"I wish, Ruby. But I guess you never really know someone." Perry said in a quiet, cold voice. A contrast to her usual calmer and playful one.
Ruby looked absolutely dejected. Even though Perry might've been the closest to Nicole, Perry felt bad for Ruby and Christian more so.
The drive was silent, as none of them dared speak, or break the silence.
Ruby and Christian were uncharacteristically quiet, though, so was Perry. It was reasonable. Nicole was indefinitely a part of their group and him leaving them like that wasn't a part of their plan. Not in a million years, they would've never guessed Nicole out of all of them would leave.
Through Perry's head, she wasn't sure what to feel, yet felt nothing but sorrow and anger. She didn't and failed to understand how and why Nicole had left them, for some measly other humans who had done nothing but cause him pain.
Through Christians mind, he couldn't help being both angry and upset. Nicole was his first best male friend after middle school. He actually took a liking to Nicole, though he met Perry through Nicole, he'd say it was worth it to earn a friend and get a foe at the same time.Afterall, there was still Ruby and Nicole to stop them when they fought. At least the majority of time. But not to mention, he was also seething somewhat, since it hurt him more than he'd like to admit, seeing Ruby so depressed and dejected, because of Nicole.
Then, lastly through Ruby's head, she replayed all the times she and Nicole had talked, and all those times he seemed to get flustered near her. She couldn't bear it. Not to mention the question, 'why would he do that?' couldn't be answered for her. She didn't dare ask. She felt the tears, her vision blurring. She blinked, and there her tears fell.
"Did we bring any supplies. .?" Eli's voice cut through the silence. It stayed quiet for a moment.
"I don't think anyone thought of that in the heat of the moment." stated Axelle.
"Ah. . . yeah I guess that's outta be true," Eli replied, going silent again.
"Well what's the plan?" Waylen started, still driving.
"Im not so sure. . . Where's there to go in the first place?" Axelle answered, scrolling through her phone uninterestedly.
"Ugh. This is the worst. Shouldn't we do something? You know. . about the organization. We can't just keep letting them take people. We can't say for sure who has been and who hasn't been taken already." Ruby uttered, still looking more dejected than she ever has.
"I doubt there's anything we could do about it. Right now, at least." Waylen replied.
"But, maybe we can do something about it."
Axelle spoke up, putting her phone down. Perry, Ruby and Christian exchanged confused glances.
"Mate, you can't just say something like that and not bloody elaborate." Eli scoffed, glancing at Axelle through the rear view mirror.
"Well. .what do we know so far about them? Or more specifically, what do you guys know about them?" Axelle turned to the two at the back and me.
"They've settled in triplets house, they have approximately. . . 7 or 8 members so far." Perry explained to Axelle.
She sighed.
"Who? What triplets?" Axelle asked with a confused expression.
"Well, a while ago, me and Christian met some blue haired boy on the street. And. . He kind of followed us in, I guess? We were settling in an apartment looking for Ruby, at the time. And when we found Ruby, she coincidentally met one of Mavericks' sisters, Rexine."
"Wait, wait— why were you looking for Ruby? Where was she?" Axelle asked, still looking a bit puzzled.
"Well. . I got kidnapped, in short. And, kinda lost." Ruby replied.
"Honestly, Ivy? She's. . long story short, in the organization. Which the other two siblings didn't believe and left on their own." Perry finished explaining, sitting sideways on the seat, facing Axelle.
"That Mave dude, he was kinda funny, honestly. I miss his jokes." Christian spoke up.
"What jokes?" Ruby asked bluntly.
"He made a bunch of jokes around me. I'm not sure about you, though." He said in his usual cocky tone.
"Huh. . ." Ruby muttered under her breath.
"Anyways, yeah. Also not to mention, Nicole once got caught by them, the organization. And got experimented on, so I genuinely have no idea why he'd leave us for them just like that." Perry explained further, looking back.
"Even if it was for his sister."
"And he said they've had a GPS tracker on him this whole time. It would've been no use running away each time."
She continued explaining softly. Nicole was a part of their group. And most importantly, their friend. Perry's best friend. Perry would think she knew him, she really hoped so, at the least.
