Death After Death (#2)

Chapter Twenty-One

"Aren't you going to give your twin a hug?" JJ jibed, accepting his brother's eventual tight embrace.  

"You bastard. You fucking bastard!" Karl wept into JJ's shoulders before pushing away again. "Why the hell did you run off like that?"

"I couldn't leave this one on his own now, could I? Look at the state he's in even with my supervision," JJ teased, pointing to Max with a sarcastically flamboyant wave of the arm.

"That's a fair point, look at him, so scruffy, no respect at all," Karl added between sniffs.

"And suddenly I'm seeing the negatives of survival," Max grumbled.

But the boys had a point. Max's clothes were torn in countless places, with blood and cuts visible from most. His entire left sleeve was missing, replaced by a mosaic of splinters all the way up his arm, leading nicely to a grotesque blotchy bruise that covered the side of his neck and cheek.

JJ wasn't much better, with his clothes just as shredded and the same faint smell of barbeque, but he'd escaped the worst of the injuries.

"Looks like you lucked out," Karl laughed.

"Might have something to do with the clumsy prick landing on top of me," Max groaned, before letting out a wry smile.

"Why would I avoid such a comfy, soft landing?" JJ joked.

"Are we just pretending that nothing happened?" Dawson asked, after she'd stood so patiently, waiting for the brothers to catch up. "What the hell happened to you two?"

"Nice to see you too, Daws," JJ smiled, before pulling her into an equally tight hug.

"You've no idea how glad I am to see you too, kid. Partly because I love you, partly because I couldn't stand another day of this one bawling his eyes out over you," Dawson ribbed, her eyes darting towards Karl.

"Oh, fuck of-"

JJ grinned, "Aw, did someone miss me that much?"

"Only because you had a load of the food," Karl retorted.

"Am I not gonna get any love over here?" Max complained, inviting Karl and Dawson in for a yet another quick squeeze.

"Glad to have you back," Karl laughed.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," Dawson smiled.

Max grinned, "Now that's more like it. JJ will fill you in on our little adventure while I get some bandages around some of these wounds."

JJ explained how they'd managed to outrun the clickers for a while, but had to flee into an abandoned home, trapping themselves in a bedroom with no way out. He told them about Max's crazy plan and the entire blazing roof escape and how they'd just got away in the nick of time.

"I knew that was them!" Karl exclaimed. "That smoke in the sky, I knew it had to be you two idiots!"

"Yeah well it would have gone a lot smoother if Max hadn't fucked up his landing," JJ explained. "He went straight through the roof of the next house, and crash landed on an old wooden coffee table. Course I went tumbling in the hole after him, which didn't help."

"But you still made it out alive, and outran all those corpses?" Karl quizzed.

"Didn't need to. Once we'd clambered our way out of the second house, the clickers were all either burning or too confused about the fire to notice us hobbling off down the road."

"So, what you're saying is that the plan worked perfectly?" Max asked.

JJ scoffed, "Depends if your definition of perfect has your arm looking like a dead hedgehog."

Max flipped him off before turning to Dawson, "How long have you guys been here anyway?"

"Only a couple of days. We've been sat up in one of those top floor apartments keeping an eye out for you."

"Alright for some. And George and Rodney...?"

"Yeah, the children are okay, don't worry."

They all laughed at that one.

Maybe it was because they'd finished catching up, or maybe it was the wafting smell of rotten flesh and charred bones, but they all suddenly became very aware of where they were.

JJ sighed, "What the hell happened here?"

"I think...I think I happened," Max bluntly admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"You remember I told you I escaped this place? There were a load of us who broke out, I don't know how many made it, but I know we took down a fair amount of guards and Brotherhood as we went. Looks like they gave up after that."

"Dead guards, no prisoners, I suppose there was no reason to stay," Dawson hypothesised.

"We've had a look round, they didn't leave much. Any sign of your friend?" Max asked delicately.

Karl and Dawson shared a brief solemn glance, before beckoning their companions back towards the cell. They couldn't bring themselves to describe the nightmarish scene in words, Max and JJ would simply have to witness it for themselves.

"I think I'm going to be sick," JJ blurted, spinning around and heaving onto the tarmac behind.

"That's got to be at least thirty people in there. They ate the fucking lot! Fucking monsters! There must be more of them than I thought," Max whispered.

"There's nothing here for us," Karl announced.

Dawson grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to shake sense into him, "We can't just give up Karl, you want us to just stop fighting?"

"What's the point? We fight and fight and fight, for what? To live day by day, scavenging scraps and sleeping in cold, empty houses?"

Max scoffed.

"You think this is funny?" Karl shot.

"Life is about day to day, Karl. That's what living is. Living every single fucking moment. It's screwed up that it took all this death for me to realise, but it's just that simple. Life is a gift and a joy, and we aren't going to let it fizzle out into the shadows of these monsters."

"So, what do we do?"

"We fucking live it, kid. We live our lives day by day, and we take everything back that was taken from us."

"Who says we aren't the ones to save humanity, find a cure even," Dawson added.

"You really think there's a cure?" Karl asked.  

"I have no idea, but maybe. But whatever happens, at least we'll take as many clicker bastards with us as we can!"

Karl smiled again, "Where do we start, boss?"

Max delved into his torn pocket and removed a folded photograph he'd found in the posh house at the end of the street.

It was a picture of Joey, with his arm around his girlfriend who cradled their new-born child.

"We start with him."