The city was cold, for it was the beginning of January, and it was silent, because no one was there anymore, no one except for two boys. They were walking down a main street, past the rows of empty cars, and the deserted shop fronts. They paused every now and then to peer at the shop fronts, or rather, the younger one did. He was an enthusiastic boy, that younger one, eight years old, with determined green eyes, and curly brown hair, and a large teddy bear clutched against his chest. He bounced around the older boy, his worn brown coat half-flying off, revealing his sagging T-shirt, too big to cover his rapidly thinning body, his teddy bear swaying in the wind. The older boy was thirteen. His hands, long and dark and thin, remained clasped around the younger boy's soft fingers. His gray eyes, skittish and careful, made a dedicated note of the buildings, as he eyed them for any change, while his dark bangs swished back and forth in tangled strands over his nose.
The younger boy talked, his voice the yelp of a puppy.
"Caleb, I bet there's soda in there!"
Caleb's hands tightened around the younger boy's hand, and he cast a cautious glance at the storefront to which the younger boy was pointing. He finally spoke, his adolescent voice scratchy and young.
"Probably all rotten soda, no fizz in it. 'Sides, it's too dangerous. Might be a wild in there, and you can't take a chance."
The younger boy jerked at Caleb's hand, and he twisted his face around, sticking out his tongue to show his derision.
"Ha! If there was a wild, it would have killed us already, and you know it, Caleb! You just don't want me to have any fun. "
Caleb puckered his lips, and stared at the shop, trying to analyze it. Rob was right of course, wilds didn't plan, so if there was one, it sure would have killed them already. Still, any soda in that old store would be rotten, probably swimming with flies from the summer last. T'was no good. He pushed bullishly forward, shifting Rob with him.
"Hey! Hey, Caleb, quit it! Can't we just take a look? You're probably scared!"
Caleb pushed forward, dragging Rob with him, forcing the little boy to be pulled n his wake.
"I hate you, you big jerk! What if someone's in there?"
Caleb jerked to a stop, and Rob slipped on the snow in the stop. Someone in there, Caleb thought. Someone might easily be in there. He turned his glance back towards the shop, and then realized, with a terrible shock, that Rob's little gloved hand was not in his anymore. He looked down, and then about, and then, heart beating horribly, he shouted,
"Rob, Rob! Rob, are you here? Please Rob, I didn't mean it! Please!"
Caleb heard an impish giggle, and his eyes flashed down towards his feet, onto little Rob, who was giggling in the snow, his teddy bear held close to him. Caleb stared at him for an instant, that green-eyed, freckled, brown-haired little boy, and then, forcing his relief into anger, he jerked him to his feet.
"C'mon, joker. Don't ever try that again."
Rob rose to his feet, still giggling, and unsteadily he tottered forward, grabbing Caleb's pant leg for purchase. Caleb jerked him along, hand once again carefully gripping Rob's, while Rob's teddy bear dragged in the snow. Rob's face lit up as he saw where Caleb was going, but Caleb didn't give the little imp a hint of satisfaction by turning to smile. So what if he was going to that dumb old shop Rob had wanted to go in? It meant nothing!
Caleb leaned against the glass door, putting all of his weight into pushing it open. He half-fell inside, and Rob fell inside with him. Almost thirty seconds after smashing into the floor, he slowly slid his head up, hearing, oddly enough, a symphony of flies. Flies in winter? Well, he thought, they could be carriers, mutants, those ones. Then he and Rob weren't in any danger. Average flies were all dead now, so they must be carriers. But why here?
Caleb forced himself to his feet, half trembling, and then he saw that Rob was already standing, a short sturdy figure, and his teddy bear was lying in the dust, and his hands were hanging slack at his sides. Caleb stood to his full height, five foot one, and then his eyes widened, as he saw the body.
"Close your eyes, Rob!"
Rob's eyes closed, and Caleb walked forward, feet rocking the floorboards. He bent down at the body, and he saw that it was one of the old ones, one of the bodies of someone who hadn't become a wild when the flies hit them, and had instead shriveled up into a disgusting, noxious mummy. He stared at it, and he saw that it was a girl, not much older than he was.
He got up, and turned away, and grabbing Rob's limp shoulder, he dragged him out of the store. Finally he spoke, his voice harsher than he had intended.
"Don't act like you haven't seen a body before! Ain't nothing to cry about."
Rob was biting his lower lip, and when he slid his eyes up to Caleb's, they were red.
"I weren't crying. Not a bit. Just. . ."
"What?!"
Rob stared at the snow, and he kicked it.
"Nothing. Just, is everyone like that?"
