Chapter Text
The bomb detonated with a thunderous roar, sending a shockwave that rippled through the air. A blinding flash of light illuminated his surroundings, leaving a pink cloud of smoke and dust hanging in the aftermath. Pink. A woman’s laugh reached his ears slightly before the explosion - which was weird, all things considered. Falling to the ground a couple of feet away from his initial stance was inevitable; while the chaos rolled, the dirt quickly blurred his vision and filled up his lungs, forcing him to cough. He kept thinking about the giggle that slowly became frantic laughter followed by an unexpected blast, and his mind could not come to terms with the ridiculousness of the event. It was the apocalypse, after all. Who the hell literally snickers during the end of the world, faced with god knows how many zombies? That is bat-shit crazy behavior. Also.... pink?
Thick clouds of smoke and dust were hanging in the air, reducing his visibility; sounds had been replaced by a sharp muffled ring and the young man quickly realized the explosion must have affected his hearing.
What the hell just happened? Was this another trap?
As his senses came back to normality, the acrid smell of burnt wood, plastic and flesh started to feel overwhelming. He still had his iron baseball bat in his hand, and getting up only took two tries – his balance was less affected than what he initially thought. The dirt was finally settling, and the sounds around him slowly became audible.
Ekko looked around, seeing limbs and pieces of the monsters that he was running from until a few minutes ago scattered around. He stepped on a leg that was separated from its torso and grimaced, as the dry blood clung to his boot. Gross.
“What the fuck?” he asked to no-one in particular, his voice as subdued as the rest of the sounds to his own ears. His guard was suddenly up again, since whoever threw that bomb did not seem to care too much if it was hitting him or the living-dead.
The giggle reappeared, even thought it was less exaggerated than the first time he had heard it. The air was a little bit clearer now, and the boy quickly adjusted his stance to face whoever was there, ready to defend himself if necessary. If there is one thing that Ekko learned since the world ended a few months before, is that people can be even worse than the actual zombies. Desperation could bring out-
“Aw, man.” a female voice interrupted his train of thought, and his eyes finally could detect the silhouette of a girl with what seemed to be electric blue hair. “I suppose you are the idiot that attracted all these brain-eaters to my side of the neighborhood?”
“Who the hell are you?” Ekko asked, both impressed and disoriented by the explosion itself, to not mention that absurd laugh. He already knew it would haunt his mind for days, since he hadn’t heard anybody make that type of sound since day zero.
“I am the person that saved your ungrateful ass! Who the hell are you?” finally the girl was visible, and she was… not what he expected. Somehow. She could not be older than twenty years old, extremely pale and with a tiny frame, even though the most distinguishable characteristic had to be the blue hair with two braids so long they touched her ankles. He immediately looked around: if she had anyone with her this was the perfect time to come out and attack him.
Still, nothing happened.
Ekko looked at her with defying eyes and no further words as he adjusted the backpack on his shoulder while tightening the grip on his weapon of choice. He was too far away from his base and this expedition had been a complete failure since the beginning. With a sigh, he realized he still could not hear properly from his left ear; the world felt dull and staggering at the same time.
“Cat got your tongue, huh?” she broke the silence, arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. Her clothes were very impractical, he then noticed, what with her mid-section being completely exposed and the top looking a bit uncomfortable. Was she not feeling cold without a coat? “Okay Mister. I ain’t got time for this, if you haven’t noticed the world ended or whatever. So just stop being-“
Ekko noticed the creature with his peripheral vision: when the zombie darted in, ready to attack, he lifted the bat and waited for exactly 4 seconds, steely-eyed and calm, used to measuring the timing perfectly to maximize the impact of his strike. He could hear an exasperated exaggerated yelp come from the girl as he finally swung, connected and teared most of the zombie’s face off with one vicious thwack!. It staggered back and fell, thrashing on the ground instantly.
They looked at each other for a couple of seconds before switching their attention to the sound of rushed but uneven steps coming towards them. In the distance, they could see maybe a dozen of the same creature charging against them: he was absolutely not surprised as the explosion must have woken up every single zombie in at least a three mile radius. This was an absolute shit-show.
“I hope you like fireworks, batty-man!” the girl happily declared, taking a strange round contraption out of a cross-body bag he just realized she was carrying. Before she could take off the pin out of it, Ekko reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her. That must have been the same type of bomb she had used just a few minutes earlier.
“Are you out of your mind? This will just attract more of them. We gotta run. Now!” and as he said the words, the descripted action followed. His hand was still around her wrist, and he tightened the grip dragging her with him. Ekko knew better than risking his own neck for something that was not worth it, and even though he was convinced she was completely insane, he would not just let someone die like that. He promised we wouldn’t. Not again.
~
They found shelter on top of a building a couple of blocks from the explosion. They climbed the fire escape ladder in a rush and then pulled it back up; the undead could be strong and fairly fast, but not much was happening in their rotting brains, so once far from their immediate vision, they were relatively safe.
The girl looked even younger than she seemed at first glance, with wide powder blue eyes, even though she had weird tattoos covering her body. There's almost no fat on her, cheekbones sharp over sunken cheeks, but Ekko knows for a fact he doesn’t look much better, worn down by scarce rations and constant vigilance.
She called herself Jinx, and he knew for a fact that could not have been her real name. She was nineteen years old (just two years younger than himself), and trying to find her sister that apparently was in prison when it all happened.
