Craig of the Dead

17. Clydebaby

For the second time today I woke up being carried in someone's arms. It was starting to becoming a habit.

"Who's that?" I groaned, not even bothering to open my eyes. Everything hurt so badly, and I had no idea how long I had been out. I might have caused the group to be held back a few hours, or a few days. I doubt Craig would have waited, he was probably at the school kissing Tweek right now.

"Shut up turd. Just go back to sleep or something." A gruff voice answered, spraying spit in my face. Shelly then.

"Why is everyone so quiet?" My voice was almost unrecognizable. It was much hoarser than usual and was very quiet, despite all of the effort I was putting into each word, sweat already dripping off my face from the exertion. The whole thing felt creepy, like I was speaking in a voice that was not my own.

"There's no one else here, duh."

"Wha—what?" I sputtered, my eyes flying open to confirm for myself. I looked around and, sure enough, Shelly and I were the only the only people around. Even with my limited vision, it was clear that we were alone.

"Wha—what?" She mocked. "Don't act so surprised, you knew you'd be sent back with someone. This is why we set Kevin up to make that room upstairs."

"But... it's so soon... I though they would at least say goodbye." My eyes began to well up .

"I swear, if you start fucking crying—"

"No, no!" I sniffled, blinking the tears away before any more could form. "I'm not gonna start crying." I was already pathetic enough as it was without doing my nickname justice. I had just caught on to the fact that Clydebaby was my new nickname, meaning crybaby. Why had it taken me so long to catch on? I wasn't that dim, was I?

"We tried to wake you up, but you were out cold. Whatever Craig gave you just knocked you out. They were waiting for you to come around, but eventually they had to go. They fought off the rest of the hoard that wasn't already down just long enough for us to slip by. And so here we are." She stopped short and plopped me down on the ground, which I wasn't ready for. My legs turned to jelly and I collapsed on the ground...again. "We have a block left to go. You weigh a ton, my arms are sore, you can walk yourself." I struggled a bit but still managed to get up on my own two feet. Shelly at least let me hold on to her shoulder as we slowly but surely made our way back to base.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCKK!" A voice shouted, startling me beyond belief. It made the both of us jump, and she held up her fireplace poker in defense. It had been eerily quiet as we walked, and we had just made it to the creepiest part of town, the rusty, in my opinion haunted, Sodasopa buildings. 

"I CAN'T BELIEVE I FUCKING DIED AGAIN! I WAS SO CLOSE ARRRRGGGGG!" Again, the voice reverberated throughout the street. We both kept our guards up and our eyes open, even though it was clear that the noise was coming from in front of us and not behind us. The voice itself sounded vaguely familiar, but not familiar enough that I could put a face or a name to it.

"WHO ARE YOU?" Shelly shouted back. I heard some grunts and steps coming from down the road. Whoever that was, we were gonna find out pretty soon.

"NO WHO ARE YOU?" The boy stomped out onto the road and kicked the dirt with his feet. "CUZ IF YOU'RE NOT KAREN FUCKING MCCORMICK THEN I DON'T REALLY GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE!" Now, seeing the carrot-orange coat standing in the middle of the road, dusty blonde hair poking out from under his hood, I wanted to smack myself upside the head. It was Kenny, of course it was Kenny. If I looked a little off to the side I could see that he had even come out from the McCormick's house. Man, I really was the stupid one...

"Kenny!" I tried to shout, but my voice ended up just sputtering out. I guess I wasn't that much better, but at least I could walk. Kind of.

"Oh, it's you..." He muttered, walking towards us. "Sorry, no one's ever been out when I wake up and it's been a rough day, I didn't mean to yell at you guys. Honestly, I thought you were Scott."

"Scott?"

"Yeah, he was following me for a bit, but after a while I told him to knock it off. I thought he went back to Craig's base after that. But I guess I assumed you guys were just him making another attempt." He shrugged.

"He shouldn't have been doing that." Shelly pointed out. She was right, Scott shouldn't have wandered. Still, knowing Scott, he was probably just worried about Kenny walking around by himself unarmed. Honestly, I was also wondering how Kenny was completely fine, not a scratch on him. Sure, he had some dirt smudged on his face, but Kenny always had dirt on his face. It was his thing.

"Yeah, well, try telling him that."

"We gotta get going, I dunno how long its gonna take for Clyde to turn but I don't want to be around to—" Kenny stopped her in the middle of her sentence.

"About a week and a half, give or take. Probably a bit longer than that."

"What?" I asked, staring at him with wide eyes. "How could you possibly know that?"

His eyes suddenly went cold and he shoved his hands in his pockets. "I don't feel like explaining it. I just do, okay? Trust me." He averted his eyes to the ground, beginning to walk down the road again. "Look, I gotta go too. I need to find my sister."

"Oh, Karen? Yeah, she's up with—"

"Craig, I know." He called out from behind us. And with that, we parted ways.

We reached the hideout a few minutes after the short encounter. Scott almost had a heart attack at the sight of my bloodied arm, messily wrapped in cloth and bandages. The guys must have done that while I was out.

In an attempt to make myself feel better, I heated up a cup of Ramen Noodles. I slurped the broth as I sat quietly in the top room, cringing as Kevin secured the lock.

I had half of the room to myself. I don't know what Kevin did, but it seemed pretty sturdy. I guess he was smarter than I thought. I felt slightly bad for him. After all, I could relate, having people look down on you as the dumb one, or the weak one. Or the crybaby.

There was a small walkway in the middle of the bedroom with two holding rooms on either side. I could peek through some cracks in the wood to see Kevin walk down the isle. I heard the final door lock click, sealing my fate. I tried to let the hot soup warm my body as it slid down my throat, but it didn't stop the shivers from running down my spine. My head and shoulder were both still throbbing, a constant reminder of my time ticking down. About a week and a half.

I set down my soup cup for a second, finding my eyes begin to water. I hugged my knees close to my chest and cried. I cried for hours until I finally went to sleep to the sound of my own sobs.