Paper Conquest

[D/N]

(Deanna Hull continued from A Hot Air Balloon with a Rusty Nail)

Deanna glanced out the guardhouse window and saw the sun still ascending.

It was late morning. At least, she guessed as much. Hey, did she still have that clock she'd stolen from the gift shop?

Dee felt that was a pertinent question. So she twisted the strap around her shoulder, brought her bag in front of her, and spent all of ten seconds going through the desolate remnants of her stuff. It was gone. Another thing to the list of "too bads" she'd been building up for the past week. Too bad there was no more alarm clock. Too bad there was no more birdseed. Too bad.

She pulled the tire iron out instead and tested it in her hands. Still had that, but Christ it was heavy. Probably accounted for like 90% of her supplies weightwise, without it she could barely feel the bag across her body.

"Kyran?"

The back of her throat felt cold. Not hot with sickness anymore.

Dee had other friends, too. They were dead, the ones who'd gone on the trip. Too bad she hadn't thought about them much these past few days. Pushed them out of her mind. She'd been more distant from a lot of them her senior year. Spent too much time with Mac. For a few months they'd been one of those couples that seemed attached at the hip around school; they'd meet up between classes so he could spend 30 seconds walking Dee to her next one, that sort of thing. They'd gotten a few laughs and portmanteau nicknames. Hey it's D-Mac coming your way, gonna stop off at Mickey Dee's after school?

One of the first good friends she'd made at Aurora was Janie Sinneave. Janie was dead; Ben Ward killed her and then he'd died like three people later. Venice had died way back on the first day or so; Dee knew Venice through swimming and they'd gotten pretty close. Sunny Lee, who did comedy at some of the same spots Dee and Mac went to; Dee didn't even remember how or when Sunny died.

And Kyran Dean, had been killed by Joe Carrasco.

"Fuck, I don't even believe in it but... Kyran everyone I'm so fucking sorry."

And now she was standing around this rusted-out guardhouse, taking in a bit of shade and weighing a clunky weapon in her hands, and talking only to Kyran while mentioning anyone else as a selfish afterthought. Well, too bad.

Too bad she didn't fucking care if it was too bad.

Dee gripped the tire iron and lifted it like a baseball bat.

"Did you try to do that thing we were supposed to be doing Kyran?"

She'd doubled back to the guardhouse after she and Ruby had agreed to split off for five minutes or so, and quickly see if anything worthwhile was around. Dee's search had been fruitless, and looking out the window again and seeing Ruby returning less anything or anyone new, Dee figured it had gone the same on her end.

So yeah. Unless she felt like sticking around and maybe changing into some tattered cheapo security guard shirt, it was time to leave and explore the southern part of town.

(Deanna Hull continued in Broken Hearts of Gold)