The room, Seth, and Jane were beginning to feel so distant now. “I told you there was no girl out there.”
“I saw her,” Seth argued.
“Maybe the Doc should look at you too. I think you might have bumped your head or something. That girl wasn’t there.”
That was the last thing I heard. The last thing I saw. It was all darkness now. Just the way I wanted it to be.
Chapter Two
My body felt strangely light, like I was floating in the clouds. I could hear voices all around me…a concourse of angels perhaps. It was melodic, calming. They spoke words of encouragement, or at least that was what it felt like. I couldn’t actually make out any of the words they said, all I knew was that I felt at peace.
In amongst the throng I made out one sweet voice that rang out clearer than the rest. “You’re safe now,” she said soothingly. “Everything will be okay.” Her golden curls shone like a halo brightening her rosy cheeks. She was smiling like the way she used when our parents were still alive.
“Molly?” I choked out. It was painful to speak. It wasn’t right. If I were with Molly, then all the pain should be gone.
“Don’t speak,” she sighed softly stroking her small hands through my hair. “We’ll give you something more for the pain.”
No this wasn’t right. “Molly where am I?” My throat felt like I had swallowed a razor blade.
I opened my eyes. Bright blurry lights assaulted my vision. I quickly slammed them shut. “What do I say?” Molly asked someone. I couldn’t tell who.
“It’s the morphine,” I heard a familiar accented voice reply. “Just go with it. We need to keep her calm.”
“Molly what’s going on?” I asked more panicked now. I tried to move my body to float up higher in the clouds but they were disappearing rapidly. The lightness I had felt was gone. Gravity had taken hold of me, forcefully slamming me against the hard earth. Someone or something was holding me down.
I squirmed and wriggled trying to pull free from the force. “Molly I don’t understand. Why?” I begged through the pain in my throat. I felt moisture building up in my eyes.
“Can we give her some more,” a familiar voice questioned.
“No! We can’t waist our resources on her. We’re already putting ourselves at risk for this person we know nothing about. We’ll be lucky if you didn’t lead a whole pack of those beasts right back to us,” spoke yet another voice. She was in no way angelic. No, this was not heaven. It was more like hell.
Molly squeaked in fear beside me. I wanted to reassure her that the demons couldn’t get us here, but I didn’t know where here was.
“We weren’t stupid. We…”
“That’s debatable,” the woman lashed back. Her words sounded like a whip clapping against the air.
“We took our usual precautions,” Seth answered. His face popped into my mind. Those kind eyes, his short shaggy blonde hair.
I opened my eyes slowly this time. I saw him kneeling over me just like he had in the store. “Nooooo,” I moaned out. This couldn’t be happening. I thought it was done, like it should have been and that I was with… I looked over towards where Molly’s voice had come from. She wasn’t there.
Kneeling beside me was a terrified little boy of no more than seven. Of course Molly wasn’t here. She was in Heaven. If that place actually existed. And I was stuck here with these fools. “Let me go,” I shrieked which caused me to break out in a coughing fit. The whole time I coughed I tried desperately to thrash my way out of the Seth’s grip. He was still holding me down but now it was more forceful.
“Calm down we’re just trying to help you.”
“Shut her up. If you don’t, they’ll find us, blood trail or no blood trail. Their ears will pick up on her wailings.”
“She’s frightened,” the small boy beside me spoke nervously. I could tell he didn’t like the angry woman any more than I did. I couldn’t see her. She was standing behind the bright light.
“Well we’re all going to be pretty frightened when those monsters come tearing through here because of her.”
“Enough,” another male voice boomed. “You’re upsetting my patient. If you didn’t come here to help, then you can leave.”
“I’ll leave so long as you promise not to waste anymore of our hard searched for medicines. I didn’t risk my life finding those drugs for her.” No one spoke but I could feel the tension in the room. “Fine. I’m going. But mark my words, if those creatures find us, I’m leaving you all to your fate.” I’d heard those exact same words only a night before. Whoever this woman was she was just as despicable as the people who’d abandoned Molly and me.
I heard feet slamming against concrete and then the sound of a heavy door being scraped shut. The room felt calmer now, though I certainly wasn’t. I was more alert now and that was the last thing I wanted. The drugs made me feel muggy but not enough to make the pain in my chest feel less real. The tears flowed silently down my face.
“It’s okay,” the little boy tried to sooth. “The doctor’s going to fix you up real good.”
So sweet, so kind, just like Molly. No wonder I mistook him for her. It was easy to see, to hear, what I wanted so badly. All I wanted to do was scream at them to let me die. My heart felt like it was going to tear apart. They couldn’t heal the real pain. It would be more humane to let me die.
“Please,” I begged again. My body shook, my shoulder rocked up and down and with every movement the pain deepened and not just physically. My good hand reached for my locket, clasping it with what little energy I had left.
