Secure Connection

His eyes were wide like a playful kitten.

The heavy breaths crowding his nervous system faded, and slowly contorted into a long, cheery smile. The exspirafluid from the ghost's corpse dripped from his forehead, slowly creeping it's way from his nose, to his lip, and into his mouth as he licked it away. The smile grew into a laugh. Into a long, loud, lasting laugh. He laughed like a teenager at a party, carelessly, like no one was watching.

And he flopped down to meet the corpse.

Ruthlessly he slipped his drenched hands around the dead spirit's neck, and pulled it upward toward his face as if the skin was a shirt collar. He punched it. Again. And again. And again. The fight was long over by this point, but Liam didn't care, he didn't join ParaBomber for the credit or the gain, he was in it for himself, and he treated it that way.

He found it thrilling.

As a ghost, it wasn't often that Liam got to kill, so whenever he got the chance he'd do everything in his power to savour the feeling.

"There's ectoplasm everywhere..."

Liam turned to AJ, spitting out sparks of laughter. "I'll clean- I'll clean it up!" He wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand.

"It stinks."

"I said I'd clean!"

Liam slinged the ghost's corpse over his shoulder like it was a purse, which flung even more exspirafluid across the room and then leaked even more as he carried it out the back.

Hostile spirits lack human form as it is, but after what Liam had done to the thing it was even further from human, it's honestly impressive how much he managed to take off of it without a weapon. 

"I'm done here. I'm tired of waiting for you two to come up with something, it won't be a pretty job but at least it'd be getting done" AJ scoffed, grabbing Nate's sickle from the countertop.

Nate reached for him to stop him from buggering off "hey, you can't kill to save your life, let alone track down a guy-"

AJ struggled, "When Backer comes back I don't want to be caught between you idiots, get off of me."

"Wow up close I can really see how gross your hair is..."

Lin perked up "ooo! Do you think he has mites?"

"I don't have mites! -Nate!"

-"You should let go he doesn't like it"

"Hey Liam", "Hi Nate!!!" 

"Liam. The mess." Lin faintly snapped her teeth

"I'm still on it, just watching whatever these guys are doing first."

"Yemi's going to come back and when she sees the mess-"

"Oh my Godddduuuuh I don't careeeuuuhhhh~" Lin held her face in her palms, defeated. "Can I annoy you to avoid cleaning yay or nay?" Lin held a long, dejected groan with her face still in her hands.

"You're getting too sweaty to hold onto." "Do you even remember why you were holding me back?" "Yes", "So you are smart. Wonderful news." Little scraps of AJ's skin were flaking onto the floor like thin paper.

The door swung open.

Two green eyes pierced through the black like headlights. The sound of the door echoed through the base.

Cold air consumed the room.

"-Backer!" Nate dropped AJ.

And patiently following behind her, Yemi.

The tall stature of their leader limped into the house. Somehow the room got colder, Lin was shivering even more than before.

The Backer's eyes were as much of a wonder as they were terrifying. How could such lively eyes look so lifeless? The eyes looked upon the state of ParaBomber. Everything was at it's worst. The place stank, dreadfully caked in fresh exspirafluid, handprints and smears ruined the floor and furniture, how did it get on the ceiling? AJ's dead skin had been jammed into it, creating a horrid odorous sludge. Lin looked pissed off and stressed in harmony, shaking with unease. Her leg was doing that bouncing-sitting thing.

Backer threw the upper half of the man onto the floor before them all.

"It's the guy!" Liam shouted

(I knew he had a scarf) Nate thought, congratulating himself.

Lin wiped the sweat off her forehead...

Yemi peered out from behind The Backer. "I found her on my way back to base. I told her what we had done, she was understanding."

Lin ducked before The Backer, then dared to speak. "Backer- Oh my goodness I'm so sorry- I- I know it looks bad but... We were really doing the best we could while you were- were gone..."

The Backer placed her blood-drenched hand on Lin's shoulder, softly, as if to say 'it's alright' or 'you did well', although 'you did well' might've been wishful thinking.

She turned her strong gaze to Liam, "This mess was you, wasn't it?"

"Lin's fault."

Liam was not scared of their founder, he was too stupid to think of anyone in such a way. He obeyed her because she had power over him, that much he understood, but he was too naive to respect her as an authority.

Lin whimpered "Liam. Clean it up..."

"REPEAT THAT?"

Yemi lowered her gasmask, "Liam."

"I'm gonna do it! Just, y'know, when I can be bothered."

The blood of the man's torso seeped into the carpet, Liam couldn't clean that, someone else would have to. The smell of lightly decayed flesh did nothing to help their case, the fact that The Backer had to do their dirty work, that she had to fix their mistake for them? It was simply ridiculous. Backer was scary, but she was rarely ruthless leader.

