Andre RollinsThe hottest point in the afternoon was upon them, the sun slowly dilating like the lone, cardinal orange pupil of the sky. Its rays extended in every direction to make everything subjected to its heat swelter. The luminosity struck and streaked reanimated corpses along the beach and even in their deteriorated state, the knowledge of humidity wasn't lost upon them. Under such temperatures some of them even ceased to fidget, dazed or fatigued by the mugginess. But the ones that dwelled under the shade of shop roofs and alleyways weren't so easily daunted by the atmospheric conditions.
Andre fought the urge to cough, clear his throat and try to produce saliva. A chronic case of cotton mouth beleaguered his gums. Beads of sweat leaked from beneath his hat, down the sides of his face. Irritably he wiped them away as he watched Benny shimmy up the ramshackle ladder that he didn't entirely trust.
"You got one on the ground about five yards away."He was in the middle of dragging a tarnished sleeve across his forehead, beneath the brim of his hat when he heard her say it. Though they were closing in, he must have forgotten in the midst of the heat. Was he getting heat exhaustion? Damn, they days were just getting worse and worse. He never wavered under the sun before, though. For a minute he stood stupefied, absentmindedly plucking at a button on the wrist of his shirt. It wasn't until he heard another hissing warning from Benny, her sepia eyes staring at him expectantly, that he hoisted himself up towards her and folded up the ladder at breakneck speed.
It shuffled away from the ground, leaving three amblers snatching at thin air and doddering back and forth, gazing soullessly at what they hoped would be lunch. In their halfwitted staggering, they stepped on the crawler who was now more than discouraged and burnt of energy. What was left of the woman, one mangled leg and what appeared to be skinned fingers, came to a halt. Her mouth still agape with dried blood around the lips, stopped twitching as she settled into the gravel and accepted her role as a makeshift doormat.
Andre gathered Benny into his arms unconsciously. With one arm hugging her closely, he reached to his hat with his free hand to remove it for a second and put it back on backward. His verdurous, washed out eyes peered down at Benny who at that moment was easily the ideal image of a faultless child. The way she huddled into him as a means of security made Andre feel constrained to protect her. It took all of her balance on the very crest of her toes for her lips just barely to brush his. But it was nothing short of paradise in their hopeless world when she kissed him.
Savoring the tang of Benny's mouth, Andre wrapped her up in his arms again and pulled her in. Quietly, he muttered into her hair, "I want you to lay flat on this roof until I come back. Don't let them see you." Daringly he stole a peek over the edge of the roof then back up to the scorching sun. It was beginning to get unbearable and there was no telling how long Andre would be. Gathering his hat into his hands again, he swept it back and forth across his pant leg before handing it to Benny.
"Don't want you burnin' up."
Hunkering down, Andre paced towards a trap opening and after some exertion, pried the door open. The entrance was no more than 4x4, and even that estimation was generous. Fuck. Being jammed into a ventilation channel when his body temperature was seemingly breaching two hundred degrees was not at the top of his desires. He looked back at Benny, cocking a half-certain smile before disappearing into the oblong opening.
He didn't drop down very far. The soles of his Airmaxes met the metallic lining of the airway with a 'clank'! Just short of entering a crawling position, the tier gave way and relinquished Andre. He opened his mouth to shout some obscenity but, too shocked by the plummet, remained silent as he sailed through the ceiling and landed directly on his back in the middle of a shop.
His lungs put the screws on a spate of vicious coughs as Andre fought to regain his oxygen flow and rolled onto his side. Hazel eyes burst open to meet another pair just inches from his face, cataracted and vacuous. An agape, dislocated jaw spewed flies in his direction.
"Fuck!" He murmured as he tried to scrabble backward. In his withdrawal, he neglected to observe that the corpse lying beside him had an entry wound to its skull and its eyes did not move to follow him. After his panic subsided and he was safely feet away, he realized his oversight and sighed with relief. But he didn't count himself as safe just yet.
Getting to his feet was an exploit and a half and, when upright, he was sure he fractured something in his back. His posture contorted as he cautiously limped in between racks of clothing and carelessly snatched things.
Tara Brown
The sound of boots thudding back and forth quaked Tara from immobility and unconsciousness. She blinked slowly, pallid lambency flickering in her distorted line of vision. And due to the tarp, she couldn't see much beyond her smited sight anyway. However, there was one thing…
A sickly, wan arm snaked out of the plastic to softly brush its fingers against a cot. The sheets were a welcomed sensation to her clammy skin. A forefinger and thumb tugged a little bit at a corner just before it was out of reach again. "Hospital folds," she soughed, "Mom was batshit about those. She learned it from her dad. He was a marine." The vision of an oversized bed, complete with decorative pillows flashed in her head. Then the god damned, hospital corners her mother was diehard about.
"Come to think of it…" Her discontinued thought was curbed as she was met with a frigid surface. No longer slung across Aaron's shoulder like a sack, she rolled onto her back and gazed impassively at the ceiling and its lighting or, lack thereof. Her soft hair, gone zigzag and rippled with sweat and bay water, bloomed outward around her head as it spread onto the tarp. She still didn't regret not cutting it. And she was sure when all this was over, or close to it, she wouldn't be tying it in a pony tail for anything.
"What the fuck are you babbling about?" She groaned at Aaron's rambling, one of her bijou hands meeting his forehead and shoving him away as he tried to swish some unavailing information in her ear.
"… I get to pop a cap in your ass the minute you go corpse on me."
Tara shuddered, her wrists again bound and silence soon engulfing her as Aaron left. Heaving herself upward, she tried to get her knees beneath her. There was an unnatural jerking in her veins. A crackling wheeze was heard as she hung her head back, the arch in her spine startling for any whom might see. Her common carriage was destroyed with the onset of disease as she groused. At the speed of light, more vital fluid and leftovers traveled up her throat.
Its escape route wasn't as aseptic as Tara would have hoped, if she was stable enough to identify her predicament completely, anyway. Wine colored bile splattered the tarp and the floor.
Her weight was bore on her legs, tucked neatly beneath her where she sat. I really, really need a cigarette. After the wrenching subsided, the hushed tenor subjugating once again, Tara closed her eyes. Her mind was failing to assemble and the only thing that made sense and truly existed was the pain and isolation.
RPG
