Ugh...You Again (Raven and Richard)

Raven hadn't quite believed it when she had seen the things on the television set this morning in work. As always she had arrived early to the staff lounge area, dropped her shit off and gone to have her breakfast and watch some T.V. before she had to go down and begin the daily drudgery that was working at Hot Point.

Running her hand across her face had made her clear her thoughts, made her realise this was probably some prank or a misprint in the autocue that kept mentioning zombies.

It was when they had started bursting through the front door of the shop that she had finally seen them for herself, and had decided that she had better do something about getting out of this goddamn city. Now as she ran through the streets, trying to get onto quieter paths she saw literally dozens of the things and she wondered how she had missed them this morning.

Gritting her teeth, Raven kept on jogging, keeping a steady pace for when she might need to sprint to get away from some of those things. She was heading to Briony's house, she needed to know if she was okay. True they had broken up and she was with someone else but they were still friends, and she still wanted to save her.

Holding her two iron bars in her hands, that she had ripped off a clothes rack to use as glorified baseball bats, Raven started up the path and hoped to God that Briony would be okay. Knocking softly on the door Raven whispered;

"Bri...Bri it's Raven. Open up."

Richard had never really been someone who put a lot of faith into Hollywood or things like that. When Hollywood said the end of the world was coming it usually came with hordes of shuffling (or sprinting) infected individuals which were commonly known as zombies. It was complete bullshit and, quite frankly, insulting to use the term which had come originally from Voodoo, a practice deemed to be a religion by many.

But here he was in a world where zombies were real.

And in a world where zombies were real, other things from zombie movies were real too. The desperation created something in the fellow man that was not to be desired at all. So when Richard had figured out their were zombies walking around, he immediately rushed him to warn his girlfriend Briony. She was on her day off after all and might now have known.

He had found the house with a smashed back window and found his girlfriend with a single gunshot through the head.

Richard had hugged her close to him in numb shock for a few moments before he had started crying over her. That had been almost two hours ago now. When the knock on the door came, he stood up slowly. His light grey suit was darkened with blood as he opened the door for Raven,

"Raven..." he whispered, his voice hoarse and his eyes red, "They killed her Raven... some fucking.... low life... SCUM!"

He reacted violently to his own retelling, opening the door fully and slamming it so hard against the wall that it vibrated violently. His eyes closed, he swallowed,

"Living room... she didn't suffer..." he looked up at Raven, "Say goodbye to her..."

Raven blinked when the door opened and it was Richard.

That in itself was not anything out of the ordinary but there were so many details wrong with this picture that made a cold fist clench around her heart. The blood on his jacket, the grief clearly showing in his eyes in the redness. Richard had obviously been crying. The fact that it was him and not Briony who had answered the door, when Richard should have been in work.

Of course when he actually told her that Briony was dead, Raven looked at him like she didn't quite believe what she had been told. Frowning softly, Raven stepped further into their home almost in a daze, the whole world was slowing almost to a stop as she rounded the corridor just enough to be able to peer through the doorway into the living room.

"No...no I don't believe you, t-there..." she stated, trying to make herself stronger by reassuring herself this was all some sort of wind up.

There she was though, Briony, lying in a pool of her own oxidised brown blood a single shot to her head. Raven's mouth dropped open, her hands flew to cover it and she dashed towards Briony. Small noises of shock and grief escaped her lips but there was nothing that could cover the sheer magnitude of loss she felt.

She had lost a love, and a friend of years all at once.

"Oh my god...Bri." she whispered, gently smoothing her hair away from her forehead "I'm so sorry babe, I wasn't here to help you. I love you." Raven pressed her nose to Briony's and let her lips gently kiss her nose afterwards. There was too much blood on her forehead for her to kiss.

Standing, she made her way numbly towards Richard out in the hall; "I...I can't believe she's gone."

Richard didn't blame Raven for not wanting to believe him because if the roles had been reversed he would have wanted nothing to do with this. This was... this was just wrong! Briony was not meant to die. She was supposed to outlive both he and Raven and here she was... cold as the grave and just as dead.

While he had had a little while to grieve, Raven hadn't had it yet and Richard would not let her go without it.

She needed the chance to say goodbye.

When she stumbled back into the hallway he was still there, just slumped against the wall as he thought about how his world was crashing down around his ears. He swallowed thickly and nodded,

"I know... but..." he closed his eyes, "Let's take her upstairs... put her on the bed."

