Broken Silence

Love is for Liars

No. It's not what you think. I'm not dead...yet. I didn't pass out either. When I smashed my head against the barn wall, I didn't go unconcious. I stayed awake. For three hours. No pain. Nothing. But I was immobilized. Paralyzed. I still am.

Gunshots and screams filter through the hole in the wall. Groans and moans and stereotypical zombie noises lace into the chaos.

But me?

I'm laying here. Frozen. Painless. Staring up at the rafted, open ceiling. Creaky wooden support beams that support the barn are covered with cobwebs. There's a hole that leaks in moonlight straight above me. A birds nest is have shredded. A rat has somehow managed to scammer up there.

I've noticed all of this in the immense span of time that I've spent laying motionless on my blankets. Mitch and Kara, if they're alive, are fighting outside. And I'm just here like a bystander. A blind bystander, that is.

"Mitch! Mitch!" Comes a voice from below. It's muffled, but I think it's Kara.

"What? I'm kind of busy!" Is the response. Mitch.

"Yeah? Well you better hurry! They're...AGH!" A terrible, spine-racking cough replaces Kara's words.

"Kara? Kara! No, it's fine! It's...it's okay!" Mitch says.

Coughing fills the air again. Followed by a gunshot.

I try to move, to do something. Anything. But whatever Snake Eyes mixed with his "zombiefied-morphine" crap, it's got me stuck.

I can move my eyes and lips, but I can't speak. It's like I'm trapped under an invisible net.

"Mi...itch-ch..." Kara groans.

She's down below me, right underneath.

"It's fine, Kara. You'll survive. It could'a been worse." Mitch says.

"But it hit me in the leg, right above the knee! I can't walk!"

"Then damn it I'll carry you!"

There's a scuffling and then an "oomph!" Slow, teetering footsteps ascend the stairs.

"Almost there. Kara, hold on." Mitch says.

The hay and cloth move slightly and a head pops up. It's Mitch. Kara's in his arms, draped around his neck. I'm almost jealous, almost angry. But then I spot it. The tiny, silent trickle of blood on Kara's leg. It drips quickly through her pants and onto the scattered hay at our feet.

"Cassie!" Mitch exclaims, "It's not...are you okay?"

I don't move. I can't.

Mitch blushes a little, making me laugh inside. But sadly the humour doesmt bubble out my lips.

"It's not...um...it's just that..." Mitch stammers, "she and I...Kara...uh..."

"Oh god! Ew! What he's trying to say, Cassie. Is that it's not what it looks like, I mean, if it looks like anything." Kara says.

"Yeah, I, um we...she got shot. I'm only holding her 'cause she can't walk. I don't, like...love her..."

"Thanks, I just adore all the compliments you give me, asshole." Kara snaps.

Even when she's in pain she's snarky.

Mitch stumbles over beside me, Kara heavy in his arms.

His boots crunch hay underneath them, releasing a little crackle with every step.

"I'll put you down, Kara. Right over th-" Mitch stops mid-sentence. His dark eyes are fixated on the scattered roses by my head.

My dead roses. Our dead love.