AFTERLIFE :: Riverdale

V: The Walking Dead

In the face of danger and death, it's hard to remain positive against all odds. That's why I appreciate Archie a lot. Even though we were being chased at every turn by the dead, he managed to keep his cool. I know it's just another one of his facades, but I can't help but admire how he can keep it up.

At one point, as we were trekking down to Pop Tate's Chock'lit Shoppe, a zombie grabbed him by the neck of his letterman jacket, but he coolly pointed his gun backwards and blew its brains out. If his hair wasn't red already, it was now. We were so stunned at his ability to defend himself so easily.

Veronica just laughed when it happened instead of being in shock and awe like the rest of us. "You know," she said, "he was completely freaked out when he had to fight one off of me the first time. I guess after shooting five muertos, it's just like instinct." she chuckled at her own joke.

When Archie walked up beside me, I smirked up at him, removing the rolled-up bandage from my mouth. "Geez, Arch, how'd you become so hardened?" I asked, blowing a puff of smoke.

"What do you mean? I was scared out of my mind. Didn't you see the sheer terror in my eyes?" Archie snorted, laughing at my question. He turned to the rest of the group. "Did you guys really think that was cool?"

I bit my lip, looking down at the road we walked on and kind of smiling. Even with the facades up, Archie was still the jovial klutz he always was. Or maybe that was his facade. If that was the case, then I suppose I never truly have known him.

All of us had our moments in the sun. Veronica was a master at smacking the brains out of what she called "muertos" with her baseball bat. Betty had the most unconventional weapon, my bag, but she slung it around like a pro, nailing zombies in the face multiple times. They didn't die, but it allowed me to pin them down and force my knife into their skull. Hearing the cracking of their bones started to become euphoric. For us, it was another minute lived. Veronica sometimes followed up Betty's attacks, pushing me out of the way even. Something was going on with her under the radar, but I didn't know what just yet.

Kevin sniped zombies as if he'd been hunting them all his life instead of the deer and rabbit he actually had. Joaquin had created a makeshift shiv and together, we made the best knifers the world's ever seen. I missed most of the time due to my altered mind state, but I always got my knife in the head of a zombie and not someone actually alive, at least.

Or were they really alive? The whole trip to Pop Tate's Chock'lit Shoppe, all I could think about was the definition of alive. Every time my thoughts trailed somewhere else, I was brought back to the same topic. Did zombies qualify as being alive? Sometimes I came to the conclusion that they did, other times not. I began to second-guess a lot of things, but the rest of the group were always there to snap me back into reality.

We arrived at Pop's long before the sun could rise. The neon sign informing us of our location illuminated the dead crowded around the entrance in cyan. Though we had some good—but not unlimited—firepower, and amazing close combat weapons, it wouldn't be enough to defeat a whole horde.

"Hey, Juggie, why don't you give that up?" Betty asked, nudging my shoulder as I relit the bandage. She clearly wanted to throw it and light everything on fire.

"You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands." I muttered, shoving it back in my jacket pocket.

"There's no need to be so formal," Veronica said, strutting over to me. "Try, 'We need the weed-lighter or you're gonna see this baseball bat in your face.'" she threatened as she tapped a baseball bat in her hand.

Teeth clenched to the ever-so slowly disintegrating bandage, I removed my wood-cutting knife from inside my jacket. "How about you smash my brains in, I cut your jugular, and then Betty picks up the lighter over our dead bodies, hmm?"