Helium
It had been about three weeks since Lottie received the bows from Natalie. She wore them basically every day, keeping her bangs out of her eyes—for the most part.
Lottie wasn’t too sure what day it was. She knew it was some day in June, they had left May 19th. Or was it the 20th? Lottie had a hard time remembering, but it had been a while.
News reports were heard on the radio very rarely, from the ones still airing. Natalie had found a radio in some home she was searching through with Travis a couple days after they got all that hunting stuff. Lottie was bothered by Travis’ presence around Natalie. She felt as if he was a threat.
She didn’t know why, though. Of course she didn’t.
Lottie and Natalie talked way more now than before. The bows had acted like some kind of turning point, Lottie always said. She was still obsessively protective, but was managing it better as to not anger Natalie again.
She couldn’t help but notice how strangely flustered Natalie felt around her. She tripped over her words, fidgeted, made stupid jokes. Lottie would’ve probably thought more into it, if she wasn’t blinded by her own nervousness.
What a dance it was.
Lottie was sat, legs up, on the couch in the living room. She was near dozing off, but trying to stay awake in case she was needed for anything. Things moved much smoother since Coach Scott started walking again. Travis found him a crutch when they cleared out a pharmacy.
Javi was sat on the floor in front of her, doodling away in a sketchbook that Shauna found for him in the attic.
Lottie had thoughts of her medication, she knew it would’ve probably been somewhere in the pharmacy, but she couldn’t have asked for it. It wasn’t like it was a public thing that they all knew about.
She had her worries, the visions were gradually getting worse, but she was doing her best. The prescription meds that Lottie had brought with her were still tucked away in her suitcase, most likely rummaged through.
Natalie and Travis visited the airport about a week ago, trying to find their missing stuff, but it was too overrun with the zombies and too big of a risk for them. A lot of the girls were upset by this, but Lottie was just extremely worried.
She was too caught up in her thoughts to notice the shadow looming over her, ruffled blonde hair hiding the light that was previously glaring in her face.
“Wake up.” The girl hummed.
“I’m up—Natalie?” She raised an eyebrow, sitting up as she eyed the girl.
“Heyyy, so, me and Travis just got into a screaming match a few minutes ago... So, he doesn’t want to come on the run with me today.” Natalie sighed, sitting down beside Lottie with a grunt.
“Oh, man, what was it this time?” Lottie tilted her head, they were always arguing.
“I don’t know, I made a joke about how bad he smells—a JOKE, mind you—and he got pissed.” A small snicker from Javi sounded from behind the coffee table.
“What a man.” Lottie rolled her eyes with a humorous sigh. “You can’t go alone. Are you just going to skip it for now?”
“Well... I was wondering if you wanted to come? I mean, I know the scavenging and going through houses isn’t your thing, but I was thinking that maybe we could go look through the forest for a river of some kind?” She asked, “Then Travis can actually bathe.” Natalie added with a smirk.
“Oh, uh... I guess so, yeah, that sounds like fun.” Lottie smiled awkwardly. She was still yet to spend any time one-on-one with Natalie.
“Great! I’ll be waiting outside whenever you’re ready.” Natalie grinned widely, “Nice hair, by the way.”
Lottie looked down with a smile as she listened to Natalie walking away. She stood up, wobbling a little before she shook out her legs, stretching upwards with a pleasant hum.
She moved towards the bedroom, grabbing the bow and quiver she had found a few weeks prior, slinging them both over her shoulder before making her way outside before being stopped.
“Lottie? Where are you off to?” Van asked, stepping into view with her hands behind her back.
“Oh, me and Nat were just about to go looking for some kind of stream or river.”
“Hmm, I see.” A cheeky grin grew on her face. “You and ‘Nat’ alone?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah? What—why are you looking at me like that.” Lottie’s face scrunched up.
“Oh, no reason.” She stepped forwards, putting a hand on Lottie’s shoulder, “You’ll learn when you’re older.” Van winked before fading back off around the corner.
She was weird.
Lottie sighed, shaking her head, trying to clear the interaction out of her mind as she walked out of the front door. Nodding to Natalie as she perked up. “Hey! You ready?” The blonde asked cheerily.
“Yeah, yeah let’s go.” She responded kindly, following Natalie’s lead as she took off down the porch stairs.
The first few minutes were quiet, filled with side-eye glances and soft chuckles.
