#nbeopen

“Look, it’s not my place to say it because I never knew her,” she paused. The atmosphere had altered drastically with the latest loss, something of which many had opted to bury than allow it to consume them. “But we should have a right to mourn the dead and at least consider a funeral.”

Hazel eyes shifted towards the other, taking in the distant expression and how their line of focus appeared glazed underneath the veil of a dark night. “Wherever your mind’s at must sure as hell beat this current location,” she mused, fingertips coiling around the neck of a plastic bottle. “Look, if you need some rest, I don’t mind waiting out here on my own.” 

“With a face like that, it’s almost as if somebody died.”

The outstretched road, cluttered with abandoned cars and a mere obstacle course for his own, would remain to be their home for the night. It was an easy escape from oncoming infected, as well as offering necessary fuel and abandoned tools which could be used for their survival. With that in mind, fingertips rifled throughout his glove compartment, observing necessities he’d kept from the old world; a single pistol, a map, an aged novel and the like. It was scrap he kept whenever they were required, as if he never expected to find their use in dystopia. However, with a square jaw and the insistence to heed his curiosity, dark eyes eventually fell across what he required: a spray can. 

“I thought late hours meant privacy, not a communal gang bang.”

"Well, at least we’ve all been given an early heads up for our impending death,” he paused, extending his arms outwards with the mere familiar expression of his signature smirk. “Whilst we’re at it, let’s go shake Xylophone’s hand right now and tell him to look out for all of the fuckin’ Disney Princesses for attack.” With each leisurely step, Cole pursued towards a nearby couch in the community centre, dropping himself onto the seating arrangement. “Shall we start diggin’ those early graves now, or have we gotta play on the optimism for a little while longer?”

“Do you always creep up on people, or am I just the lucky victim?”

“Looks like someone’s never seen a naked man before.”