Replanted Remastered

Silence

"I'm not used to it being so quiet,"

The neighborhood was silent as Alice and Sweetpea trekked down Pearwood drive, occasionally glancing down at the street sign in the back of the photo. "Blueberrywood street," it said. The street the two had grown up on. "He's been here the entire time.. oh, we wasted a lot of time, didn't we, Sweetpea?" Alice said. Sweetpea shrugged. "I'm just glad we're finally gonna see him again.. Aren't you excited?" Sweetpea nodded in reply. "You missed him too, didn't you?"

The two quietly continued their one-sided conversation, though one thing was clear between them - they were happy that they'd have their brother back. Though.. Something odd sat in the back of Alice's mind. Uncertainty. Thoughts of their friends creeped through their head. Was this right? This was right. They would find Markus. Their friends would stop Zomboss. Everything was going to be okay. They knew it. It would be okay.

They were going to be okay.

A rush of excitement ran through Alice's veins as they spotted the Blueberrywood street sign. They ran through the empty street, with Sweetpea scampering along behind them. Scanning the ground, they spotted something odd. On the pavement lay a polaroid camera. A white one. A tinge of fear sparked somewhere in Alice's mind as they approached it, picking it up and looking it over. The old sharpie doodles of Alice's own making signified their fear. It was Markus's camera, though it was slightly crumpled, with the glass cracked, as if it had been dropped.

"He's got to be nearby, this is his camera," Alice said to Sweetpea. Sweetpea put a leaf to his chin, as if he were thinking it over. The two walked through the street, glancing from house to house to see if there was any trace of their lost brother. Most of the houses were the same; boarded up and withering away, except for.. one. It's wooden boards had been broken through, with the door left wide open.

The house was quiet.

Despite the rotting wood and trashed rooms, the most significant aspect of the home was the pure, uninterrupted silence. Alice and Sweetpea walked silently through the rooms, noting that all the doors were askew. -And empty of zombies, aside from the few scattered hands or legs throughout.

"I don't think Markus is here.. he's got good ears, he would've heard us," said Alice. Sweetpea ignored their statement and kept looking around, eventually finding a staircase, which he scampered up. Alice followed him. All was there to find; more silent, destroyed, empty rooms. They held their nose as the scent of decay grew stronger. "There's only zombie bits in here, we should- ..go,"

There was a noise. What it was, Alice couldn't tell, but they knew it was near. They tiptoed through the hall, looking in each open room. Another noise emitted from down the hall, this one more audible.. it was a groan, of some kind. Alice found themself drawn to the single shut door at the end of the hall. Quiet groans were floating out from inside.

"Markus? Markus, is that you??" Alice asked frantically. They glanced down at Sweetpea with a hopeful grin on their face. "Hold on, I'm coming in!" Before Alice could grab the doorknob, however, they noticed something.

A small, blood spattered note, hastily pasted to the front of the door.

"If you can read this, dont come in, please. Im not a human anymore. I was bit. My name was Markus Damien Macro, and I was thirteen years old. If you ever meet someone named Alice Moss Macro, tell them I miss them."

Alice stared. Stared at the words, not even reading them. Staring at them. Hoping they'd change.

They stood in silence with Sweetpea at their side, listening to the nearly silent groans of their brother from the door in front of them. The house smelled of decay.

And the house was quiet.

A quiet wind contrasted the pale blue sky. Alice's backpack was slightly fuller, now with an old broken polaroid camera crammed in alongside their supplies. They were supposed to be helping their friends. They stood alone in the street, as Sweetpea slowly followed them.

"Sweetpea, we're.." Alice mumbled. "We.. we failed." Sweetpea shook his head and furrowed his brow. He gently wrapped a leaf around Alice's ankle. "Sweetpea, we fucked up. He's fucking dead, now," Alice's voice shook as they spoke, wobbling like a lifeboat in the ocean on the verge of tipping at any moment. "We were too fucking late."

There was a moment of nothing. Near-silent wind rushing around. As if the world had stopped. A decrescendo before the climax.

The earth stood still.