The four were right, the man wasn't part of a faction or a group, no one had been told anything. There was no real threat.

01ParaBomber was situated in a fairly remote area, even for the apocalypse. Wandering survivors who find themselves there usually aren't doing well and accidentally end up there while in search of essentials.

The Backer and the original recruits had chosen this area for the base of 01 because it was remote enough that visitors were unfortunate, and were either in a poor enough state to become The Bomber's meat, or a poor enough state to recruit. Several of 01ParaBomber's members were the latter. They knew this area was near The Bomber, so near in fact that they keep track of a few areas they know it visits, 'hotspots'. However, they didn't know how close they were to it exactly, all they knew was they were far enough and had decent defences.

Lin's bedroom was the tidiest because it was the emptiest. Besides a poster and a few finished 'to do' lists taped to the wall her bedroom really was a bed room. 

There was a quiet knock at the door.

"Who's there?"

Yemi peered her snout through the frame, but she did not speak. Lin smiled and patted the bed, gesturing that it was okay to come in. Yemi said she preferred to be spoken to such a way, and Lin didn't mind meeting that standard for someone like her.

Yemi shut the door behind her and pounced onto Lin's bed. She walked around in a circle on her hands and feet before curling up into a ball.

This was a common occurrence. Despite 01ParaBomber being quite a large base, with several rooms occupied by their members, Yemi always preferred Lin's room. 'You're quiet, the walls are quiet' she would say. Lin didn't really know what this meant, but she liked to think that the real reason was just that she was nice to her and the others weren't. You could never really tell with Yemi.

Several of ParaBomber's members were cruel people. There were many more than just the five of them, their base was a uni campus that they claimed from the wreckage and made their home, so it could hold a lot of people. 01ParaBomber was made up of just over 40 members.

"Are you alright?" Her voice was flat, but it was clear that she cared.

Lin rubbed Yemi's head, she recalled her once saying she liked it while they were all on an outing, "I'll be okay, you know how the boys can get."

Yemi shuffled on the sheets, "Hm."

"...It was just a lot today."

"The Backer doesn't want us to do more than we can manage, she knows every member has their limits. She doesn't expect us to be perfect all of the time." Her voice was still emotionless.

Lin tried to look at her as she talked but Yemi didn't look back, instead staring at a miscellaneous blank spot on the floor.

"She doesn't?"

"She's smart."

Lin gave up on making eye contact with Yemi, "I wish she would talk to us more often, I know she talks to you because you've been here longer but, I don't know, I just feel like I'm doing something wrong."

"Have you done something wrong?" "Don't think so" "Then why do you feel like you have?"

Lin took a moment to think before she replied. 

"The apocalypse hit when I was twenty, I think I'm just stupid forever."

"You think you're failing because you have to re-learn what success looks like." Yemi scratched her hair, her voice still unmoved.

"Yeah but that wasn't my fault-" "No. Don't just reply, think, take time to think about what I said."

Lin found that to be rude, but did what she was told.

"...I'm sorry for not thinking about it. What you said was... Weirdly smart? And also weirdly on the mark?" Lin scratched her hands harshly as she talked.

Yemi gripped Lin's wrists, "don't do that." "Uh, sorry."

"I was eighteen when the apocalypse hit. I'm not smarter than you, I was just raised under these conditions. You're still adapting but you shouldn't take fault in that."

Lin rolled backward onto the bed "but it's been six years! This should be normal by now!" (Yemi was eighteen when the apocalypse started..?)

Yemi layed next to her,

"do you miss anything?"

"I miss... Hm... I miss showering, and my old friends, but I don't miss like... Working or money and stuff."

"What do you think you miss the most?" Yemi moved Lin's hand onto her head

Lin started petting her without even noticing, "I think probably just people being normal. No one cares now."

"I care, Backer cares. That's what ParaBomber is."

Lin turned her head but kept petting Yemi. "I don't think it is. Liam and AJ were literally convicted killers, the thought terrifies me, but no one here cares."

Yemi sighed, but not out of frustration. It was quiet for a second.

"ParaBomber is doing something wonderful for this world. I know it doesn't seem like it, and for that I am sorry, but beneath the surface we really are doing something great.

Several people that remain are murderous, they aren't going to change, but here they're using it for something good. If they didn't have this place they would be picking off survivors that matter, they'd be separating families, killing children." Yemi pushed her head further into Lin's hand. "And now they're helping thousands of people to feel comforted and safe."

"I'm sorry that nothing has been easy for a very long time."

She softly held Madeline's palm in her fingers.

"I think you're going to like it here."