Caleb looked forward, forcing his gaze towards the gray sun.
"Nope."
Rob looked at the snow, and the two boys walked on.
It was night when they stopped, huddling in the shadow of an abandoned building, their tired bodies falling to the ground, their cold arms sliding up into their sleeves. Caleb cracked open a tuna can that he had found a week or so ago, and they ate it slowly, until Rob stared up at Caleb with sad eyes.
"Caleb, I forgot Daddy in the store."
Caleb glared at Rob.
"Daddy? That your teddy bear? Well, you can forget about it. We don't have time to go looking for some dumb ol' teddy bear."
Rob stood up, and his green eyes flared in anger.
"Why don't we have time to go get him? You just don't want to."
Caleb breathed tightly, than patiently spoke.
"Cause we need to get to the next city."
"Why?"
"Other people might be there. People like us!"
Rob turned away, face obstinately forced towards the old building. He twisted his head to spit on the ground, then turned away again.
"People like us? There ain't no one like us, and you just don't want to admit it! Everyone's dead, dead or wild, and wild's the same thing as dead. We're the last, the last ones, and you just can't bring yourself to say--"
Caleb sprung to his feet and grabbed Rob by the shoulders, twisting him around with fierce force. He pushed Rob against the ground, and pinned him like a vise against the building wall, his long fingers like nails on Rob's shoulders. Rob looked up at him, eyes wide and terrified.
"Don't say that! Don't ever say that! There's more people; we ain't the last ones--don't you dare say anything like that again, you hear me?"
Rob nodded, slowly and nervously, and Caleb, as if realizing what had happened, stepped away slowly. He turned away from Rob, and grabbing his tuna, he sat down and slowly ate it, back pressed towards Rob.
"Caleb?"
"What!"
"What were things like, back before everyone died?"
Caleb slowly turned back to Rob, and he swallowed slowly, forcing his saliva down his throat, and twisting his anger away.
"Everyone was happy, I guess. We had food, so much more than you could imagine, and we had cars that moved, and there were people, so many you can't count 'em all! "
"What were--what were Mom and Dad like?"
"Nice, I guess. They loved us. When you were scared, you know what Mom would sing?"
"What?"
"Twinkle, twinkle little star! You liked that 'un."
Rob's face lit up slightly.
"I remember it!"
"Uh-huh--knew you would!"
It was a colder morning than yesterday, crueler as well, and Rob and Caleb were wading through the snow. Rob's hand was clasped in Caleb's, and they walked together, two boys alone in a dead world. Their feet shifted the snow, and their eyes fixed ahead, as they walked through the maze of half-decomposed buildings that composed what had been the suburbs of that city. Rob's voice rang out suddenly, loud and clear over the houses.
"Caleb, I heard something!"
Caleb forced his excitement down, further and further down, and finally said,
"Halloo again. But get ready to run. It could be a wild."
Rob hallooed again, and his should echoed over the surrounding area. Caleb heard rustling, and he felt pinpricks of terror dance up his spine. He pushed Rob forward, and the two boys continued their walk. Probably nothing, Caleb thought. Rob's cold fingers gripped around his wrist, jerking him to look. Puzzled, Caleb twisted to Rob's direction, and he gasped.
"A wild! Run, Rob!"
It stood in the shadows of the building, a rotting figure, bursting with blood and gore, its eyes slicing out towards Rob and Caleb. Caleb's fingers jerked the paralyzed Rob, and suddenly they were racing, eyes large and frantic. Wilds were slow enough that they could outrun it--but what if there were more?
They twisted past one building and around another, and Rob screamed, and Caleb's eyes flicked around, and he saw another coming out of a corner, and another one as well. His feet spun forward, and he flew across the ground, dancing in a ferocious ballet of terror.
They raced around one corner, and into another, and suddenly they bounced against a wall, and they were trapped, inside a dark alleyway. They peered forward, and they suddenly saw them, fifty, a hundred, maybe more, wilds all pouring up into the alley like water pouring into a container. Rob's eyes focused on them, all of them, and suddenly Caleb pushed him back against the wall.
"Close your eyes, Rob."
Rob's eyes smashed shut, and he burrowed against the wall, and then he heard it, a shout, no, a scream, and he heard noises, and his eyes bled water. He pushed further and further against the wall, and he heard them coming closer, and he heard horrid noises, and finally his voice, like a trembling child, came out, and he hid inside his voice, and it drowned out all the noises.
"T-twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, when the blazing sun is gone, when he nothing shines upon, then you show your little light, twinkle, twinkle all the night. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder w-what you are. . . "
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