RADIO

chap 2

Duchess!” Tris squeaked.

“What?!” she copied her tone in response, running to wherever in the house Tris was. 

“They’re inside!” She yelped, running up the stairs past her. Duchess watched as the mindless people swarmed the living room and she backed away. Tris grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the bedroom. 

Tris closed the door and Duchess immediately started searching. 

“Here,” she tossed a baseball bat to Tris who had her back up against the door to keep the cannibals out. “We’re not actually gonna fight these guys are we?!” she yelped. 

“Now’s not the time to be picky,” Duchess said.

She bent down and looked underneath the white covered bed. The room was fairly big and had a blue color to the walls. Yellow curtains hung from the windows and there were gold and white accents to the room. 

“Ha-ha!” Duchess gasped, pulling out a case from underneath the bed. She opened it and revealed a silver pistol. “Look at what I found,” she chuckled, her soft southern accent coming through the excitement in her voice like smoke from a cigarette. 

“Why do I have a feeling that I shouldn’t trust you with that?” Tris huffed. 

“Look, I'm the oldest of 9, I think I can handle a gun, this is an acceptable excuse right?” she smirked. 

“We’re sixteen!” Tris yelped. 

“And?! Skill doesn't come with age,” she scoffed, “how many are down there?”

“Like only 20,” Tris shrugged. 

Duchess chuckled sarcastically, “only 20,” she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Lock it and let's go,” she said, gesturing to the window. 

“The roof? We’re going to the roof?! Are you asking for a death sentence?!” Tris squeaked. 

“Look its our only option! Now get to the window while I figure this thing out,” Duchess ordered. She examined the pistol, switching it off safety mode and checking for bullets. 

Tris tried to open the window, “it's locked,” she stated. 

The gun suddenly went off making Tris jump and pull her hand back so abruptly she fell back. The bullet went through the window and shattered the glass. Duchess looked at the window and back down at the gun.

“It’s got ammo,” she said. 

“You almost shot my hand off!” Tris yelled. 

“You can chew me out for it later, let's get going,” Duchess said, keeping her finger off the trigger now and pointing the barrel of the gun at the floor so there would be no more close calls. She reached her hand through the broken glass, unlocking and opening the window just as the people finally burst through the door. 

Their faces were bloody and torn from tearing each other away from the door in the small hallway to get inside the room. 

Tris hopped out of the window and onto the grey roof. She gazed upon the tragic scene, the neighborhoods on fire and crumbling like chips under the sudden breakout. Smoke from the fires covered the whole scene and made it difficult to see what was happening, but even through the fiery clouds Tris could see people running everywhere trying to avoid swerving cars and hordes of brainwashed people. Even worse than all the chaos were the patches of still corpses although from so far away it was hard to be sure that's what they were; Tris could only hope her eyes were deceiving her.

Duchess followed her out the window, shooting some of the zombies in the room that had almost reached them.“Holy shit,” she panted, finally realizing that she was shooting people even if they were brainwashed by the parasite. 

Tris closed the window before more mind numbed people could get out and climbed up to the top of the slanted roof. Duchess followed and sat beside her. She clutched the pistol tightly and plopped the duffel bag she had found beside her. 

She gazed out upon the neighborhoods that were slowly being destroyed. 

Both of them were speechless. 

Brownie stuck his head up and out of the bag that Tris was carrying him in and meowed. Tris pet his soft fur. 

“I killed them,” Duchess gasped. 

“What? The zombies?” Tris asked. 

“I don't know anymore, this is nothing like the movies…I thought that would be way easier,” Duchess said, her breathing slowing down as she took more deep breaths. “I reacted off impulse…I-I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, her voice breaking slightly as she tried to hide the sudden feeling of regret. 

Tris put a hand on her back in an attempt to comfort her, “nothing’s ever like the movies, let's just focus on finding the others,” she said. 

Duchess didn't respond. Instead she wiped her eyes and sighed. She couldn't look away from the tragic city. It was strangely beautiful with the red flames reflecting off the smoke. 

She reached inside the duffle bag she'd taken from the room to see what exactly was in it. 

“What's in the bag?” Tris asked. 

“Just some random stuff like towels and clothes that probably don't fit…” Duchess started to trail off with the list of items that were in the bag till she pulled out what looked to be a camera.

“Hey look at this,” she said, turning it on. 

“Is it battery powered?” Tris asked. 

“Yeah.”

Duchess examined the tech and decided to snap a picture of the city and its current state. A small photo printed out the bottom. “It’s a Polaroid,” she gasped, shaking the picture till the photo turned up. “That’s cool,” Duchess said. She stared at it for a second before stuffing both the photo and camera back in the bag. 

She searched through the bag again and eventually pulled out a small handheld radio. “Yes!” She gasped. 

“A radio!” Tris reflected her reaction. Duchess immediately turned it on and switched to different channels till she heard a voice. 

“You know how to work those?” Tris asked. 

“No, usually Rider is here to help me,” she shrugged. 

A voice came from the device, “Duchess this is channel 147 do you copy?!” a familiar voice spoke. 

“Yes I copy! Oh my god Monty you will never believe what's happening,” Duchess said in a relieved tone. 

“Oh but I will because Dibbs and I are hiding in his garage right now with Rocky because those people he was telling me about broke down the door” he said. 

“Yeah, me and Tris are on a rooftop now, all we can do is wait,” Duchess huffed. “Duchess found us a weapon though so we’ll be fine for a little while,” Tris informed. Duchess decided to hand over the radio entirely to Tris and just take a moment to breathe. Her family’s apartment had been burned down and she was the only one that made it out. 

She lived in a big family with multiple siblings. All of them younger than her and each one more annoying than the last. Her family and herself had been through a lot but she never expected things to end like this for them. She was heartbroken. Tris didn’t even know if her family had made it this far yet. She was too far away from them to find out. She had a brother of her own at home along with a few pets. 

“Hey, they said in the morning they're gonna see if things die down and try to get to us alright?” Tris asked, bumping her shoulder to get her attention. 

Duchess snapped out of her thoughts and nodded, “looks like we’ll be here for a while then huh?” 

Tris nodded and handed over the radio. 

“Lets just lay low for a while, morning ain’t far,” Duchess suggested, sliding down to the windows roof and laying against the slanted roof comfortably. “Lets just hope the government or something will try to help,” Tris said, following her actions. 

“something,” Duchess scoffed.