||Series Removed|| OTB

27 - Hollow

Bathed in the mid-morning sun's light, Blessing drew her pale arm across Charlotte's in a supportive manner, coaxing her fingers around their weapon as she tightened the frightened teen's grasp.

"Relax, hold it steady..." As they both held the battered road sign up over their heads, the dead girl stepped away with finality to leave Charlotte in the middle of the road. Shuffling towards them from a dozen metres away, the very sight of the overweight Lost man was proving to be too much for her to handle.

"I... I can't do this! It's murder, killing a whole other person..."

"You can't kill what's already dead, remember that!" Blessing resisted the urge to step forwards and batter the creature herself. "Just let it come to you, read its movements... find your opening and then strike it in the head. That's all there is to it, soldier."

We'd driven down the road for only a couple of miles before Blessing insisted that we stop to teach Charlotte and Tanner how to take out the Lost. Watching her guide Charlotte closely like that, it had my blood boiling under the scorching sun.

Tanner, like myself, had been eyeing their movements carefully since last night. Perhaps we shouldn't have been eavesdropping so much, but in the end I saw something that I couldn't bare to ignore.

The troubled teen folded his arms as he glared at the two girls, stomping to my side so that he didn't have to stand near the frowning ex-mayor of Patch.

"Look at them both... I still can't believe it. How could Charlotte lead me on like this?"

"Just let it go, man. You're clearly not her type, and we have much bigger problems to deal with. Why don't you go hump a cactus or something, get it out of your system?"

I hadn't intended on sounding so bitter, but my mind was clouded with some kind of anger that I had no clue how to shake. Tanner raised his eyebrows at me, and then jerked his head at the blonde not-so-subtly.

"Let it go? I thought you were going to hit that, too! You tellin' me that Charlotte coming in and lezzing everything up with blondie doesn't piss you off?"

"No... No." I repeated, my glare hitting the blonde's fake smile. "I was wrong about her, this whole time. What you saw last night... That wasn't Blessing. I don't think that girl even realises what she's doing, messing with people's heads like this."

"Tan, you're up!" We both tensed as Charlotte approached him, looking spent with a disappointed shake of the head.

"H-Huh? I thought-"

"No, I couldn't do it after all... I'll do better next time, I promise."

Tanner's hand grazed hers as she passed the plucked road sign onto him, and I saw something behind his eyes snap before storming off with unique determination. Striding straight past Blessing, she attempted to talk him through the process once more.

"Okay kid, listen up. The infected are slow by default unless their target makes any sudden movements, so calmly finding somewhere to hide is- wait, Tanner!"

His grip tightened around the road sign, and swung it straight into the Lost's sunburnt head. Knocking it to the ground, the infected held onto whatever existence it had left as Tanner climbed on top and threw his weapon aside.

"Stop! That's dangerous, what the hell are you-" His 'instructor' started to protest, but paused before she could get any closer to the unresponsive teen.

Tanner began bludgeoning the overweight man to death with his fists, coldly hammering its skull against the road as it spurted blood into the heated air. The creature had been dead for at least half a minute before the mayor stepped in from the back, tearing him away from the scene only to infuriate the boy further.