Seth gently wiped my tears with a cool moist cloth. Why did he have to be so kind? It only made the pain worse. “The doctor’s going to set your ankle now. With the morphine coursing through you it shouldn’t be too bad but we do need you to keep the volume down. The sun set more than an hour ago.” He held something in front of my face. A stick covered in fabric.
I turned to look at the little boy. He looked so scared, just like Molly had whenever the word sunset was mentioned. I opened my mouth willingly and bit down on the object. Two seconds later I was grinding hard into the stick grunting out in muffled pain. The boy beside me covered his ears. I tried to be quieter. My head felt heavy again, foggy, just like in the beginning. I turned back towards the boy to try to apologize for frightening him and then I saw her.
Her soft blond hair hung in loose curls cascading down her shoulders. She was dressed in a white summer dress. Her brown eyes smiled at me. “I promise you it’ll all be okay,” she sang out softly. It was what I had told her. Why was she taunting me with my own lie?
I stared at her. She glowed so brightly. Just the morphine, I thought. If I could live the rest of my life on that drug, then maybe living wouldn’t be so bad. Molly smiled at me like she could read my thoughts. “You have important things to do,” she said softly.
I couldn’t answer her. All I could do was stare. I felt a hard tug on my sore arm but it wasn’t anywhere near as painful as my ankle. I only let out a little grunt of pain. Molly’s presence was so calming. She started to fade from my vision. I wanted to beg her to stay but even with the stick out of my mouth I couldn’t get the words out. The tears started flowing freely now. Would they ever go away?
I felt Seth’s hand smoothing the tears away. “Can’t we give her some more?” Please, I thought.
“Just so long as you don’t tell Nina,” the Doctor replied.
“It’ll be our secret,” Seth replied.
I felt a tiny poke in my arm. It didn’t take long for the room, the people to disappear into a fog leaving me in a calming darkness.
It was late afternoon on a Sunday. The sun was hot, my skin stung from spending the day hunting with my father and Molly. I didn’t complain though. I caught my dad laughing at me from my peripheral field of view. My mom had told me to lather on the sunscreen but, being thirteen of course I didn’t listen and now my fair skin was paying the price.
Mom was eagerly waiti
ng for us at home, to see what the three of us had caught. We hadn’t come home empty handed. Two rabbits, and a fox were snuggly packed in the sack my father hung around his neck. She stood with her dirty apron on. She had been in the garden that morning picking the tomatoes that were ready to be harvested. Her face was filthy and just as burnt as mine. Her deep auburn hair was slicked back under a sweet rose-coloured bandanna. She never used any of the sunscreen for herself. Our reserves were running short and as she and my father always said, “The kids come first.”
“A good hall?” My mother asked with a smile. Her smile faded just as quickly as it had come on. She was staring past us, with a look that we all recognized. We didn’t have to look back. We all bolted for the door. My mother slammed it shut the moment we were inside. My father immediately latched the heavy metal bars closed across it.
“How many?” he asked my mother calmly though I could clearly see the fear in his eyes.
“Seven,” she whispered back looking down at Molly trying to conceal her fear. She and my father were still under the illusion that Molly didn’t really grasp the true danger of the world. They were wrong. There were no more children in our world, only little adults. My parents held none of the same illusions for me.
“Ladies, like we’ve practiced,” my father said calmly. We all knew our roles. I ran with Molly to the basement, made her hide under the stairs and then quickly ran back up and bolted the door shut. I raced up the next flight of stairs taking two steps at a time. I always took the front room in the drills. We had a drill at least once a week but this was the first time I was actually made to participate in an actual attack.
“Come on now,” a man shouted as he banged on our front door. “We’re just looking to make your acquaintance.
“Then what’s with the knives,” my father shouted calmly down from his bedroom window. The man backed away from the front door to stare up at my father.
Gathering courage, I stood up with my rifle now securely in my hands. I peeked out the curtain. I could see the men, all seven of them. They were all holding onto their various weapons. Some carried knives, others sharpened sticks. One guy had spiked gloves. If they had any guns, they were keeping them concealed. These guys were precisely the ones my parents had been hiding us from. They were every bit as scary as the creatures I had seen on the television…back when there was still television. It had only been six years since the world went dark but it hadn’t taken humanity that long to fall apart.
The man stared back up at my father with a grotesque smile on his face. “Well we’ve got to protect ourselves now. There’s a herd of those monster’s just a couple miles back in the nearest town. What was that place called again boys?” he yelled back to his group. “Ah yes Serenity. Quaint place if you don’t mind being mauled to death,” he laughed as though what he said was actually humorous.
At the mere mention of the creatures, my palms began to sweat, my hands were shaking so violently that I was afraid I was going to start shooting before my father gave the order. My stomach rolled painfully as I tried desperately to get a grip.
I edged my gun a little more so that it was just poking out from behind the curtains. A second later an ear-piercing bang sounded just inches away from my ear as I stumbled to the floor.
