The Resurgent

by Blake Wilbanks

  They sat at the table and ate in a still sleepy stupor. They ate in mostly silence, but every so often one of them would speak, their voices raspy from sleep.

  “Thanks for breakfast,” said Tyler, pushing his plate away after he had finished. “It was great.”

  “You’re welcome,” replied Xavier for lack of anything better to say. He stood to his feet and went back to the stove. “Care for more?” he added, cracking more eggs into a skillet and scrambling some more.

  “Sure,” said Tyler and Demetria almost at the same time. It caused Xavier to let out a small laugh.

  A few minutes later he was placing another helping of eggs into each of their plates, then he was sitting down with them and eating again.

  “I would have cooked more,” said Xavier. “But I’m still a little tired and I thought it’d be best to cook as little as I could. I wouldn’t have wanted to fall over and burn my skin.”

  “That’s okay,” supplied Tyler. He was the only one that was really talking, so, Xavier being the crazy over thinker that he is, thought that something had to have been wrong.

  “Is everything all right?” he said, turning to look at Demetria face to face.

  She just nodded her head and continued eating.

  He didn’t push it. He didn’t need to. Because he knew, even though she wouldn’t tell him, that something was wrong.

  But whatever it was, he couldn’t bring himself to care about it, if at all, more than he needed to.

  He heaved a sigh and took in a few large gulps of his glass of orange juice. “There isn’t much to do when we’re basically the only ones left,” he said. “Save for the few people that linger outside day and night, yelling and wandering around all crazy, like they don’t have anything better to do.”

  “There really isn’t anything better to do,” said Demetria, scraping her fork on her plate, creating a terrible scraping sound that was almost deafening to the ears. “I mean,” she continued. “Look at us. There is nothing for us to do. We wake, eat, sleep, and then do it all again. The only time we ever leave the house is to pick up clothes for Tyler and me, or to go to the grocery store and pick up supplies for food and whatever else we could possibly need.”

  Xavier shrugged. “There isn’t anything I can do about it. I’m not going to apologize for something that I can’t control.”

  “And I’m not asking you to,” she replied, standing to her feet and making her way back upstairs to her room.

  He sighed, leaning back into his chair. “I suppose you’d like to storm off as well,” he said.

  “Why would I do that?”

  Xavier shrugged. “I don’t know, just for the heck of it.”

  “No,” said Tyler. “I don’t have any reason to be storming off, because I don’t have any reason to be upset or mad at you.”

  “That’s a real relief.”

  Tyler didn’t reply. He stood to his feet and took in a deep breath of air. “Thanks for breakfast, again,” he said. “It was great.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Tyler moved to walk away, but Xavier stopped him. “Do you want to stargaze with me tonight? I know the ripple in the sky can probably be quite distracting, but I – I need to do something. I can’t stand another minute looking at these same four walls. I feel like a prisoner in my own house.”

  Tyler took a minute to think it over, then nodded his head. “Sure.”

  CHAPTER

  TEN

  THE NIGHT AIR was a relief to Xavier’s lungs. The fresh air was something that he truly needed.

  He stared up at the sky. The stars were true and plenty and shined just as brightly as they had before.

  He was right in thinking that the ripple in the sky would be a bit of a distraction, but it wasn’t so bad. It didn’t take away from the experience of looking up at the stars. And for some reason, he thought back to the glow in the dark stars that lined the length of the ceiling in his room, and he shook his head forcing out a laugh. Nothing could compare to that of the real thing.

  Nothing could ever compare. But that was okay.

  He amused himself with the beauty of the stars and basking in the sounds of the wind carrying through the air. It was crisp and cool on his skin, which caused goose bumps to appear but he didn’t mind.

  “. . . So,” said Tyler after a few minutes of comfortable silence. “What’s up with this affection with the stars?”

  Xavier shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said in reply. “My parents used to bring me out here, late at night, when I was younger, to just look up at them and admire their beauty. We’d stare up at them for hours and, if we could recognize them, we would point out any constellation that we could find. But then we just stopped doing it. And I don’t know why. We . . .We just did.”

  “Oh,” said Tyler. “Maybe they just got busy and couldn’t commit to doing it anymore.”

  Xavier nodded. “Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “It’s a possibility. But I don’t really feel like dwelling on that, in fact, I find myself not really wanting to dwell on anything nowadays.” He muttered the last bit under his breath. He had no reason to say it aloud. It was just something to get off his chest and settle the weight that had built up so heavy over time.

  Tyler made a noise in understanding. “Yeah,” he said. “I understand.”

  There was a long moment of silence before he spoke again. “Where is Demetria? Did she not want to join us?”

  Xavier shook his head. “No,” he said. “She’s upstairs in her room. I think she might still be annoyed with me, for whatever reason, I don’t know, but she is.”

  “She’ll get over it I’m sure. You just have to give her time; she’ll talk to you whenever she’s ready.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she will. In about fiftythousand years she’ll get over it and forgive me for whatever it is that I have done to make her angry with me. I don’t know what I’ve done. I don’t think that I’ve done anything wrong. But I could be mistaken.”