He entered the living room and picked her up gently, holding her with the greatest of care. Carrying her slowly up the stairs, he laid her down on the bed and carefully folded her hands over her chest. Before he did anything else though he took a necklace out of her jewellery box and fished a black ringbox out of his pocket. Setting both in one of her hands, he paused, the moans of the undead getting closer,

"She deserved better than this..." he whispered before turning to Raven, "Do you have a lighter? I don't want one of those... things... to take her..."

Raven couldn't bring herself to think practically about anything to do with Briony, but she was glad that Richard could. The idea of moving her to a nice place to finally rest in, was something that didn't cross her grief stricken mind and although she didn't spend the amount of time she had wanted by Briony's side she knew that it would be impractical to be waiting for hours here when they needed to get out of this place as soon as possible.

Following numbly up the stairs to Briony's bedroom, Raven looked down at her lying on the bed and she felt a lump rising in her throat. She needed to cry but be damned if she was doing it in front of Richard, perhaps though there was no choice?

When he picked out the jewellery she took them and actually dressed Briony in them. Fastening the necklace around her neck, and slipping the ring onto her finger. Smoothing her hair out around her, trying to obscure the wound as much as she could - it was hard though when it left such gaping wounds in the side of Briony's head but Raven did her best.

"Uh yeah." Raven sniffed, wiping her nose and blinking some tears out of her eyes as she was broken from simply looking at Briony laying there "Here you go. We should get what we need from the house though first, we dont want to be trapped here when it starts burning."

Tossing Richard her zippo lighter, Raven began to take some clothes that Briony had borrowed from her that she could take with her, as she placed them and some shoes into a duffel bag, Raven paused and picked up a few nicknacks; a picture of her and Briony in a popsickle frame, souvenirs from their holidays together and a few letters.

Richard looked down at Briony now that she was wearing the necklace and the ring. The ring was from him, it would have been her engagement ring. The necklace she had told him was one of Raven's old ones that she had kept to remember the woman when she had been unsure if they would be able to stay friends.

Nodding slightly as he caught the zippo lighter, Richard idly began flicking the cap open and then closed. He did this while staring, unblinkingly, at Briony for a moment,

"Mein got vas Briony..." he muttered to himself, "There ist nein got now."

Shaking his head, Richard gathered up a backpack of his clothes and also tracked down a baseball bat and a butchers knife. He entered the bedroom again with two bottles of vodka and immediately began to pour the drink all over the bed around Briony. He couldn't bring himself to pour it on her. It was for her funeral pyre, not for the body itself. He set his backpack on right and held his baseball bat in one hand and the lighter in the other,

"We need to go... I crashed my car in my haste to get home." he told Raven with a frown, "We need to get out of here... Briony wouldn't want you dead and I intend to keep you alive."

He flicked the lighter open when Raven was ready, the flame flickering. Looking at Briony, he swallowed,

"Goodbye meine liebling..."

He dropped the lighter and the alcohol began the fire brightly as he stepped back to leave with Raven,

"We have to leave..."

Raven had gone through the grief of losing Briony as a lover months ago when Richard had come onto the scene but that didn't make her death any less painful for her now. There had always been a hope that there might be something in the future for them, and if not their friendship would definitely be continuing. Now...now there was nothing. There was never going to be anything else, just the memories that she had.

No more texts, no more wall posts or PM's...that was just...it.

Watching Richard preparing Briony to be sent off, Raven bowed her head and she muttered a few small prayers, she didn't know if it would have meant anything to Briony herself but, she just wanted to make sure that she would be getting to heaven. If there was a heaven.

"Goodbye...Bri." Raven whispered softly "I'll see you again." she murmured in goodbye, her eyes not leaving Briony's form as Richard flicked the lighter onto her body and the flames began to engulf her body sending her off to her eternal rest.

As she ran down the stairs, grabbing a few things from the kitchen - she didn't know what the food situation was after all, and made her way outside, to the porch area of the house. Waiting for Richard, Raven looked around and saw her apartment block in the distance maybe they could hole up there for a while?

"We should stick together, I think it's what Briony would have wanted, and we'll survive longer if we stick together rather than splitting up." Raven murmured softly "My apartment complex isn't too far away to make on foot...or we can try and steal a car and get somewhere further, try and get out of town maybe?"