Dead Weight/Issue 3

## Summary

Robbie and Jessica get settled inside the camp. Flake and Grace discuss a scavenging group while a little girl introduces herself to Jessica.

## Story

Jessica, unlike Robbie, lay awake most of the night. Tossing and turning as the night went on. It was always like this, she could admit that much. So much had changed that even her sleeping pattern couldn’t make it better. She found herself sitting up, hanging upside down on the couch, lying with her face hanging just inches above the ground and even curled into the fetal position. Nothing she did was making her feel better or tired.

She felt herself slip in and out of sleeping a few times through the night but many times only for a few minutes before she was back awake again.

Soon enough, she saw the sun glimpse into the window. She groaned loudly and sat up, her hair a mess and eyes heavy. She looked around, almost forgetting where she was as she wandered into the very small kitchen. She spotted a bottle of water and took a small sip of it, despite it not belonging to her.

Scrap toddled towards Jessica, his claws tapping against the floor. She smiled at the dog, crouching down and holding the bottle towards the dog, tipping it down as the water slowly flowed from the top, dripping into the dog’s mouth, which he opened happily. Jessica giggled, finding entertainment in the dog trying to lap up the water rather quickly.

She stopped pouring, considering to leave most of the water inside the bottle for whoever owned it. She stayed in her position for a minute, crouched down at the dog’s height and slowly tickling the dog below the chin.

“Oh my sweet Scrappy, you’re so innocent.” She said quietly, her voice croaky. She slid down until she was sitting on her bottom against the kitchen wall and Scrap adjusted his position until he was licking her face, sitting right beside her. Jessica’s arm wrapping around him as they sat there, she didn’t know for how long but it only felt like a few minutes to her.

--

Drake climbed back onto the platform he stood at yesterday, taking post as guard. Swinging the rifle that Sabrina held yesterday in his arms and looking out on the horizon, he could barely see anything due to the trees but he knew there was nothing there. There never was anything there. They felt excluded from the rest of the world up there.

Robbie’s peaceful sleep was interrupted by the sun bouncing on his eyes, he covered them hastily and rubbed them with the back of his hand. Sitting up, he looked over for his sister, Jessica but noticed she wasn’t there.

“Jess?” He calls out, pulling himself off the couch and looking around the room until his eyes locked with Jessica’s body, sitting on the kitchen floor with her head resting against the refrigerator, Scrap lying across her lap and her eyes closed. Both sleeping soundly. He laughed a little to himself, deciding to leave them there to rest.

Robbie pulled on his shoes and pushed his hair back, heading towards the door and opening it. He looked out, stepping on to the porch and glancing around the camp. He noticed the back of the camp had no wall, which puzzled him as it seemed someone could easily get inside. He didn’t question it, not right now at least. He spotted a man walking out of the cabin in front of him.

The man looks surprised to see him, Robbie raises one hand to shield his view from the sun and used his other hand to wave. The man hopped down the stairs and headed over to him.

“Well, hello there!” He greeted, closing the large gap between them and standing at the bottom of the porch stairs.

“Hello, I’m Robbie.” Robbie introduces himself, holding out his hand for the stranger to shake it.

“Nice to meet you, Robbie. I’m Cooper Yaz.” He tells him, shaking his hand. “When did you get here?”

“Just last night, actually. Grace and Sabrina picked us up.”

“Ah. I’ve been here for a few weeks now, with my children. Grace was very nice to pick us up.” Cooper tells Robbie.

“She’s very outgoing, I see.” Robbie says, going down the stairs and leaning against the railing.

“Yeah, the kids love her.” Cooper tells him, the door to the cabin opens the Grace steps out.

“I thought I heard voices!” Grace smiles, tucking her shirt into her jean and closing the door gently behind her. “How are you today, Robbie?”

“I’m alright, actually. Sleep was good.” Robbie tells her.

“That’s great!” Grace smiles. “You should meet Cooper’s family! They’re very sweet.”

“I’d love to meet everyone around here, I’m sure Jessica would like to, too.” Robbie tells them.

“Pop by later!” Cooper says before departing from the conversation.

--

Grace and Robbie sat on a bench at the cabin’s door, Sabrina wanders over with a metal tray with four plates on it.

“Hey. I got you some breakfast.” Sabrina tells them, bending down and placing the tray on the porch top stair, sitting besides it and putting her head on her hand, leaning her arm against her knee.

“Thank you, Sabby.” Grace smiles, turning to Robbie. “Do you want to get your sister?”

