Dead Weight/Issue 4

## Summary

Sally wakes up covered in rubble and surrounded by the undead. When she thinks all hope is lost, her guardian angel falls from the heavens.

## Story

“Hey, Jessica” Sally smiled as Jessica headed towards her bedroom at the far end of the corridor. She stopped in her tracks to give a polite smile and wave towards Sally. “How is he?” Sally asked, turning to walk with Jessica.

“He’s fine. Just needs to get some rest that he doesn’t want. He’ll come around eventually.” “It’s worrying, when they’re always on watch, looking out for you. I guess it’s a good thing.” “It would be if he stopped for a few hours, but he’s always up there...”

That was the last thing Sally remembered before the screams echoed around her. The sound of flesh being ripped from the bone as the undead swarmed the warehouse. She knew it was too good to be true. How a safehouse in the middle of a crowded town would be unsafe after the living dropped like flies. Sally jumped over a fallen piece of wood as a boy ran right behind her, she headed down a hallway until she reached a door and yanked it open, revealing several different types of guns.

“We need to get out of here we can’t dilly dally around!”

“Shut up Jon, get a gun!” She ordered the boy, who groaned loudly and reached for a gun, pulling it off the rack and they both began running down the hallway again.

“I swear, this is the last thing we’re going to do.”

“What are we even going to do?!” Jon questions as they reach another room.

“We’re going to blow it up.” Sally tells him, opening the door. Jon looked down the hallway and spots stray undead hobbling towards them.

“Holy shit, Sally, you can’t blow it up!” Jon shakily yells, holding out his gun and firing at the undead, they drop to the ground as he hits them one by one.

“Just give me a sec!” Sally yells back, analyzing different types of wires on a small device and trying to figure out what to do. She actually had no plan, this is just the best one that came to mind. Blowing the dead up would be helpful, right?

“SALLY!!!!” Jon yelled out as his gun began clicking, his ammo running out.

“Hold on!” She growled back, fiddling with the mechanics until she found a correct solution. She jumped out of the room and grabbed Jon’s hand, dragging him down the rest of the hallway. As they’re running, a group of the undead come around the corner, fresh blood coating their teeth.

“In here!” Sally yells, running out of options as she rips open a closet door and running inside. Jon, although halfway inside the room, get’s caught by one of the undead. He begins yelling as it tugs on his clothing and wrapping it’s cold, dead hands around his wrist. The other group closing in, Jon lost grip on Sally’s hand and tumbled backwards, the door swinging shut behind him as she tumbled to the ground, landing against the shelves in the closet and causing multiple things to fall on top of her as the screaming and flesh tearing sound rings through her ears, blood trickling under the crack in the door. She squeezed her eyes shut, cupping her ears as she used her feet to push against the door so it doesn’t open. Sally didn’t know what she did, first she was holding an explosive and the next minute she was sitting inside a closet right next to the place she set the explosive off. At Least if she died she would have done something good in the end. She would have put all these innocent people out of their misery… Or she would have murdered an entire group of p--

A loud explosion cuts off her thoughts as her ears ring out, she feels herself being thrown across the small closet like someone had ran her over with a car. She felt the walls crumble around her and the sounds of the undead ceasing to exist.

Her vision was blurry, her body aching all over. How wasn’t she dead? How did she survive? What had she done wrong? … Or right?

She lies there, not knowing what is going on in her life anymore. Her body numb. She could be being ripped apart right now and she wouldn’t even know until shock had settled in and she fell unconscious due to blood loss. But no, she hadn’t died. Her vision was distorted and she could see smoke clouding around her. A hand lying just in front of her, blown off from her body… Or was it somebody else's body?

Sally felt like she was hallucinating as a black figure approached her. She blinked roughly a few times as she felt herself slipping out of consciousness. She re awoke only seconds later, her head rolling to the side as she inhaled loudly, the figure plunging a knife near her head only to hit another head that had been decapitated from another body that hadn’t quite died yet. Sally’s eyes traveled up to see who it was but she couldn’t, the person having a hood over their head. That was it, this is when she dies. Everything leading up to this had been hell and she felt this was the grim reaper welcoming her into the gates of heaven. The person turned to look at her, Sally could spot a blonde hair draping down past the hood.

“J-Je--” She couldn’t get the words out as the person pulled their hood down, she lost consciousness…

Sally’s eyes flickered open, rather heavy and weak from the events that transpired when she was last awake. In front of her is a dark night with a lone fire burning away. A woman sits on the other side, her face lit up by the flames. Sally realises she’s never met this woman before, the woman she was most likely rescued by. She wants to move but her body tells her no, she’s stiff and every inch of her body seems to burn with ache. The woman’s eyes flick upwards to Sally, the girls locking eyes. Sally doesn’t know what to say, can she even talk anymore?

“Wh--” Her voice is stale and hoarse. The woman stands up, knocking her hood off her head as she searches in a bag and brings out a bottle of water.

