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She ran until her lungs burned. Being such a tiny thing, as professional gymnasts were required to be, she was quick but had shorter strides than Jonathon. Later when they were out of danger, she'd be touched he'd protected her by pushing her on ahead of him. As it was, she was dazed and in shock from loss. Legs and arms pumped as she ran.
Before she knew it, they were off campus and on a main drag or strip. In her fevered haze of fear, she wasn't looking at anything but the road ahead toward survival. That's why it came as a complete shock when she was grabbed and pulled through a door. She stumbled to her knees out of the way and panted. Her knife was still clutched in her hand, though her fingers had long since gone numb from clenching around the hilt. She dropped the knife with a clatter and stood to help Jonathon move the shelf. Picking up the knife once more, she carefully surveyed the convenience store finding it blissfully empty of walkers.
Dropping the knife, her backpack, and the medical supply bag, she walked straight to Jonathon and burrowed her way into his arms, her face pressing against his chest, and her arms wrapping tightly around his waist. She stayed locked around him like that while the moans of the following walkers passed by outside.
Jonathon could feel his body shaking from the adrenaline, they were safe now though. As safe as someone could be in this world, but safe none the less. He'd gotten her away though, she was still alive, which is what mattered to him, keeping Dinah alive. Her sudden hug had taken him a aback a bit, the shaking starting to slow down. He wrapped his arms around her and started running a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry I couldn't do anything for them..." His voice was quivering a bit as he spoke. "I...I'm not going to let them get to you though, I'm going to keep you safe Dinah. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you."
Dinah closed her eyes tightly as she tried to burrow closer to Jonathon. The calming strokes of his hand through her hair mixed with the strength of his arm around her shoulders soothed the wild, frantic beat of her heart. It was minutes before she had collected herself enough to speak, but when she finally did, her voice was gently muffled by Jonathon's shirt. "It's okay. I know you couldn't do anything...there were too many of them."
Gently, Dinah pulled away and walked into the ladies room for a moment to herself. Closing the lid of the toilet, she sat down, pressed her face to her knees and cried. She hadn't cried since her mother had died in the early days of the outbreak, and the feeling of the free-falling tears and body-wracking sobs was cathartic in a way she hadn't expected. She'd been raised not to cry because of how bad it would look for the team and herself when competing.
When she finished, she washed her face and hands in the cool water of the sink, then used a paper towel to dry herself off. Feeling shaky but better for having let out the emotion, she stepped into one of the aisles and picked up a bag of salt and vinegar chips. The convenience store had obviously been looted, but not everything had been snatched up in the hurry to evacuate Denver. A hot two-liter bottle of Coke was snagged by the neck, and she brought both chips and Coke to the cash register counter where she sat down upon the floor.
While Dinah went off to the bathroom, Jonathon set about to further check the store. He'd moved some more shelves and things to block the windows, while still allowing some light through. He then checked the store for threats, the only thing he'd found was a legless walker trying to get out of the broom closet, Jonathon stabbed it through the head and locked the door. By then Dinah had returned and had gotten herself a snack. "Good to see some guilty pleasure snacks survived the end of the world." He chuckled weakly, trying to make light of the situation. Jonathon started to search the shelves himself, finding a bag of stale pretzels. "Chewy...yet edible." He said as he popped one in his mouth and sat down next to her. "We're gonna make it, ok?"
Dinah looked up as Jonathon plopped down next to her, and she snuggled closer, resting her head on his shoulder. "Yeah, okay." Reaching over, she snagged a pretzel and took a nip from it. "How can you tell they're stale? They always taste like bark." She grinned a bit at her teasing, then leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for taking care of me, J. You could've run for your life and bypassed me several times with your long legs, but you didn't." Her body jolted as she pulled the two edges of the chip bag apart until it popped open with a whoosh of vinegar-scented air. Reaching in, she pulled one out and delicately placed it on her tongue before crunching down on it. "Mmmm...I have a love-hate relationship with these. Love because they taste so amazing, and hate because they wreck my mouth." Her eyes twinkled as she smiled and offered him the bag.
Jonathon felt a bit of a blush when she kissed his cheek. "You can tell their stale because they have the consistency of a dried sponge." He said, eating another pretzal. "And I wouldn't be able to live myself if I left you there. If I could have I would have save your teammates too." She then offered him a chip, smiling he held up a hand. "No thanks, I've never been a fan of vinegar." He said, popping another pretzel into his mouth. "I could get used to this place, if only for a little while. What do you think of it?"