“Yeah, I’ll go grab her.” Robbie stood, walking inside the cabin to wake up Jessica before the foursome sat at the door to eat breakfast.

Afternoon came, Jessica wraps her arms around her waist and begins wandering up the camp, taking a look at each area quickly. She kicks up stones, scratching at her cheek when suddenly a small girl comes skipping up from behind her.

“Excuse me!” She squeaked. Jessica turned, her eyebrows raised as the little girl stops in front of her, pushing her hair out of her face and holding a daisy in her hand. “My mama said that I should give you this.” She grins, holding up the flower. Jessica half smiles.

“Thank you.” Jessica says, taking the flower from the girl’s petite hands. “What’s your name?” She asks, looking down at the flower and then back to the girl.

“Molly! I’m eight!” She grins, playing with her skirt in her hand as she talks.

“My name is Jessica.” Jessica replies. Molly reaches out her hand.

“Come play!” She giggles, Jessica takes the girl’s hand and she leads her back down the camp.

Jessica is led to a place behind the cabin, finding a small campsite with a tent set up and a rollout bed on the grass. The tent is open, inside she can see two other beds and several bags and toys scattered inside. A woman sits at the fire in the center, a small girl napping with her head on her lap.

“Hello.” Jessica waves as Molly lets go of her hand,

“Mama! This is Jess- Jessica.” Molly tells the woman, she smiles sweetly at Jessica.

“Jessica! It’s so nice to have a fresh face around. I’m Mika.” The woman says sweetly, inviting her to sit next to her.

“Yeah, same to you.” Jessica sits next to Mika as the girl on her lap shuffles upwards, rubbing her eyes and fixing her hair.

“This is Sammy,” Mika tells Jessica. “You must have seen so much out there. Grace found you, right?”

“Yeah, actually. She did. Sabrina and her were happy to take us back, It was generous of them.”

“I’m glad to have you around. Tell me about yourself.”

Flake walked out of his cabin, ruffling his hair and adjusting it. He swung a small pistol in his hand as he wandered over to Drake, who was sitting on top of the guard post still.

“Do you need me to take over?” Flake yells up at him, Drake turns and leans over the wood, looking down at him.

“Yeah, actually. I really need to piss.” Drake says, putting his gun down and making his way down the steps.

“I thought so.” Flake says to himself, waiting for Drake to climb down before climbing up himself.

“You sure you want to??” Drake asks.

“Yeah, I want to talk to Grace. Could you go grab her for me?” Flake requests, Drake hangs his head for a second and rolls his eyes.

“Sure.” He agrees, saluting Flake rather awkwardly before turning and heading up the pathway.

“So you’re telling me you’ve never had a girlfriend?”

Grace and Robbie were in the middle of a rather in depth discussion as they chilled on the bench, Sabrina sitting on the porch stair, still, as she wrote in a book.

“No! Never, actually. I guess I’ve never had the time.”

“You’re so inexperienced! You’ve missed alot.”

“Oh please, It’s not like there’s much to experience.”

“Well. I can tell you” Grace laughed, leaning forward and pushing her hair out of her face. Her eyes flick up as she notices a figure walking towards her, Drake. “Oh dear.” She mumbled, Robbie looked over and thought for a second.

“Do you not like that guy?”

“No. Oh no, He’s great! We’re like two peas in a pod.” Grace said, rather sarcastically. “He’s alright.” Grace stands, wandering over to Drake who stops to wait for her.

“What’s up?” She asks.

“Flake wants to talk to you.” Drake says blandly.

“Did he say what about?” Grace asks, folding her arms. Sabrina looks up at they’re talking, tapping her pen against her lip.

“No. He just said he wants to speak to you. He’s at the gates.” Drake tells her before walking past her. Grace shakes her head, rolling her eyes and turning to Robbie.

“I’ll talk to you later!” She tells him, putting her thumbs up before turning on her heels and heading towards the gates. Sabrina’s eyes follow Drake as he walks away, squinting at him. It’s then silent for a few minutes, nothing but the birds chirping and Sabrina’s pen scribbling against the paper.

“What’s your story?” Robbie asks Sabrina, she jumps unnoticably and raises her head, darting it around to look at Robbie.

“What’s it to you?” Sabrina asks, subconsciously tapping her pen against the book she has. Robbie shrugs.

“I don’t know. I just want to get to know you all.” He tells her.

“Well. There’s nothing to know. Haven’t done much in the past two months,”

“What about before then?”

