When The Light Goes Out (43 page)

"Where
is
here?"

"More or less an abandoned building. It was used for storage or something." "Damn."

"What did you need?"

"I" Jaden paused, looking entirely unsure of himself. "I think Excel might have been telling the truth. Serena might have attacked her." "Not you
too,
Jaden. Seriously.."

"Come look at this."

I was uncomfortably close to a spaz out right then, with Malachi's hands descending on my throat. It wasn't a position I wanted to be in, with a man who seemed more angry than he seemed anything else. But his fingers were gentle, and warm. I hadn't entirely realized I was cold until then, until he touched me. My body convulsed, I curled around myself, and the shaking started.

"Excel?"

I made a evasive noise, and shook my face roughly against the ground. "Excel, what happened?"

What happened..?

To retract an earlier statement, the
worst
mistake of my life was actually asking who "Criss" was. At the moment I asked the question, there were several things I hadn't considered. I still couldn't move right because of whatever drugs were in my system. Those drugs didn't help to numb the pain coursing through me though. My reflexes were slowed. And Serena was obviously very upset that he died. These things paired together with the fact that I asked, made Serena whip back her arm, and punch me right in the eye, a blow I simply couldn't avoid for the life of me. And it's not like I hadn't tried, because I did. The moment I saw her going to hit me I made a hasty attempt at moving.

My hasty attempt at moving, however, turned out to be a major fail.

After the punch knocked me to the ground, Serena dove at me, digging nails in around my throat so tightly that I'd been afraid I was going to start bleeding. I'd expected to I'd
wanted
to shock the girl, but I hadn't wanted to get such a violent reaction from her. I hadn't expected her to attempt to choke me, however glad that she didn't seem to possess the strength to. There was a fire burning behind her eyes, and I must have let out a sound of discomfort because the sadist grinned. Her lips curled up over her teeth, and she smiled at me, as if she wasn't sitting on my chest, trying to kill me.

"G't off" I choked the words out, raising my hands to pry her off of me, but her grip tightened. "The 'ell? G't off!" I wanted to scream for help, but couldn't. If her hands weren't, her weight
was
preventing me from taking any deep breaths.

"Don't you
ever
talk about Criss, do you understand me?" The dark eyed girl hissed. "Don't you
dare
ever
utter
his name again. If you so much as think about him with your filthy mind I'll sew your lips shut, your eyes closed, and leave you for the zombies."

I couldn't believe the way the girl was threatening me, but I was still working on her hands. Tears were coming to my eyes, forced there by the sting in my throat and chest. My body was telling me to buck the wench off, but I was in so much pain from my wounds being slamming against the floor, still weak from the drugs, I was failing at simply making the girl move her hands.

"You're not
worthy
enough to speak of Criss, the good man that he was!" She growled at me, pausing for but a second, gaining a confused expression. "Hohow do you know about

Criss?"

"I hheard you and whatshisface tttalking when I was 'sleep.'" "You weren't asleep?"

"Nightmare about some dude that looked like Malachi." "And was killed."

I was my turn to freeze, and stare, asking, "How'd you know that?"

"Our conversation must have been influencing your dream. We" dark brown eyes narrowed, as if the girl only just realized she was divulging information. Suddenly the world just went with with a star-burst of pain from somewhere between the floor and my head. After the room faded back in, it circled around me for a second, and then faded around the edges. Seconds later nothing.

"And now this."

"If she punched you, why don't you have a black eye?" "How long was I out?"

"Twenty minutes..?" George said, looking at a wall clock, and then at Jaden for confirmation. Once the man nodded his head, George nodded his, and repeated his answer with confidence. "Twenty minutes."

"But that doesn't answe-"

"Maybe she didn't hit me hard enough for it to form that quickly. Some bruises aren't instant." "If it wasn't that hard, how'd she knock you over?"

"Drugs. Wounded back. All that good stuff. Ring a bell?" "Excel, this is a really hard story to digest."

"Malachi, I'm telling you the truth!"

"She's telling the truth, Kai!" Pixie supported me, but went unheeded.

The man just gave me a look. I knew, I really knew that he didn't believe me. And, for some entirely weird reason, that bothered me. A lot. To the point that I felt my chest tighten just a bit. The man thought I was a liar, and it really shouldn't have bothered me. At all. But it really did, and I clenched my jaws as I watched his expressions shift. Disbelieving, incredulous, frustrated.

Maybe he
wanted
to believe me, but it was I admit a rather far-fetched tale. "Excel,
why
do you want me to believe you so badly?"

"Because it's true!" I nearly shouted at the boy, feeling extremely embarrassed by the crack in my voice. The fact that I was talking like a boy just hitting puberty really showed how emotional I was getting. "It's true! Why the hell would I fucking lie to you about this, Malachi?! Why? Why would I? What the hell would I gain from it?"

"Hush. Excel, calm"

"
Why
won't you believe me?!" "No. No, Excel, don't"

"I'm
not
a liar, Malachi! Haven't you realized that by now?!"

"You were lying to Serena just a little while ago," the boy hissed, sending a deadly, however weak glare in my direction. "Or did you forget that?" "Wait," came Jaden, a look of utter confusion about his face. "Lying huh? Are you saying Excel didn't really need help in the bathroom?"

"No, Jaden. We were having a private discussion."

"About?" And George had an eyebrow quirked at us, Pixie sitting beside him looked entirely confused. Malachi lowered his voice greatly as he said, "We don't trust them."

"Them?"

