Chapter 7

Gradient's P.O.V

Outside, it was early morning, but still dark. No stars, moon or sun were in the sky. I hadn't gotten any sleep at all. It was too difficult with the image of those poor kids being shot right in front of my eye sockets. I was too scared to fall asleep, so I just stayed by PJ's side. Through the long night, I couldn't stop glancing over at the other glitch curled up in the corner. He was so quiet and his gaze kept darting around at everyone cautiously.

"So, is your name short for somethin'?" Fresh asked PJ.

PJ nodded. "My full name is Paperjam."

"That's totally rad, brah."

Oh yeah, and Fresh has been flirting with PJ all night. Ironically, PJ seems completely fine with it. He's certainly more talkative all of a sudden. I took glanced again over at the glitch. He happened to be looking up at me and he quickly diverted his gaze to the floor. I decided I'd ask about him.

"Excuse me, Fresh? Who's that?"

Fresh looked to where I was looking. "Them? Oh, that's Bluescreen. He's a shy dude."

"Bluescreen...he isn't very talkative."

"He's a victim to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Took FC weeks to get a little whisper out of him. He doesn't talk to anyone but her now."

"Oh...Poor guy...How old is he?"

"Same age as you, broski."

Sixteen. I felt so sorry for him.

"Is it alright if I try talking to him?" I asked.

"Go ahead. I don't think he'll say anything."

I got up and slowly walked up to Bluescreen. He watched me more cautiously, scooting away a bit when I sat down close to him, but not too close.

"Hi. My name is Gradient." I held out my hand. "Your Bluescreen, aren't you?"

For a good ten seconds, Bluescreen just stared a my hand. I wasn't expecting him to shake my hand, so I was surprised when he started slowly raising his hand towards mine. But his hand was trembling from the sheer thought of physical contact.

I quickly pulled my hand away. "You don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with."

A glimmer of relief passed through Bluescreen's eye lights and he pulled his hand back.

"Could you tell me how long you've been here?"

Bluescreen thought for a moment. He then held up three fingers.

"Months?"

He shook his head.

"Years?"

He nodded.

"Wow...don't you want to be safe in a survivor camp?"

He shook his head again and hugged his legs tighter.

"Are you afraid that some people there aren't...safe?"

He nodded. It's more then likely that he had grown up being unable and afraid to trust anyone. I couldn't imagine how scary it must have been.

"Is it alright if I sit here with you for a bit?"

A moment of thought later and he nodded. I smiled, knowing I had at least made a bit of progress with him.

As the sun rose over the horizon, I gazed upon it's stunning, bright colours. Behind the wall, you never get the chance to see the sunset. But there was one time. As a Christmas present, Mum and Dad took PJ and I to the top of the wall, just before the light. We sat there together in silence as the amazing hues rose from other the trees and painted the skies. Seeing it again was comforting.

"What's with the colours in the sky?" Desire asked.

"The sky turns those colours at the beginning and at the end of a day." Westy explained.

"It's so beautiful...It's a shame you can't see it behind the wall at home."

Moon mumbled something about it just being colours in the sky, nobody listened. All conversations changed subject when our truck, along with the rest, came to a slow stop.

"Why have we stopped?" Sprinkle asked.

Fresh shrugged and took a walkie-talkie out of his pocket.

He spoke into it. "FC, why aren't we movin'?"

FC's voice came through. "There's a big group of infected deer blocking our way. We're about to shoot a flare, so we'll be on the move again soon."

"OK, thanks brah." Fresh put the walkie-talkie away. "Don' worry, we'll be movin' soon."

As he said that, the sound of a gunshot went off. Looking out the window again, I saw a bright flare fly into the sky behind us. Then the sound of thousands of footsteps from a large animal. Very slowly, hundreds of rotting, infected deer trotted uneasily past the trucks. Nobody dared say a word as the deer snarled at the one-way view windows and occasionally pushed each other to the side.

It was at this moment that I fully realised we were in the real world now. This wasn't like the stories I had been told where everything goes the good-guy's way and in the end there was a happy ending, this was the reality where every second you spent out in this zombie wasteland could be one second closer to being eaten alive. It chilled me inside to think about the possibility of being turned into an infected and eating my own friends. Unfortunately, it seemed some in the group didn't get that this was how it was. Sage made some joke to Moon about the deer and Moon had laughed at it. I didn't understand how they could laugh at a time like this.

Eventually, the deer passed and the trucks continued on their way. I glanced over at Bluescreen, who looked back at me with a worried expression. Yet it looked like he had seen all this a hundred times before. I wasn't ready for what the future held for us now.