Without a Whisper //Danger Days//

19. Shut Down

There was no sunlight when I woke up. Our sleep schedules were completely messed up at this point. I was the first to awake. The others seemed to be in a deep sleep. Carefully, I lifted Party's limp arm from around my body, and crept into the kitchen.

The fridge looked like a war zone, and I didn't dare touch it. The amount of mold would probably be too much to handle. I opened a wooden cover, and as luck would have it, there were crackers.

Yes, non-perishable crackers, and cans of soup. All intact. It was perfect. I pulled out everything I could find, laying it out on the counter in a neat order. I heard Ghoul let out a tired murmur, but he didn't wake up. Heaving my butt onto the worn counter top, I opened a box of rice crackers. The rustling of the box woke Ghoul up immediately.

"I sense food." He muttered, rubbing his face. I rolled my eyes, taking a bite out of the cracker.

"Shh, don't wake the others. They're so peaceful." I advised, my voice hushed. Ghoul walked over, taking the rice cracker out of my hand.

"I haven't eaten in a million years." He whispered through chewing. We sat quietly for a few moments, the only sound being the munching of the crackers. Then Ghoul asked me a question.

"You and Party, you guys are gonna stay together, right?"

I looked at him quizzically. Of course we were going to stay together. I loved him.

"Well, what else would I do?" I laughed, but Ghoul didn't reciprocate my humor.

"Listen, before you came around, all those years ago, he was a really angry dude. Remember? He held a gun to your head."

The thought of that day, despite how terrible it may had been, brought me a tiny smile. I was so different back then.

"I just assumed he was paranoid." I shrugged. Ghoul shook his head.

"He was rough. Quite the alcoholic. He didn't care about anybody but himself. But right when you showed up, something changed. Even before he realized that he loved you, he softened up a bit. I don't know what broke him down so easily, but you seemed to really help him."

I looked over at Party, still fast asleep. He looked so simple. His black hair was parted gently across his face, and I noticed his brown roots beginning to show.

"He wasn't always Party Poison, I know that." I commented, looking back at Ghoul.

"We don't talk about the days before the war. We swore, once we got out here, that we would never talk about them again."

"But Ghoul," I tilted my head, "I do want to know. You're my best friend, I think you can trust me."

The man sighed, staring down at his boots.

"You're right, I feel like you've been with us the entire time."

There were a few more moments of silence before he spoke again.

"I had children. Three of them. They were so young. I wasn't home all to much, so my wife knew them better than I did. I was too busy being reckless."

I felt a hollow feeling enter my chest.

"Now that I think about it, I was probably too young to have kids anyways. I didn't deserve them."

I was too scared to even dare ask what happened to them, but I didn't need to.

"Better Living took two of them, but they lost the other one. My wife took him and ran. They didn't make it far though. Somehow I was the one who managed to survive. It shouldn't have been me who made it out."

Ghoul had never opened up to me in this way before, and it broke my heart.

"Ghoul, I'm so sorry." I put my hand on his shoulder. He simply shrugged as he scratched the back of his head.

"It's alright. I wouldn't have wanted them to grow up in our environment."

The thought of having children had crossed my mind before, but Ghoul was right. I already had to raise Gear out here, and that was hard enough. I didn't want to bring life into a dying world.

"We shouldn't stick around here too long, I don't trust this city." Ghoul changed the subject. I nodded, knowing that there was also Theo's part of the city we needed to worry about. Ghoul had walked over to the rest of the sleeping men, carefully waking them all up. The atmosphere seemed very solemn after mine and Ghoul's conversation, and it continued as we all ate in silence before leaving my house one last time.

I didn't care to look back as we left.

We continued our journey, unsure of where we were going. The road below us became more and more damaged as we walked over it, and the houses seemed to lessen. Eventually, I noticed the sky become lighter, but there was no sun. There were too many clouds, making everything a pale and eerie grey. Eventually, the houses turned into scraggly dead trees, and the asphalt became jagged rocks and sand.

This was nothing I had ever seen before.

The air became very cool, and I wrapped my large, navy blue cardigan tightly around my body.

"This doesn't seem like Detroit." Commented Jet, who was walking a few feet behind me.

The sand had begun to fall into my sneakers, but I kept going. The wind picked up, flipping my hair across my face.

And I kept going.

There were no signs of life except for the sound of my heartbeat echoing in my ears. I couldn't even hear the footstep of the boys behind me. The wind was getting stronger and stronger, making it difficult to walk against it.

But then, it stopped, and everything went still.

The rocks we walked on top up were gone, and replaced with untouched white sand. The dead branches sticking out of the ground had completely disappeared, leaving me with a never ending horizon. In front of me, there was a never ending lake. The grey sky was the only thing to make contact with it at the very end. The water was completely still, and the only thing to disrupt the view was a single wooden walkway which seemed to stop a few meters off from the shoreline.

My feet were planted firmly in the sand. The air was still cold, but nothing moved. I had never seen this lake before.

"This is new." I thought out loud before walking to the edge of the shore. Tiny waved lapped at the toes of my shoes, and a small gust of wind made my light blue dress flutter beside me. The four men did not follow, instead stood at the bush line, watching me. My hands fell limp at my sides, and I couldn't stop staring. It made me feel overwhelmed, but completely empty at the same time. I sat down, pushing my fingers into the dry sand.

For some reason, I was completely shutting down.

My ears started ringing, and I was in a complete daze. It wasn't until I heard Party screaming my name that I turned around.

A group of soldiers dressed in black armour and heavy gas masks were dragging them away. I stumbled after them, trying to use my voice, but my throat didn't seem to be working. One of the soldiers grabbed me, and I went completely limp. The others were putting up a fight, but I didn't see a point.

I just let them take us.

They separated us, throwing us in the back of two different vans. Party tried to make a grab for my arm, but I still wasn't moving. I just looked at him, my face completely blank as they hauled him away from me. The soldier tossed me in the black SUV, along with Kobra and Ghoul.

"Freia, Jesus Christ! What's wrong with you?" Kobra was shaking my shoulders as the vehicle went into drive, shaking as it drove over bumps. I could hear what he was saying, but everything sounded like I was underwater. Eventually, the man gave up on trying to make me come back to focus, and let go of my limp body.

Ghoul was staring at me, his eyes wide with concern before I completely blacked out.