"My Scientific Best" | The Trio

.11

• "Reckless!"

* * *

Vincent believed that he should've spoken up sooner, but by then it was too late. They'd been fighting for the past two or three days straight, since the first sirens went off at least. They were supposed to be The Trio, not 'The-Three-Friends-That-Almost-Get-Each-Other-Killed Squad.' This was all of their consequences, not just Zak or Darryl's fault... They had all messed up, and if they wanted to stay a team, they needed to fix things.
   Finally, the waittess came back to their booth, and Vincent decided that they'd settle for just the drinks. For the next ten minutes, Zak and him sipped their waters in silence.
   "You ready to go Zak?"
   There was no answer. Vincent liked to keep to his thoughts, so maybe it'd be better to step out of his comfort zone, to speak up. "Zak, I think we all need to talk. Let's go find Darryl, and we can all take a breather at home- to think- before coming back together. We shouldn't rush anything."
   After a few seconds, Zak nodded. Alright, at least he isn't screaming anymore, or just plain ignoring him. Vincent paid for their drinks, tipped the waitress, and they were on their way. Darryl was sitting on a bench just outside the restaurant.
   "You ready Bad? Lets all just... cool off at home before bringing anything up again."
   Darryl nodded, standing up and trying to smile at Vincent. He wasn't happy though, his eyes were red and puffy. Oh. "Yeah, let's do that."
   Vincent unlocked the car, and Zak climbed into the passenger seat, leaving Darryl in the back this time. God, all of them really needed to think for a while, they couldn't just give each other the cold shoulder forever. Vincent sighed, and started the car, pulling out of his parking spot. And with that, they were on their way home, twenty five excruciating minutes to go.
   Vincent started up the radio, and some 'acoustic folk' began to play. An uncommon genre, but a good one. A calming one; he set the volume low, but well enough to hear.
   "Hey, I know I said I'd talk about this later, and none of us have gotten a break for like three days, but this has just- it's gone too far. We've been fighting none stop, all of us have. And the dumbest part is- is that they've all mainly been doing that because of misunderstandings- so just let me talk real quick. No interruptions."
   He didn't glance at Zak or Darryl, just took a deep breath in and out. Alrighty, let's do this- you've got this Vincent.
   "So first, I think that I haven't been really thinking straight lately, none of us have really, we just all met for the first time together. Less than than a week ago that is. I think Zak- I haven't really considered things from his view- his point of view. We've- at least I think I've been treating you kinda unfairly- just because you got hurt. You are smart and stuff- I shouldn't have treated you like you were weak or something. I'm sorry." Zak kept quiet for a minute, leaving the car ride even more awkward. That's when he mumbled a few things to Vincent.
   "Thank. Thanks- Vincent."
   Vincent smiled, but still kept his eyes on the road.
   "And Darryl- I'm sorry that I yelled at you and made you run- you could've gotten hurt. You just wanted to protect us and I got really confused and upset. I stopped talking for a bit because I didn't wanna bring up that dumb drama, but you're really smart and I should've talked it out with you. You deserve more than that." Vincent pulled to a stop as the traffic light in front of his car turned red.
   "I acted like a jerk. I shouldn't have just ignored you guys." He sighed, glancing over at Zak, and looking into the car mirror at Darryl, and smiled weakly. He truly did feel bad, he wanted to make things right. But he needed Darryl and Zak to try their best as well. However, it was Zak who chose to answer yet again, while Darryl staying quiet..
   "...I'm sorry."
   He glanced back at Darryl first.
   "I keep pushing you away- but I'm just-..." He shuttered, and stared at him cold in the eyes. "I'm really scared- I don't want to die. I wanna spend forever here with you guys, and make stuff n'videos. I don't want to talk about what they did." He sounded more stern at the end of his sentence.
   The traffic light switched to a light green, and Vincent resumed his driving. Darryl looked down, so Vince was unable to see his face. The next five minutes were pretty quiet, the only sounds being those on the radio station.
