Three

Blue. Everything looked blue at night. The walls of the warehouse were disquieting and would groan at the slightest wind. It was very unsettling, but nothing was as scary Terrifying as the screams that would come from the city at night.They were twisted distorted sounds, it sounded like they were trying to say words but their mouths were unable to form the tight syllables. Sometimes they were high pitched squeals that reminded me of children at theme parks but they were colder, darker. The malice was always clear in their wretched yells.

 Tonight was different, it was still. We all exchanged worried glances wondering what it ment. If they were silent did that mean they had found a meal? Or were they occupied with the chase? The silence was deafening, no one would talk, no one wanted to be the first to break the silence. Ruby had not come back yet and it had been hours since she left, she had never taken this long. I felt the worry twist up my insides, I leaned my head between my legs and took a few deep breaths in. it would be okay, Ruby was smart enough and fast enough to get out of any situation. I closed my eyes and saw a different room, I fell back onto my bed and let the memories swallow me. This night reminded me of another night. It was so long ago, yet everything had burned into my memories, it was still as sharp as the day it had happened. 

The sun glared into my room, blinding me. Though that's not what woke me today, the sound of screams echoed down the hall. I ran, following the choked sound, trying to find its source. I stumbled into my parents room, the door already wide open. My father lay there with my mother crying next to him. She was on the phone, sobbing to the 911 operator. 

"Mom! What happened?" I said, tripping over to her side. She sat with her legs hugged to her chest, her hair was knotted from how many times she had run her fingers through it. Her face was stained with tears, she choked on her words as she attempted to give the operator our address. 

"Your dad-he, he," I stood up walking over to her grabbing her hand and holding it tight,

"It's okay mom, take a deep breath."

She took in a sharp inhale and finished, "I think he had a heart attack. They said they were coming." she could barely get her words through the tears.

" What can I do?" I asked, desperate for something to quell the anxiety that seemed to build in my stomach. I couldn't let it get too bad or it would take me under and she wasn't prepared to help me through another panic attack. 

She shook her head, hugging me to her chest, "nothing, we just have to wait. He'll be okay." When she hugged me I could smell the alcohol that seemed to coat everything in this house. And over top of the alcohol was a sickly sweet fragrance, even though it was there to cover her addiction it was still comforting. She had always smelled of booze and vanilla. 

That night we waited in the hospital, but they couldn't save him. The blinding whiteness of everything in the hospital, it was too clean. The way the light rebounded off the tiled floor and into my eyes making everything look like a dream. I could even remember the sound of the doctors voice, how she calmly explained that my life was about change.The chill of the hospital walls, the silent room, the waiting. It all came back and hit me like a ton of bricks. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, Luka was deeply invested in her pad of paper witht he begging lines of another sketch. I switched my gaze over to Succubus who had his head buried in his pile of pillows. How odd, when he first arrived he had asked that me not give any mattress. All he wanted were pillows and blankets, it was such a small request that we couldnt help but give it to him. and I stood up from my mattress and walked over to Ruby's bed. The comforter was a pale yellow the color of dandelions. She never used pillows, I had asked her once what it was about and she said that her parents hadnt had the money or care to get her any and it was just easier to use blankets. 

I sat there, smelling her familiar scent of fresh air and flowers. How many times had I cried to her here? How many times has she comforted me? Too many. 

While Jacob sat there, his thoughts and feelings a mess, Ruby was planning. I have to get back, but how? I leaned over the edge of the building, feeling my legs shake beneath me. There were a bunch of small stores but i could already see the locks on the door. The cement below was covered in shards of glass and ripped clothing. It would be impossbibe and there was already a Below was a pack forming below the building. They looked at me and even this far away I could see the saliva begin falling from their open mouth. Their skin was a bright red, it reminded me of a lobster. That thought would have been almost funny if it wasn't for the danger at hand. They wouldn't mind waiting there until either I starved to death or they did. 

"Damn, damn damn!" I mumbled as I realized my only option left. I went to the opposite side of the building where a leftover fire escape was. Ha! I thought, who would need a fire escape anymore. The only problem was that the ladder didn't start till about halfway down the side of the building. I took a deep breath and swung my leg over the edge of the building. I sat like that for a few more moments trying to gauge my handholds. I had never actually scaled the side of a building yet, I could feel my heart beating in my finger tips, in a moment of bravery, or stupidity I swung my other leg over the side of the roof. My feet were swinging free as I searched for a hand foot hold. My feet kept slipping and my hands were getting slippery from the strain of holding my whole body up. I slammed my foot into a part of the brick that was falling aprtat. I heard the pieces of brick hit the ground in glancing shots, I placed my foot into the hold and took another deep breath. I could feel my breathing speed up as I looked down. The ground was about 40 feet from where I stood, at least if I fell I was almost guaranteed immediate death. 

