take me to the riot

FOUR.

FOUR.

TARGET PRACTICE.

There's only about fifteen other people in the church when they arrive, most of them huddled together talking amongst themselves, some sit alone. A few of them pray. Luke and Teddy have already disappeared to some other area of the large building. Jonah, Kass, and Shay sit in one corner of the room, having placed their chair in a mini circle, deciding to stick to their own trio for now. Their bags sit at their feet sans weapons, which they were told to put in one of the closets that held other weapons and supplies. It makes Kass just a little antsy, being without her sword. She jiggles her leg restlessly and hums something Shay doesn't recognize.

Jonah taps the screen of his phone, scrolling through his Facebook feed. The internet is still there— slow— but there (courtesy of the military maybe?) although he's sure that by next week it'll probably be gone altogether along with all cell phone service.

"Dudes," he says after a while and sighs, "Everything is so fucked."

"Hey, language, we're in a church," Shay scolds him. She lets her head rest on Kass' shoulder and the other girl doesn't mind, instead moving closer so that she's more comfortable.

"Shit," he says looking up at the ceiling, "Sorry God." He smirks and Kass snorts.

"So," Kass starts, "What's happenin' out in this fucked up world of ours?"

Jonah shrugs. "The usual fucked up shit."

"You guys are the worst," Shay says, covering her face with a hand, but she's smiling.

"Okay no, but seriously, according to the people on the internet the city's gone to shit. And by 'gone to shit' I mean it's gone. Military blew it up trying to get rid of all the Creeps," Jonah tells them, continuing to scroll down the feed, "After they had quarantined the entire thing first."

Shay sits up, frowning. "But it wasn't just zombies in the city."

"Yeah. God, these pictures are just— you don't even want to see them." Jonah rubs at his eyes, like maybe if he does he'll wake up to find that this has just been one fucked up dream and everyone will be alive and happy, his grandparents will be in their tiny apartment in their even tinier living room watching Jeopardy. But of course, he isn't dreaming and this is actually his life now.

"Pictures?" Kass questions, squinting as she attempts to peer over at his phone screen.

"Taken by civilians who managed to escape the barricades right before the airstrike," he answers and just decides to hand the cell phone over to her instead of having her all up in his personal space.

"Shit," Kass whispers as she goes through the photos, "Shit." She tries to hand the phone to Shay but the girl waves her hand away, looking sick.

"He's right. I don't wanna see them," she says quietly and Jonah reaches back for his phone just as a beautiful brown-skinned woman approaches them, her braided her pulled back into a neat ponytail. She just might be glowing too, but that could just be a trick of the light.

Shay notices the cheery smile on her face which immediately makes her wonder how someone can be so cheerful in a situation like this. It's only seconds later that she notices the woman's very pregnant belly and for a moment Shay feels just a little sad.

"Mind if I sit with you guys?" the woman says, smiling with one hand on her stomach as she pulls up a chair of her own to sit on, "I'm Sasha, you must be the new refugees." Shay nods then proceeds to make the necessary introductions. "Dinner should be ready soon. Beef stew. Yasmin managed to find some good meat while on the raid."