bodycount ⋆ luke hemmings

the first conversation

I take a bite of the granola, only just now realising how hungry I actually am. Outside, the storm is only getting worse and worse, piles and piles of the stuff overtaking the thick blanket of it already on the ground. I've been religiously wiping away at the condensation on the window, trying desperately to catch a glimpse of the cafe beyond. But there's nothing.

Finally, I feel something heavy plop onto the seat next to me. I know it's not Chloe; she's at the back, fiddling with her phone and trying her best to get some sort of signal. Once she does, I don't know what our options are. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to call 911 for some hoax High School zombie prank.

"Believe her?" Luke asks me, his blue eyes twinkling, eyebrow raised quizzically. As if on instinct, I press my back up against the window, having never been this close to him before.

I shrug, though I already know my answer. "Do you?"

"Nah,"

"Are you sure?"

He pauses. I can feel a chill run up my spine, "That's terrifying,"

"I was lying."

"You're insane,"

"Look, what else would it be?" he murmurs, making sure that Chloe can't hear us. Though I don't think that's a problem; we're quite far from the back of the bus.

"A lot of things, Luke,"

"Like what?" he asks. I open my mouth to answer, but he speaks again, "What kind of robbery- or fight- or hold up, results in that much blood? She didn't even get hit, Hayes. Yet her coat's covered in the stuff. We didn't even hear any gunshots,"

Maybe it had a silencer, I think. Maybe they used a knife. Maybe Chloe accidentally slipped and fell into a pool of it on her way out.

Maybe it isn't even blood. Maybe it's just paint- the building's red, right? Maybe they had some new work done to the place like, very recently. Very very very recently.

Maybe, just maybe, it's anything other than what she says it is.

"Have you been watching the news lately?" Luke then asks me, his lips pursed, his eyes trained on me. This is the longest conversation we have ever had, and if you'd told me a year ago that it would be about potential zombies and news info that I'd failed to pick up on, I would have laughed.

"No," I say honestly.

"They discovered an epidemic. Not too long ago, it happened around Long Beach. Someone on the Queen Mary went wild, started attacking everyone around her-"

"And you call that a zombie outbreak?"

"She ripped a woman's vocal chords out, Hayes."

"Maybe she was just bad at singing,"

"With her mouth. And then she ate them,"

I cringe, "Oh."

"And that's not all. There's been loads of stories just like that, most of them across New York," he stops again, looking at me from the corner of his eye, "Don't you watch the news?"

And again, I'm lost for words. I stopped tuning into that channel once I found out about my mother through one of the reports. The familiar headlines and voices bring back memories I'd rather suppress, but I don't want Luke to know this.

"Not really."

"If you did, what Chloe was going on about earlier would have made a lot more sense," he breathes. Then, as if remembering that we literally know nothing about each other, he holds his left hand out. "I'm Luke, by the way. My favourite colour's blue."

"I know who you are," I say slowly, amused by the second part of his introduction. I never would have expected the almighty Luke Hemmings to act like this. But it's a good icebreaker; my father used to say that a person's favourite colour is the thing that nobody asks about but everybody should know.  "I sat next to you in Maths that one year. I'm Sophie, and we have the same favourite colour,"

"I know you, too."

"You do?" I question. It's understandable that everyone knows Luke; he's your typical mystery, and every stereotypical High School has one. Sort of like a staple. I, however, am very much a crowd-blender; I dodge attention, and in return nobody notices me. That's really the only way we differ; otherwise, we're both as irrelevant as the other.

"Yeah," he shrugs, and that's all he gives me before taking his phone out and standing up from his seat. "I'm going to try and get some signal, help Chloe out back there. You think you can keep an eye on the cafe for the time being?"

I nod. I mean, I can barely see it from where I'm sitting, but my butt's numb from the same position I've been in so I think it'll do me some good to change seats and park my ass further up the bus.

Luke gives me a small smile, using the seats as guidance to make his way to the back. I stand up myself, groaning at the sound of my bones clicking, before turning to walk to the front.

And that's when the first hand slaps the window of the seat I'd just been sitting in; bloody, pink and slimy, leaving a trail of red liquid in it's wake as it slithers down the plexiglass.

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HIHI IVE JUST STARTED UNI AND I LOVE IT SO FUCKING MUCH WOWOWOWOWOWOWOOWO

I love yous all!! I hope you liked this chapter and I hope you're all having a wonderful day today. Yous mean the world to me and I aPPRECIATE THE FUCK OUT OF YOU<3
Tale care!
-M xxx