 I took a shallow breath and moved my foot to find another crack in the wall. I could feel my fingers getting slippery, and my legs shaky. So I closed my eyes and saw her. I heard Lukas' voice in my head, telling me I had to make it. That she needed me, and so I kept going, ignoring my fear and shaking limbs. My feet slipped a few times but I eventually collapsed on the rusty old stairs, breathing heavy. "Keep going!" the voice urged on, but the adrenaline that I had used to scale the wall left my legs and arms loose. I moved and sat up, leaning my back against the cold wall. I leaned my head back too quickly and smakcked it against the wall. I laughed and rubbed my head until the pain began to subside but a headache took its place. I looked out around and couldn't see any signs of the creatures. I would have to leave soon before they realized I had moved. 

My head rested on my thighs while I caught my breath. I knew I would have to keep going, but where? They were filling up the only path back. I could go further into the city, but I had never been that far, none of us had. Yet it was the only way. 

Ruby knew the choice before her was difficult, even dangerous. While back home Jacob was conferring with the others. He knew what they didn't, that they had to leave, they had to find Ruby. he looked outside the warehouse and saw the setting sun in the distance. 

"I know you guys want to wait here, but we need to find her. She has never, never been gone this long. Somethings wrong." I met their eyes but the worry I felt was not reflected on their faces. 

"Okay casanova, what do you suggest we do?" Succubus said sarcastically.

"I suggest we go find her!"

"Okay, guys, chill out." Luka said, rubbing her temples, "I think we should go look for her, but not till tomorrow afternoon. We can wait and if she doesn't arrive by then, we can leave. Okay?" Luka said standing with her palms up as if offering a gift, what gift this was. Letting her die? 

"Yeah sure, why not just let her die?" I said, getting frustrated with them.

" Jacob. Stop. I knew her long before you ever did, if anyone should be worried it's me. So chill out." Luka said, deadly calm but with an undercurrent of anger. She moved away from me and walked back to her corner, leaning her head against the wall and holding a set of children's coloring markers to her chest. She looked faraway, somewhere else. Her usually clean hair was now falling from its hold and laying gently on her shoulders. Had life been normal she definitely would have gotten a modeling career, though knowing her she never would've taken it. She was almost too pretty in a way, her lips too full, her hair too silky, her smile too full, it made me sick. 

"Look what you did! You made her mad. She never gets that mad." Succubus said, shaking his head, " you act like you're the only one who cares about her." he ran his pale fingers through his even lighter hair. He had some sort of genetic defect, it caused his entire body to be almost as pale as paper. He didn't mention it much but it did get hard when we had to go outside for long periods. 

"Look, I've never liked you. I would appreciate it if you didnt talk to me, asshole." I said walking back to my corner of the house. 

"Walk away bitch. Walk away!" he yelled behind me. And that is exactly what I did. I sat down and looked over my small area. I had barely any possessions, the few I had were things Ruby had collected for me, a few books and one sketch pad. I had only used two pages of the sketch pad, there wasn't much to draw here anyway, what would I sketch? A leaky pipe? A rusty car? Yeah no. And the only stuff I wanted to draw would bring back too much. Why draw stuff from my old life? It would only bring sadness. I held the yellowed pages of my only book from home between my fingers. I hadn't been much of a reader but this was one of the books I had never been able to stop reading. I reread it over, and over again, it never seemed to get old. I tried to concentrate on the familiar words, they used to pull me in with an unusual magnetism but now it seemed so distant I could barely even make sense of the sentences. My mind kept going back to Ruby, and Succubus.

As much as I hated Succubus he had made a good point, we can't leave now. I looked up at Succubus. He sat on his blankets, reading. I wanted to say he was ugly, but he definitely wasn't. He was as pale as the snow and looked like the real life incarnation of Jack Frost, yet he still managed to get Ruby to glance at him. I would imagine Luka would have looked too but I had suspicion that she didn't like boys. Which really wasn't an issue at all, but I thought we were close and she still didn't trust me enough to say anything. 

I sighed, falling back on the floor, breathing in all the dust that bloomed into the air. I rolled over, blowing out the small candle at my bedside. The only way to get through this night was with sleep. Yet I couldn't help but wonder where Ruby was right now. I closed my eyes, trying to force my brain into the softness of sleep. And really I was exhausted, I could feel it exalted in every layer of my body. I took one last deep breath and was lost in the dark peaceful awais of sleep. 