Dinah leaned her head against Jonathon's shoulder once more as she munched another chip then licked the salt off her lower lip while she set the chip bag aside and attempted to twist open the Coke bottle. "I like it here," she muttered gruffly as she used her muscles to try open the bottle. "Ow," she looked at her hands where the grooves in the bottle cap had rubbed the palms red. Wordlessly, she held it out to Jonathon and batted her eyelashes at him. "We have food, restrooms, and running water here. I haven't stayed anywhere better in a really long time."
"Yeah..." Jonathon muttered, chuckling a bit as she struggled with the bottle. "Here, let me help." He took the bottle from her and twisted the top off. "You must have gotten it started." He took a quick swig, winced from how flat and warm it was, but still let out a contented sigh before handing it back to her. "It's funny, we're in the middle of the end of the world and we're eating junk food. All those movies we had about situations like this always had people eating cans and we have chips and coke." He looked at her face and just smiled again. "It's nice though."
Dinah happily let Jonathon open the bottle and rubbed at the raw red marks it had left on her palm. She'd definitely had worse, but she'd forgotten how bottles could do that. Taking the bottle from him, she lifted it to her lips and took a mouthful, swallowing with relish. "Cokes are my weakness. My parents didn't keep them in the house, and my coach yelled at me whenever he caught me drinking one. Too many calories, causes bloating, yadda yadda. But I loooove them." She took another swig and placed it between them on the floor. "Having Coke and chips kinda makes ya feel normal again." She gave him a wicked smile, "Want to know what other simple pleasure I have?" Waggling her eyebrows at him, she opened her backpack and pulled out..."Tada!" It was a book of crossword puzzles and some pencils. Most of the pencils were dull, so she plucked the pencil sharpener she'd taken from the science building from her bag and twisted it around the end of her pencil. Pulling the pencil out, she puffed a breath on it, scattering shavings in the air and handed it to Jonathon. "Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants, let's see what you can do."
Jonathon chuckled at Dinah's talk of trainers and bloating and caring about soda. "So glad my parents didn't expect me to be a professional athlete, or an athlete in general." He finished his pretzels, crushing the bag and tossing it aside. "Crosswords? Really, out of all the simple past times you could pick to preserve through the apocalypse, you pick Crosswords. I would've picked word searches myself, maybe even Sudoku, but crosswords? You never cease to surprise I guess." He smiled none the less and took the book and pencil. "I never could get into these things myself, the clues were just so weird." He said as he started skimming the clues before finding one he could solve. "Got one!" He scribbled down a few letters and handed the book back to her. "There, I did my part."
"Hey now, I love crossword puzzles! I'm surprised a smarty-pants intellectual like you didn't just rip the book right out of my hands! And you knooooow, if I can do it, you can do it. You're the smart one here, after all." Leaning her cheek against Jonathon's shoulder, she watched as he answered one line and handed it back to her. "Really...that's it?" She was enjoying giving him a hard time; it kept the thought of her dead friends from overwhelming her with sadness and depression.
She was quiet for a while as she methodically worked one of the puzzles, and then casually murmured, "I'm glad I ran into you, Jonathon." And then she cheated. Yep, cheated. Skimming the book to the very back where the answers were, she found the puzzle and scribbled in one of the answers she didn't know.
"I might be a, what did you say, smarty-pants intellectual, but that does not mean i like cross word puzzles. The clues they give are normally rather strange and sometimes the word I think of that fits isn't the word they want even though it's the right answer." He said, putting one of his hands on her knee. When she flipped to the back he couldn't help but laugh. "I see how it is. I get one legit answer and you flip to the back, classy." He said with a smirk. "I'm glad I ran into you too though Dinah. I really am."
"Holidaaaaay!!! Hear the drum poundi-" Jim clicked off the car's loud stereo and quickly got out, slamming the door and kicking the tire. "You've got to be kidding me..." The Pontiac was done coasting, out of fumes, and it wasn't going anywhere. "You couldn't make it just a few more blocks?!" Least it's only a few blocks. He'd be in and out in a few minutes. But I didn't want to stop in the city.
Grabbing out his assault rifle and an empty gas can, he locked the doors and pocketed the keys. He figured he probably woke the undead for miles but couldn't care less. He carried the can in his left hand, the AR 15 resting haphazardly over his shoulder. If the station was empty he'd just spend the night and clear out when the corpses left. Racking the bolt as he walked down the street, Jim couldn't help but hum the earlier tune as he marched towards the convenient store he saw up the road.
