Xavier sat in the front seat, looking out the window. Everything was eerily silent and looked dead.
Every so often they'd pass by one of the people that had been yelling at them, sitting on the ground reading. Reading as if their life depended on it.
"This place is dead," he said after a few minutes.
Tyler and Demetria made sounds of agreement then went on about their business. Demetria kept driving, and Tyler did whatever it is that he had been doing.
"Does the radio get signal?" he asked out of nowhere, trying to find any excuse to not have to deal with the silence. Without waiting for a reply, he turned the radio on and started tuning through each station. He had nearly given up, having had nearly enough of the constant static, when a song picked up. An older song, but it was good enough for them.
They sang along, basking in the instrumental of the music, and the lyrics, just reveling in the sound of a voice that wasn't their own. The song was old but felt new to them. It made them feel infinite and untouchable. They were beautiful creatures.
The song played almost halfway through and then there was a piercing sound of static. The song was taken over by white noise. Demetria sighed and turned off the radio.
Not long after, they made it to the grocery store. The parking lot was empty, save for three or four cars that were vacant and most likely didn't belong to anyone that was "unworthy."
Demetria threw the car in park and turned to face Xavier and Tyler. "Ready to be pathetic?"
"Of course we are," said Xavier, flashing her a kilowatt smile that could rival the sun. "That white noise hyped me up. I feel like I could take on the world."
They were currently sitting on the floor of a grocery store that stayed open twenty-four hours a day, except on the weekends.
Like they had thought, no one was there. It was a huge vacant building, with rows and rows of food on shelves. For a bit they ran around, having fun, and then Demetria remembered what it was that they were actually there for and immediately started running to the frozen food section.
Xavier and Tyler followed after her, no questions asked and no second thoughts. The first things Demetria did when they reached their destination, was grab a pint of vanilla cookie dough ice cream and started digging in with a spoon that Xavier and Tyler had no idea where she had gotten it from.
“I’ll go get us some spoons,” said Xavier. “Be back in a few.”
The plastic spoons and forks were just a few aisles down. It didn’t take him long to find them and he was back in the matter of a minute and a half, and handing Tyler a white plastic spoon, to which he received a soft “thanks.”
They all sat on the floor like they had planned, by the freezers, eating spoonful after spoonful of rich cookie dough ice cream. It tasted great. The sweetness of it really sealed the deal for Xavier and made him feel as if he were on cloud nine. Either that or he was having a really intense sugar high.
But in all honesty, he had no idea.
He closed his eyes in bliss and let the ice cream melt on his tongue, just to take in all of the flavors that he could.
“Welcome,” said Tyler in a mock overly exaggerated faux dramatic voice. “To our pathetic lives.” He said it in a voice that resembled that of a movie narrator’s.
Xavier laughed and so did Demetria.
“We are the holy grail of misfits,” she said, taking another bite of cookie dough ice cream and then looking up at them expectantly as if asking why they had stopped eating.
“I think I want a different flavor,” said Xavier all of a sudden, standing to his feet and grabbing a pint of Dutch chocolate, then sat back down and dug in.
Tyler did the same. He must have grown tired of the cookie dough ice cream as well.
“Fine then,” said Demetria. “You two eat that nasty chocolate ice cream, while I eat the holy grail of ice creams, fit for a queen, like myself.”
Xavier rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah. Queen of ice cream right there, it makes sense. She’s cold and bitter, just like the holy grail that she speaks so kindly of.”
Demetria smacked him on the arm and gave him a pointed look that said: try me.
He stifled a low chuckle. One that so badly wanted to come out, but he wasn’t going to do her like that. Instead, he scooped up another thing of ice cream and stuffed it in his mouth, eliciting a low moan from his throat.
It earned him a weird look from both Demetria and Tyler, but he didn’t mind all that much. He looked back at them and shrugged his shoulders. “What?” he asked. “It’s good.”
They didn’t respond, just went back to what they were doing. Demetria had finished her pint before Tyler and Xavier had even gotten halfway through. She stood to her feet and threw it away in the trash located at the very back of the store, and when she came back she gave the boys a pointed look and ushered for them to follow her.
“What?” asked Xavier, not wanting to move from where he sat on the floor. The position he was in was oddly comfortable. “I’m not moving.”
“Come on,” she said. “I want to explore some more.”
“By “explore” you mean horse around and make fun of any little thing you find that can be deemed the littlest bit inappropriate.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“I’m not,” he replied. “You’re just a cliché hormonal teenager who thinks about sex a lot, even when the apocalypse is happening. Is this the apocalypse?”
“I don’t know,” said Tyler. “It is according to all the people outside. But I don’t think it is. Whenever I thought about the end of the world, I thought of it ending in fire. Or maybe I’m gullible and strongly believe in what the Robert Frost poem insinuates.”
“I think we’re only halfway there,” said Xavier. “There is probably still a long way to go and we’re just now starting.”
