The world was ending, many would argue that it was dying. But that wasn't true, not really. The world was simply being reborn, in a rather unconventional way.
Chloe Bradbury finds herself caught in the middle of this 'rebirth.' When the dead start...
"Come on, Kace!" Chloe begged her sister, who was sitting on her bunk reading. Again. "Come hang out with me and Carl, he told me that they have a deck of cards!"
Kacy sighed, raising her book so Chloe could see the cover. "I'm reading right now," She replied. "Maybe I'll join in later."
Chloe snickered a little. "You're such a nerd."
Her twin scowled and threw her pillow at Chloe, who moved out of the way just in time. She laughed as her sister grumbled in frustration, having to get up off of the bed and grab her pillow off the floor.
"Fine, be bored in here with your books!" Chloe sighed dramatically from the door. "I'll be outside in the courtyard playing cards!"
She left their little room and headed downstairs. She said a quick hello to Carol, who was cleaning up a bit in the common area, and then headed outside. She and Carl had agreed to meet out in the courtyard. The weather was nice, so they figured playing outside would be fun.
Carl was sitting at one of the old prison tables in the courtyard when Chloe came out. She had her hair, which in general was a mess of blonde curls, pulled back into a braid that rolled down her left shoulder. She sat down across the table from Carl. "Ready to get your butt kicked?" She asked him.
He raised an eyebrow. "I'm ready to kick your butt, which I'm sure is what you meant," Carl replied.
Chloe laughed and then stared her friend dead in the eyes. "You wish, Grimes."
Carl shuffled the cards expertly, grinning when he saw the surprised look on Chloe's face. "Oh, it's definitely what I meant, Bradbury."
She leaned forward and smiled. "How about we make this a bit more interesting?" She suggested.
"What do you mean?" Carl asked.
"Like... ooh, how about whoever wins gets to choose between these?" Chloe suggested. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out something Carl never thought he'd see again.
"Is that... a MilkyWay and Hershey's bar?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yup." Chloe nodded. "My mom grabbed them a little while ago and I haven't gotten around to eating them. It might be a little melty, but chocolate doesn't really expire so, why not?" She shrugged. "The winner gets first pick."
Carl considered this for a moment. "I don't know... seems like you'd be giving the winner an awful lot of power over the loser."
Chloe's eyes lit up. "What, are you afraid you'll lose, Carl?" She asked him.
He scoffed. "No!" Carl exclaimed. "Fine, it's a deal." He stuck his hand out and Chloe took it. They shook hands and then Carl dealt the cards. They would be playing and old, but classic card game: Go Fish.
Okay, so maybe it was also because they didn't know how to play any other card games besides Uno and they didn't have a deck of Uno cards laying around anywhere.
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The game raged on for at least half an hour. When Chloe lost the first game, she looked at Carl and said, "Best two out of three!"
Carl laughed, but agreed with her. He won the next game. The final one would be the tie breaker. Chloe stared at her cards intensely, looking up at Carl, trying to read his face.
"Got any... 5s?" She asked cautiously.
Carl grinned and said smugly, "Go fish."
"Dang it!" Chloe drew a card.
"Got any 8s?" Carl asked.
Chloe scowled at him and tossed all three of her 8 cards across the table. Carl smiled triumphantly and set his set of four 8s down in front of him. So far, he had six sets while Chloe had four.
Chloe only had one card left, and there was nothing left in the deck. She knew she was going to lose, but she figured she may as well go out with a bang. "Carl," she said. "Gimme your 6s."
She held her hand out for Carl's final three cards and he gave them to her. "Haha! Five sets!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, but I have six so..." Carl shrugged. "I win."
Chloe sighed and frowned. "Great... what do you want then?"
Carl tapped his chin, grinning. "Gimme the Hershey's bar."
"Dang it!" Chloe said. "That's what I wanted!" She looked at him and smiled. "You suuuure you don't want the MilkyWay?"
"Nope, I want the Hershey's bar." Carl held his arm out. "Hey, but you said 'winner's choice.'"
Chloe pouted, but handed the chocolate bar to Carl. "I haven't seen one of these in forever," he said as he tore into the wrapper. Chloe was left to munch on the MilkyWay bar. She didn't have a problem with them, they had just always been her third favorite kind of candy bar. The first being Hershey's, and the second being Twix bars.
"I'll get you back for this," Chloe vowed. "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one of these days..."
"Yeah, okay, sure." Carl bit into the chocolate, grinning. "Good luck with that."
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This is one of my favorite chapters so far! Just the two of them are such dorks, it's hilarious watching them interact.