   In almost a moment, but realistically 25 minutes, The Trio had arrived at their destination; their apartment. Right. Vincent stepped outside of his car, as did the other two, and god, why did this have to feel so awkward?
The stairs creaked, only enhancing the silence. Vincent retreated to his room before he could listen to what the others had to say, he needed a break. He closer his door, and stared at his reflection in the mirror. One. Two. Three, and Four.
Hold for seven, or was it eight?
Anyways.
Vincent took another deep breath, and tried his best to relax. He knew that their situation was dangerous, but he couldn't lose his closest friends. He just couldn't. When he finally turned his doorknob to exit his room, he saw Zak and Darryl talking very softly, and was Zak... Crying? He walked towards them quietly, and Darryl tightly hugged him, as Zak squinted his eyes shut. Vincent sat down on the couch next to Zak too, and joined them. He didn't know who said what, or if they'd made up, but by this sudden relaxation, Vincent had assumed that at least, mostly everything would be alright.
Darryl spoke up. "I really love you guys. Let's do this together, I'm sorry about it all, you guys are world, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. I just get so protective and- I'm just. I'm really sorry."
   Zak wiped away some of his tears, nodding. "Me too. We were all being dummies, hehe."
   Soon, The Trio had pulled away, and Vince knew everything would... Get better. Now it would get better, everything would be better. Much better.
   Their friendship, at least. He kept repeating this thought to himself, over and over. He knew that he should really stop lying though.
  But then he remembered something, something he was reading while Zak and Darryl were... Bickering, during lunch. He didn't have the chance to bring it up then, so... Well, it wasn't good news, but he couldn't just not tell them. This was important.
"Uh- forget to tell you guys something, during lunch. Let me just pull up the article." Darryl tilted his head, and leaned over Zak to look at Vincent's phone.
"Shortie."
"Skeppy, you know that I'm taller than you, muffin."
"Oh my god- guys." He chuckled slightly, before continuing. "Okay so..." With a few taps, Vincent's screen had brightened up to colors of white and red, and a small black text."
"CNN, lol."
"Zak, I'm serious." Vincent mumbled, and zoomed in on the text a little, as he already had the article in 'desktop mode,' or whatever it was.
"Something, something, wait hold on." Vincent stopped at a certain paragraph of text, and Darryl began to read out loud. "'Officials are considering a quarantine or evacuation, as...' people are going against the law now? What?"
"Wait, what? Hold on, Bad- look- Vinny scroll down."
There was one about some weird 'Yandere Girl' which sounded stupid. But there was another about vandalism becoming more common, like way more common, though still not that bad. But that's when one of the last paragraphs caught Vincent's eye, again.
"No- guys read this. People are breaking into stores for food and weapons, like it's some stupid apocalypse or something." Zak snapped out of his jokey sorta mood, and Darryl only became more still as Vincent continued. "People are scared- and risking their lives to save themselves- and it's spreading really fast. Like- it's said to be worse over here than up north- and..." Vincent trailed off, and stopped speaking. "I don't think we should stay here. They're gonna start denying plane tickets soon or whatever, and it spreading wicked fast, it's gonna reach us in no time, the floods. Because now floods of those things exist."
   They'd just met each other for the first time together... Four or five days ago now...? It didn't matter, it would be fine. Except Vincent knew it wasn't, and he needed to stop lying to himself. Didn't he tell himself that already?
   He scrolled down, noticing some more related articles that were just recently published. These looked new. Zak got up off the couch to retrieve his phone, while Darryl pulled his out from his pocket, and immediately Googled whatever the hell was happening. Out of nowhere, Zak shouted a curse from down the hall.
   "SHIT-"
   Darryl turned around. "What- what's wrong...?"
   "Shoot- uh- it's gonna be okay but like, they've already started calling off future flights in Florida- like not just where we are...?"
   Darryl stood up, running to read whatever Zak had found. "Wait, is it a trusted source? When was it published, how do you kn-"
   "Read it, read it."
