Picture to the right is Danno :]
--Ash
=========================================================
Chapter Six—Kyra
I close my notebook and just stare out over the land. I feel a strange sense of peace with the world. Writing it all out doesn’t get rid of the feelings, but it helps me face them. Some things are hard to talk about with others, hard to talk about to yourself. Speaking the feelings I have is too difficult right now so, to compensate, I scratch them down into my notebook. They are useless to the people who will find it, but it makes me feel more like, well, me. It helps me to remember that even though I lost just about everything, I’m still alive and have to live for those who didn’t.
I swear I hear the wind whisper in my ear, Move on. It sounds like Bas. And even though I know it’s my imagination, a single tear still drips down my face before I can restrain myself.
“I’m trying,” I murmur back, hoping he knows I still love him wherever and whatever he is. He’ll always be the boy who stole my heart with one look. Not that I minded.
“Hey, whatcha doing up here all by yourself? The party’s downstairs.”
I turn to the hole in the roof. Arch is sitting on one of the top rungs of the ladder watching me.
I brush the tear away and clear my throat. “I’m just guarding for a little bit. I’ll be down soon.”
He shakes his head. “Graham says you were up here before seven. It’s past two now.”
“Is it really?” I ask.
“Yup. So maybe you should go down and I’ll stay up here for a bit.” He easily leaps up onto the roof, landing with a soft thud. He makes his way over towards me, but I hold my arms out, waving them around frantically. I’m not ready.
“No! No that’s fine really. I like being up here and it’s your party, you should enjoy it. I promise I will come down later. I just...I kind of want to be alone for awhile.”
Archer sighs. “You sure?”
“Positive.”
He looks at me suspiciously, trying to figure out my motives I think. “All right, but if you don’t come down and enjoy it, I’m kicking your butt.”
I chuckle. “Deal.”
He descends the ladder leaving me to my thoughts once more.
...
“You’re kicked out.”
I blink and turn to the voice. My eyes take a while to adjust. I’ve been staring at the trees for, well, I’m not actually sure how long. Seeing something else just feels unnatural.
“What do you mean ‘kicked out’?” I ask Izzie.
“It means you’re no longer allowed up here. It’s six. You’ve been guarding for almost twelve hours. And you didn’t come down for lunch. Graham, Jackie, and Dan are setting up the motion detector monitor things so that everyone can come down to the party. By everyone I mean you.”
“But the motion detectors—”
“We can use them for a night, Ky. It’ll be all right.”
“How about—”
“Ahhhh, ah, ah! I have been advised to not bargain with you. I’ve been sent to get your ass down the ladder and that is what I intend to do. By one means or another,” he adds ominously.
“I’m going, I’m going,” I say as I stand and stretch.
“Wait, hold up. You’re going like that?” he gestures to what I’m wearing.
I glance down at myself. “Well, I was planning on it.”
“Boss, don’t you have anything nice?” Isaiah emphasizes the last word.
“Nice as in...?”
“Just the other day we were telling you how sexy you are and now you want to go to the party looking like something that just dug itself out of a grave?”
I narrow my eyes at him and say, “That was not funny.”
“Good, because I wasn’t trying to be funny. I was being realistic. Now, we’re going to go down that ladder, I’m gonna shield your hideousness from view until we get to your room where you will change into a hotter outfit. I will not let you leave the room until your clothes are sufficient for this occasion. So, are you ready?”
“I guess.”
“Good. Let’s go, Boss!”
He jumps down and lands in a crouch, not even bothering with the ladder.
“Show off,” I grumble and take my time going down.
“Against the wall,” he whispers to me once I take my foot off the last rung.
“Don’t you think this is a little ridiculous?”
“Not at all. Now move it,” he demands. “Nothing to see here! Just taking a sideways stroll,” he shouts.
“You are so weird,” I mutter.
“Thanks!”
