Fresh Static Snow [Caine vs Zombie Mitchell] Day 3

Red flowers and tiny dead bodies litter his vision for a moment, until it vanishes to the sun setting in the distance and a need for warmth once again.

A gentle twinkle of silver catching his eyes as the container falls into his calloused and cold hands with a thump. A package of emptiness that seems to leave his chest hollow as the cannons still ring in his ear of the dead before. Too many glances spared back to Cade and Maisie like each time he can't see them, the sound might go off in the distance like JJ's corpse had before. Sunlight dips to a solid disappearance as they march back the way they came, safety in the woods that bend. The feeling of being watched across his skin always when they first had gotten there, but at least firewood lays in there.

The tool to give warmth to the cold bodies they carry.

The package opens with a moment before it's just a rose with a small note tied to it. The rose of red color, like the flowers blooming around them. Another testament to how messed up his head was becoming at the thought of it being blood once again. There's a silence in the air that brings tension as he holds his breath. Note in hand as he unwraps the small paper with a gentle ease. The words catch his eyes with an icy chill that shakes through his throat to his chest and down into his stomach where it lays sickly. Truth or lie, he can't help but feeling like the world was bending in upon the paper as the focus was on the words by a capitolite.

Good work on the trap. -K.H

The cannon rings in his ear as a reminder of death hits him. There's no way that his own creation had taken the life of a living tribute. Deep down, he wanted to believe the opposite of what the note was implying, but blood was on his hands. Heart hammering away as the thought feels true in nature. Checking the trap was the only viable confirmation of the note's truth. A sigh fills his throat as tears threaten to drop. Ma never raised a killer. A killer is what he's become. A silence fills the air as he wipes his teary eyes mustering up a whisper to the air around him.

"Eyes are jus' watery."

---

The sun goes down as the fire is made from the wood Cade had carried from the forest of trees bending on a whim.

Cade had proven that even someone with nothing left for him could still keep up with the rest of them. A true friend that Caine's never had if he didn't count relatives that is. Cade's intriguing to him in all ways, just like Maisie, but all he can do is sit far away, listening to the snow around them and the sounds of the night. Family, friends, and himself sitting there watching the fire burn into smoke that rises to the sky in a mix of black and grey that reveal stars above. The moons dancing around one another as his heart beats slowly. Eyes glancing to his allies, Caine doesn't feel like speaking. The day before had been enough for him to feel like they didn't need to speak of the alpacas or the wounds that each of them patched up.

Silence, the best ally of all as he leans back staring at the sky above with comfort in his skin. Death waits for them with cold, icy hands, but he wouldn't let Maisie or Cade see them. Not as long as he was around, weapons in hand, rose in his nose as he gives it a whiff before tossing it in the fire. A reminder of the blood on his hands as he can feel it in his bones. The anthem glows across the sky with clouds moving away to the seal that haunts his mind. Fingers reaching out to dare to touch the sky like the dead may be able to touch back and feel at ease.

Which souls would never see home again?

Which soul had his own creation taken?

The first face is of Demelza Shim, pretty face, but haunting eyes. Had she been bloodied by the wooden spikes he made below? Had she lost her breath because of the rancher from a place filled with dust? He wouldn't know unless he made it out alive. Heart eases up as the face passes by in a quick succession of the sound that rings over head. Words aren't upon his lips as his eyes droop from exhaustion of no sleep. Demelza's haunting eyes following him for a moment in his exhale of air, until Vesper Daisy comes to light.

A small twelve year old girl who's blood was now on someone else's hands or may be his own. Had she been too naive and missed a step into wooden spikes or had others taken her with sharp blades and tired eyes? He wouldn't know unless they ran into anyone else. District Six would be mourning once again, that's all that Caine Winchester knew. A sigh comes from his chest as he watches stars twinkle into another face. C'rizz Moon's to be exact.

Another boy with strange beliefs that had lost his voice. More blood upon anyone's hands. A sickening sound in his mind comes forth as the image of spikes come forth with red covering them and the shouts of a living being begging to die quickly. As the face fades, he feels his eyes letting out emotions that anyone could see. Who cares if people think he's weak. Three souls would never be arriving home to family's that missed their children. Funerals to be planned and cold bodies to be retrieved.

Words come from his lips to no one particular in his group of him and Three.

"I think I killed one of them."

The clouds form with a sudden urgency that makes his head spin, until his eyes close.

Dreams of tears, flowers, and pain take him over until morning comes.

---

Orange and pink are the first things that he sees among the bending trees. A sunrise to give a gentle ease to the exhaustion that turns into a drowsiness of finally getting some sleep. Nothing beats a bright day in a place that feels freezing. The cold was not the normal temperature that he can remember. Ten's dusty streets and animal driven outskirts flash across his vision with ease. Abel, Jed, and his parents all greeting him in the slow wake of morning.

Peace was what he expected for the morning that had come, but instead, two bodies are missing.

Cade and Maisie are nowhere to be seen as his heart stops for a moment.

Panic sets in for a second as he looks for them in his vision, but the silence is deadly. The thought of them leaving him behind comes to mind as he feels his chest rise and fall in heavy breaths and tears that threaten to come out. Metal pole in hand, he turns around to see if he can see footprints in the snow, but life had other ideas for him. A silence falls upon him as blue and grey move gently with icy skin and his throat feels tense as he notices the wound.

The name fills into his head like a memory of watching the screen with Exar Shan does. The resemblance to outlaw that told him he wouldn't shoot comes to his head also in a moment's notice. Hand trembles carefully on his weapon as he holds it threateningly, but the thing still moves ever so slowly towards him. A shiver runs through his body as he speaks out to the things known as Mitchell Laws.

"Don't take a step closer, Mitchell!"

The thing stops for a moment as Caine's heart quickens and his blood pumps through his arms. Knees feeling like they're about to buckle from fright. Jed always used to tell scary stories when they were young to scare him into believe in make believe things, such as zombies, or the undead, but now he's terrified. Mitchell Laws had died to the open wound along the thing's neck, remembering the yeti's sharp teeth that had done it. The thing moves and Caine can't help but feel the voice of the stranger back home telling him the words that haunt him.

You won't shoot me.

"Alright, that was your only warning, bud."

Feet crunch in the snow as his thoughts are heavy of what Cade and Maisie were up against and why Mitchell Laws was alive once again. Thoughts coming forth in succession, until his own heart beat ring sin his ears. The sound of wind hitting his ears as the blue and grey mix with the white. Red runs in his veins as he holds himself steady with weapon extended, he strikes with as much strength as he can muster. Death's hands, an icy chill that threatens to come down on him.

"Red is more of your color, Laws."