“Here.” She says, holding the bottle out towards Sally and using her other hand to offer her support to sit up. Sally wraps her hand around the woman’s and she helps her pull her up. Sally takes the water bottle shakily in her hand and slowly drinks it, her throat hurting to even swallow. The woman watches her, sitting back on the ground next to Sally.

“Are you okay?” The woman asks, her voice as quiet as a mouse. Sally swallows roughy, regaining her thoughts. She just ends up weakly nodding. “What’s your name?” The woman asks, taking the bottle of water as Sally passes it back, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and clearing her throat slightly, pulling the blanket around her over her shoulder some more.

“Sally.” She tells her, looking at her. “What about you?”

“My name is Bri.” She tells her, Sally squints, she hadn’t heard that name before so she must not have come from the community. “I pulled you from that building. It was on fire. I heard an explosion.” Bri explains.

“I know. I blew it up.” Sally tells her, “I was hoping to kill the undead.”

“You didn’t do much damage.” Bri tells her, pointing at her. “Except to yourself.”

“I’ll be fine.” Sally tells her.

“Maybe... Here,” Bri reaches down and pulls out a small pack of pills, passing them over to Sally. Sally looks down at them. “They’ll help with your pain.” Sally nods, taking the pills with her left hand, her right currently throbbing in pain.

“I think I broke my arm.” Sally mentions, popping a pill out of the packaging and taking it without water. Bri raises an eyebrow, her eyes trailing down to Sally’s arm.

“Maybe. I don’t think so.” Bri says. Sally opens her mouth to say something but ends up feeling nauseously dizzy, she tips forward, Bri managing to catch her before she tumbles face forward into the fire. “Are you alright?” Bri asks worriedly. Sally mumbles something before blacking out completely, again.

Bri places the back of her hand on Sally’s forehead as the sun rises over the hills. She bites her lip as the girl lies asleep on the ground. “Please wake up, Sally.” She whispers, her hand trailing down to touch her cheek which was wet and rather uncomfortably hot. Suddenly, Sally snorts, her eyes squeezing shut as she begins to wake up again. Bri removes her hand from Sally’s face and sits back, tilting her head and watching as she wakes up. Sally is a little creeped out by the stranger staring at her as she wakes up. She begins coughing loudly as black gunk falls from her lips, landing in the leaves below.

“Sorry, I woke you up.” Bri says quietly. Sally shakes her head weakly, pushing herself up from the seat.

“No, It’s fine. I might not have woken up if you hadn’t done anything.” She half smiles, rubbing her eyes and face.

“I wanted to start moving again.” Bri tells Sally, “Are you able to move?” Sally sighs, stretching out her legs but just groaning in pain.

“Not really.”

“I helped you along last time, your arm around my shoulder.”

“You could do that again, or you could just leave me here. It wouldn’t be too bad.” Sally suggests, Bri furrows her eyebrows in confusion and slight anger.

“No. I wouldn’t leave you.” Bri tells her, standing up and hovering over her, holding out her hand for when Sally was ready.

“Why not? I lost my best f--” Sally says, but is cut off when Bri grabs her hand and starts to pull her up, causing Sally to begin yelling in pain instead. “Hnngn, Fuck!”

“I’m sorry.” Bri says as she wraps Sally’s arm around her neck, grabbing her supplies quickly and beginning to walk away from the small camp she had set up, Sally practically singing a tune in the form of painful yelps. “This was much easier when you were asleep.” Bri complains.

The girls continue moving through the bumpy landscape of the forest. Sally had passed out several times throughout the journey. The sun beats down on them and finally, Bri stops to rest on the side of a road.

“Hey, Sally,” She carefully moves Sally and places her on the road, crouching in front of her. “Sally, hey! Wake up!” She says slightly louder than the quiet voice she previously spoke in. She takes the water bottle and pours some water in her hand, wiping her face down from the black marks from the fire. Sally mumbles slightly, jerking forward. Bri tumbles to the side, out of the way as Sally vomits on the road. She groans loudly as she throws up three more times. Bri shuffles over to Sally’s side and awkwardly pats her back, gently. Once Sally stops, leaning back again, Bri sighs.

“Are you alright?” Bri asks. Sally nods, rubbing her mouth with the back of her hand.

“This is so dumb.” Sally says, groaning loudly again as a tear falls from her eye.

“Are you crying?” Bri asks, Sally shakes her head and raises her head to look up at the sky, rubbing her eye. “I’m sorry.”

“Can’t you just leave me here.” Bri shakes her head, smiling lightly.

“Why?”

“I’m too much work.” Sally shrugs, stretching out her legs.

“No you’re not. Come on.” Bri says, standing up and holding out her hand.

“Where are we going?” Sally asks as Bri pulls her up and holds her up.

“I don’t know yet. We’ll figure it out.” Bri tells her.

The two girls begin walking along the road again, heading towards the beating sun.

## Cast

* Imogen Poots as Sally Middleton
* Andrea Boehlke as Bri (Debut)
* Hunter Parrish as Jonathan (Debut)