Dangerous, Indeed

Looking out this window, the world is a dangerous place. Yet... he wants to be a part of it.

Deix sighed as he looked out the cracks in the boards that protected the window from the outside world.  He was bored, beyond bored.  He didn't fully understand why he had to stay inside as the adults that were only slightly older than him were allowed to be out and roam.  Deix hated this, and he wanted it to be known just how much it bugged him to be stuck in the "fort" of a house while everyone was outside.  He got to thinking, looking at everything around him before he walked away from the window and into the living room area.  Taking extra boards that were hidden in a corner, Deix looked around for the hammer and the box of nails.  Finding the hammer, but not the nails, Deix sighed but soon shrugged as he realized he could still get his point across with just these two things.  Getting to work, Deix started hammering away at the boards, just making noise, and only pausing when he heard footsteps on the roof.  He knew they were Gerald’s footsteps just by the faint jingling of a belt chain he could hear after each step.  Deciding not to stop, Deix went back to work hammering on the boards, making noise again, hearing that the footsteps were now in the house and Gerald had made his way through the hatch on the roof and was coming to inspect the noise.

 

When Gerald came and looked into the living room, Deix was hammering away furiously, letting out all the pent-up boredom and anger out on the few boards he had selected to be his torment victims.  Deix didn't look up at Gerald despite feeling his presence and just kept at hammering the boards, not stopping even as his arms were starting to cramp up due to the muscles exerting themselves to swing his hammer back and forth.

 

“Kid, what the hell are you doing?”  Gerald asked, his deep voice holding a bit of annoyance as his grey eyes landed on Deix.  Deix paused for only a minute as his eye twitched.  Kid…..  KID!! He hated being called kid.  He was nineteen, almost twenty, and these people still treated him like he was five!  These people, who weren't even his family and who didn’t even try to get to know him aside from his name, treated him like a precious, breakable object rather than a human being.   He was tired of it as the only reason they did this to him was because he was a necromancer and could not only raise the dead, but also put the dead back where they belonged.  Deix didn't like the power; as he wasn't a necromancer per say, he didn't do all the fancy spells or have lightning zap out of his fingers when he brought someone back to life, it was just what everyone called him.  Deix was known as a “lifer”, one who had powers to control life even after death, and in this day and age with an infected break-out, he was an asset as he was the only person in existence who could do such a thing.  Deix was the first, and oh how he hated being “the first.”

 

“What does it look like I'm doing!?  You won’t let me out of this hell hole, so I’m making it a hell hole for everyone here as well!”  Deix growled, still hammering the boards, watching through the corner of his eyes as Gerald nearly flinched with each bang against the wood as it made the boards rattle against the floor.  Deix didn’t mind if this was being childish as everyone treated him like a child who couldn't take care of himself anyway, so he decided it was finally time to play the part. 

 

A few hours later, with Gerald walking around the house and Deix still hammering away despite his arms feeling like they were on fire, people started to come back into the house, only to be welcomed by the bang of a hammer against wood and the wood rattling as it was just loose on the floor.  The first to come into the living room where the noise was, was Alice.  She was a spunky girl who had more of a goth look to her, and she never cared what anyone thought of her or her violet eyes, pale skin and raven black hair and her black clothing sense of fashion.  The second to enter the living room, a worried look on their face when their green eyes landed on Deix, was Vanessa.  Vanessa was a slightly chubbier girl with a sisterly attitude about her that suited her green eyes and long brown hair that she always had up, but despite that, she still held her own with knowing how to wield a weapon (any kind) from living on a farm growing up.  The next to come in, cursing up a storm at the noise, was Brendon.  Brendon was a punk, plain and simple.  He was only a year older than Deix, black hair and nearly black eyes, and he had no respect for anyone, including himself, and to prove it, he was about to walk up to Deix and kick him in the stomach for making such a ruckus, but was stopped by a big hand on his shoulder.  It belonged to the last person who came in through the hatch, Caleb.  Caleb was in his mid-thirties and basically thought himself of as the leader of the group due to his age and maturity.  His icy blue eyes landed on Brendon and he glared at the other before he looked to Deix.  Sighing and taking his hand off Brendon to run it through his greying chestnut brown, he walked towards Deix and knelt next to the boy.

