Empty: Book 2

30 : The Antidote

SUZY

"Watch out!" my voice echoed before my irritation bombed into Amy's face— but the nerve she have is exceeding to just stab me a glare to hide her guilty insistence.

My stares then lowered down the terminator of our quarrel; our family picture that had dropped broken on the floor after being the victim of our morning clash that made it all accidentally drop at once, broken pieces of the frame were now miserably scattered on the ground. Guilty, I bend to pick up this printed imagery of our family captured 10 years ago as the only place we can be found contented and complete.

I've never been joyful and sad at the same minute and for the same cause. Because—even beyond the fact they're eternally gone, they still have their way of being our mediator whenever Amy and I were being normal siblings who typically have a habit of picking fights, here, like this, they still have their way of moderating us like what they used to do. If it weren't for that infectious craziness 6 years ago, this drama wouldn't happen.

"That's you... that's your fault! I was here and you were there, and I was enduring this scratch you made!" Amy belted, pointing fingers at me while uttering anything she could say.

I took a deep surrendering breath before I replied, "That's alright; it's only the frame that's been broken, at least hand me the broom, the broom!"

But Amy merely walks out filled with invisible remorse. So in distress to her being, I dash to the kitchen to get a broom myself and tidy up our mess before temporarily storing our photograph in one of our family albums kept in a drawer. When, after a few moments, our attention was instantly drawn to the next news item flashing on television, the roots of this sorrow I recall,

["After nearly 6 years of the countries' collapse caused by the zombie plague, half of the affected countries were gradually returning to normalcy. The inexplicable vanishing of Undead all over the country, on the other hand, has remained an incomplete puzzle..."]

"Fine! Let's just assume we all made it! But it will never bring back what we've lost!" There's my sister again, harassing the news as if she is making a change from the sofa, facing the television she's seriously frowning at. "...How I wish zombies could simply come back to life and be normal since they're just human beings after all. Did you think of that too?" she spoke to herself her dream that was too far from reality. Plus, it's too scary and weird.

A while of silence busses our mouths before I take it off to respond, "You're right though," I lied for the sake of making up. "...but isn't it suspicious, Amy?" I ask, walking closer to the sofa she's sitting on.

"Hmm?" she answered, fixated on the television.

"The zombies? mysteriously disappeared? They must know something" I laugh in sarcasm.

"It's somehow... possible if you're dumb" she responds.

"You are dumb" I rolled my eyes.

"Or maybe... their body just melted by the decomposition... and became an ash..." she uttered like a child verbalizing an imagination she's unaware can be a fact.

"No... that's so lame! Did you remember that medical student who was accused of being the producer of those dead bodies?" I ask directly, leading to my intended topic.

She frowned answering, "Yes, he sort of...got imprisoned right?" I know she's confused given that she was just 11 years old way back during the outbreak while I was 13, aware of everything, and all the horror even before we evacuated as the only survivor of our bloodline.

"Well, why would you even think of that? You're stupid" I stated in a serious tone enunciating another fact, stamping my feet towards my computer table and began typing some curiosity on my noisy keyboard.