by C.L. Bevill
Chapter 7
What’s Next?
I think that Zach and Kara thought I was still sick, maybe even delusional. But it was just a question that had popped into my head, and I couldn’t not ask it. No electricity. No phones. Millions of people vanishing overnight. This new world had new creatures, new landscapes, and new rules. I just wanted to read the rule book. The problem was that no one had published it yet. No one was going to publish it for a very long time, if ever.
Perversely, that reminded me that my notebook had been left behind at the motel and was likely a little pile of ashes in a bigger pile of ashes. “I need another notebook,” I said inanely, floundering like the Titanic.
They stared at me.
“Before I forget about all the new animals,” I explained. “I want to write them all down.” I waited for an answer, but they were both just standing there. I waved my hand feebly. “Hello? Thank you for saving my life. Can you…uh…talk to me?”
Kara cleared her throat. “You are better,” she said.
“The shoulder hurts,” I said mildly. “I’m hungry, though, and I don’t feel like I’m running a fever anymore.”
Zach put the bowl of oatmeal down on a dresser. “You have to stay in bed,” he said curtly. That sounded like a royal command.
I didn’t want to stay in bed, but I didn’t want to rip out stitches again. “I’ll stay in bed,” I agreed grudgingly. “Can I have a notebook? If you can find one in this house, and have the firefly pixies been back?”
“They only left an hour or so ago,” Kara clarified carefully. “I think they’re nocturnal. Mostly, anyway.”
“An hour,” I repeated thoughtfully. That explained Zach and Kara’s surprise. They were probably expecting me to be comatose for another week, maybe with brain damage. “Look, no brain damage from oxygen loss. No organs failing here. Two times two is four,” I said. “E equals MC squared where E equals energy, M is for mass, and C equals the speed of light, otherwise called the theory of relativity by Einstein. My father’s name is…”I stopped abruptly, all good mood disintegrated with the thoughtless chain of words that I had started in a lighthearted mood. “My father’s name…was Freeman, and my mother’s name was Miranda.”
“Wow,” Kara said with forced cheerfulness. “No brain damage in that kid. Good news, right, Zach?”
The darkness seemed to return to me. I didn’t want to think of all things sinister, but they came to me regardless. “Any sign of…him?” Him meant the guy with the bonfire and the affiliation for burnt bones.
“No,” Zach said succinctly. Closed subject, I read. Do not discuss further. Hah. Since when did I listen to my little moral inner voice? Was I not a turbulent, argumentative teenager testing my boundaries?
“Are we staying here?” I asked sweetly, finding some kind of reserve within me. It might not be the same Earth that I went to sleep on, on the night of the change, but it didn’t mean that I had to endure without asking questions. Zach had asked me to come with them. He had said they wanted me to come. It wasn’t a communist nation overnight. It was still a democracy, and I had voting rights.
Kara found something interesting to do. She started folding blood-stained clothing that looked like it had been cut off my body.
“We can’t move you yet,” Zach said, folding his arms over his chest. He looked at me challengingly.
“And if he stumbles onto us?” I asked sincerely. “We’re not far from the highway. If he is persistent, he could do it.”
“We’re not moving you,” Zach said in a firmer voice. It was almost a growl.
“At least we could move further away from the road,” I ventured.
“Now she talks,” he said half to himself. “Now she does. Listen, Sophie, we are NOT moving you. Not yet. Do you remember what happened the last time we moved you? Oh yes, yesterday. Last night, when you nearly bled out. That’s the reason I’m a little woozy from the transfusion. You know, the blood I gave you today. I’m not taking that chance with you again.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kara duck her head. Something was fascinating her on the floor. It must have been as interesting as Carter looking into Tut’s tomb for the first time. It suddenly occurred to me that the cut clothing she was holding in her hand meant something. I looked down and saw that I was naked under the blankets. Furthermore, the blankets were slipping. My head shot back to Zach. His eyes were focused completely on my face as I jerked the blankets back up.
“They did something to me,” I said. Well, I was the queen of switching subjects today, and I thought I might as well go with the flow.
Kara brought her head up. She was a tough woman all right, but for some reason, Zach was the leader of this expedition. He was the alpha dog, and it wasn’t sitting well with me. I hadn’t wanted to be alone and I wasn’t. I still didn’t want to be alone. But I didn’t want to be dominated either. “They?” she said curiously.
“The firefly pixies or whatever you want to call them,” I elucidated. “How else can you explain how I feel? Wasn’t I dead a few hours ago? Weren’t you pounding on my chest and breathing for me? I saw a light. A bright light. I think I was three-quarters gone. Maybe even more.”
The expression that crossed Zach’s face was both pained and aggravated. “You were dead,” he said. “But you’re not now, and we want to make sure you stay that way.”
“I’m not a marshmallow,” I exclaimed. Zach jerked.
“We don’t think you’re a…” Kara said and trailed off uncertainly. “Oh, hon. It’s just you were in shock and so ill. You’d lost all your fight, and now, it’s all back, isn’t it?” She tilted her head curiously as she looked at me. Judging from her expression, she thought it was amusing. “I’ll find you some clothes,” she added pertly. “And some oatmeal. Zach’s got a fire going in the back. A small one without any smoke,” she explained with no little amount of mirth.
Zach stared at me. I was getting used to that. This time I stared back until he turned away with an aggrieved grunt.