“So, Legolas, where the hell did you find a bow and arrow?” Natalie asked, breaking the silence.
“Leg—whatever.” Lottie began, sighing. “I found it, I walked down the road for about an hour and checked around all the houses I came across. It was in somebody’s shed.” She smiled, proud of herself.
“What? Why did you go out on your own? You could’ve died!” She whisper-shouted, eyes narrowing as she pushed a branch out of her face with a grunt.
“I was fine, I didn’t go inside any of the houses!” She defended herself, laughing.
“Whatever. Take someone with you next time.” Natalie huffed. Lottie didn’t respond, just smiled in her direction sweetly before staring back ahead. A ruffle sounded in the forest, causing Lottie to tense up, freezing in place.
“Lot—what’s wrong?” Natalie whispered.
“Did you hear that?” She responded anxiously, looking around wildly.
“No. No, I didn’t hear anything... What is it?”
Fuck. Was it real? Did Natalie just miss it? Did Lottie imagine it? She had to stay on guard for now, but she could play it off. “Never mind. I’m sure it was just an animal or something.” An unsure grin plastered itself onto Lottie’s face, and Natalie gave her a curt nod.
“Okay. It’s alright.” She responded, rubbing Lottie’s shoulder slightly before continuing. She really had to stay alert now.
As they continued their trek, Lottie heard faint sounds of a stream. She ignored them at first until Natalie piped in cheerily. “Hey! Do you hear that?” She asked, picking up her pace.
“Yeah, yeah I do.” Relief washed over Lottie as she sped up into a jog to keep up with Natalie.
They kept the pace up as the sounds got closer and closer, until the trees cleared and a small river cut through their path, water trickling down rocks from a cliff higher up.
“Fuck yeah!” Natalie rejoiced, dropping her backpack on the floor as she walked over to the water, running a hand through it. “It’s warm.”
At that, Natalie started removing the dark t-shirt she had on. Lottie’s face went a deep red as she stared. Is this actually happening? Lottie asked herself, watching as Natalie removed her shoes and waded into the water, face filled with nothing but joy.
“You gonna keep staring, or are you gonna join me?” Natalie called out, causing Lottie to cough nervously.
“Fine, fine.” She mumbled, quickly dropping the bow and quiver down on top of Natalie’s bag, removing her lime-green cardigan and docs before joining Natalie in the water with a squeak.
“Liar! You said it was warm!” Lottie gasped, goosebumps rushing along her skin.
“Oops, my mistake.” Natalie responded, lips now a soft shade of pinkish-purple. With a smirk, Lottie dipped her hands into the water, lifting them up as she aggressively splashed a wave into Natalie’s face.
“Ohh... Sorry, my bad.” Lottie said sassily, lips upturned.
“Oh, you little bitch.” Natalie gasped, looking like a raccoon who had been in the rain too long.
“You got a little—” Lottie pointed under her eyes, gesturing to the running mascara. “How do you still even have that? Didn’t you lose your bag too?” Lottie raised an eyebrow as she made her way back to the grass, sitting with her feet in the water.
“Well, I always have some on hand.” She shrugged, giving not much of an answer. “Travis asked that too, he asks so many questions, y’know?” She continued. “Like, you wouldn’t assume that of him, but he really does. They’re usually all dumb ones, but he likes to talk.”
“Cool.” Lottie responded bluntly. She didn’t want to hear about him.
“I thought so too. He was the one who came up with the idea for the weapon room, did you know that? He thought it was dumb to have them be easily accessible, so when we got back from our second trip to another hunting store, he cleared out the bathroom.” Natalie rambled. Lottie only got more annoyed.
“Wow. Really cool, Nat.” She hummed, mind wandering. It really annoyed Lottie when Natalie talked about him. She wanted her to talk about Lottie. She wasn’t jealous though.
Which is what she would say.
“Yeah.” Natalie grinned. “Lottie? Lottie look—”
Before Natalie could finish, hands grabbed her from behind, growling blared into her ears as Lottie let out a frightened yelp, trying to claw her way out of the situation. The weight of the decaying man on top of her was too much.
Tiredly, Lottie swung a fist at him, connecting it with his jaw as she failed to wriggle out of his grasp again. She desperately reached for her bow before it disappeared in front of her.