"Serena. Jared. Luke. Billy. All of them. We don't trust them." "Why?"

"It's a long story. I don't want to explain right now, okay?"

When had I started crying? I wasn't sure, but Malachi shot me another look, a different one before, throwing his head up at the ceiling as if requesting a savior. It wasn't long after that when he lowered a hand to my face, and shock of all shocks, wiped my tears. Even Jaden looked surprised at the compassionate show.

"Don't cry, Excel." "Don't cry."

"You made Excel cry!"

"Whydon'tyoubelieveme?" I couldn't get over it, and asked the question again in a wavering voice. I was so tired, and in so much pain, crying out when Malachi pulled me so I was sitting up. I was face to face with him, looking straight into brown eyes. He looked exactly the guy I'd dreamed about. "
Why
?"

"Excel," he started, voice questioning. Tone wavering. Something told me that he didn't know
what
to believe. "Why
should
I believe you?" I winced when Malachi wiped my eye again.

"Excel?" "That hurt."

The realization seemed to dawn on Jaden's face before Malachi's, but Malachi did seem to get the picture after an extended moment. His eyes widened, and hardened, and softened in a matter of moments. I was almost amused by the play of emotions, but realized it wasn't something to be amused about. Even a little bit.

"Jesus, you were serious."

"Why wouldn't I have been? Why would I want her to get into trouble during a zombie invasion? What would I gain from that?" "I" and the boy looked damned embarrassed.

I tried to push the look aside, tried to convince myself that it wasn't important, but Jaden looked intrigued. He placed a hand on Malachi's shoulders, and gave him a look. Malachi tried to shrug the hand off, but Jaden didn't seem impressed at all. George moved forward a bit as well, looking at Malachi.

"Well?"

"Umm.. Well, Serena likes me."

"Yes, we got that part, Malachi. What else?" "And"

"Oh my God." The look on his face, his tone of voice, the entire situation just dawned on me right then through my haze of pain, and confusion. "You thought I was jealous?"

"Maybe.. it's a stupid idea," Malachi said as a way of explaining. "But.. I guess I thought that, maybe you liked me too. You both were fighting from the very beginning. It was a logical thought."

"
Like
you?" It was almost laughable. "Are you
really
that conceited?" "No. I"

Someone, somewhere, screamed. Loudly. The shriek killed the conversation, and both Malachi and Jaden jumped to their feet. Jaden pointed at George, telling him to watch me and Pixie. Malachi pointed at the Jaden and told
him
to watch us. Jaden argued that he was one of the few able bodied people left, and the two exited the room, leaving George, Pixie, and I alone to wonder what was going on.

"Excel…?" Pixie said my name with such a fearful tone that I extended my arms to her. I bid her towards me, hell bent on a hug.

"I don't know. I don't know what's going on, don't even ask me," I whispered, wrapping arms about the approaching girl. "But we'll be okay. Whatever it is, we'll be okay. We haven't died yet, I'm sure our luck will hold out a bit longer, alright? Okay?"

"Mmhmm."

"That's a good girl. You okay George?"

The boy mumbled something I didn't quite understand, and walked towards the window in the room. He was just staring, while Pixie was flinching, trying to climb into my skin as the screaming outside started getting worse. Louder. There was an obscene amount of noise, none of which was the least bit coherent, and I was lost as to the circumstances outside of the closed door.

There was banging as well, like a door being slamming closed over, and over, and over again. Pixie was crying, and George looked extremely upset. I was scared, but that didn't stop me from noting that the look on the boys face was odd. He was upset, but it didn't seem to be the, "Oh my god, I'm gonna die!" upset. I could almost swear that, the boy too young to have learned to mask his emotions properly looked guilty about something.

Something.

"George. Baby, come over here," I tried to make it sound like a request, but the boy barely turned to stare at me. Looking back out the window moments later. "George," and I kept my tone firm. "Come away from the window, okay? You never know what's going to happen. Maybe the pigeons contracted the virus. You really want to die by way of zombie pigeon."

"Not funny, Excel."

"Who said I was being fun"

The door slammed open, revealing an entirely disheveled, and blood soaked Jeremy. His shirt was half torn down the front, and if I wasn't mistaken he was missing a shoe. He pointed a bloody pipe at us, using it to motion towards the door. He was frantic, and the screaming in the background wasn't helping much. Why was he covered in blood? Who was screaming? What was the pounding?

"Come on guys. We need to get to the roof," the man explained, turning to leave the room right after he said it.

George was moving towards the door, and Pixie was just getting up as I started shifting. A bad move in and of itself, made worse when I sort of got to my feet. It was then that pain shot from my back, through to the tips of my fingers and toes. I didn't stay on my feet long, crashing right back to the floor in utter agony. Jesus fucking Christ, how I forgot about my back for even a few seconds was beyond me, but Pixie was rushing back to me frantically.

"Come on, Excel," she begged. "We need to go. Like
now
."

"I know Pixie. I know. I just can't move. I" I gasped when another bout of pain shot through me, sort of curling up on the floor again. "Malachi!" I heard the girl screaming, running to the door. "Malachi! Malachi! Excel can't move! Excel's hurt, she can't move! Malachi!"

There was just so much screaming, and every sound seemed amplified to my ears. Everything was so much louder than it should have been, and I raised my hands to cover the sound receivers, hoping it would lessen the ache in my skull. But then hands were descending on me, and I was being lifted to my feet which made everything a million times worse, and I let out the loudest shriek I could manage.