Invincible Ones [A Walking Dead Story]

Chapter 38- Almost There

     Aviva still keeps a room in the library, it's cozy and I think it used to be some sort of office. It is on the second floor, which was mostly a place for study halls for the high school students in the high school that was annexed to with a newly built walled-in courtyard. We're pretty lucky here. But luck can only go so far.

   "The school is a little big, do you think we could strengthen it all against attacks? And I feel like we just don't need the space." Aviva says aloud, though not facing me as she pours over a large notebook.

   "Better than getting a disease from close quarters." I counter as I walk over and sit in a working swivel chair (so satisfying to have). I roll it on over to Aviva, who tucks her brown hair behind her ear. I spin around in the chair euphorically. "Too many classrooms equals more space for the future, right? And also, if we wanted to truly make this place into a town or a moderately-sized community, space will not be a problem. And education won't be a problem either."

   "Except for risk of famine, and then there's defending this place," Aviva says, her eyes never leaving the paper as she ends writing a sentence, before setting it down on the desk and leaning back in her chair (which also swivels--she is spoiled with good seating).  "Yes, we will have enough people to man the walls too, but feeding them...I wish plants grew faster. And where can we find livestock in the apocalypse?"

   "Domesticate wild turkeys?"

   "I haven't seen a wild turkey since my a backpacking trip in the Appalachian Mountains and Smokey Mountains. In Tennesse and New York." Aviva mutters. And I smile faintly. She sighs and gets up, gathering the large teal-colored journal-notebook. She walks across the room, over to her couch pullout full-sized bed. I think there's a name for those couch-pullouts, but I forget. Vocabulary suffers without post-apocalyptic education. I whirl my black-colored, cushioned swivel chair around, to face Aviva (or Aviva's back). She pulls out a cardboard box and rests the notebook in it.

  "Nat wanted me to talk to you," I tell her. I plan on laying it all out in the open.

  Aviva sits down on the edge of her couch-bed. "Alright..."

  "Well, he told me you changed from what you used to be," I say slowly. Aviva's expression remains the same--attentive yet neutral.

   "People change all the time. Especially now. If you couldn't adapt to what things have become, you're dead." Aviva explains and I shrug, wondering if Nat is just not coping with his friend's change. However, the apocalypse has been happening for years now, and he couldn't've just noticed his closest friend changing only just now.

   "Yeah, but, you've been unhealthily distant from emotions. According to...witness accounts, that is." I reason, hoping to get an understandable point across.

  "You sound like a professional news writer turned tabloid interviewer, Em." Aviva rolls her eyes and smirks. "I really seem that way?"

   "Unfortunately, you do," I say and Aviva looks down and purses her lips.

   "Oh. Okay."

    Ummm...

    "What do I do?" Aviva looks back to me, but her eyes are expressive and I already know she has her own answer in a split second. I don't even open my mouth when she replies to her own question. "Oh, wait. I just have to actually show my emotions now, and reserve that mind-bending facial-expression intimidation psychology for quizzical discussions at Legion council meetings and negotiations should inside or outside conflict ever arise."

    "Umm, yeah, couldn't have said it better." I laugh sheepishly. Just point her in a direction and she closes the distance between the start and the destination. "So, just become human again basically."