   Vincent turned around to see Darryl's eyes go wide as he scrolled through the article Zak had found. It didn't look very good from what he could take. "What's it say, what's it say- Bad?" Vincent went through those recommended writings on his screen, and as soon as he laid his eyes on the titles, his heart sank.
   'Florida to cancel all future flights.'
   The second one, the third. They were all similar in names. Something about the chemicals disintegrating, but the transferring of the virus had already gone viral, hoards seen near graveyards, cities cutting themselves off from all surrounding areas, vaccines being developed but far from success...
   "We need to leave, run away."
   What...? Was Darryl alright, in these sorta conditions, why would they want to leave? Funnily enough, Vincent thought he heard shouting from outside. Just a prime example of why he was wrong, hehe.
   "It's gonna get worse, it's gonna flood Miami- Vincent- power lines are being torn down by this group of people around the world, we need to find somewhere, somewhere safe." It sounded fucking ridiculous, to say at the least. "Parts of France are loosing their signals, some sort of global hackers. This isn't a joke, this is real."
   "Well, where do we go? Drive to... I don't know, Texas?"
   Out of nowhere, a large, ear shattering CRASH was heard from outside. This was followed by the sound of screaming, gunshots, and windows breaking.
   "What the hell?!" Vincent rushed towards their window, and their street was being flooded by police officers, and some random- SHIT-
   "GUYS- CHANGED MY MIND- LETS LEA-" Sirens went blaring- only a not so faint reminder of when this entire dilemma began. Zak's breath hitched slightly, and he raced to his bedroom, and grabbed one of his unpacked bags, shoving various necessities inside. Darryl, on the other hand, kept scrolling through his phone, only to gasp out loud. "Signal- GOD-" He ran to the window, and watched- whatever the hell was going down outside.
   "What the hell do those sirens even mean? Shouldn't they put a stupid announcement on speaker so that we actually know what to do?" Vincent sighed to himself, and walked right in and out of his room, that familiar kitchen knife in his fist.
   "Uherm, what exactly are you doing?" Darryl questioned nervously from across the room. He kept watch outside, stepping away as he heard a few gunshots.
   "Just preparing for anything. Anything bad." Vincent laughed to himself, and smirked at Darryl. "Why else would I have it?"
   "You're gonna kill somebody?"
   "I'm going to protect us."
   Darryl sighed, but was interrupted when Zak slammed his door shut, carrying three bags full of... Vincent didn't really know.
   "We aren't running away like this."
   "Do you think that those dead guys are just gonna go away? You can't just sit around and wait." Zak handed a bag to Vincent, and it was pretty heavy.
   "What the hell is in here?"
   "Clothes, soap, charging cords, etc..."
   Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose. "Food. We need food."
   Darryl yelped, backing away from the window, looking over at the other two. "Uh, not looking so good? We should leave, because there's a lotta."
   Zak was already in the kitchen, and grabbed a plastic bag to stuff some food and drinks in.
   "Should we really leave? We could just hide, wait it out."
   "It's not like on television, they aren't weak and slow." More gunshots echoed outside, and the sirens didn't stop. More screaming of some random people, and policemen, not many of those though.
   Glass was heard shattering from downstairs, and Darryl froze. Zak put on his bag, and threw one to Darryl, as Vincent tightened his grin on the knife.
   "Ready?"
   "So we're really doing this, where are we even going?"
   "I don't know, north?"
   Vincent stayed quiet, and opened their apartment door- only to see another one of those disgusting—
   "VINCENT-"
   He lunged at the creature, sinking the knife into its skull. Blood splattered onto his shirt and face, but he didn't seem fazed. The corpse went limp, and Vincent pulled away with his knife.
   "Wow, so we're gonna go down this route." Darryl whispered, his voice hoarse.
   "You said there were a lot?"
   "Well, yeah, but-"
   "Enough to corner us in our own apartment?"
   After a few seconds, Darryl nodded, accepting his defeat. "Let's go- Zak and I will follow you."
   Vincent pulled up the compass embedded app on his phone, and began his path down the hallway.
   "North."