This Lullaby ( Kaylor )

( almost killed your light )

If any of you have read my Kaylor Drabble Collection, then you probably remember my zombie apocalypse drabble.  A lot of people requested I turn it into a multi-chapter, and here it is.  This will probably be around 10 chapters, give or take a few.  I hope you all enjoy!  Feedback would be lovely.

------------------------------------

Don't you dare look out your window, darling,
Everything's on fire
The war outside our door keeps raging on
Hold on to this lullaby
Even when music's gone

                        ( Safe & Sound ; Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars )

------------------------------------

Taylor awoke to the sounds of day-birds shrieking outside.  It was a painful cacophany of sound because the high-pitched little creatures were obviously fighting with each other.  But despite the ruckus and the screeching pitch, she found herself comforted.  The birds were a sign of safety.  If they were quiet, then she knew to be afraid.  Even when screaming, the noise at least meant nothing dangerous was lurking about.

The pew beneath her groaned as she sat up, wooden bones protesting.  It had been pouring rain last night, and they'd ducked into this tiny church for safety.  After checking it was empty, they'd spent the night, somehow fitting both of their lanky bodies on one pew.  But her companion, Karlie, had obviously already risen.

"Karlie?" Taylor asked.  Her voice was quiet, but it seemed as loud as a gunshot, and she flinched.  They spent most of their time whispering these days, like mice in the walls trying not to be captured by the ornery housecat.  So even speaking in a normal volume made her jittery, afraid that one of those monsters outside would hear her and find her, sinking teeth into her throat.

No answer, and Taylor felt panic start to bloom in her chest.  What if Karlie had left her alone?  What if Karlie had gone out to scour for supplies alone?  What if she was hurt?  What if she had been bitten?  Taylor rose to her feet, grabbed her pack off of the floor, took half a second to adjust to the heavy weight on brittle shoulders, then set off to look for the younger woman.

She searched the pews and the pulpit, but they were empty except for the film of dust covering them.  As her fingers brushed along the backs of the pews, they left prints in their wake.  She couldn't help but wonder how long even the traces of her existence would be dust too. 

The top floor of the church was nothing but a cracked, empty skeleton.  So she walked over to the stairs, pausing at the top.  It was dark down there on the second floor, because the stained glass windows couldn't reach far enough to bleed their multi-colored light.  She grabbed her flashlight in one hand, resting the other on her gun.

And she walked down the stairs.

It had once been some sort of fellowship room, or perhaps a large classroom.  As she swept her light along, she accidentally disturbed a rat, which chittered and darted out of sight.  A year ago, she would have screamed.  Today, she swallowed back the spike in nerves and returned to her search.

She walked towards the far end, where a small kitchen was.  And that's when she heard the rustling.  It was too big to be a rat.  It was a person-sized rustling.  Taylor froze, unsure, then she glimpsed a quivering flashlight beam.  She still paused a moment, until she heard something thump, followed by a sharp hiss of shit in a voice she recognized well.

"Karlie!" Taylor whisper-yelled.  She pointed her flashlight in the direction the voice had come from.  Karlie's head popped up from around a pantry door, and she squinted as the flashlight beam hit her right in the face.  Her eyes narrowed and her nose wrinkled in discomfort, her vision obviously used to the downstairs darkness.  But her lips parted in a toothy grin.

She waved one hand, her other wrapped around a few dfferent items----two boxes of energy bars, a can of peanuts, and a couple packs of beef jerky.  It was actually a pretty good haul all things considered, and the former model looked proud as she closed the doors, "Glad to see you're alive.  I'm starting to think that you could even sleep though, I don't know, a zombie apocaylpse."

It was a dark joke, and they laughed but it was worn thin.  Taylor bit her lower lip then gave Karlie a serious glance, "You should wake me up before you go wandering off.  I was worried."

They had started walking back upstairs, flashlights guiding them.  Taylor didn't like not being able to see Karlie's face.  The younger girl's green eyes could always seem to relax her if she just glanced into them.  There was a pause, and when Karlie spoke again, it was with a huff, "Taylor, I just went downstairs.  I'm a big girl.  I don't need you treating me like a child."

"I just don't like waking up and not knowing where you are, okay?" Taylor snapped back, annoyed with Karlie's annoyance, and also annoyed with her own paranoia.  Of course Karlie had just gone downstairs.  She was an idiot for thinking the other girl might have left in the first place.

Karlie simply grunted in reply, and Taylor gave a frustrated sigh.  Soon they were upstairs again, in the light from the windows.  But Taylor didn't look at Karlie's face.  Instead, she looked at her hands as she set out an energy bar and some canned tuna for both of them.  The food was rubbery and tasted bland, but it was food all the same, and it calmed her gurgling stomach. 

She was in the middle of a bite of a energy bar that was supposed to taste like chocolate chip but instead tasted more like the dry roof of her mouth, when Karlie reached out and touched her knee.  Taylor looked up, and the other girl smiled softly, "I'm sorry for snapping at you.  I should have woken you up."

"Sorry for acting too much like a mom," Taylor responded, smiling back.  Tensions often ran high in a world like this, and they were lucky that their arguments were only mild.  Karlie leaned forward, pressed a quick kiss to Taylor's mouth, and the blonde smiled into it.

They finished their sub-par breakfasts, packed all of their stuff into their bags, and got ready to leave.  They both drew their guns as they left the church, looking around for any obvious signs of danger.  Considering that when all of this started over a year ago, they both held guns like just touching them would kill them, the fact they handled them with relative ease and skill now was impressive.  14 months ago, they'd been a supermodel and one of the most successful musicians in the world.  Today, they were just two girls with broken faces and feral eyes, expecting death at any second.

Nothing came after them.  Nothing groaned and stumbled and tried to rip out chunks of flesh and muscle and bone.  So they relaxed, heading back in the direction of the road they'd been on last night.  The car had run out of gas about two miles back, so their next goal was to find a new, functioning one.  Their feet slapped on the pavement like heartbeats, and Karlie reached out, grabbing on to Taylor's hand.  She gave a cheeky grin, "You picked the last car, and it was ugly.  It's my turn.  Obviously you don't have good taste and can't be trusted."

Taylor gave her an indignant huff, "At least it was practical.  What, are we gonna mow down undead in a Ferrari?"

"Duh.  Just because it's the end of the world doesn't mean we can't have style," She shot back, and Taylor rolled her eyes.  Karlie paused for a moment, then quietly, hardly above a whisper, she started singing we never go out of style, we never go out of style.  The other girl joined in, just as quiet.  It felt good to sing again.

For a second, everything felt okay enough for both of them to relax, tension bleeding from their muscles, spines relaxing.  For a second, they were just two girls holding hands and walking down the street, and the world wasn't dead around them.

They were so distracted by the momentary solace that they didn't realize the birds had stopped screaming.