Broken at the seams

Alice felt cold as the scene around them went silent and all eyes landed on them. “Fix him. Fix him.” she snivelled and grasped at him as she scooted away, not wanting to leave him alone. She never wanted to leave him. Alice loved him and he was perfect and he made her so happy, and it was so scary to think that one little thing could take that all away from her. She watched intently as her hands glowed over his body, silently praying to some god that it was working. 

Alice didn’t want to process what was happening. She didn’t want to think about Eli… Going away. But she couldn’t just leave let his request go unanswered. “Yes. Okay. I will.” the girl agreed and nodded though they were blatantly empty promises. “I promise.” she swallowed, though everything was dry. Her mouth felt like cotton and her throat was sore and her hands shaking as his eyelids fluttered up and down unsurely like they did when he was sleeping. “Okay, okay.” she frowned and bit her lip, her whole body feeling empty and gutted. “I love you, too.” Alice blubbered, squeezing him tighter as his chest slowed and his hand fell. 

Eli was floating upward, it felt like. Flying upward into beautiful dazzling light and everything stopped aching and his chest stopped feeling heavy. He could breathe though he felt like he didn’t have to and at the end of the light was the smiling face of his mother, his sisters. Everything felt right for those few beautiful seconds. He was reunited with those he lost but he felt like he lost much more back on the ground where he was lying, hurting. But he had to smile at his mother, hug her tightly and make a scene of it because he’d missed her so much. His sisters too even as they infultrated his moment with his mother and wrapped their arms around them as well. His mother cupped his face in her hands and kissed his forehead.

Eli sucked in a breath but it didn’t relieve him as much as it usually did. It was like breathing air into a balloon with a hole in it. But he kept inhaling anyway as if one breath would matter and he’d feel the relief he longed for. Eli knew it was hopeless, he knew he was dying. He didn’t know how to tell Alice that as she told him to stay and maybe he wanted to. But it felt physically impossible. His body felt heavy and he was starting to go numb. Eli could feel himself going, but there were things he had to say.

For lack of a better word, Alice totally thought this was bullshit. Not only was she the worst fighter in history, she didn’t even like it. The thought of hurting someone else was kind of gross to her, and she’d rather get lightning bolted to death than shock someone into oblivion. But now she didn’t really have a choice. She was completely blindsided, and really, the best she could do was duck and run around and try not to die. 

Eli felt like he was floating. Floating but in excruciating pain. Maybe his friends were shouting his name but it was simply bouncing off him like pebbles off a window. His eyes were closed and Eli felt like he was going, felt his mothers embrace, heard his sisters laughter and it was a beautiful sound. But it didn’t last long and he was crashing down again, sucking in shallow breath after shallow breath as his body burned. Eli’s eyes popped open as warm fingers stroked his face and a voice entered his ears. An important one that made his eyes search for her face.

"Oh!" the blonde bubbled as she was held tightly against his chest, her heart beating in her ears as he rambled. She happily hugged him back, her arms slinking around his waist as she got comfortable in the spot. She was glad that she was alive, too. Though she didn’t remember being dead. "Zombies?" she questioned incredulously, her arms wrapping around her body where his once resided as he stepped away. "There weren’t any zombies out this morning. Are you having nightmares, Mr. Flame?"

Eli rolled his eyes, trying to recover from his very unmanly outburst. "I don't run from nightmares, Alice," he muttered as he peeked around the tree. This wasn't how he wanted to wake up. He liked what had become normal mornings of either him reaching out and waking Alice or even her waking up first and waking up to her -- annoyingly yet adorably -- jumping on top of him telling him it was morning and to wake up in a sing song voice. Not that Eli liked her or anything, that was a ridiculous thought. 

Alice stared up at the disappearing stars as she tried her hardest to count the, but ended up blinking away straining tears from looking at something so bright. She loved how it look out here. How calm and peaceful and serene it was. Besides the flesh eating zombies everyone and a while, of course. Alice would be lying if she had told anyone that she didn’t mean for them to get lost all the while back. She’d also be lying if she said she hated the company of Eli and all his being. Also that she hated his hot hand touching her in the morning. That would be an enormous lie.

Eli was sort of in shock because the girl he thought had died was standing in front of him. He was set on blaming himself for the rest of his life for being a heavy sleeper and not hearing her leave. For not being there to protect and save her. But here she was, alive and saying annoying things about the birds he doesn't care about because she's alive. Before his brain registered what he was doing, Alice was locked in his arms and a breath of relief escaped his parted lips. 

Because I can only tell at sunrise.

Yeah, okay. Whatever, let's go west or whichever way. We're already lost, why not get more lost. 

We have to go west. We went east.

Did we now? And why didn't you realize this while we were going east?

We’re not lost.

Oh really? Then why don't you tell me exactly where we are and how we get to the highway? 

"Oh. Sorry." Alice quickly covered her mouth and ducked her head, cheeks turning red though unnoticible in the deadly dark. The blonde tsked her tongue and shook her head at his comment. They might’ve been able to die at any second, but that was no reason to be so negative. It only made her want to feel more cheerful. If she was going down, she was going good. 

Eli rolled his eyes as she apologized, not that she could really tell in the pitch black. Alice knew how to get under his skin in a way he didn't understand and it was annoying. She was too happy, too cheerful, and way too touchy feely for his tastes and that alone should turn her off to him. But he found himself not always completely hating her presence. And that bothered him because Eli hated everyone and there were no exceptions. 

Alice sat on the branch of the tree, her backpack threatening to send her over the edge as her back tried not to give out that very second. She’d been there for a good few hours, too chicken to do anything beside singe leaves and watch flesh eating zombies moan and trickle by as she tried to figure out a way out of her predicament — which was harder than she had initially thought.

Eli opened his mouth to insult her more because she'd literally scared the shit out of him. But, suddenly her arms were around him and whatever insult was about to fly out of his mouth fell short. Eli didn't really know what to do. He'd lost touch with his affectionate side when he lost his family, so he wasn't exactly keen on having this girl touching him. But something told him if he'd been scared navigating through the dark forest on his own, she had been twice as scared.