“That’s depressing, and I’m not trying to think about all of that, so I’m going to go explore while you losers sit and talk about your feelings or whatever,” said Demetria, turning around and making her way toward the back of the store, where she had been just a few moments prior to her failed attempt at trying to get Xavier and Tyler to explore with her.
“I should throw this away,” said Xavier after a minute of silence, holding up the empty carton of ice cream that the two of them had been eating.
Tyler nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’m going to go catch up with Demetria. I don’t want her to have to be alone.”
“Okay,” said Xavier, giving in. “I’ll join you two after, and then we can head back to the house unless the two of you want to go somewhere else.”
Tyler didn’t reply, just nodded his head, and made his way in the direction that Demetria had gone.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
TYLER’S HOUSE WAS huge and one could see why he didn’t want to be in it, all on his own. It was eerily quiet and looked like it could be used as a set for a horror movie.
He wanted to get some more clothes to wear because he was growing tired of wearing Xavier’s old ones that didn’t fit him anymore. And when he told Demetria and Xavier that he was going to get more of his things from his house, he made it very clear that he didn’t want to go alone and he wanted at least one of them to go with him.
In the end, both Demetria and Xavier went along with him. They stayed downstairs while he went up to his room and packed a bag full of clothes and anything else that he would need for the entirety of his stay at Xavier’s house, however long that would be.
Xavier ventured around the length of the downstairs area with caution. He walked slowly, careful not to run into anything or touch anything that looked too valuable.
To be honest, everything in Tyler’s house looked to be expensive. A lot of the stuff was certainly way more expensive than anything in Xavier’s house.
“I bet some of this stuff cost more then what it took to build the tree house.”
“Probably did,” said Demetria.
“Because remember, your father used recycled wood from Craigslist.”
“Yeah,’ replied Xavier in a low voice that had Demetria straining her ears just to hear it.
The wind howled outside, a low whistle that made the two of them jump from the sudden sound. It wasn’t a beautiful sound like one would think, but a melancholic out of tune sound that flowed through the air like a screeching symphony.
It was a haunting sound that went on for a few minutes, then stopped, and then began again. It was an endless pattern that went on and on.
Xavier sighed. “As if it couldn’t get anymore creepier,” he said, with an incred-ulous sigh that spoke volumes.
There was no response from Demetria, but then again, he didn’t really want one. What he had said was more of an observation than anything else.
A few moments later, Tyler came running down the stairs with a black and yellow duffel bag in hand.
“Ready?” he asked.
Demetria and Xavier nodded in response.
“Great.”
“Can we go over to my house now? I need to get some clothes, as well,” said Demetria, making her way to the door.
“Sure,” replied Xavier.
On their way to the car, he turned to Tyler and said, “Your house gives me the creeps.”
“Really?”
“Yes! It looks like what a horror movie set would look like.”
Tyler didn’t reply. Instead, he chuckled and threw himself into the backseat of the care.
“I’m going to go to the tree house for a bit,” said Xavier, pulling on a thin coat to shield himself from the cold breeze that was wafting through the air outside.
“Oh, okay,” replied Demetria. “If you’ll give me a sec I’ll go with you.”
He rubbed nervously at the back of his neck. “Actually, I just want to be by myself for a little while. But thanks for offering.”
“No problem,” she replied, sitting back down on the couch. “While you’re gone, I guess I’ll make us something to eat. I’d ask you to help, Ty, but I don’t think I want you to after last time.”
Tyler rolled his eyes. “It was a small fire. It didn’t hurt anyone.
“But you still made the stove eye catch fire. It was enough to scare me, so, therefore, you have hereby lost your cooking privileges. Xavier and I will cook for now on.”
Tyler shrugged. “Fair enough,” he said. “I don’t really care for cooking anyway.”
“Of course you don’t.”
Tyler opened his mouth to speak, but Xavier spoke before he could even get a word out. “Okay, later guys.”
“Later,” they replied.
And then he was gone, making his way out of the front door, and running toward the woods that took up most of his backyard.
The tree house wasn’t that far, just far enough away from the house that no one could hear him if he spoke. But if he decided that he wanted to scream, for no reason at all, they would be able to hear him then.
He climbed the long wooden ladder that led to the entrance with ease. The tree house wasn’t anything special, but it was enough to have satisfied everything that he wanted and needed as a child, which was something to call his own and somewhere to go when he didn’t feel like being bothered. Someplace where he could go and cry in peace without having to worry about being seen, or heard, or judged.
Which is what he did. He brought his knees to his chest and hid his face into them. Hot wet tears streaming down the length of his blush hot face. He cried for the fear of what was to come, and what he didn’t know, but he was scared, and to him, that seemed fairly reasonable. He cried because he missed his parents as well, but there was no way that he could get them back.