  Again, there was silence. But it wasn’t uncomfortable like it had been so many times before. Now, it was oddly relaxing. They were looking up at the stars and basking in the feeling of wind against their skin. To Xavier that was as good as it gets.

  He had always preferred the simpler things, and even now, he preferred them more than ever. “What do you think you’d be doing right now if none of this had ever happened?”

  Tyler shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’d probably be on the basketball team, failing classes, not for lack of trying, but because of stress from games and everything. But I wouldn’t be here. No. I definitely wouldn’t be here asking myself why I’m here and why everything is the way that it is.”

  “Why is everything the way that it is?” said Xavier, rolling the words over on his tongue. They were thick, heavy, and made him feel sick. “I ask myself that every day. How often do you?”

  “More then I should.”

  “Yeah,” said Xavier with a purse of his lips. “Do you want to go in? I could make us some pancakes and see if it’ll get Demetria down. She loves breakfast foods. It’s her weakness.”

  “Sure,” replied Tyler. “But I want some scrambled eggs too. If that’s okay.”

  “Of course.” They stood to their feet and made their way back toward the house.

  Demetria moaned at the taste of the syrup on her tongue. It was sweet and the fluffiness of the pancake made it even better. Anything sweet, she was a fan of. If it couldn’t give her a sugar rush then she didn’t want it. She preferred sweet over any type of savory food.

  Xavier hid a smile behind the hand that held his fork.

  And Tyler did the same.

  “. . . so delicious,” said Demetria, as she stuffed her face even more with pancake. She then started stabbing into the pile of scrambled eggs that Xavier had fixed for her and moaned, yet again, in delight. And for some reason, Xavier wondered what she would ha
ve done if he had made some sausage and homemade biscuits.

  All would be well as long as she could lather it all in syrup. She was the main reason that Xavier always ran out of syrup. But he never minded, he could always get some more from the store.

  After a moment, a random thought came to his mind and being as unfiltered as he was, he couldn’t help but voice it. “Well,” he said, cutting through the first layer of his pancake and stabbing it with his fork. “I think it’s safe to say that we wouldn’t survive a zombie apocalypse.” He added a little chuckle for extra effect, though he didn’t know if it helped much.

  “Speak for yourself,” said Demetria. “I’m a badass, who could kick a lot of zombie butt if given the opportunity. And I think I’d be ready. I’d probably do it all on my own because I don’t think that I would let either of you on my ‘zombie apocalypse killing team’.” She then shrugged her shoulders and began eating again, as if she had said: Just saying.

  “Okay,” said Tyler, placing his fork in his plate with a low clink. “Why wouldn’t you let us on your team? We could be badass.”

  “Because I would have an all women’s group,” she replied. “It just makes sense to me, okay?”

  “Sure. It makes sense.”

  “My killing group would be unisex. Anyone who wanted to join could if they wanted to,” said Xavier, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck.

  “I’d join,” said Tyler. “I want to say that I’d be one of those cool people that would be a lone wolf, but honestly, I don’t think I’d survive a minute on my own. Solo for me is a no-go.”

  “I don’t know,” provided Xavier with a click of his tongue. “I think you’d do great. You’re a very fast runner, so you could probably outrun them if you tried. And from what I’ve heard, you’re a good shot, so I’m sure you could take ‘em.”

  “I’m glad someone does,” said Tyler. “Because I have my doubts. A whole lot of them.”

  “Well, I don’t know why.”

  “Because “The Lady Killers” would beat him and his group to hell and back,” said Demetria, a smug look on her face as she eyed the both of them.

  “‘The Lady Killers’? Is that what your “killing group” would be called?” asked Xavier with a look of confusion on his face. His lips pulled into a thin line and his brows furrowed.

  Demetria nodded her head in reply.

  “No.” He looked her in the eyes. “As your best friend, it is my job to not let that be your killing group’s name. That is such a horrible name that it makes me cringe, inside and out.”

  “Oh yeah?” she said. “What would yours be?”

  “The Cataclysm. Or The Decimation of Mankind. We’d be paying homage to a revolution.”

  Demetria stared blankly at him for a long while then shook her head back and forth at a rapid pace. “And how is that better than The Lady Killers?”

  “It just is.”

  “Well, that isn’t a good enough reason. You haven’t thought about it, have you? You just said the first thing that came to your head and for some reason, it just so happened to be “The Cataclysm,” or “The Decimation of Mankind.” Didn’t it?

  Xavier didn’t have to say anything. She already knew the answer.

  “Thought so,” she said, crossing her arms to her chest. “Just another reason why The Lady Killers would be superior.”

  “Honey,” said Xavier with a roll of his eyes. “It sounds like “The Lady Killers” target and kills women. So, I think that you should have thought a little deeper about your group’s name. Because “The Lady Killers” ain’t it. They either target women or they’re a coked up rock girl group.”

  Demetria stuck her tongue out at him, childishly. “Oh, shut up.”

  “Excuse me,” said Xavier in mock hurt. A hand laid flat on his chest and his face twisted into that of almost confusion. “I’m making a reasonable point.”

  “It’s not a reasonable point,” said Demetria with a flip of her hair. “You just want to hear your own voice.”

