After dinner, they head to their separate rooms. Jordan doesn’t fall asleep until almost one in the morning, his emotions running wild in his chest. He breathes in time with the lyrics he’s trying to remember in his head, tries to not startle each time he hears Sebastian’s footsteps in the hallway. Tries not to flinch at the slam of a door, or the sound of the toilet flushing.
When he finally falls asleep, his dreams are restless and unforgiving. Jordan wakes at least four times in the night, blinking blearily at the alarm clock before he returns to his sleeping state. It’s not the ideal, but in the end he’s just grateful that he got any sleep at all.
The next morning, Jordan sits on the edge of his bed, gazing out the window at the world outside. There are dark clouds on the horizon, smoke rising from the south. He smacks his lips as he watches the airplanes whooshing through the air, as he hears the sounds of explosions and sirens in the distance. There are helicopters up there, too, spinning around an area at the edge of the city. He wonders what they’re doing; if they’re trying to pick somebody up or lure zombies away or something.
Curling his lips into a grimace, Jordan finally stands. He pads over the carpeted floor and changes out of his pajamas, pulling on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Dressed, he then heads to the bathroom to take care of some personal business that really isn’t anybody else’s to critique.
Then he goes to the kitchen, padding down the staircase and slowly turning the corners.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
It’s almost twelve in the morning. Jordan got up about half-an-hour ago, but he spent more time watching the outside world through the window than he’d thought. So the sunlight that isn’t hidden by clouds is already shining through the windows as he glances into the various rooms. He can hear the sound of music growing greater the closer he gets to the kitchen. It’s another classical piece, he thinks.
”Good morning,” Jordan says as he steps into the kitchen. It’s as disorganized as always, with the toaster on the counter and the water-cooker working at full steam to heat up the liquid inside. Jordan eyes Sebastian’s back, the man in the middle of pulling two slices of bread from the toaster.
Sebastian turns and smiles at him. ”Morning, Jordan,” the man says, and he doesn’t sound as sad as yesterday. Doesn’t stand with his back so hunched.
Jordan gulps, then smiles. He walks up to Sebastian and cocks his hip on the kitchen counter. ”Room for one more?” he asks, tilting his head back. He stares up at Sebastian’s soft eyes, and his stomach clenches on nothing. Then it growls, because he hasn’t had breakfast yet and he’s hungry.
”Of course,” answers Sebastian, still smiling at him. Jordan watches him get his breakfast in order and places everything on the table, then begins to make second plate for Jordan. Meanwhile, because he feels being entirely passive, Jordan gets warm instant coffee thanks to the water-cooker. He sips at it, sitting down on the table and closing his eyes briefly as he breathes the smell in.
With the music in the background and coffee in his hands, the smell of toast in the air, it almost feels like nothing’s changed.
Like the world is still whole. Like Jordan’s life hasn’t fallen apart truly ridiculously. Like he could open his eyes and Andrew and Jules would be right here with him.
Like everything is still okay.
But of course, it’s not. When he opens his eyes again, he can still see zombies out the window, can still hear the sound of explosions ringing loud.
Sebastian sits the plate down before him, then sits down on his own chair. ”Did you sleep okay?” Sebastians asks as he picks up his own cup of instant coffee.
”Not really,” Jordan murmurs. Then he adds, seeing the frown on Sebastian’s face, ”As well as could be expected, I suppose. You?”
Sebastian swallows his sip and says, ”The same. My sleep was… nightmares.” Sebastian pauses, takes a bite out of his toasted bread and Jordan does the same, unconsciously copying him, and then once he’s finished chewing Sebastian says, ”I—” There’s another pause. Jordan can visibly see Sebastian changing what he was gonna say, but he doesn’t interrupt. Sebastian continues, ”I’ll be heading out today again. You’re welcome to join if you’d like, but it’s gonna take a while.”
”Oh?” Jordan raises his eyebrows. ”What are you gonna do?”
”I’m building gates throughout the alleyways so that we can box zombies into different areas. It’ll be much easier to clear the surroundings.” Sebastian practically glows as he reveals his plan, visibly waiting for compliments.
Jordan dutifully provides them, of course. ”That’s a great idea,” he says, smiling. He takes another sip of the coffee before it goes cold, then adds, ”I’m sorry but I don’t… I don’t think I’m ready to go out again. Will you be alright on your own?”
Sebastian nods. ”It’s no problem. I’ve got everything I need, you don’t need to come with me. I just… wanted to make it clear that you can, if you want to.”
”Thank you,” Jordan murmurs. He bites down on his toast and chews with his mind another mile away. The idea of Sebastian going out alone again is, obviously, unpleasant. It makes his stomach roll, makes his feet tap on the floor. He doesn’t like it, doesn’t like it all. But—he needs… some time to get his footing around zombies before he goes out again. It was fine yesterday, it really was, there was no problem at all. Everything went great. As great as it possibly could.
Yet. Still. He needs some time to come to grip with it all over again. Jordan doesn’t really know why, but he does. And, crucially, if Sebastian is going to be building something, it’ll be pretty loud, right? It’ll attract zombies.
Jordan isn’t ready to fight them.
Thanks for the chapter ~ I hope Jordan can train or something I feel like he’s being very emotionally impacted and it’s not getting any better 😰
Just found out that this novel was deleted 😭