I'll Be Seeing You Very Soon...

[CW: self-infection, burning]

The stench is overwhelming. Devin does not care. The young man lies curled up on the floor, knees to his chest, in the fetal position. Hours have passed since sobs last shook his body; having run out of tears, his eyes are dry as sandpaper. Eric watches him from across the room, his eyes milky and unfocused. Hours have passed since Eric last moved, slumped against the wall opposite; Guneir lying sprawled on one side; the other, still unnamed, crouched wordlessly in the filth of the shack's floor.

The feeling is overwhelming. Overwhelming. Slowly, as though in great pain, Devin sits up. His face is that of a much older man, parched of nutrition and moisture and hope. Nothing is left in this desert of a man except desperation.

Desperation.

He staggers forward. Eric starts as though surprised. He is surprised. He feels surprised. He feels.

One of the other zombies warbles without words. Devin takes no notice. He takes no notice as Eric shrinks, without a doubt, away from him; he doesn't react as Guneir stumbles in haste to get away, as the third one wails, lacking the energy to move.

Slowly, painfully, he crosses the shack, slams the door behind him, and is gone.

The wind howls mercilessly. Devin doesn't so much as hunch his shoulders, feeling nothing but numbness. He digs his hands fist-deep into the riverbank as he half-climbs, half-staggers, toward a point where he knows the water flows slowest. A point where it's decidedly unclean.

He looks for a moment into the water. A man stares back up at him. Dark eyes. A fond smile. A brother's kindly gaze.

He shuts his eyes. He cups his palms. He drinks.

It is like his veins are filled with gasoline and set on fire.

Is it always like this? Did Eric hunch his shoulders, keel over, lie on all fours like an animal and scream and scream and scream? Did Guneir? Did Chris? Or is this feeling something else, something much deeper, more primal?

Eric, did it hurt? Eric, are you okay? Eric? Where is he?

Where did he go?

Where did you go?

{[]}