  “Eh,” he said in reply. “Not really. I just like to pick little fights with you. Why? Because it’s fun.”

  “I’m done with you.”

  “No, you aren’t.”

  “Yes, I really am. I hate you.”

  Xavier looked down at his plate. It was almost empty. All he had to do was eat a few more bites and then he would be done. “You don’t hate me,” he said in finality, taking a large bite of pancake into his mouth.

  She sighed. “Of course not. Now finish eating.”

  “Oh, I’m done.”

  “So am I,” said Demetria standing to her feet. “Who is doing the dishes tonight?”

  “Me,” said Tyler and Xavier at the same time.

  “I could wash and you can dry. If you want,” said Tyler in conclusion.

  “Sure.”

  “And I’ll just head in early tonight,” said Demetria, putting her plate in the sink. “I’m going to try and dream of either Ryan Gosling or Robert Downey Jr.”

  “Okay,” said Xavier as she walked away, making her way up the stairs to her room. “Have fun!”

  There was a loud snort that followed his words and he smiled at it. He then followed Tyler into the kitchen to help him with the dishes. It didn’t take long. Which meant that the conversation they engaged in wasn’t inherently long either.

  “Thanks for helping me,” he said to Tyler as he put the last dish away.

  “Yeah, you’re welcome,” said Tyler in reply, drying off a ceramic plate and stashing it away in its designated cabinet, and then turning back to face Xavier. “Goodnight, Xavier.”

  Xavier nodded. “Sweet dreams, Ty. Don’t let the monsters bite.”

  “Oh I don’t know,” replied Tyler. “I might like a little biting every now and then.”

  “Then keep your excitement down. . . . If you can.”

  “I’ll try my best. But sometimes I just can’t help it.”

  “Well, the walls are thin. And your room is just next door to mine, so if you get too excited from all the biting, I’ll know.”

  “Understood.”

  “You suck,” said Xavier, throwing a piece of bread directly at Tyler’s face.

  “Do not. Now, stop throwing bread and finish making the sandwiches so that we can eat.”

  “No! You literally kept making loud grunting and moaning noises just to spite me. And that was very wrong of you.”

  “No, I didn’t do it to spite you. I did it because this monster that came into my room last night got me unbelievably excited. They sure knew how to make me hot.” As Tyler said the last bit, he blew hot air onto Xavier’s skin, just to add to the annoyingness of it all. He then threw his head back in laughter.

  And Xavier took his chance, shoving a whole piece of loaf bread in his mouth. Basically forcing it down his throat, but careful, so that he didn’t cause him to choke. “Bon Appétit,” said Xavier with a wry smile.

  Tyler took the bread out of his mouth and threw it into the trash. “That was very cruel of you.”

  “No, it wasn’t. You deserved it for being a jackass. No one wants to have to endure the sounds of fake moans coming from the room next door,” said Xavier with a little laugh.

  “Who said they were fake?”

  Xavier shrugged his shoulders. “No one. I just assumed that they were since we were literally talking about the prospect of your “excitement” before we went to bed for the night. I doubt that you were actually, “excited,” just saying.”

  “You’re right,” replied Tyler with a shrug of his shoulders.

  “Okay, good.”

  Xavier swiped a thin layer of mayonnaise over some wheat bread, then started packing on a few slices of Ham, Turkey, Roast Beef, and Swiss Cheese. It had been Tyler’s idea to have sandwiches for breakfast. He and Xavier had been up since 4:30 A.M., and for some reason couldn’t get back to sleep. Once they were up there was no way for them to get their brains
to shut back down again.

  Xavier was a restless sleeper already. Had been ever since everything had started and he was lucky if he even got more than four or five hours of sleep at night. He didn’t let it bother him though. He tried his best not to complain, but some nights he found himself too tired and frustrated that he just started crying out of nowhere. And normally he would wipe the tears away and try to forget that he had even been crying at all, because he didn’t want to feel weak, and he probably was, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care as much as he had before. Now, he didn’t care if he cried. He saw it as a form of release and that was all that really mattered to him. At least he was getting the emotions out somehow, and in the only way that he knew how.

  But afterward, he was completely and unequivocally exhausted. After it happened, he would lie in bed and forced himself to go to sleep, just to regain some semblance of energy but some days it was hard and he couldn’t fight the restlessness that crept up on him. And even though he was tired, and his eyes were heavy, sleep wouldn’t come.

  And times like those always felt like a curse to him. They normally happened in the middle of the night at around 2 to 3 A.M., so he liked to blame it on the devil’s hour. To him it just made sense.

  “Here you go,” said Xavier, handing two freshly made sandwiches to Tyler. “When you’re done you can go and see if Demetria wants to come down. And if she doesn’t, just let her sleep. But be sure to wake her up before 10:00. She gets cranky if she’s woken up even a minute after.”

  “Duly noted,” said Tyler, taking a huge bite of sandwich and closing his eyes and sounding out a mock filled moan. “It’s been so lo-”

  “I’ll kill you,” interjected Xavier. “I’m literally holding a knife. Don’t tempt me, Ty.”

  “You’re so mean to me. Honestly never thought you would ever threaten to kill me.”