Dust

Chapter four - surprise, motherfuckers!

Skylar was laying on the roof of the tour bus. She was in deep thought. In the tour bus underneath her, she could hear scrambling. Gwendolyn and Mickey were cleaning and arranging things in the bus. It was slightly shaking.
Skylar (she preferred 'sky' instead of her full name) put her hands behind her head and closer her eyes. Her thoughts drifted back to her childhood at the farm.
Her parents originally never planned to have a baby and when they got her, they called her skylar because of her light blue eyes. She grew up without any siblings, didn't have contact with our kids until school started. She had three dogs, a horse and a lazy old cat. No best friend, no boyfriend, mostly animals and her parents. Her parents loved the farm, it was their home since they had come here from England.
But one day, she was invited to a party by this girl from school, and her dad lend her his car. The car was old, really old. It broke down halfway from the farm to the party. She remembered sitting on the roof of the car, in her shortest shorts, on her highest heels, trying to call her dad. No fucking service. And then, Blake came by. He had a working car and was on the way to the same party.
Sky sat up, almost hitting her head on one of the branches above her. Fucking tree. The rambling underneath her had stopped. Left was only Billie (or joe?), sweeping. She sighed relieved, laying back down.
"Skylar!" Gwendolyn called from the house. Sky shot back up, really hitting her head on the damn branch this time.
"Fucking shitbitch stupid ass tree!" She groaned. Well, if you grow up as a cowgirl, you learn how to swear.
Billie (or was it joe?!) poked his head out of the bus and looked up to her.
"You okay?" He asked amused.
Sky shot him a glare. "Do I look okay?" She snapped, holding her head. Billie (she had finally noticed the scar) laughed and went back into the bus. Sky grumbled again and climbed off the bus. Luckily, there was a ladder, otherwise she would have ruined her new black cowboy boots.
"Finally!" Gwendolyn said. Sky groaned.
"Stop criticizing me." She grumbled.
Gwendolyn put her hands up.
"Woah, okay, calm down! Just help me with this for a second okay?" She held up a bunch of the new clothes they had gotten together.
Sky rolled her eyes. She usually didn't have this much of an attitude, but she had just hit her head and this morning, her hair didn't cooperate.
Both of the girl were busy folding clothes and putting them into boxes.
Sky was bored out of her mind. Doing the laundry wasn't exactly what she wanted to do during the motherfucking apocalypse. She wanted to fight, a fucking adventure
- someone screamed.
A scream full of horror, terror, angst. Mickey. Both of the girl shot up, dropping the clothes they were holding and ran outside as fast as they could. When they had finally arrived in the backyard, it was already over. Mickey was standing next to the little pond, violently shaking. In front of her were Dan, combined with a bloody golden ace and a devilish smile, and the remains of... A zombie.
"I don't get this!" Mickey said with a shaky voice and pulled at her short blue hair. "They weren't supposed to be awake yet!"
Billie put an arm around her, leading her to the bus.
Dan clapped his hands, speaking up:
"Okay, assfaces, we need to leave. Get your shit ready and put it into the bus. Get any weapon you can find and bring it to me, I'll organize that, alright?"
And he walked off to the balcony, jumped up the big garbage can and onto the balcony. Sky was impressed.
-<>-
The bus was bigger than Mickey had thought. She was sitting on the ground, her back against the bunks, a notebook on her lap. She studied it again, frowning. This was so weird. There weren't supposed to be awake yet! They were -
"Hey whatcha lookin at?" Skylar said in her oxford accent, looking over her shoulder from her bunk.
"Nothing, I'm just confused. Why are they awake yet?" Mickey said, closing the notebook.
"Why are leaves green? Why is water wet?" Skylar said and threw her hands up. Mickey giggled. She had a really childish giggle.
"Damnit, skylar!" She said.
"Just call me sky!" Skylar chuckled.
"Alright, damnit, sky!" Mickey giggled.
"Can you stop laughing back there? I don't like happy people!" Dan yelled from the drivers seat. That sentence made them laugh even harder.
"Seriously, can you stop being happy, I - " he was cut off by the sound of a car crashing and the bus abruptly stopping. Mickey was thrown back against the wall, Sky fell out of her bunk and landed on her. They groaned.
"Dan, can you please drive AROUND the cars and not INTO them?" Chris annoyed voice was heard from the front seat. Sky chuckled. Mickey pushed her off her and got up. She picked up the notebook and pulled up her binder. The incident had caused it to slip. She could hear sky trying to get up too as she stumbled to the front.
"Dan, what the fuck." She said, stepping through the seats of Gwendolyn, Billie, Joe, Chris and the two empty ones to get behind the drivers seat. Seriously, this bus was huge, it had two fucking floors!
Dan just shrugged.
"Don't judge me!" He started the engine again. Mickey grinned and sat down on the seat next to him, her notebook on her knees.
Dan noticed and shot her a glare.
"You don't really plan to socialize, do you?" He said with a sigh.
Mickey rolled her eyes, grinning.
"Sadly, I do. We need a plan. We're exactly are you driving to?" She asked.
"Out of town. As much as I wanna fight, I'm the best fighter, but I don't wanna risk... Your life." Dan said with a bit of hesitation. Mickey saw him glance into the side mirror. At the right angle, he was able to see Chris, who had fallen asleep on the seat behind him, slightly stirring at every sudden movement the bus made.
"You care about him, don't you?" Mickey said quietly.
Dan flinched a tiny little bit.
"How do you wanna know?" He asked.
"My brother could read minds like no one else could, he taught me lots of things. You can't hide thoughts or feelings from me."
Dan looked at her for a second, then focused back on the lonely road.
"You have a brother?"
"I had one."
"Oh"
"Yeah"
"Same. I had a father."
"Sorry about that."
"Sorry about your brother. What was he like?"
"Don't try and change the topic, Dan. CHRIS. You care about him, I know it."
He didn't answer. He only bit his lip and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
"I don't care about anyone!" He said.
"Well, you do care about Chris." Mickey said and opened her notebook, dropping the topic.
"Okay, the next thing we need to do..."