LONE

Treehome95

Let's just escape
You and me

"Is this immoral?" Isaiah asks Violet, holding up the human skull he found, halfway through painting it. "Morals died a long time ago." She shrugs. He nods and returns to painting. Tenn let him borrow some paints so he could make the skull look cool. He was planning to make it look like how the skull decorations looked like on 'Día de los muertos', because Lamar gave him the idea.

Tenn looks up from his drawing to show Isaiah how it was coming along. "How does this look?" Tenn asks him. It's a drawing of Lamar. He asked Tenn to come up with ideas on how to make Lamar a cool prosthetic arm.
The drawing showed him with a big sword where his arm once was, killing walkers. Isaiah smiles. "That looks so cool. When Lamar's awake, we gotta go give that to him." Tenn smiles back.

As it gets later, most people have gone to bed. It's now just Isaiah, Violet and Louis, sitting on a bench in silence. "I miss them." Isaiah is the first to break the silence, smoke from his hand-rolled cigarette pouring from his mouth as he speaks. Louis and Violet look at him. "Brody and Marlon." He takes another inhale. Louis sadly looks at his hands. "Me too."
Violet takes a deep breath. "I'm so angry with him, but that doesn't mean he wasn't my friend. I wanna be happy that he's gone, after what he did to the twins, but-" she fidgets with her hands. "I dunno..."
Isaiah places his hand on Violet's shoulder, pulling her into him, reassuringly.
"Y'all remember the time around a year and a bit ago, when I ran away and I didn't come back for like...a week?"
Louis raises his eyebrows. "Shit, I remember that. We genuinely thought you died. That was after that big argument with Lamar, right?"
"I remember you in the courtyard, storming past me and Minnie...I think you flipped us off." Violet laughs.
"Brody was so worried about you, she refused to believe that you died." Louis recalls.
"I think I loved her." Isaiah says, absentmindedly.
"I mean, I don't really know how love feels or whatever, but I just know that whatever I felt for her was pretty strong..." he trails off, embarrassed.

"Their funerals kinda sucked." Louis halfheartedly laughs.
"...we could have another. Now." Isaiah shrugs.
"I made the graveyard look nice."
Louis and Violet look at each other, then stand up. "Come on."

The three walk towards the graves, stopping at Marlon and Brody's. They look at the wooden crosses that are decorated in brightly coloured flowers and fabrics. There is a candle placed on every single grave in the area, and Isaiah kneels down and lights the two resting on Marlon and Brody's. "Y'all religious?" He asks. "My family was." Violet says. "Mine too." Louis adds. "Mmkay, let's just say a prayer for them. Sound good?"

Isaiah was born Catholic, but after the death of his mother he started to believe less and less. When the outbreak started, he became really religious for a month, and then stopped again. Now, he'll occasionally say a prayer in times of need. He isn't sure why, it just comforts him.

He's taller than both Louis and Violet, so when they hug, he's always on the outside. He used to hate physical touch after his mom died, and would sometimes bite people who tried. Again, he didn't know why this was, but he assumed it was a contributing factor to why he was considered a 'troubled youth'.

After the mini funeral, the three return to their dorms. Isaiah opens the door to his to find Lamar asleep in bed, attached to the bed frame. "Ruby probably didn't wanna take any chances..." he thought to himself. It was like when Clem and AJ got to the school.

The next morning, Isaiah was awoken to way too much information to process. Firstly, Clem and AJ were back, and AJ had been shot, but was alive. Secondly, raiders were planning to attack the school, thirdly, Lamar was awake, but not doing good. He was barely walking, and passing out a concerning amount.

He'd lost a lot of blood. From the gash, to the amputation, Ruby guessed he'd lost around 40% or more of blood. He was dizzy, tired and looked rough. "You need to drink some water." Isaiah says, passing him a glass. "You tryin' to make me piss or something?" Lamar quietly laughs in response. "How are you feeling? Genuinely." Isaiah asks him, with this concerned look on his face. Lamar pauses before answering. "Honestly?" He starts, weakly. "I think I'm gonna die soon." Isaiah's heart dropped. He wasn't sure if it was Lamar saying it, or the fact that he knew it was true that scared him more.

The two boys share this look of pure pain, their faces twisting into sadness. "This wasn't supposed to happen." Isaiah begins. "It never is." Lamar softly mutters, his eyes blinking slowly.
"This is the best way to go." Silent tears left Isaiah's eye, rolling down his cheek. "I'll miss you, bro." Lamar looked at Isaiah's face, giving a weak smile.