INBOX TRANSMISSION: @unpossession: Caught sneaking a peek at anybody here through a gap in the door at Zero’s.

Roxy stands over Zero’s bed, one hand on her hip while the other wearily rubs her temple. Sprawled beneath her gaze is Zero himself, asleep—or more like passed out—on the mattress, limp body tangled up in sheets and comforters, one arm dangling with elegant drama off the edge of the bed. With an abrupt, violent exhale—one part sigh, two parts huff—Roxy rubs her face with both hands. Then she pulls her phone from her pocket and sends a text, beginning to pace in a small, aimless circle. 

Her third time around, she looks up and sees Willow through the door. Her eyes sharpen immediately.

          “You,”          she says, aimlessness swapped for intention as she marches closer.          “Have you been here all day? Do you know what he’s taken?”

She makes it a rule to know as little as possible about Zero’s revolving door of conquests. It makes it easier to fuck them over the way she often has to, and most of the time they aren’t worth getting to know anyway. Willow’s one of the ‘lifers’, as she calls them, so she’s a little more familiar with her, but not by much. She’s read the book; it was good. Mostly she knows her like this, lurking around the edges, trying and failing to seem normal. 

@unpossession SAID:   "What happened to you?”   ☣︎   send a MESSAGE?

          “Loaded question. What d’y’ mean, exactly?”

He’s been MIA for a while. Maybe that’s what she means: What happened, where did you go? He normally answers her calls. For a while he couldn’t, and then when he could he barely had the will or energy to talk to anyone at all. He’s been out of work for a few weeks now, Clover taking care of the store, Ana handling everything with the dogs, and he hasn’t talked to anyone about anything. He hasn’t even been hitting up the dive bars the way he usually does when he’s gone quiet and dour. 

Or maybe she means it in the heavier sense, the hushed question offered to a sallow-faced soldier. A respectful, reverent way to inform somebody that they look like shit and it’s obvious there’s a reason why. 

"I wouldn't dream of it, baby, I promise."

He knows the difference between the movements of the damned and the movements of the living by now, or he thinks he does, at least. It’s been so long since he has seen anyone else that sometimes he is worried that he won’t know the difference when it matters. The city is full of those shamblers, but it’s also full of medicine and maybe even unafflicted folk — he has to try, doesn’t he? To find someone. ANYONE. He feels like the last people he saw were the doctors that his family made meals of.

When he saw @unpossession dart across the street, pursued by a good handful of the dead, he didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate — he exited his camper, grabbing an empty glass beer bottle to toss the opposite direction. The shatter was just enough noise to draw them away, to distract him as he snuck inside the building, where the petrified girl hid herself.

“ Hey, mama — I ain’t here to hurt you — and I know you might be too scared to believe me when I say that right now but we ain’t really in a position to discuss that right now — ” his tone is hushed. He crouches down to stay out of sight of the windows, “ if it’s supplies yer lookin’ for, I can help you get them, but we gotta scoot before they come back a’sniffin’. I gotta ride outside we can run to, alright? ”

   ⋆⁺₊⋆🪦  ⋆⁺₊        “  i  know  that  you  don’t  trust  me,  and  i  understand,  but  can  you  trust  me  enough  to  believe  me  when  i  say  you  should  have  that  looked  at?  ”       jun  points  at  the  wound  running  down  the  palm  of  @unpossession's hand.  to  him,  it  looks  like  she  was  trying  to  slice  a  peach  in  her  palm,  though  he  wasn’t  there  to  see  what  really  happened.  either  way,  he  fears  infection.  it’s  summertime,  everyone  is  working  with  their  hands,  and  he  imagines  she’s  not  going  to  stop  just  because  of  a  cut.

“  i  have  disinfectant  and  sterilized  bandages.  i  can  help,  if  you  let  me.  ”