Land of the Dead

21) Outbreak

Ivy's mouth dropped open. "Flynn," she began. "Why were you messing about with my hair dye?"

"Because," Flynn raised his index finger. "I have this disorder which makes me switch personalities constantly! Yyaayyy! Wink, wink, sarcasm, wink wink." The piece of hair that hung over his eye was dyed a mint-green, the same colour as the tips of Ivy's hair.

"Oh, umm, it looks amazing." Ivy hesitated, making Flynn laugh. Everyone looked at him as if he was crazy, in which he sort of was.

"That's rare..." Ivy whispered. She spoke, her voice thick with worry. "Where's Slate?"

Hearing his name out loud once more almost shattered Alice's heart into a thousand, jagged pieces. She burst into tears and Ivy stared at her, mouth wide open and eyes radiating sadness.

"No..." She whispered as Flynn stumbled backwards into his room, shutting and locking the door with force. Jett fiddled with the carpet, ignoring everything going on around him.

Ivy's bottom lip quivered and salty tears started to form in her eyes. She let them flow freely down her cheeks.

"Oh, Alison..."

"DON'T CALL ME ALISON!" She snapped. Her breaths were short and uneven. "Alison is a horrible name." She wiped her eyes.

"No, it's not." Ivy took a deep breath before continuing on. "P-P-Please don't go off at me, but...h-how was he killed?"

Alice kept her gaze settled on the floor, her lips pursed together. Eventually she stood up and ran out of the house, leaving Ivy and Jett alone.

Ivy started pulling at her hair. "No, no, no, I-I've known him ever s-s-since we were little, a-and now he's disappeared from the face of the earth forever!" She lowered her voice to a mere whisper and said, "Slate and S-Siena, both gone." She didn't intend for Jett to hear her.

"Sienna? Slate has a sister?"

Ivy winced. "Shhh! You don't need to know about Sienna!" She hissed. "She's definitely not Slate's sister! GET OUT!" Ivy flung herself at Flynn's door.

"FLYNN!" She screamed. "Please open up!"

Jett frowned and crawled over to the kitchen as he heard a door click open. His eyes glazed over Rose, who was leaning against the old stone bench top, sipping water, her pinkie sticking out.

"You were here all along?" He snapped. Rose shrugged.

"What's with the sudden change of attitude?"

"Lani." He whispered, making Rose drop the glass she was holding. It shattered in the sink and she groaned.

"We lost about three people today."

"Three?" Rose hissed.

"Slate died, I don't know how. Victoria died, the flesh-eaters found her- well, really, she sacrificed herself. Lani died because I...kinda killed her."

"Kinda." Rose snorted.

"Okay, maybe not 'kinda'. Maybe I actually, really killed her."

Rose shuffled about a bit. "She turned on us, caught onto Victoria and then Victoria ran outside. I can't get over that." Rose looked away, adjusting her glasses.

"I can't believe Slate's gone, though. You must be happy."

Jett didn't say anything. His train of thoughts were muddled up, and so were his emotions. He got up from off of the ground and went to the pantry, glaring at Rose.

"I'm not happy, in all honesty." His fingers ran over the limited supplies they had left.

"Nobody deserves to die, especially the way he did."