 

“What are you doing, Deix?”  He asked in as calm of a tone as he could muster as even he was slightly annoyed by the noise being caused.  Deix didn't look up at him as he continued to hammer away at the nearly splintering pieces of wood, seeming to ignore Caleb’s question.  Hearing an annoyed huff, Deix soon felt a hand on his wrist when it went up in the air.  This time his kiwi eyes landed on Caleb in a glare as he growled.  “I said, what are you doing, Deix.” Caleb repeated, making it more of a demand this time.

 

“ You're not my father, so don't demand anything of me.  I'm not going to reply to you, Caleb, but I will say I want out of this god forsaken house!” Deix said before he went back to hammering at the boards, ignoring Caleb’s presence just as he did Gerald’s.  He didn't notice Caleb shaking his head, nor did he hear the usual ‘we can't let you out’ that was always said when him going outside was mentioned.  What he did hear though was Alice speaking as it was a rarity in its own.

 

“Oh just let him out!  If anything, he'll be able to deal with this infection of the dead more than we can. We're being stupid not letting him out, yet we go out and just shoot reanimated dead people.   You really think he won't be able to hold his own?”  Alice huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and raising a thin, black eyebrow before looking to the others.  Vanessa just nodded, agreeing with Alice with a smile on her face as she clapped her hands and Brendon just looked as annoyed as ever. 

 

“It’s not that, it’s him getting caught by the government or bandits that I’m afraid of!”  Caleb retaliated before standing up and looking down at Deix hammering away at the boards again.  “Deix is not going out, and that’s the end of discussion.”  As Caleb left, everyone looked to Deix, not being able to see his face due to the small curtain of black hair that covered from the middle of his nose and up.  He didn’t even speak and just heard as Brendon snickered, Alice huffed and then the ‘ow’ of Brendon getting a knife in his arm from the girl.  She snarled at him and walked off, Vanessa following her to their room before Brendon left to go find Gerald.

 

When Deix realized he was alone and everyone was winding down, he made his move.  Running to the hatch, he opened it, quickly climbing the ladder before running on the roof as quietly and quickly as he could.  When he made it to the edge where the ladder was, he just jumped on to the other roof and kept running.  He did this for a few houses until he thought it was safe.  Earlier he heard Caleb and Gerald yelling after him, but he knew he was faster than the two, so he just kept at it.  He also knew that the two were on the ground due to them being older and not trusting themselves to jump from roof to roof.  When his feet finally hit the ground of the backyard of a house that was at least a block away, Deix couldn't help but smile.  He had missed this.  He had missed the wildlife, the grass, the earth, the wind, everything!  Sighing in a calm state of mind, he walked about and hummed until he heard it, the groan.  Looking ahead of him in a thicket of bushes until it came stumbling out, an infected.  Deix, no matter how many times he used to play with his power, would never get used to the smell of rotting flesh, and it showed as his face grimaced when the thing got closer.  Taking out his knife, Deix slashed his fingertip open and put the bloody tip to the creature’s forehead.

 

“Go back to sleep!  I command thee.” Deix muttered, looking the creature straight in its clotted eyes.  A moment of silence and the creature soon slumped to the ground in a heap of flesh and bone, dead and unanimated as it should be.  Feeling exhilarated, Deix ran off again, keeping clear of areas that looked like possible camps as he kept running and dropping as many animated dead as he could.

 

When it started getting dark, Deix headed back to the house.  When he went into the hatch, he was greeted by Gerald and Vanessa.  Vanessa fretted over him until she realized he was safe and unharmed before walking off and getting him some dinner.  Gerald inspected him a minute before speaking.

 

“I keep forgetting how fast you can run, kid.  Really gave me a workout trying to catch you!  But, you seem a’ight, and that’s a good thing.” He muttered before patting Deix on the back with a big hand, jolting the skinnier frame of Deix forward a bit before a smile came on both men’s faces.  Caleb was next to come to Deix and Deix held his ground as the older male inspected him.

 

“Guess I was wrong….” Caleb said softly before patting Deix’s shoulder and heading back to his plate.

 

Deix looked to everyone before grabbing the plate Vanessa handed him, sitting down in his usual spot and smiling as he knew from now on, things were going to be different and he was going to enjoy every minute of it.

Author's Note

It is a rather fast piece of work, but I've been dying to write something on this character and I finally got the idea to do so!
(Thanks to the "The 'Anything but Love' Contest"!~)