Savage (10k/ZNation)

Karma Bites

"Eat! Eat! Eat!" A haunting whisper repeats over and over as I look around my new surroundings.

I'm sitting at an elegant dining table, trays and trays of food laid out, but hidden under silver covers. My mouth is watering from the thought of real food and I start to reach forward when something to my right catches my attention.

I turn to see a zombie 10k staring back at me, his eyes glazed over and empty. I turn to my left to see Cassandra also undead, a bloody gash across her cheek as she lowly growls. I find each of the chairs filled by the group, but they are all zombies.

I start to let out a cry, but instead a groan escapes my mouth. In a panic I look down to see my hands are an ashy grey, not the pale color they should be. No, no! This can't be right!

A zombie Addy suddenly leans forward to pull the silver lid of the food and to my horror it's a human head, the girl's eyes wide and terrified. I know those eyes, how do I-?

Oh god! It's me!

Before I can react, my body is moving on it's own and it's heading straight for living me! I don't wanna eat any human, but especially not myself!

Someone pulls me from the nightmare with a hand on my shoulder, and I'm instantly sitting up. I gasp for air as I clutch my head and try to shake that horrible scene from my memory.

That's the second time I've had some horrible nightmare since we met those cannibals and I'm really getting sick of it. I can barely sleep without zombie cannibal nightmares, but I'm running on empty in terms of energy now.

"You were whimpering again."

The soft voice draws my attention and I turn to see an apologetic Cassandra. Her zombie face keeps flashing across my vision as I look at her and my nausea comes back. She doesn't deserve that fate, even in my dreams.

"I need a cigarette." I groan as I reach for my bag, which was tucked under my head as a pillow of sorts until I was awoken.

My hands pull open the bag and I barely have to search, my secret stash of cigs were they should be. I pull a single cancer stick out and grab the lighter I keep just for this reason.

"Please tell me you don't smoke." Garnett's voice reaches my ears right as I place the cigarette between my lips and I light it before glancing up at him.

I know, I know, smoking is bad, blah, blah, blah. It's a stress reliever and it makes me think of Milo and Dad. They both smoked before the earth went to hell and after day one I started to smoke as well. Sue me.

"Okay, I don't smoke." I reply as I breath the white puff of smoke out and smile at the father figure of the group who is staring at me with a disappointed look.

"Where'd you even get cigarettes?" Addy asks and I glance over to see her standing near the front of the parked truck.

Hold on, parked truck? When did we stop?

Instead of answering the question I stand up, the cig still held in my possession as I examine our surroundings. Mack seems to be using the restroom in a field while everyone else waits up here.

"Do you have any to spare?" 10k asks and I turn to see he's standing on the bed of the truck to my left, his eyes already moving away from me.

I nod and reach into my bag, pulling another out and handing it to him. He nods before placing it in his pocket and focusing back on guarding us.

I move to stand so my side is pressed lightly against his, a common stance for us. He still doesn't talk a lot, but he talks to me more than the others, I'm not completely sure why, but maybe he finds safety in me like how I find it in him.