. He leans back, away from the smoking twigs, and glances towards Monique. "Go practice your aim. See how many fish you can catch." 

"You mean, for breakfast?" She whines loudly; the high pitched sound shattering my eardrums. "That's nasty! Who eats fish for breakfast?!" 

"People like us." Sebastian remarks idly. "Go, now." 

Grumbling profanities under her breath, she props herself up and snatches her bow off the ground. She throws the quiver over her shoulder, jostling the arrows around inside, and stomps her way over to the edge of the beach. 

Jasper snorts softly and goes to take a seat, but Sebastian throws a rock at his head. Jasper ducks, brows furrowing in confusion, and opens his mouth to complain. Sebastian simply ignores him. 

Instead, he turns to me, cold eyes finding mine, "Scar, you and Jasper go search for firewood and dry twigs." 

My scowl takes an even darker turn.

Jasper blinks, lips stretching into a cheeky grin, and nods. Bowing goofily, he holds his arm out to me. "Shall we go, my lady?" 

I kick him in the shin. He falls. 

"We'll be back." I say to Sebastian, starting towards the trees. Pouting, Jasper scrambles up from the ground and jogs after me –muttering under his breath. We break through the forest line and dead grass soon replaces the gritty yellow sand, crunching beneath our feet. I frown at the loud noise. 

It still sounds so wrong in the silent forest. 

"So what are we going to do after this?" I ask Jasper, mostly to break the awkward silence and add a little noise to our loud footfalls. "We can't just keep doing this, we'll die. We have to find out where we are. We have to look for a way out." 

"That...is an excellent question." Jasper runs a hand through his hair. 

I shoot him a sideways glance.

"But," He continues after a few moments of silence, eyes lazily rolling my way, "What exactly is there to look for?"

That stops my thought process... and sends it up in flames. 

What is there to look for? No one knows what lies outside of Crescent City, thanks to the ridiculous amounts of radioactive molecules that plague the air. All we know is that everything is dead. 

I suppose we could try to find our way back to the city, but who knows how many dead people have been affected by the nanobots, especially after the war. I stop walking entirely. Jasper glances back over his shoulder and slows to a stop. "What's wrong?" Worry graces his features.

"There must be millions...billions." My voice is barely above a whisper. A cold shard of truth starts to grow inside of me. "How many people do you think died in the War?" I look up to him. 

Immediately, he gets it. 

It clicks, like a puzzle-piece snapping into place. 

I can see it, the sudden blink and widening of his eyes. His lips press into a thin, tight, bone-white line. After another few minutes of pure silence and intense staring, Jasper takes a solid breath and speaks. "There were approximately 7.4 billion people on the Earth before the War. Crescent City's population tallies up to around two thousand people." 

"That is a lot of zombies." I let out a low whistle. 

Nanobot technology was being used way before the War. This means that there are a lot of zombies out there, waiting for us to find them or currently hunting us right now. Uneasily, I look back over my shoulder, gaze scanning over the woods.

Jasper sighs. "This is going to suck." 

"What? Living like this?" I start walking again. We can't spend too much time standing here and talking, or Sebastian will get irritated. 

"Yeah," He breathes. "But there's nothing we can do about it now. Do you think Sebastian will like this?" He bends down and picks up a small thin little stick. He holds it up, smiling cheekily.

I stare at him for a few minutes, seeing past his sweet façade, and then nod finally. He's right, as much as I hate to admit it. We can't dwell on the past. 

I bend down and find my own stick. "Two down, twenty million to go." 

Jasper lets out a low chuckle.