Life After Death

Chapter 19

It had been somewhere between a week or two since we'd spray painted the scythes around the area. And we had had no intruders. Course, we couldn't determine whether that was due to the paintings or a sheer lack of people nearby, but we wanted it to stay that way.

Our friendships with everyone had been solidified more and more as each day passed, none of us feeling awkward around anyone now. We were able to be left alone with each other and not be worried as to where were our weapons were, or what we were going to say or do. Even Jace and Javon were no longer worried about each other, or anyone else, and would engage in full conversations without sounding uptight - or looking like they were planning on how to kill them at the same time.

Over the course of the week or two, we had indulged on whatever dead animal Axel brought back that day. Some days were better than others, anything ranging from badger to deer. And anything that lasted more than one meal between the ten of us, was put to breakfast the next day. Never allowing any prized food to go to waste, and instead just hoping we wouldn't die of food poisoning.

Entertainment also wasn't much of an issue between us all, surprisingly. Me, Jade and Whitney had held 'fashion shows' if that's what you can even call it, styling all the clothes we found at the old house either as weirdly, or as fashionably as we could.

And everyone seemed to take to teaching each other something that they remembered from before these morbid times. Making us all seem more human and reminding us that not everything had to revolved around dying and killing.

Dahlia had taken to teaching Brooke all about different flowers that the two of them could find in the area, and so Brooke then also took to gifting each of us a flower every morning. Everyone carrying it round in their pockets for the rest of the day, until they received their next one the following day. Jade also took to teaching, showing me and Whitney how to make friendship bracelets with the free thread that the hotel seemed to have supplied once upon a time.

And Reid, Javon and Jace had decided to take it upon themselves and teach Nathaniel how to drive, Reid and Javon having a 'legal' license and everything, decided they were the most suitable, but they were surprised with how good Jace was, given that he had taught himself all but. Every day the three of them would be back and forth around the town, trying different speeds and turns, and even different parking spaces - although I'm not sure that they were a big issue to find these days. Occasionally you'd hear a smash or thump from something as Nathaniel inevitably hit whatever was closest to the road, but day by day the collisions got less frequent. That, or there was just nothing left to crash into.

Yet, despite their new fixation, none of us were expecting Nathaniel and Javon to come back from a run with Axel in two different sports cars - Axel following somewhat more slowly behind in his little old rusty car. We heard the screeches of the tyres from what felt like a mile away, and we had so much time to brace for whatever was coming closer, that Dahlia was back up in the window with her sniper before they finally turned up.

"Nathaniel!? What, from the darkest, deepest, depths of my soul, the fuck?" I said, me, Whitney and Reid walking up to meet the three of them.

"Well, they were just sitting there in an old Aston Martin dealership, untouched. We couldn't just leave them there to rot."

"You three taught the wrong man how to drive," I scolded, only half seriously.

"Besides, if someone's missing them, it's not like they can chase us down now, is it?"

Nathaniel was insistent on telling and showing me all about his new car. He even used some of his own water to clear the dust off of the windscreens, apparently there was no liquid left in the washer nozzle.