Days Gone By

Hope

"How you holding up?" Shane asked me, interrupting my reading. I looked up at him from the top of my book.

"As well as can be expected. I don't think I've really let it sink in. People eating other people? Coming back from the dead? It just can't be real."

"I was thinking more about Rick. You don't talk about him. Whenever he's mentioned, you walk away."

I felt my heart give an extra, painful beat at his name.

"He was all I had when I was little. The only friend I had for years until I moved back to England. No matter what was happening he could just make me forget about it all in the blink of an eye. He never gave up on me. I don't want to give up on him. I know he's gone but..." I took a huge breath, getting ready to be ridiculed.

"I feel like he isn't really... gone. Maybe it's because of everything that's happening, maybe it's because I didn't see it for myself, but I really feel like he's still alive. Are you... did you see him? Dead?"

Shane looked at me like I had just asked him if he breathes for a living. "You think I want him to be dead? You think I want our best friend to have had this happen to him? He was like a brother to me, Audrey, you know that. So don't you dare accuse me of pretending like he's dead!" And that was that, he stomped off before I could tell him that wasn't what I meant.

I rolled my eyes at I watched him storm off into the woodland, picking my book back up and trying to push the feeling of guilt down.

Maybe I shouldn't have said it. I just meant did he see him laying there, dead. Or is there a chance he could still be alive in a coma, maybe the nurses took him somewhere safe and he was just gone. Shane was one of my closest mates too, I should have thought about how he'd take it.

I put my book down next to my seat, I can't concentrate with that conversation running through my head anyway, and followed the path Shane had just taken.

"Shh shh shh shh shh shh shh."

What the heck was that? I moved in the direction of the sound, seeing Shane covering Loris mouth.

"You scared the hell out of me." Lori laughed at him.

"I bet. That's what you get for keeping me waiting. I was trying to be quiet. Where you been?"

"Amy the mushroom queen... I had to wait for her to get back."

I could see it coming a mile off, but I couldn't stop myself from grimacing at the sight of them sucking each other's tonsils out.

"How much time do we have?"

"Enough."

Right. That's it. Im out. I walked back, making a point of being as loud as possible. There's no way I'm spying on them going at it. And no way in hell am I gonna let them get away with it scot free.

I felt my breathing pick up and my shoulders tense and the anger rose through my body, spreading through my arms and legs. Before I could think about what I was doing, I twisted on the spot, punching a tree at full force, letting out a grunt of frustration.

"Bastard." I looked around to make sure no one could see what I'd just done. Realising no one saw, I made my way back to camp to continue my book.

I don't know why I picked it up in the first place, but I'm so glad that I did.

About 20 minutes later, I saw Lori come out of the greenery on her own. Shane followed a couple of minutes after. They've really thought that through haven't they?