Apocalypse Mentis

Watch Your Back

Manny looks at her concerned "Why would we need it?" he asks. "Because I don't think we're alone out here." "What do you mean?" "I had a nightmare, and it did not end well. I think Dr. Crown is following us. In my dream, she followed us into the woods and when we realized someone was there, Alice called out to her and she came out from hiding and shot her gun and then I woke up. It felt so real." Hannah looks around everyone's frightened and concerned faces. There is a pause until Manny speaks up "Do any of us even know how to shoot? Like, is anyone skilled in that?". Alice cocks it and smirks "I'm sure it's not that hard, I can figure this out.". Once she turns off the safety mode, she stands and points it at a yellow flower growing about ten feet away. She points the gun at it, takes aim, and shoots.

The flower explodes, it was a direct hit. "Nice!" Alice exclaims, sounding excited and proud of herself. "Damn, nice shot Alice!" Shane says. Then he looks down at his arms and yells. "What's wrong?" Manny asks "My skin! It's deteriorating! And the smell is awful." Hannah quickly moves over to where Shane and Manny are sitting, "Shane, did you take your medicine today?" He shakes his head. "What's going on? Is he okay?" Tori questions, Alice answers "He has walking corpse disorder where he literally thinks he's dead and his brain makes his skin look like it's deteriorating right on him, and it gets worse, but don't worry, after he takes his medicine he should calm down and go back to normal, hopefully.".

Hannah rushes over to her backpack and digs through it, trying to find Shane's medicine. Finally she pulls it out and rushes back over to him "Here, take it." He looks up at her, scared "You can see me? But I'm dead, that's not possible!" Shane stands and backs up into the forest, then runs. "Shane!" Manny calls, "Here, take his pill and find him, he listens to you." Hannah hands him the pill and Manny rushes off after him to find him.

When he does, he finds him sitting under a tree, hugging his knees. "Shane!" Manny runs over to him and sits down next to him. "Here, take this, it'll help you feel, alive again." Shane hesitantly takes it from his hands, puts it in his mouth and swallows. He then goes back to hugging his knees and looks down. "You okay Shane?" He shakes his no, "What's the matter?", "I'm a burden! To everyone. To you, to Hannah, to Alice, to Madi, to the two new girls, uh, Tori and Gaby , I think. You all would be better off without me." Manny puts his hand on Shane's shoulder. "No, don't say that. It's not true. You are just as valuable to our team as anyone else is. We need you, I need you." Manny looks down at the ground and picks up a small twig and snaps it in half and continues snapping it until it was too small to snap.

Shane just stares at him and sighs before tapping his shoulder. When Manny turns his head, Shane leans in and kisses him. At first, Manny doesn't kiss back, in shock that what is happening, something he's dreamt of and thought of over and over in his head, is actually happening but eventually melts into the kiss. After a second they both pull away blushing, once it hits Shane what he just did, he looks away and stares at the ground. "Sorry, I know you probably don't feel the same and last week you had told me you liked this guy but everyone else has told me that you felt the same but-" Manny shushes him. "Shane, the guy I was talking about is you." Shane looks up at him, his eyes wide "Really?", Manny nods. "Well, in that case." Shane grabs Manny by his shirt and pulls him in for another kiss.

Back outside the forest, everyone is sitting and waiting for them to come back. "Where are they?" Hannah asks "I'm gonna go in there if they're no back in 10 seconds!" Alice says impatiently. Madi sits there quietly, petting her cats, until she speaks up "I think Shanny finally happened." "Shanny?" Gaby asks her "Yeah! It's Shane and Manny's ship name! I told Shane the other day how obvious it was that they liked each other! My otp must've finally come true! And here they are now." Everyone looks over to the woods entrance to see the two boys walking out hand in hand.

Madi stands and points "Ah ha! I knew it! I ship it!" Hannah laughs, "So, are you guys a thing now or?" Madi questions them. They look down at their hands, then back at everyone. Shane doesn't say anything but Manny does "Yes, yes we are. I know it's a bit overdue but hey, better late then never, right?" Hannah nods. Madi says quietly to herself "Next otp, Hannah and Tori, this'll be fun.". Alice walks over to the boys and pats Shane on the back "This is nice and all guys, but, we should probably get going into the woods.". Everyone agrees and gets ready to go.

As everyone starts going into the woods, Alice see's Hannah just standing there, staring at the ground. "Hannah! Let's go!" She yells. "I just need a minute. " Alice sighs, "Okay, fine, but only one minute, and after that minute is over, we are leaving." Hannah nods and continues staring at the ground, lost in thought, thinking about all the things she could've done to save her family, to save Claire, to stop Dr. Crown. Her eyes fill with tears and she bites her lip, hoping that would keep them from falling. She wipes her eyes and sniffles, trying to gather herself. She takes a deep breath and puts on a smile and turns around. "Okay, I'm ready." She runs over and joins the group. "Alright then, onward!" Alice yells and starts leading everyone.

After an hour or so of walking, they finally make it to the old abandoned cabin that Alice calls her home away from home. "Ta-da! Isn't it something? It's the one thing I feel proud to call mine." She stands at stares at it, smiling. "Yeah it's definitely something alright." Shane says quietly to Manny, who then laughs at his comment. Alice walks over to the door and opens it, inviting everyone in. Everyone slowly walks in and looks around. It's a small, one story cabin. It's old and dusty and smells like rotting wood and mildew.

Alice shows them to what used to be the living room. In the room, there's a couple of dusty old chairs, a fireplace with a single log in it, a mantle above the fireplace which held pictures of the family who used to live there, and on the wall, hung an old hunting rifle, and two large empty book cases. "Woah, is that thing real Alice?" Hannah asks, pointing to the gun. Alice nods "Sure is! The family that used to live here loved hunting, there's a ton of hunting gear lying around. It's cool, right?" Hannah nods and looks at the pictures on the mantle.

She picks up a photo of the family standing together, they look so happy. There seems to be a mother, father, and two younger looking boys. She smiles at the picture and places it back on the mantle. Alice walks over to the fireplace and reaches for the rifle and takes it down. "So, who wants to help me go get dinner?" Everyone just looks around at each other, no one says anything. "Okay, fine then, I'll just go alone! But can one of y'all at least get the fire going? There's matches somewhere around here. You can go exploring if you want, I just don't recommend going into the bedrooms, it reeks in there and the floor is very unstable, one wrong move and you're under the house, but have fun!" She then takes the rifle and heads out the door. "Wow, look at this place." Tori says walking around the living room.

Manny searches for the matches and finds them in the kitchen area in a drawer. He comes goes back over to the fireplace and crouches down. He takes out a match and lights it after a few tries. Once it's lit, he throws it into the fireplace and the log bursts into flames. Everyone cheers and huddles by the fire to warm up. Everyone sits around and try to strike casual conversation. Just then, they hear a gun shot and Alice scream.