Life's Little Teardrops

13. Tweet Tweet

As I sleep I realize that I'm not fully asleep. I've never felt it before, like a state of inactivity. I wasn't dreaming or passed out but in a sleep while thinking. My body was asleep through and through, but my mind was buzzing with thoughts and worries. Where was the girl? What will I do after I wake up? Where is Trin and Leon?

My thoughts raced at the speed of light to the point where I could barely recognize them.

It felt like years before I woke up, For all I knew it could have been. I was awake fully but I still felt groggy like when you take a nap on a hot day and just feel terrible.

The sky was dark and the sun had obviously just set but as I opened my eyes I could see a distant light. It was like a glow brighter than any other.

I sat up straighter and brushed my hair out of my face and realized my hand was clustered with dirt as black as the sky with the texture of cotton candy. I wiped it on the statue feeling a little bad for dirtying the angel. I look around in an attempt to investigate the light. It was surrounded by little light specs which I would say were meek in comparison. My ankle throbbed but was not in great pain. I tried to stand while my ankle seemed to pop at every movement. Finally I stood with little pressure on my ankle hoping it would magically move into place. The lights stood still and I felt their warmth even from a mile away.

I started walking in a limp like fashion while surveying the area which I could barely see in the darkness. I was closer but it was still not close enough to see.

After what seemed like an hour at which time my ankle had ended its ache, I decided it was not very far and that I should run.

I jogged in a way that in PE I would have been embarrassed by but in an "End of the World" situation I didn't care. The moon was barely visible but it did shed some light on the graves. I was heading towards the miseliums and was almost sure the baseball diamond behind it.

Our town was like that. No one thought it was weird to put a Junior softball diamond behind a 100 year old cemetery. No one also thought it was weird to put Juvenile Hall across the street.

As I grew closer to the softball diamond I realized the lights were from the Juvenile Hall. It was just my luck that I would survive a plague killing most of the world to be shanked to death by a gutter-punk.

I leaned against the cement block wall that supported the bleachers, feeling it's cold touch on my head.

The Hall looked exactly the same. There were no smashed windows or graffiti on the door, the lights were on and nothing had changed. The light was dim up close and shone lightly through the window. I began surveying its classic brick structure and high fences when a though occurred to me. Why am I thinking of going in there? I could easily locate Fireside Pizza from here. It seemed to be getting lighter outside, which meant that the nights darkness could no longer shield me from danger.

I kicked a rock and looked for a place to hide until I made a decision. The dugouts were not very sheltered and the snack stand didn't seem very stocked. I looked around and saw the bathrooms which were made of orange painted cinder blocks. I walked towards the snack stand as gravel crunched under my Bare-claw boots. I grabbed a bag of Doritos from a pile and cringed at the stank of rotting hotdogs and French fries.

The bathroom was spacious and had a working light with a large stall and round sink. I sat in the corner with the light on and door closed while I munched on the chips. From what I could tell it had been an hour and nothing had happened except my mind spacing out.

I finally got my thoughts together and realized my phone was in my pocket. It said the time was 8:00 am and that I had no notifications. I went to the settings and checked for wifi which it picked up instantly.

I opened the Twitter application and sent out an SOS.

@DeeDeeK I'm at the softball diamond by Juvenile hall. SOS dangerous environment.

It sent within moments and I checked the Trending tag and saw most popular hashtags.

#Help was the most popular and had been used 10 minutes ago by @Bswag12. I clicked his profile and saw a picture of Blaine smiling while hugging a brunette girl who resembled a more curvaceous Jenny.

I smiled seeing how happy they were while wondering what they were doing now. I looked at his last tweet:

At JuV with @DeeDeeK and@Jenn224. #NeonGinger #SOS #Help

"What the fuck?" I whisper to the air with an angry voice. Why were they at JuV (Juvenile Hall)? I looked at the screen again and began another tweet.

@Bswag12 why are you at JuV? I'm across the street. #DuFuck?

It posted and I looked at Jenny's profile. Her main picture was a selfie of her with pink lipstick and a metallic eyeshadow. It looked a lot mere recent than Blaine's profile picture. She hadn't tweeted in months which would have been strange if it wasn't an apocalypse. She had likely lost her device or not been connected to wifi.

As I closed the app I saw the door open.