"Bloody hell. ." Eli said, subconsciously listening in as well.
"Yeah, what the heck?" Waylen answered second.
"So you're saying Nicole got caught by them once, technically got traumatized and still went back to them?" Waylen asked, clearly baffled, by the tone of his voice.
". . . yeah. He. . did." Perry replied solemnly in a lower voice.
The car stayed silent. Yeah, supposedly, everything all of this does sound fishy. Especially from people that Eli had just met. Not to mention, in this situation.
"That guy is bloody insane." Eli muttered under his breath.
The ride after? Stayed silent, as if hit by the harsh reality of this situation. Ruby seemed pretty tired. She would have her head resting against Christians shoulder, looking at the floor. She looked guilty, as if she had done something wrong. Which, of course, she hadn't. Nicole and Perry had been friends for almost 4 years now. She was still completely in denial and shock. Perry didn't want to believe it. She'd much rather just imagine Nicole didn't just leave them.
The wheels of the vehicle and occasional groaning of zombies were the main sounds in the back as ambience. It's a few minutes past 7pm, the sun now mostly set.
Christian had his arms crossed, looking out the window with Ruby on his shoulder. Axelle, she was. . annoying waylen. As she'd do any other day.
"Jesus, woman! Stop it. I'm trying to drive." Waylen said, trying to shoo Axelle's hand away from his hair.
Afterall, Axelle and Waylen don't seem too bothered by Nicole's decisions. Well. . though, supposed they aren't that close to him like Perry, Ruby and Christian are. It's reasonable.
"Wait. . guys!!" Waylen suddenly exclaimed loudly.
"The street lights! They're working!" He added, driving past one of the street lights slower so we could see them. And they didn't have to get close to realize that. The roads were illuminated with dim street lights.
Axelle stopped her handiwork on Waylen's hair, now instead looking outside at the dimly lit streets.
"Holy– you're right!" Axelle replied.
Ruby could be heard trying to shift around, taking a look outside herself as well.
"Does that mean there'll be internet. . ?" Christian spoke.
"Yeah. there is." Ruby. . . said. She looked no better, still just as dejected. There really was no other word for her state.
Maybe depressed. She even lost her energetic voice. Otherwise she'd be elated that the internet was back. Ruby had her phone in hand, looking at the screen pressing and doing nothing with it. It fell to her side.
It broke Perry to see the once energetic and happy Ruby like this— it would make anyone feel bad for her. Perry and Chistian knew she liked Nicole— more than just a friend. Then for Nicole to leave them like that, it must hurt Ruby more than she's letting on. Yet if Nicole came back, she'd happily forgive him.
She's too nice for this world. If Nicole were to take advantage of that, Perry knew not what to feel. But one thing's for sure. She'd 100% defend Ruby.
Then, Axelle was the first to take out her phone. Though, as for Eli, It didn't look like he had one.
Perry did the same, just to check.
Yup.. signals back on track.
Now. . . they'd just need to go somewhere they would get the internet.
"Where do we go? We need somewhere one of us has the internet at."
Perry just looked through the billions of notifications she had gotten before the electricity went out 3 months ago.
Then. . one caught her keen eye. One from her mother.
Perry checked the time that she had received it, it was around 7pm, the day the apocalypse started.
"What. . ?" She quietly muttered to herself.
Perry read the message, her eyes scanning quickly over the dozens of messages her mother had sent. Her mother, allegedly, hid inside a convenience store near a city Perry and her family had lived in the past. More specifically, the one the group was currently leaving.
Would it be smarter to message her back and wait decades for a single reply, or go to the address she sent me?
Perry weighed her choices.
"Perry? Is something wrong?" Asked Axelle. Indeed, Axelle noticed Perry's tense expression, and looked concerned for her.
Perry smiled it off, hoping Axelle would drop it. She didn't like discussing her family situation or relations to others, only people that knew were Ruby, Christian and Nicole. The only people she'd cared to explain to. Well, mainly only Nicole and Ruby. Christian just happened to be there when Perry had been talking about it to Ruby.
"No, nothing. Don't worry about me." Perry said through her not-so genuine smile.