“Why does that matter anymore?”

Robbie sighs. “Because. It’s our memories that we only have left. That’s what Jessica used to say.”

Sabrina purses her lips, exhaling sharply through her nose.

“Well. I don’t know. I was just a high school student. Nothing much else.” She says before turning her head back to her book and continuing to write in it.

Grace walks until she reaches the gate, whistling a loud tune. Flake turns around and looks down at her.

“You wanted to see me?” Grace asks, leaning against the railing to the steps.

“Yeah.” Flake says, skipping quickly down the stairs until he reaches the bottom. “ wanted to ask you about that scavenging group. The only I asked you about last night.”

“You want us to go out sooner?” She asks.

“Well. It would be good. We’re running rather low.”

“Yeah, I get it. I’m going to ask Robbie and then we’ll head out first thing in the morning.” Grace tells him.

“I’ll come too.”

“Alright. That’s super, then!”

“We’ll bring Drake too.” Flake adds. Grace’s eyebrow raises and Flake chuckles.

“Well. Okay! I don’t mind that.” Grace smirks, Flake rolls his eyes and begins going back up to the tower. Grace spins on her heel and wanders back.

--

“Dad! Dad!” Yelled a boy as a girl pulled at his hair roughly.

“I told you not too!!” The girl yells at him, kicking him softly in the shin before letting go.

“What the hell is going on?” Cooper runs out, looking at the two as he passes a small boy on the way out. Robbie looks over in confusion at the scene as the girl had just chased the boy outside a few seconds ago right in front of him. Sabrina rolls her eyes and stands up, heading inside the cabin.

“He took my doll and now he won’t give it back! It’s the only one I have left!” The girl squeals angrily.

“Give her the doll, Mark. This isn’t a damn playground.” Cooper says.

“I don’t have it!!” Mark tells him, sticking out his tongue.

“Mark.” Cooper says angrily, losing his patience with the boy. Mark huffs and pulls the doll out from his pants.

“That’s disgusting!!” Amy yells, snatching the doll from his hand.

--- Grace skipped over to Robbie, leaning her whole upper body over the railing. “Hey you! Do you want to come out for a supply run tomorrow mornin’?” Grace asks him.

“Me? Oh. Sure, but why?”

“Flake wants to know he can trust you. It’s a thing he has. I guess he’s just paranoid or something.” Grace shrugs. “I get it though, he has the right mindset.”

“That makes sense. I’ll come with you, obviously I wouldn’t want to make a bad impression and get kicked out.”

Grace smiles. “Perfect!”

Mika coughed into a napkin, slipping it back into her pocket.

“Where’s their father?” Jessica asked, biting her nail as the two children made daisy chains just a few feet away from them. Mika frowned and sighed deeply.

“He, um, he died.” Mika says, Jessica frowns.

“I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s okay. He died before all of this, so in a way it’s good.”

Jessica smiles sympathetically to the woman.

“I just hope somebody is around for them when I go.”

Jessica’s eyebrow raises, she places her hand awkwardly on top of Mika’s. “There’s people here who will take care of your children. But you shouldn’t think of that.” Jessica whispers, taking her hand back off of Mika’s.

“I know. Sorry, I shouldn’t overflow you with emotional baggage.”

“No. It’s fine. I did it a lot with my friend, Sally.”

“Where is she now?” Mika asks after a few moments of silence. Jessica bites her lip.

“I’m not sure.”

Vision is blurred as a tall looking silhouette emerges from smoke. Their face unrecognizable as they approach. A person looks up from the ground, a loud yell as the person in front of them lunges forward with a knife, only to realise the person was stabbing into the head of something undead as it crawled towards them. The person reaches up towards their hood and begins to pull it down…

## Cast

* Drew Van Acker as Robbie Starn
* Melissa Benoist as Jessica Starn
* Unknown Dog as Scrap
* Allie Lewis as Grace Berry
* Brooke Hyland as Sabrina Berry
* Harry Styles as Drake
* Liam Hemsworth as Flake
* Ariana Greenblatt as Molly Timel (Debut)
* Sanai Victoria as Sammy Timel (No lines) (Debut)
* Nicole Beharie as Mika Timel (Debut)
* Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Cooper Yaz (Debut)
* Noah Schnapp as Mark Yaz (Debut)
* Malina Weissman as Amy Yaz (Debut)
* Brock Brenner as Harry Yaz (No lines) (Debut)
* Unknown as Hooded Figure (No lines) (Debut)