Bloodless

Chapter 2: New places and people

AJ POV

My eyes scan for the source of the crunching sound.

I spot it and immediately shove the girl into my room, closing the door.

My body rushes to the Bloodless and my left hand grabs it from its hair, dragging it backwards and onto the floor. I lift my foot and slam it down, crunching its skull open.

I pant and step backwards, looking over at the mess.

I move my eyes to look at where I had just dragged the ninth Bloodless from. At the body there. My eyes tear up.

There lies the boy. Body torn open, guts spilled on the floor, blood starting to thicken and turn beige.

I wipe my eyes and turn to the hotel room I had stolen. I open the door and step inside.

There, curled up on the floor, is the girl.

Tucking my knife back into the waistband of my pants, I crouch next to her.

"Hey." I say in a soft voice. "Hey, listen, I know what just happened was, is.... but we need to get a move on. More will be coming, so we should run."

There's no reply, but instead, a sob coming from her, causing me to sigh. Standing up, I grab my still drying clothes from the bathroom and shove them into my bag, shouldering it.

"Stay if you want, but soon this hotel will be overrun with Bloodless. And I don't want to be here when that happens. So, you can either stay here, and pray they don't break down that door, or come with me to find a safer place and you can grieve there. Up to you."

Walking over to the window, I open the curtains and push the window open. I sit on the windowsill and swing my legs over to rest on a branch of the tree. Moving off the windowsill, I balance on the branch before stepping onto a lower one. Doing that over and over until my feet are on the floor.

Not even 30 seconds later, the girl is next to me, cheeks still wet from tears and her eyes red. I nod at her and start to walk off, heading away from the hotel. She trails behind me, her gun in her hand.

"You can put that away. I'm not going to turn against you, and the bang that thing makes will attract Bloodless towards us. Honestly, who thought that guns would be a good idea in an apocalypse, the noise it makes is dangerous." I don't bother looking at her as I speak, instead I scan our surroundings as we walk.

"At least it is not a knife. You risk your life by being at such close contact in order to be able to use it." Her voice is smooth and soft, sounding so sweet compared to the world that surrounds us, almost too sweet for this world; how could such a sweet-sounding person manage to shoot a gun and survive in this chaos?

"What, you care about me risking my life?" I say in a sarcastic joking tone.

She grumbles in return, and I chuckle.

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Silence.

We have been walking in silence since the joke I had made.

Perhaps the joke was too much, or she just needs time to process what happened to that boy, whose name I'm guessing is Cal since that's what she called him when I first saw them. Who knows.

We've been walking for about 2 hours, which in that time, we had left the city that hotel was in and moved to an outer suburb area, only running into a few Bloodless.

And by a few, I mean like 20. We outran some, and the others got a knife to its head. Fun times.

"There. That house looks like it may be good."

My eyes move to look at the house she's looking at. A double story house with tall fences surrounding it. I nod and we head towards it.

The girl reaches for the gate, trying to open it. It's locked. I move over to the gate, but instead of attempting to open it, I gently push her hand away from the handle. I place my foot on the handle and my hands on the top of the fence, pushing myself up and over. I land on the other side, into the front yard of the house.

My eyes scan the yard and windows of the house, looking for any signs of Bloodless as I walk towards the front door. I hear the gentle thud of the girl landing behind me, and she follows me.

As we reach the front door, I pull my knife out, ready to strike if I need to. My hand hovers over the door handle before quietly twisting it and pushing the door open, revealing the dusty interior of the house. Dust is good. Dust is a sign of no creatures or people.

Turning to the girl, I speak.

"I'm going to check upstairs. You go ahead and check downstairs or do whatever, just don't shoot that gun, we don't need to attract any Bloodless here if we're going to crash for a bit."

She nods and that's enough for me. I walk up the stairs, trying my best to make minimal noise in case there's something up there.

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"Nothing," I say, walking into the living room where the girl is cured up on the couch. "Upstairs is all safe."

There's no reply.

I sigh and sit down on the other end of the couch, giving her some space.

"I'm AJ. And I uh.... I'm sorry about that boy."

She shifts slightly on the couch and curls up into a tighter ball.

"He was my cousin. Cal. I found him after I had gone to check up on my aunt's, and he was there, hidden in a cupboard and crying. Aunt Hannah and Aunt Gemma had turned into those things, and he was hiding from them." Her voice is quiet.

"Were the aunts you mentioned Cal's moms?" I question in a gentle tone.

"Uh.... well, yeah."

"Fuck yeah, lesbian Aunts. They must've been fun to be around."

"They were actually" She lifts her head to look at me, a slight look of relief on her face, as if I'm helping her out by talking and as if she's relived that I'm not homophobic person.

I give her a slight smile, and she uncurls herself, moving to face me and sit cross legged.

"I'm Dani. Uh what... what is your story?"

"Well Dani, my story is a bit... It started on my birthday. I was turning 19, and we were having a family party, to try and celebrate my birthday and ignore the chaos that was starting to overtake the world. But my brother had decided to show up, and he was in the process of becoming a Bloodless, and he ended up attacking us. I was the only one to make it out and since then I've been moving from place to place, trying to stay safe."

"Oh... I am... I am sorry, AJ. I am sorry that happened."

"Nah, don't worry 'bout it. Its fine."

"Is it though?" I pause. That question making me freeze up.

I blink and quickly clear my head with a deep breath.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is. There's three bedrooms upstairs if you want to go claim one for the night. I'm going to check out the kitchen, see if there's anything in the freezer or pantry that could be cooked up and what kind of stove they have." I ramble quickly, changing the subject. I stand up and walk into the kitchen.