Dinah giggled at Jonathon's teasing, "Hey, a girl has to try, right?" She filled in another answer on her own before taking the hand Jonathon rested on her knee. Her fingers curled into his palm, and then she linked her fingers with his. A bit of pink stained her cheeks at the fact they were holding hands, but she figured he was comforting her the best way he knew how. "Tell me some more about your life before all this, Jonathon. Did you always want to be a teacher? What were your parents and your friends like?"
Jonathon couldn't help but smile when Dinah grabbed his hand. He couldn't help feeling attracted to this girl, granted, whether it was because he was actually attracted to her or if it was due to the situation, he couldn't tell. In all honesty, he hoped it was the former. "There isn't all that much to say about my life before...It was pretty boring. I knew I wanted to be a teacher from junior high on really. As for my parents, they raised me well and sent me to college. Most of my friends were outcasts, we didn't really fit in anywhere else but with each other. Now though, it's just me...well, me and you."
Walker. Walker. Oh, another walker. Jim wasted no time as he approached the outer fuel pumps. Leaning his gun within reach and setting down the plastic can, he quickly and quietly unscrewed the cap and dropped it at his side. He then removed the fuel nozzle and aiming it into the container, squeezed the trigger. Nothing.
Guess I'll have to turn the pumps on... Standing up, he gathered his two items and made his way towards the door, he didn't know how to turn them on but he figured the inside was the best spot to find out, especially with the growing number of dead faces approaching. Sneaking past the inner pumps Jim could of swore he heard voices and after peering through the store window he found the origin. Well I'll be d****d...it's a regular hallmark movie.
"well, me and you."
"And me motherf*****s!" Jim banged loudly on the window to get their attention. The door was obviously barricaded. "I'd rather not be zombie bait. I just gotta do my stuff and then I'll leave and you two lovebirds can pretend we never met."
Dinah tilted her head to the side a bit as she studied Jonathon, "I can't imagine you as any sort of outcast." She dismissed that thought with a graceful wave of her hand. The corner of her mouth curved upwards as she met his eyes with her own, and she leaned up to buss his cheek with a soft kiss at his sweet words.
The pink eraser of her pencil tapped lightly against her pert chin as she studied the crossword puzzle in her lap. "Cleopatra's demise." Rolling her eyes skyward, she wrinkled her nose in thought. "I know it was a snake, but it's three letters. Do you remember what kind of snake it was?"
"And me, motherfuckers!" Right before the window vibrated with pounding hands.
Dinah nearly jumped out of her skin. The pencil and crossword puzzle erupted from her fingers, and she rose to her feet. "What should we do, Jonathon? Do you think 'doing his stuff' means killing or robbing us?"
Jonathon's blush intensified when Dinah kissed his cheek. He couldn't help but smile even wider then he already was. He was about to answer her question when the surprise guest pounded on the window. Jumping up and putting Dinah behind him he slung his rifle from off of his shoulder. "We don't want any trouble. Just tell us what you want and we'll figure something out. We've got enough that we can give you some supplies and not have to worry so long as you're willing to compromise."
"How about you open the door first and we figure things out afterwards?," Jim questioned in a stern tone as he glanced over his shoulder, only for a split second as the man had procured a rifle. He was beginning to regret his decision to make so much noise as he counted yet more walkers shambling towards them. They were getting closer but he didn't want to take his eyes off the strangers to dispatch them.
"Look, I don't want any trouble either but I'm not afraid to create some, I just need gas and a place to wait out the dead heads. Soon as they're gone, I am as well." He kept his weapon at the ready, the man inside was armed and Jim didn't trust either in the slightest. "Open the door and I can help you fill out those crosswords or something." He said with a laugh as he noticed what the girl had dropped. I guess that's one way to have fun during the apocalypse.
(Sorry it took me so long. It's been an insane two weeks with the start of school)
Fingers clenched into the back of Jonathon's shirt as Dinah peeked around him at the guy outside. Golden blonde bangs obscured one eye, but she watched him carefully with the other, swallowing nervously. The guy kept glancing behind him, and the Lord only knew how many bodies were coming out of the wood works with all this.
With the intense guilt of the deaths of her teammates and friends still fresh in her heart and spirit, Dinah pulled the knife from her boot and ran to the barricaded door. Pushing against the stuff placed there, she made just enough room for the guy to come in. "Put your weapons on the floor."
Shauna Kelly: That helped, thank you
Oct 4, 2021 14:40:44 GMT -5
Ayita Hunt: dang, January was my last post.. Jeez it's been a hot minute. o7 guys, sorry for the complete disappearance, life got.. a little interesting this year.
Oct 18, 2021 22:34:19 GMT -5