Just as she was about to completely give up, closing her eyes, she felt something splatter against her face with a sound of air whipping past her.
The body on top of her dropped, going limp right on top of her. Lottie’s face scrunched in disgust as she rolled him off of her, panting. When she turned, Natalie was standing with the bow in hand, frozen in place. A look of fear was evident on her face.
“Thank you—that was a great shot...” Lottie managed through nervous breaths, sitting down as she wiped the blood off of her nose.
“Y-yeah... Thanks.” Natalie stammered, making her way over to the girl, crouching down as she reached out and grabbed Lottie’s chin. “Let me help.” She whispered.
Strangely, Lottie’s heart was beating faster now than it was when she was moments away from dying. “O-okay... Okay.” She stuttered, eyes fluttering as Natalie’s hand brushed against her cheek, wiping away the red that was staining her face.
“There, you’re good.” She smiled briefly before sitting beside Lottie. “That was scary.” She hummed.
“Yeah, it was.” Lottie agreed as she tucked her knees into her chest.
Natalie began shuffling beside her, and it took Lottie a minute or two before she managed to look over; the girl was fixing up her makeup with a damp eye pencil.
“Where the hell did you get that?” Lottie chirped.
“Uh... In my pocket?” Natalie responded sheepishly, pausing what she was doing to glance over at Lottie.
“Wh—nevermind. How are you even doing that without a mirror?” Lottie tilted her head as she noticed how nicely she had applied it.
“Oh, muscle memory, probably.” She shrugged, going quiet for a moment before a smile found its way to her lips. “I can show you?”
“Show me?”
“Like, I can do it for you.”
“You’re going to make me look emo?” Lottie giggled.
“First of all, it’s not emo, it’s goth. Second of all, yes.” Natalie winked.
“Fine.”
“Great!” Natalie immediately spun over to sit in front of Lottie, arm propped up against her knee as she smiled at Lottie. “Close your eyes.” Lottie obeyed, letting her eyes flutter shut as she felt Natalie’s cold hand brushing against her face, black pencil finding its way onto Lottie’s lower eyelid.
They continued like this for a while, Lottie occasionally opening her eyes which always resulted in equally red faces and small grins.
Right before Natalie finished, Lottie accidentally opened her eyes to reveal Natalie’s face extremely close to her own. Natalie’s breath warm against Lottie’s skin. Her breath hitched momentarily as their eyes met, causing something to get caught in her throat as she attempted to choke back a cough.
She failed, and ended up backing away in a fit of coughs, pencil gliding off of her skin in a messed-up swoosh. “Shit—sorry.” Lottie croaked, nervously eyeing Natalie again.
The blonde was laughing way harder than necessary, which made Lottie smile. “You messed it all up!” She snickered, rolling her eyes. Natalie stood up and ran over to the river, dipping her hand in it quickly before running back, rubbing the smudge off of Lottie’s face quickly.
“Thank you.” She giggled. “Should we start getting back?” Lottie asked, staring up at the darkening sky.
“I didn’t even realize how late it was getting—yeah, we can fill up some of the bottles and then go.” Natalie said as she grabbed a couple of water bottles out of her backpack, handing one to Lottie.
After they finished, they began off in the direction they came. They got a little turned around somewhere, and found themselves near a cliff. “Uh, do you know where we are?” Lottie asked, looking around for anything familiar.
“Not exactly, but we should find the road if we continue in that direction.” Natalie replied, pointing off in the distance.
“Okay, whatever you say.” Lottie nodded, but before they were able to continue, two zombies stepped out of the trees, groaning loudly. Flashes of Lottie’s dream replayed in her mind.
Her heart raced as she subconsciously stood between Natalie and the zombies. She reached behind her, grabbing out one of her homemade arrows as she loaded it into the bow, pulling back the string.
The arrow whooshed through the air, slicing right across one of the zombie’s ears. This wasn’t enough to kill it. Only anger it. With a disgusting roar, it bolted towards Lottie before being intercepted by Natalie.
“No—watch out!” Lottie yelled as the second one ran towards Natalie. Lottie jumped to her feet, pulling it away. It was far stronger than her. Her hands pushed against its chest as she was forced backwards, step by step.
In an attempt to push it off of her, she fell backwards. Instead of falling back onto the grass, she kept going.
The last thing she heard was a faint “Lottie!”
Then there was an excruciating pain.
And then, nothing.