Apocalypse Life/Issue 15

Previous Issue - Endure

Issue 15 - Noisettes
Apocalypse Life Issue 15 – Noisettes The two of them moved, with Liam taking the lead, and Julius following closely. The walkers trickled down in each block they passed by. Liam kept a straight path, only turning left twice. Julius continued to stay quiet, even if Liam tried to spark a conversation.

“Haven’t you asked yourself... if I’m to be trusted?” he asks. The question seems to get Julius’s attention, as he stops looking away and turns to him. He looks, waiting for any further words.

“Well… are you?” Julius replies. Liam’s mouth shapes into a semi-smirk. “Aha! I knew I’d get you to talk.” Julius rolls his eyes, and resumes looking at the distance in front of them.

“Well, for starters… I probably would’ve drugged you by now. Or… my posse would’ve come and ambushed us.” Liam turns to the gutters and alleys they pass by. Only a single walker was present in one of them.

Liam makes a left on the nearest turn, and starts speeding up his walking. “Sometimes I ask if we’re the last ‘good’ people in the world…” he says, looking at the street sign standing in the same sidewalk they were in. The names “Noisette” and “Lavender” were displayed crisscrossing each other.

“… but then I keep forgetting the city’s pretty big. So I’m sure it’s not just us.” He notices Julius looking at him. “I mean… I found you. You were willing to help.” Liam turns around, and starts walking backwards, looking at Julius.

The surroundings consisting of tall, concrete buildings start to shorten, and gain more color. Some of them, consisting of triangular roofs, were squeezed in together, while others were separated by wide gutters.

Liam stops in the middle, in front of a tall, ruby-colored rectangular building. Short rows of shrubs stood in each side of the railed gate. Liam stands in front of it, while Julius stood beside him, away from the gate’s view.

An old woman suddenly walks into view, looking at Liam first, then glancing Julius. She looked extremely bored for some reason.

“He’s cool,” Liam tells her, glancing Julius once. The old woman then unlocks the gate, and pulls it toward her.

Julius enters shyly, as he follows Liam in front of him. The old woman watched him as she held the vertical rails of the gate, looking as if she was a prison inmate. Her eyebrows were slightly pulled down to her eyes.

“That’s Barb,” Liam tells Julius, looking at the old woman, as she closes the gate. Julius waits to get her attention.

“Julius,” he tells her, laying out his right hand. The old woman pauses, looks at the hand, and nods. Now she looks relaxed and a bit surprised, opposite from the weary look she had earlier.

The ground they stood in was decently large, fully walled by a thick, cement half-wall. A few oversized plastic toys were scattered on the grass area, near an old set of an outdoor table and chairs. There was a lack of trash lying around, as opposed to the street just outside of the gate.

Two large trash bins, blue in color, rested a few feet near the stairs toward the entrance of the building.

“C’mon, you’re gonna want to meet the rest,” Liam says, getting Julius’s attention. They both climb up the stairs, while the old woman, Barb, sits on one of the white, rusted chairs. - To be written.