 "Jacob! Come here!" my mother yelled to me from the beach.

"Why!" I yelled to her, my knees deep in the crystal waters. I was just about to go looking for a jellyfish and if my mother knew she would never let me out to the ocean again. I quickly scanned the water trying hard to find their clear shapes in the water.

"Because I want to get a picture of us in front of the sunset!"she yelled back. I ran my hands through the water hoping maybe if I couldn't see the jellys, I would be able to feel them. She called my name once more and I knew if I didn't go she would lock me in the hotel room till my hair turned gray. I ran through the water, waves crashing against my bare legs. The sunset really was pretty, but the idea of taking a picture made me frustrated with my mom.

"Do I have to?" I whined to her, Her brown eyes showed hints of frustration. I knew she would need the pictures to prove to my father that she had actually taken us to the beach and didn't just steal his money. I heard their arguments clearly, I still had the image of him grabbing her and pulling her down the hallway. She didn't have any of the marks to prove it had happened, so maybe it didn't, but the screams I heard echoing in my brain told me otherwise. She had her brown hair pulled into a braid behind her back, you couldn't even see the grey streaks that I knew were there. 

"Yeah, we aren't going on a vacation and not getting pictures! I promise it won't take long, just go stand over by your sister."she said pointing to the spot next to my younger sister. She looked nothing like either of my parents. She had bright red hair and blue eyes, we didnt know where she had gotten them as neither of our grandparents shared those features either. 

I sighed but stood by Lindsay, she loved pictures. Why couldn't she just take them by herself? The camera flashed and in that moment I turned around and watched the fireworks glitter in the dark sky. Red and blue stars rained down the deep grey sky. 

I jolted out of sleep from scareams that seemed to come just outside the door. The others were still fast asleep, but the bitter dawn light filtered through the open door. And there I saw it. At first I thought it was a child, but it was on all fours. Its skin was lobster red, its eyes full of cataracts, Yet it was still humanoid. Its silhouette was painted in the large opening. Why hadnt we closed it last night? I knew why we hadn't, ruby was still gone and if she came home in the early hours of the morning she would need a way in. its shadow grew closer and closer, I carefully shifted the blanket off of myself and the cold air hit me. I moved quietly over to the others, it didn't seem to see me. I shook them awake, leading a drowsy Succubus over to Lukas dark corner. I shook her arm and she sat up immediately, knife in hand. Her eyes were wild until they landed on me.

"What?" She sounded annoyed, her voice heavy with sleep. I quietly pointed to the door, where the odd thing stood, sniffing around. The moment her eyes landed on the thing creature she gasped. Her eyes widened with shock and a few other emotions I couldn't name. She covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes tearing up.

She shook her head. "No, no, no," she whispered, " No, it can't." 

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused by her reaction to the thing. She acted as if she knew it. Hadnt seen one before, and I knew she had, they were all over the city. 

"It's her," she said, her shoulders shaking, as she cried. It was odd to see her cry, I didn't even know she could. I looked over at Succubus, hoping he knew what she was going on about. He just shook his head, the concern on his face grew more with every minute. .

"Who is she?" I asked quietly. 

"We- we found a girl. A long while ago. I took her out with me to get paper and they took her! I thought she had died. I wish she had died."

My mouth fell open with shock. What did they do to her? The girl was now crawling into the building. Her head whipping back and forth, looking for something. Or someone. 

"We should leave." I whispered to them.

"You don't need to whisper, she's deaf," Luka said, wiping her eyes, "and yeah, we should probably go."I wrapped my arm around lukas shoulder and hauled her up, she was still shaking but less than earlier.

"Can we grab anything? She might attack us." Succubus said, watching the girl with fascination.

"The radio, and a bag of food." Luka said quietly, her voice fragil. 

"I'll get the food." I said reaching over to the cuby where our emergency bag was. Luka grabbed the radio. The box of markers she had been hugging earlier were discarded under the desk. Almost hidden. We twisted part of the sheet metal upwards, Luka ran through and so did Succubus. I looked around one last time, was there anything I could grab? Any last reminder from home? on the wall that was loose and quickly escaped. I shook my head lifting the metal on the wall once again and exited the building that had been my home for the last two years. The sun was bright and it took me a minute to get used to the light. The grass was damp and had already soaked my shoes and the hem of my pants. I looked to Luka and Succubus for direction but they seemed just as confused as I was. Once again our life was changing far too quickly for us to handle. 

