Finding Light in This World

1: Rumors

!Trigger warnings!
Nothing major

~•1st person: Charlie•~

"Charlie, hurry the fuck up!" Schlatt yelled at me. "Give me a minute, damn!" I yelled back to him as I jogged over to him and Ted. "Why do you walk so slow?" Ted asked me. "Because I can," I respond. Ted rolls his eyes at me and looks away.

"Where are we going again?" I ask the ram hybrid. "Ted said he's been in contact with someone from a big group of people and managed to convince them to let us join. We're heading there now. I just don't really like the fact that we have to go through a big city. Especially this one," Schlatt tells me.

"Why don't you want to go through this city?" Ted turns to Schlatt. "Well, the broadcast said to avoid big cities and because I've heard rumors about this city," he answered as he looked around. "From where?" Ted asks with a confused expression. "Yeah, where?" I ask as well.

"I may or may not have talked to someone from the group when you guys were asleep," Schlatt admits sheepishly. "Who'd you talk to?" Ted questions. "I think his name was Timmy or something. And then a second guy came in before some third guy started yelling at them, and they ran away screaming," Schlatt says, which makes me laugh a little.

"Tommy is a child. Don't believe a thing he says," Ted says with a small shake of his head. "Yeah, but the second guy sounded older, and he said the rumors were true," Schlatt countered. "Whatever. Believe some silly rumors if you want," Ted says and rolls his eyes before walking forward and a bit away from me and Schlatt.

"Psst," Schlatt whispers to me. "What?" I whisper back. "You wanna hear the rumor?" he asked. "Yeah!" I yelled, making Ted glance back at us. "I mean, yeah!" I whispered. Schlatt looked around as if making sure no one was listening, which clearly nobody was, before leaning in to whisper in my ear.

"I heard that there's some big ass spiders somewhere in this city. And that there's one mutant spider that's like a hundred fucking times bigger than all the rest, and it's like their ruler or something. And the big spider kills people and eats them with the smaller ones. Especially if they're colorful," he said, leaning away with a smug look on his face as he watched my reaction. My mouth was hung open, and my eyes were wide as I looked down at myself, seeing that I contrasted greatly with the gray in my surroundings. "Really?" I asked.

"You better not be scaring Charlie with those rumors, Schlatt!" Ted yelled at us. "I'd never!" Schlatt yelled back with a fake, offended look. "Ted, I don't wanna get eaten!" I yelled at Ted. "Goddamnit Schlatt!" Ted yelled with an annoyed look. "Fuck you!" Ted yelled at him. "Fuck you!" Schlatt yelled right back.

"Guys, shut up! You'll alert the zombies!" I yelled to them a lot quieter. "Yeah, or that spider thing!" Schlatt said while wiggling his fingers at my face. "Schlatt cut it out," Ted said as he approached us and smacked Schlatt's hand away from my face.

Schlatt just flipped Ted the bird and continued walking. Ted rolled his eyes and started walking after Schlatt. I followed because I didn't want to get left behind. "You know that rumor isn't true, right?" Ted asked as he looked back at me. "Yeah, I didn't think it was, but it's still kinda fun to believe, y'know?" I said with a small chuckle.

Ted suddenly bumped into Schlatt and turned to see why he was stopped. "Why'd you stop walking?" He asked, but got no answer. "Schlatt?" Ted asked as he waved his hand in front of Schlatt's face.

"Do you see that?" Schlatt asked as he pointed up at something on a building. "Yeah, the cracked glass. Why?" Ted said as he crossed his arms. "I don't think it's glass because the light would reflect differently depending on your position. That's stayed the same the whole time I've been looking at it." Schlatt said as he turned to Ted.