Lost Emotions

Chapter 1 - Back to Basics

I take the final draw of a bloodied cigarette and flick it into the flowing sea of soulless husks. Not even two years ago I could take a draw while simultaneously piking an oncoming Freak. And a year or two before that I couldn't even hold the jagged piece of metal properly. I've come a long way, looking back on the progress I'd achieved. Looking Matt up and down as he relentlessly shreds into the decaying corpses amazes me. His physique, his build, his strength is admirable, to say the least.

"I don't wanna be on the receiving end when this dumpster tips over and we get swarmed. Where the fuck are those two?" he grunts in annoyance, one of his common tones. I chuckle, and smiling warmly, remember how careless we were to have turned a street early.

"Well, at least we're giving them decent time to grab the shit and leave, aye?" I reply with a hint of stupidity in my voice. He grunts in reply, clearly annoyed, and clearly my favorite reaction.

"You're telling me, Jay. Fuck, we've probably got almost this entire suburb emptied out into this cauldersack. Sucks we're in a dead-end though, we've got nowhere to climb or jump over or anything."

He goes to take a seat and calm down a little, but the pressing weight of the dead nudge the dumpster ever slightly, scaring Matt back against the wall with me. I feel around in my pocket, and bring the crushed cigarette packet to light, and rattle it to gain his attention.

"You're kidding me, right? I nearly die and all you think about is a fucking smoke? What the actual fuck Jay."

Breathing heavily, he snatches the pack from my hand and launches it into the crowd, to vanish between countless heads and reaching arms. My face drops, and I turn to his unsatisfied glare.

"What the actual fuck, Matt! That was the last packet we'd found!" I cry with sarcasm and pain. While he is a realistic arsehole, he's a decent morale figure. I doubt me or the others would've made it this far without his guidance. Taking a deep breath, I gaze out across the street, to the narrow opening between two Utes parked probably to barricade this before it fell. Another jolt rocks Matt from the wall to his knees, and any bravery he owned left his body in an ear-piercing, 'manly' scream.

With a quiet giggle to myself, I focused my attention on the piece of metal, to avoid his half embarrassed, half pissed glare. This makes up for his actions with my only loved one. But he doesn't even turn to me, instead, from the corner of my eye, I watch him quickly observe his surroundings as if he'd just woken from a nightmare.

"Are you awake now?" I joke, only to be hushed by him almost immediately.

"Look, the Freaks are confused as fuck! They gotta be hearing the echo," he whispers, grabbing the metal from my hands, and taking the opportunity to pick off a few more, seeing as they've turned and lowered their arms.

"Matt, it's gonna be dark soon, and I'd rather be somewhere I can actually sleep, so you think we could make some kind of idea instead of shitting ourselves?"

It looks like he doesn't even hear me, as he continues killing the surrounding Freaks. But one wrong move, like Matt, accidentally hitting the side of the dumpster, immediately brought their attention back to us.

"Fuck me." he whispers to himself, "Alright, what we need to do is somehow clear a path to that driveway over there, the one with the car across the sidewalk," he pulls me close and points toward a beat-up looking sedan, roughly pushed to block the driveway from any wanderers, "Then, once we're in that yard, we try to cut through the backyards until we lose this crowd, then we're home free." he says puffed and in a panic.

"First of all, how the fuck are we gonna make our way over there in the first place? Unless you can scream a couple more times so I can take a few more out, I doubt we're going to get anywhere near that car before dark." I complain, throwing my hands toward the crowd, the escape route, and the sky. His face lights up like New Year's night, as he pulls me onto the other lid with him, and embraces me in a tight hug.