Paradise

2. Are We Okay?

After running for nearly a block, they had to stop to catch their breath. The guy who had just been puking his brains out in the bathroom laid a helpless mess on the sidewalk.

"Did you see that?" The other brother asked, holding his hands on his head. He didn't have to say what it was that he was talking about because it wasn't hard to take a guess. The guy eating the other guy was just the first of them. They had ran past at least two or three others on their way down the street. It looked like something straight out of a cannibal move. Casey nodded in response, looking at the ground past him. Andi went on to worrying about Dannie, ignoring his question all together.

"What if she's still in there? Where else could she have gone?" Andi threw her hands up in the hair, trying to calm herself down. She reached into her bag, shoveling around for her phone which she found seconds later. She quickly stuck the phone to her ear, Casey presumed she was trying to call Dannie. Casey could faintly hear the operator say the number was not available before Andi hung up the call.

"She knew to stay by us!" Andi nervously twiddled with her hair, unable to stay still.

The four were silent for a few seconds. Sirens in the distance filling the dead silence was the only thing that snapped them out of their deep thoughts.

"What do we do?" Casey asked Andi. Andi stared down at her black phone screen, waiting for a call that seemed like was never gonna come.

"Let's call Devin." Casey suggested.

"Who's Devin?" The guy asked. Casey finally got a solid look at the guy, from what the street lights allowed her to see, anyway. His hair was styled up - he probably spent an hour just to get it right for the party tonight. He seemed younger, but something about him screamed mature.

"Our ride." Casey replied, but the other didn't care enough to reply. He was more interested on what Andi was saying on the phone.

"Hey, could you pick us up?... I know, I know but something happened at the party and now cops are coming... I don't know, Devin... People died, Devon! Come pick us up!" Andi only stayed on the line long enough to get Devin's okay, then shoved her phone back into her bag.

"He's coming."

The sirens were eventually turned off but Casey could still see the lights flashing on the buildings further down the street and she knew they'd be confronting the person on the lawn right about now. She doesn't know what she was expecting, but she heard loud shouting followed by gunshots.

Even the gunshots were enough to make the shit-faced stranger sober up enough to get on his feet and run farther away from the house with the others.

Every time they heard another round of gunshots, they ran faster. They didn't know where they were headed but they hoped it was far, far away from there. Another ambulance zipped around the corner passed them, headed in the direction of where they once were.

"Do you think there was a shootout?" The less intoxicated twin asked as he tried to catch his breath.

"Way to let two-thousand-sixteen go out with a bang." The hammered guy laughed from his slumped position on the ground. He earned a pretty harsh punch to the shoulder from his brother.

"Seriously, Ethan? People could have died and you're making jokes about it?"

"Chill out, I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

"Well don't. You're not helping."

The four sat inside some diner as they waited for Devin to pick them up. Casey wasn't sure why they were still with the twins, but she didn't question it. Four of them was better than two. Plus, who knew if they were gonna come across another one of those things tonight.