He sucked in a few deep breaths of air, then let them out slowly. He was sitting on the hardwood floor, which he did a lot, despite there being a small beaten up couch placed in one of the far corners of the tree house. The only time he ever really used it was on the rare occasion that his mother and father let him sleep there on a warm summer night.
The opportunity rarely ever presented itself, but now there was nothing stopping him. But despite that fact, Xavier didn’t find himself wanting to, unless by some random burst of want overcame him and he desperately just wanted to all of a sudden. But even then he probably wouldn’t.
The idea just didn’t seem that appealing to him anymore.
He sucked in another deep breath of air then let it out slowly. He was tired and wanted to sleep, but there was still a few hours of daylight left and he wanted to make the best of them.
Just then there was the sound of ruffling down below, and a pained groan came a moment later.
Xavier smirked.
It was Tyler. He popped his head up out of the entrance in the floor and closed the door, gently, once he was standing on his feet. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” replied Xavier. “I thought I said I wanted to be alone.”
“Well,” he replied. “I want to be alone too. Why not be alone together? We don’t have to talk, it’d be great if we did, but we don’t have to.”
Xavier shook his head. “You can sit on the couch, or whatever, I don’t care. Just, no talking.”
“Sir, yes sir,” he said, making his way over to the couch and laid down on his back. There was silence for the first few minutes, then he sucked in a deep breath of air, let it out slowly, and that was when Xavier knew that it was over.
“This is boring,” he said. “Let’s get to know each other.”
“We already know each other.”
“No, we know of each other. But we don’t know each other. I’m talking about, like . . . what’s your favorite color, or movie, or whatever. Things like that.”
“What?” said Xavier. “You want to know my social security number too? I think I’ll pass.”
“No. Nothing like that,” he replied. “Just the little stuff. If it’ll make you feel a little better, I’ll start.”
“Okay, go ahead,” urged Xavier.
Tyler tilted his head to the side in thought. “Let’s see,” he said. “My favorite color is blue. My favorite movie is Titanic. And . . . I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
He scoffed. “A lot of things. But that doesn’t matter. It’s your turn.
“I like the color yellow. My favorite movie is anything Disney or Marvel. And I’m also afraid of a various amount of things. But number one on the list at the moment is probably what’s going on right now. I don’t think that I’ve ever been more afraid of anything more than I am right now.”
“Fair enough,” said Tyler. “I mean, the world is already a scary place. Slap the fact that we might be the only ones left, and that it’s the end of the world on it, and it’s even scarier.”
Xavier nodded. It was the only thing he could do in reply, for lack of anything else, or better, to say.
The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes. There was nothing but the sound of the wind blowing, and ghosting across their skin, and sending chills up their spines. Someone had to have a lot of will-power to be alive during the end of the world.
The atmosphere was always so quiet. And silence, it was stealthy killer. It had the power to make you go insane, and you wouldn’t even know it before it was too late.
“Maybe we should head back in,” said Xavier. “Demetria is probably finished making whatever she plans for us to force down our throats tonight.”
Tyler nodded and started his way down the ladder of the tree house. “Fine by me,” he said. “As long as I have an excuse to not have to speak, I’m fine.”
“Wow,” said Xavier with a low chuckle. “You’re a pig.”
“For food,” he replied. “I’m a pig any day for food, like all day every day.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing you aren’t the one that cooks.”
“I’m a great microwaver,” he says. “Anything that can be cooked or heated up in the microwa
ve, I’m great at. So, boom, I could have definitely been on Top Chef.”
“Shut up,” said Xavier. They were nearing the exit of the woods, and the house was coming into view.
Tyler smiled and then started running. It was obvious what he wanted even though he hadn’t said it, so Xavier started running as well. He wasn’t too far behind, but the house wasn’t that far from them, so if he wanted to win he would have to push himself further.
He concentrated, elongating his stride, and ran faster. He pushed forward, passing Tyler, and stopped at the front door of the hours, waiting for Tyler to appear.
He did a moment later, breathing for air, his chest rising and falling in a rapid pattern. His heartbeat emphatically against his chest from being overworked.
“You okay?” asked Xavier with a huge grin on his face.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied. “But now I’m thinking that I should have run laps during gym more often, instead of playing dodgeball with the others. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. I ran laps during gym because no one wanted me on their team. Remember?”
Tyler nodded. “Yeah well, now I do.”
Xavier didn’t reply. Instead, he threw the front door open and made his way into the kitchen. Demetria was wearing a black apron with flour all over it.
“What happened?” he asked, his brows furrowed in confusion. The kitchen wasn’t really a mess, but there was a significant amount of flour, cracked egg shell and yolk, and various other things that covered the countertop. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “While you two were gone, I decided, just out of the blue, that I wanted something sweet. So, I’m making a cake.”
“Where did you get the stuff to make it?”
“The pantry,” she said, pointing at the kitchen closet.
He nodded, then made his way into the living room. “Tell me if you need any help.”
“Sure,” she said. “I will.”
The Resurgent Page 6