“Yes, I tried going to the goddamn prison.” She said matter-of-factly, while rolling her eyes to what seemed to be an obvious question. To him it wasn’t. “Almost died getting there. Did you know our zom-buddies can be hella fast and love closed spaces? But she was not there. I exploded the whole thing afterwards.” Jinx sat on the ground with a thumpf, small clouds of dirt came up around her. She suddenly looked annoyed and tired.
When the sickness began, the girl was living with her uncle Silco, as she attended a special school for young inventors. Ekko knew which school she was talking about; it had been his dream to attend it, but he had to give up studying to support himself after his parents died. Still, he let her speak, sitting in front of her and hearing the grunts coming from the streets right beneath them. For the first time since their encounter he put his bat down, as he wondered how many joined the initial Ghoul Gang, but decided to not stop her speech. It seemed to him she hadn’t spoken to anyone in a very long time.
“…One day I came back home and he was just completely crazy! He was talking about weird stuff. Everything about him was just so damn aggressive. I am sure you’ve seen how people get right before they turn, but all that gibbie-gabble wording with his mouth foaming made my skin crawl.” She did not elaborate further, and Ekko did not need her to. Most likely she either escaped or killed him, or she would not be here to tell the story. “Anyway, I ran away, took me two goddamn months to go to Stillwater, and it was…. Empty. A few zombies there but nothing that a good kaboom couldn’t solve. You know, my sister is not the brightest but she is strong. I am sure she is alive somewhere. Just too fucking stupid to check or use the radio, I guess.”
“Ah- so it was you.” The boy suddenly said, while taking out of his coat’s pocket a small radio. He switched it on, adjusted the frequency and suddenly a song started playing. It was a high pitched chorus that never turned into a verse; the lyrics played aloud, and now it was very obvious to him who that voice belonged to.
Sister, thought I missed her!
My stupid sister, of course she was a jail-er.
She tried to bribe the guard,
With a deck of cards,
Ended up mowing the yard.
She tunneled through the floor?
Maybe she ended up next door,
In the warden's candy store.
When the world went mad,
She thought it wasn't so bad,
Ran off with a zombie in plaid!
“Ha! You heard it. Such a hit right? I was bored. Sent other messages in the past, waited for weeks in a certain spot. Someone figured out the code and tried to rob me, yadda yadda. Boring apocalyptic stuff.” her whole body was animated when she spoke, as shoulders and hands created lines and curves following her train of thought. Ekko found it distracting.
“I had this stupid song in my head for days at a certain point.” He mumbled, turning off the radio. “You should take it down, people are also sending real messages.”
“Doooon’t careeee. And also can’t. This is transmitting from like two cities away.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Obviously either find her or blow myself up. Still debating.” She said casually, shrugging. It was almost fascinating how little she seemed to care, but it was obviously a façade, or she wouldn’t be still looking.
“And… how is that a plan?”
“I just met you, saved you and all I get is an interrogation?” Jinx answered with another question, putting both her hands behind her on the ground and switching her weight so her arms could bare it, while her head moved to the side. Blue braids moved accordingly, sweeping the dirty floor of that rooftop. Her whole being was so impractical, he kept thinking, that it was uncanny she could have crossed half the country by herself. “What about you? And what’s up with that stupid white paint on your face?”
“My face-“ Ekko reverted, remembering the hourglass shaped symbol he had on himself. Usually nobody really pointed out these things, what with brain-eaters roaming the earth, so it caught him off guard. “I belong to a group of people. The firelights. This is our token.”
“So you are in a gang.” She laughed, shooting both blue eyebrows up.
“…Survival group.”
“Suuuure, mistery mister. So what are you doing all alone over here?”
Ekko sighed, slightly embarrassed to tell her why he was so far away from the rest of his friends, but at this point why did he even care? Furthermore, he just needed to tell her enough information to match what she provided him with. In times like those, it was very important to keep your cards close to your chest.
“I check the radio very often. I think we are stronger in numbers, and I guess I have-“ he stopped himself from saying ‘hope’, moving his head from side to side for a moment before he kept going. She looked at him like she knew the rest of the phrase, somehow. “There was a message… seemed like some very desperate people. A family. I couldn’t quite communicate with them, or rather just enough to figure out they were located 3 days by car from our base. Everyone told me to not go, and of course I could not risk anyone else’s life, so I just left by myself. Well, it did not go well.”
“Ah… I see. You got a savior complex or something? I thought that was white people shit.” Jinx seemed unamused, but at least she did not show any signs of pity. “Let me guess: you got there and it was a trap. They stole your car and your weapons – I cannot believe you had a fucking car! -, and now you need to go back but you are completely fucked.”
“Pretty much. Were you spying on me or something?”
“Well, your story is less original than mine.” she smiled, and for the first time he felt like reciprocating. “Anyway, so where do we go from here? I still want to bomb the decomposing dudes downstairs.”
“I cannot believe I am saying this.” Ekko put a hand on his hair, fingers sliding through the light blond locks. “But- maybe we have more chances of surviving if we stick together? You could come to the Firelight base. We can help you find your sister.”
The boy didn’t really expect Jinx to agree. She seemed to be a lone wolf, not exactly coming across like a great team player. Still, after a few moments of reflection, the blue-haired young woman extended her hand following a nonchalant shrug.
Ever since the sickness, the law of natural selection came back with a vengeance, and anyone would screw you over to gain one bare inch of advantage in the survival game. Eat your food, steal your clothes, slash your throat and leave you for the walkers and the feral dogs. He had just experienced that type of betrayal on his own skin, after all. Both of them should have been more careful.
But Ekko accepts her hand and they both give it a good shake to seal the deal anyway.