I'm not sure what came over us but we began running, there were so many memories in that building. And something about this felt like it was the last time we would ever see it again. So why not run away? The world had no business being this beautiful right now. Everything was in tatters and yet the sky was marble blue, the birds singing.there was a small amount of grassland between our little building and the city. I could see the tops of the skyscrapers shining in the mid afternoon light. I preferred the city at night, with its shining lights and beautiful music. There was so much ahead of us, and an hour after we left the only home we'd had for two years, we stopped. After what felt like hours of running we stopped, Lukas asthma had begun to act up and We needed to rest., and we haven't eaten yet today. The calm breeze blew my hair around my face. I looked over at Luka. she laid down on her back, resting her eyes. She had a lot happen today and was probably trying to figure things out. I followed her example, bathing in the warmth of the sun. 

I thought back to a book I had read in class. Back when my biggest worry was if I could get an 'A' on the next test. The name was lost to me, but it was a world that was falling apart and a group of kids banded together and saved everyone. At the time I had wished that could be me. That me and my friends would be the ones to save everything. Maybe I should've thought better of wishing for something like that. But at the time it had only been a game. And now? Now I was living in a world that was on fire. We were lost, and we were only kids. We did fine on our own but I wished someone would step in and make the world right again. But of course that was a child's thought, it would never happen. I opened my eyes to the world again. And above us I saw a vulture circling. Not dead yet, I thought, laughing. Then the thought occurred to me that, maybe, it wasn't circling us. I sat up quickly, noticing the horrible stench of rot that accompanied the packs. 

"Guys! Guys! We have to go!" I said, I said gathering our things up quickly, and shaking them awake again. I stood up seeing the horde of people running in our direction. They might not have been faster than us but they didn't get tired as easily. The others got up to see what I was looking at and they both sighed, shaking their heads. 

"Can we ever get a break?" Succubus said, looking frustrated. We all turned and started running again. If we were lucky we would find somewhere to hide before we got too tired. But really, did we ever have luck? I snorted at the thought, getting odd glances from them. The city ahead gleamed, but another plume of black smoke billowed up into the sky. How beautiful the city used to be, now it was destroyed. It was still pretty in an odd way, I mean if you thought streets littered with glass were pretty. But sometimes you could find buildings still intact, untouched. The windows shined, and the metal would gleam in the sun. That was a rarity now, without constant repairs it was all collapsing. Just like my life coincidentally, I laughed at the thought. 

"They're getting closer!" I breathed out heavily, glancing over my shoulder. 

"Of course they are, they don't get winded." Succubus said

"C'mon guys, don't fight now, we're literally being chased by hordes of dead people and you both are fighting." Luka said, her breathing getting heavier by the second. If you guys let me out every once in a while I would have good stamina." I barely got out, my breath heaving.

"Oh don't even blame me!" Luka said, but I could tell she wasn't actually upset. Up ahead of us was a large yellow house. It had two stories and a window leading out to the roof. The white picket fence that surrounded it was now a grey and the paint was chipping. 

"Guys I think this is a good one!" I heaved out. 

"Good house? Or are you just tired of running so any house looks good?" Luka said laughing. The girl was laughing. I was starting to wonder if something was wrong with her. Maybe she had been in an asylum before everything was shut down. The idea seemed to make more and more sense but before I could say anything about it we were at the house. The door was locked, so naturally I kicked it in. well tried to kick it in would be a better statement. 

"You don't have to be so aggressive all the time, god man." Succubus said, looking at me oddly. 

"Are you calling me aggressive? Have you heard yourself talk?" he rolled his eyes at me, and reached his hand out towards the door, delicately turning the handle. The door creaked open and succubus walked in. The first thing that hit us was the smell of rotten food. We looked through the rooms, the dining room was set and ready. The food had gone bad but it had been ready for dinner. The table was a dark mahogany and the cloth covering it reminded me of a nightgown I had once seen my grandma wearing. The forks were covered in a deep green mould and the plates were covered in half eaten food.

"I wonder what happened here." I said quietly, looking around the house. It was cold and almost too eerie. I looked at the wall of family photos but they were almost too dusty to see. 

"They probably left when they heard about the virus," Luka said looking at their shelf of books. she pulled one out and began to skim the first page before putting it back. 

" I don't know… why would they leave the food out?" I asked, my skin starting to crawl. "Let's just go upstairs." I said walking over to the stairway. The railing was still intact but the paint, much like the fence outside was chipping away. Much like the memory of the people who had lived here. 

And that's where we found them. The family, they had died somehow, but no one wanted to make a guess. it was pretty obvious it wasn't just the sickness. The walls and carpets told a different story, so did the gun, still clenched in the hand of the father.