Dead Feeling

Dishonesty

Niki sat atop of a cliff, ahead of him the stars danced over the once bright city, now only illuminated by the moon. Behind him Niki could hear the embers of the fire cracking, and Nova and the rest of the kids playing.

Behind him Niki could also hear footsteps approaching. He watched boots walk up next to him and them plant in front of him. The girl with the dogtag sat beside him. The girl leaned her head back and basked in the night air, she kept her mouth shut for a minute.

"Fay," she held her hand out to Niki, her eyes dropped to his now. Niki examined her, she tied her brown hair back with two braids, she tucked her jeans into her boots and her dark green shirt showed the upside of her stomach. "And you are," she enlongaded her words and waved her hand in his face.

"Right, sorry," he placed his hand in hers and shook her hand. "Niki."

She let go of his hand and turned back to the city, leaning back on her hands, her hair dangling behind her. "I used to do this all the time. I would sneak out of my house all of the time just to come out to the forest and look at the city from afar," she said. Niki froze, remembering how the last time he snuck out of the house his whole family died. "What'd you do for fun as a kid?"

"Oh, I," he fumbled over his words, still caught in his mind. "I played a lot of video games, I didn't really have a lot of close friends, I sucked at school and anything social. Well, everything but theater, I had this mindset that I couldn't get rid of, that I was goning to be this famous actor one day."

"You say that you weren't very smart and weren't good with people, but you managed to save all of these people and bring us all away from those men. How do you explain that if you're so dumb?"

"Okay, well, first of all, I didn't say that I was dumb, and two, anyone with half a brain could put two and two together with those men. I just didn't want people to die over some pricks with knives, everyone needs at least a fighting chance."

"And what about that girl that you've got over there, is she your sister or something?"

Niki stopped talking for a moment, he took a deep breath and fought his tears back. "No, she was alone on the highway, we tried to find her parents, but those Men got to them first."

"Oh," she said and dropped her eyes. No one said anything, they watched the stars above them move around and dance, they would catch a shooting star or two on the occasion.

"So, where is the rest of your family," he asked.

"My parents are down in Memphis somewhere, and my brother is in Parris island. Me and Alana were just coming back from Canada," Fay paused. "Well, Alana, Zeke, and I atleast. We lost Zeke in the city yesterday. That idiot always had to be the hero." Fay turned to look at Niki with wavering eyes. Niki gave her a look of encouragement. "Zeke had this massive crush on Alana. Ever since childhood he would do anything to be near her. He would pick her to be on his team every time we played a game, and when dinner time rolled around he always did his best to sit next to her. He would have followed her til the end of the world, and he did. When the dead began to rise we were at a festival, I don't even know what it was for, I think it was for a singing group or something, but while we were there, we were on one of the rides and we heard screams. Not long after that they stopped all of the ride and we heard gunshots. I got separated from them, I tried to get back to them, but with all of the people running, I just couldn't.

"Eventually the gunshots subbsided and I was watching all of these people get attacked by other people with bullets in their chests. It was like something out of a movie because I stood alone and I watched a girl get tackled by the dead, and right there behind her," Fay stopped, she couldn't speak, she tried but all that came out were squeaks. Niki placed his hand on her back and she found her courage to continue. "Behind the girl I could see Alana and Zeke, but all I could see was red. Zeke was shot in the head and Alana's hands and clothes were covered in his blood. I've tried to ask her what happened, but she wouldn't respond, it was obvious enough to me though, what had happened.