He drops me off in my room where I have to look through my crap clothes for a “hot” outfit. What makes up a “hot” outfit anyway? I only brought comfortable clothes that would last a while when I left. I didn’t think there would be makeshift social gatherings while in the middle of an apocalypse.
The door opens. “Need some help?”
“Tams! Thank God! What is a ‘hot outfit’?” I ask.
She titters. “I don’t think you have one. Wanna borrow something? I think we’re fairly close in shirt sizes although your bust is like triple mine.”
“Tammy!”
“What? It’s true! I’m thinking red, agree?”
“Uhh, sure?” Honestly, even when things were normal I never really cared about how I dressed or what I looked like. I was content with just being me.
“The one I have in mind shall be stunning!” she declares.
“Wait, you have more than one red shirt? I have, like, five altogether.”
“Trust me, I know that. Heck, everybody knows that. I stock up on stuff for everyone during house raids. It can’t be healthy living in the same outfit for weeks at a time. Especially if we accidentally contaminate a shirt or something and wear it without knowing.”
She digs around in her bag and pulls out a red v-neck. “Perfecto!”
“Umm...Tams? I’m not too sure about that, it’s, uh, kind of...low.” I draw the line on myself, cringing at how much skin it reveals, skin that’s barely ever seen the light of day.
“It’ll be fine, I swear! Now where are those jeans that you never wear?”
“You mean the dark blue ones? They’re in my—Wait a second...How do you know about my mega-comfy jeans?” I narrow my eyes.
“I’ve done my snooping,” she declares.
“Yea, I’d rather not know.”
“Your loss,” she laughs.
I do a hip swing dance to get into my pants and switch shirts. I use some of the deodorant we found at the store and turn to Tammy for her approval.
“You need a final few touches.” She fluffs my hair and applies some of her make-up (also taken during raids). I tell her not to make it as dark and bold as she wears it.
“There! You are so gorgeous!” she screeches. She holds up an old, cracked mirror for me to see myself. She’s right. The girl in the mirror doesn’t look like the dorky Kyra Leigh. The girl in the mirror looks older and elegant. A refined beauty.
The door swings open again. “Holy shit, she’s right!”
“Izzie!” I shout, dropping the mirror and shielding myself with my arms. Luckily the mirror bounces but doesn’t break. I don’t need any more bad luck.
“Sorry! I just had to see it with my own two eyes. I approve of the outfit by the way.”
“Close the door!” I yell.
“If I must.”
“I don’t think I can do this,” I whimper.
“Nonsense. You’ll be fine. You look amazing.”
“I second that!” Iz hollers from the other side of the door.
I’m about to scold him for eavesdropping when a second voice cuts in. “I’d be willing to third that.”
I gulp.
“It’s Danno!” Tams says quietly.
“I know that,” I reply just as softly.
“So what are you going to do?” she asks.
I take a deep breath and open the door.
Danny’s eyes widen. “Kyra, that’s...”
“Sexy.”
We all twist to see Archer, leaning out of the lounge. He smiles. “Come join the party...finally,” he laughs.
Dan holds his hand out to me and I take it.
In the lounge there are paper lanterns hung about the room making it look radiant and not dusty and ancient. There’s an old battery operated CD player playing some of the CDs we’ve managed to collect. I’ve never been a music genius, but the song is upbeat and brings a smile to my face.
“You’ve done a fantastic job!” I tell Archer when we walk in.
“Did it live up to your expectations?” he inquires.
“We’ll have to see about that,” I laugh.
“Why isn’t anybody dancing?” Tammy demands. She grabs my hand and drags me into the centre of the room. I tow Danno behind me.
“Dance!” she commands then skips off to grab Jackie and Graham, pulling them into the middle with us.
“I’ve never been all that good of a dancer,” Dan leans forward and almost has to yell in my ear to be heard over the music.
“Nor have I!” I tell him.
He grins. “Then we should be about evenly matched.”
“Doubtful! You’re probably at least semi graceful from your sports. I am a klutz.”
