Dead Weight/Issue 30

This is the 30th Issue of Dead Weight. It is titled “Death, Love and Peace”.

Faint whispers, Silent cries, heavy breathing.

I don’t know how long it’s been, but since Mel got ill, everything has gone wrong…

Mel has become increasingly better and worse in the last few days, her temperature rising and dropping.

I don’t know how long it's been since I seen a drop of rain, the sun has been beating down and it hasn’t been good for living conditions.

Eight have died of this mysterious infection, we’re trying our best to cure it or find new hope..

''I don’t see any coming soon. ''

Lexy closes over the journal, wrapping the pink faded ribbon around it and storing it inside the desk. She leans her head in her hands.

“You coming?” A voice asks from the door, she turns to see Katie standing there, smiling slightly. Lexy nods, getting up from her chair and following Katie outside.

Flake stood at a large pile of bodies, he held a large stick, Robbie stood beside him, looking over the pile of corpses, the blood that ran from their bodies only left a heap of pale, cold, ill survivors that nobody could heal. Lexy frowned as she came closer to the bodies, her stomach lurching as she seen the faces that she’d grown to know. She couldn’t bare to look around at the rest, as she turned her back on the pile and leaned her head in her hand.

“Who is it?” Katie asked, circling the pile, the stench reaching her nose, causing her to choke. Robbie shook his head, rubbing his chin. He began to list off the different names that lay in the pile of mangled corpses.

“Charlie, Jemma, Peter, Elzia…” Robbie trailed off. Flake, obviously seeing the tears forming in his eyes, patted him on the back and sent him away. Katie’s eyebrows showed her clear emotion, distress.

“They’re all children” She blurted out. She put her hands on her hips and sighed. Flake cracked his neck, taking a deep breath to continue.

“We don’t know how well Mel is doing, if she is doing well at all. Her children might also be affected, we’ve taken them away from Mel for now, unfortunately…” He stopped to rub his eyes, blaming the sun, he continued.

“Bri is sure that we’ll beable to find something to stop this in due time. She has been out everyday trying to collect herbs or… Something to help us. I don’t know.”

“She IS bright” Katie nodded in agreement. Flake shrugged, throwing the stick on the bodies and setting them aflame.

Bri hopped out of the bushes, scanning the ground and going on all fours, she tracked along the dirt path. Her eyes wide and her grin growing as she stumbled across a small cottage. She looked back to see no sign of the camp she originated from. Her eyebrow raised as she got up on her feet again, walking towards the door.

The cottage sat beside a small stream running down hill. It was out in the open, surrounded by a forest of trees in the distance. It looked untouched for weeks or maybe even months.

Bri pulled out her knife and placed her dusty hand on the doorknob, causing the large spiderweb tangled around it to be brushed off. She pushed open the door with ease, it was unlocked. The cottage looked smaller from the inside.

The cottage was littered with trash, newspaper lay across the ground and stains of liquids and blood splattered across the house. Bri walked, crunching against glass shards that littered the ground. She took her knife and scraped the bottom off the mirror, it screeched. She then took the blade and smashed it through the mirror. She waited for the dead to appear.

Nothing, not even a growl or a cry. Not even the sounds of a Hello?

Nothing.

Bri turned to look at herself in the mirror, this had to be the first time she hadn’t run into danger while outside her camp. She looked at herself, the blood and dirt that ran through her hair caused her to raise her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side, she bit her lip and sighed. Her face was covered with dirt and her clothes didn’t even seem normal anymore. Her once white top faded to a horrible grey and her skin that had a layer of dirt in every hole and crack it could fit into. The cracks in the mirror showed a disorientated version of her. She twitched her eye. Smiling.

Scarlette sat with her legs crossed inside the small room surrounded by dusty and dull toys. The three small children rolled around her as they picked up toys and threw them across the room at eachother.

“Chloe! Don’t bully your brother” She joked as she performed an act with two of the dolls for them. Making them do back flips and rolls.

Levi sat in the corner of the room, rocking on an old, wooden rocking chair. He was staring out of the window on the wall opposite him, rubbing his thigh constantly throughout the day. Scarlette grabbed Lacey;s hands, dancing with her as they sat on the floor, she giggled with delight. Levi watched, tensing up as they did so. He kept his eyes on Scarlette with his sister. Something about Scarlett gave him a worrying feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.

Bri kicked open the bathroom door, her eyes wide and smiling as she walked inside. The bathroom was a shade of yellow, but it was obvious that it was originally white. The bath seemed clean but the sink was stained red. She reached up and pulled open the cabinet doors that sat above the sink. Several pill bottles tumbled out with a rattle.

It was overstocked, someone was bound to live here. She grabbed a few bottles and examined the labels. They were ordinary for headaches and chills. She stuffed them into her small satchel and left a few bottles inside before slamming the doors shut again. She walked out silently, looking around in the bare hallway. She pulled out her knife and started to pick away at the peeling wallpaper with it.

Then the sound of a car rolled up outside.

Flake walked around the outside of the camp, taking deep breaths in the fresh air. He leaned down into a patch of pink and purple flowers and brushed his hand over them. A small insect crawled up onto his finger, as he brushed it off, he sat back on the grass. Watching as a line of ants crawled down the dirt in front of him. He sat in peace, relaxation.

Maybe this was a side effects of dying.