“A beautiful klutz at that.” He takes my hand and spins me.
Though I’ve never really excelled at dancing, I feel stunning and nimble tonight. It’s like the undead can wait for one night. We can be people, not just survivors.
Danny and I laugh and chat, dancing around probably looking like idiots to everyone else. Graham and Jackie dance together being utterly adorable whereas Bailey and Arch are so close together, you couldn’t slip a piece of paper between them. Archie said they were “casual”, yet they look anything but. Izzie and Tams dance around crazily like maniacs causing everyone to laugh.
“Want to go to the roof and take a breather?” Dan asks.
I nod. Once again I pull myself up the ladder, Danny following behind me. We sit with our feet dangling off the edge.
“I’m glad we went through with this. It’s nice to see everyone having a good time,” Danno says softly. I love his gentle, deep voice.
“I agree. Up until this point I was still a little iffy about it, but now even Bailey’s in a good mood.”
“I know, eh! That’s like a first in, well, ever. Oh, hey. I almost forgot.” He pulls out a few pieces of coloured paper from his pocket. “Ready to learn?”
I smirk. “I was born ready.”
He grins. “We’ll see about that.”
He coaches me through each fold. Mine look so sloppy compared to his.
“And volia! A crane!” He brandishes his.
“Ta da?” I say holding up my demented looking bird. “I purposely made it into a zombie crane. Purposefully being the key word in that sentence.”
“I think it’s wonderful,” he comments.
“Thanks,” I murmur.
I hadn’t notice we were moving closer until I was right beside him, staring into his midnight blue eyes.
My eyes flutter closed. He leans forward and places his lips on mine.
A creak breaks us apart. “Did you hear that?” I whisper.
“Yea,” he replies while looking around, “But I don’t see anything.”
“Me either.”
There’s this awkward silence where I think maybe we both imagined the sound in order to end our kiss.
“Um...” I say at the same time he goes, “Uh...”
We laugh.
“You first,” I tell him.
“Okay. Well, I thought that that was going to be...”
“Different, right?”
“Yea.”
“But it wasn’t much.”
“I wouldn’t say that, I thought my kissing was enjoyable.”
“If that’s what you want to think, bud.” I wipe off some of the lipstick from his face. He grabs my hand.
“Kyra, I think I love you, but I don’t think I’m in love with you, y’know?”
“Yea. I’m fairly certain I feel the same.”
“So, would it be all right if we just...”
“Go back to being friends instead of whatever this sexual tension thing was? Yea, I’d like that.”
He rises to his feet and pulls me up. “Sexual tension? Really?”
I feel bittersweet about the phrase remembering how Cari used it when describing me and Bas. “Yes really! Everyone could feel it.”
“The survivors in Asia included?”
“Oh yea, them especially. They were all like ‘Teenage love angst in America during the apocalypse. Whaaa?’” I say in an awful voice that’s supposed to be an Asian accent.
He laughs. “Thanks Ky.”
I punch him. “Don’t mention it.”
We join the party again. “So how was it?!” Tammy asks nearly mulling me over when I walk into the lounge.
I look across the room at Danno who smiles. “It was perfect,” I tell her.
“Ooooh?! Details?” she pokes me.
I shake my head. “Not now. Hey, where’s Archer?” I ask when I notice that Bailey is off by herself.
“He retired early, said he was tired from all the planning and executing.”
“Oh.”
“But who cares about that party pooper! Let’s have a good time!” she hauls me out to the “dance floor” one last time where we laugh and dance into the morning. The others drink, but I stick with my trusty Coca-Cola. The little cookies and such that Graham and Jackie made are delicious. I don’t know how they pulled it off, but I’m glad that they did.
At one o’clock we head for bed, leaving the monitors on. If something triggers it, the alarm will sound. We don’t generally use them on account that they use a lot of our precious battery power, but tonight we make an exception.
I go to bed and do not dream of monsters and death.