◆◆◆
I woke up in a sweat, my heart pounding so loudly. I tried to sit up but with only one arm available to me all I managed to do was wobble onto the hard, cold floor causing the pain to pierce through me like razors. A peep of a moan escaped my lips.
“Sorry,” a familiar British voice whispered from somewhere on the other side of the room. Next minute a bright light was blazing from the corner where the sound had come. My good arm whipped up fast to block the glare from my eyes. As my eyes began to adjust, I could just make out Seth’s silhouetted image from across the room. I stared right through him.
“Sorry,” he repeated a little louder this time. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” At his feet was a large book. It had been what caused the loud bang, which just happened to time perfectly with the reality of my nightmare.
“How are you feeling?” He asked as he helped me back up onto the lumpy mattress. As soon as I was able to stabilize myself, I recoiled from his touch. He politely backed up, seeming to take no offence.
I slowly lowered my head back down on my pillow and let my eyes close again. Maybe if I ignored him, he’d get the hint and leave me alone. With the human race practically extinct, you’d think it’d be an easy thing to get a little peace and quiet. Seth sat down on the concrete floor beside me. No such luck.
“It’s already past noon. You’ve been sleeping a long time. You really should eat something,” He said pushing a bowl of gruel my way.
“Not hungry,” I grunted.
“I don’t blame you.” He picked up the spoon full of mush and flicked it trying to get it to go back in the bowl but it just stuck there. “It isn’t all that pleasant. But we put quite a bit of honey in it, which makes it a little more edible.” He placed the spoon back in the bowl gently.
He sat beside me staring at me while I stared at the backs of my eyelids. Just leave already, I thought.
“Your voice sounds a little better. Though you still look pretty bruised,” he said touching his finger gently to my neck. I flinched at the pain. “Sorry. Doctor Lee doesn’t think that’ll take too long to heal. Your foot was only sprained but your arm and ankle on the other hand…well I guess that just leaves us a lot of time to get to know you.”
I opened my eyes to look into his. We held each other’s gazes for a long time. What I saw in his eyes shocked me. He actually cared about me. A perfect stranger. What was the matter with this guy? Didn’t he know it was over? The world, common courtesies, humanity, it was all over. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I rolled my eyes at him, and though it was excruciating I rolled myself onto my right side so that I didn’t have to look at those eyes anymore.
“Your arm was dislocated,” he started speaking again clearly ignoring by blatantly obvious posturing. “Your ankle, well Doc thinks he fixed the break but without an x-ray he had to rely on feel. That’s what woke you up last night, him having to prod at your ankle. I thought between the morphine and how hard you hit your head you’d be out through the whole thing…but you’re a lot tougher than that, aren’t you?”
I didn’t answer. Unfortunately, I was tough, too tough. If I’d been a normal person, I’d be dead already and away from his annoying questions.
“It’s okay if you don’t feel like talking. You’ve obviously been through a lot.”
“What the hell do you know about what I’ve been through,” I snapped as I sat up briskly, staring him down. Every inch of my body ached from the sudden movement. The room was spinning, and my head was pounding, but I didn’t let on how much pain I was in. I just bit my lip to control the screams that were threatening to escape my lips.
“Well I don’t exactly, but your body told quite a story.”
I looked down at myself. I was wearing a blue hospital gown. My torn jeans, my bloodied-up hoodie were lying on the floor clearly having been cut off of my body. I pulled the gown around closed behind me with my good hand.
“You changed my clothes?” My face was beat red. By the fear in his eyes, he clearly only saw the anger in my face and not the sheer humiliation.
“No I didn’t. I swear I wasn’t in the room. Jane and the Doc helped get you into a gown. It was necessary to treat your injuries.”
“Was it also necessary to destroy the only clothes I owned?” I didn’t really care about the clothes, but I wanted to yell at someone, and he was there to take my verbal abuse. I’d been silent for an entire day, pushing back all feelings and now all I wanted to do was lash out.
“We have supplies. You don’t really need to worry about that. Doc was more worried about taking care of your injuries quickly than tearing up some worn-out clothes. Thanks to him you’re on the mend and will get be able to get back to…”
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“To what? What will I be able to get back to? Running for my life…for whatever’s left of it. You should have listened to me and left me in that shop.” I was shouting now, not caring how badly it hurt to raise my voice. The tears burned my eyes but I wouldn’t release them.
Seth stood up quickly and backed up towards the door. “You asked for our help.”
“No, I didn’t. I said please…as in please leave me here.”
“You wanted to die?” He asked me as he stared off not looking me in the eyes.
How could he even be asking me that question? Who would want to live in our world? The instinct for survival can only support a person for so long. “Would you have let me if you had known?” One tear fell down my cheek.
I could see he was searching for an honest answer. He responded unapologetically, “No, I would have tried to save you no matter what.”
“Why?” I asked exhausted. I slowly laid my head back down on the pillow. Sitting up was way too painful.
“Because I still have hope for a better future. But there needs to be good people left for humanity to have a fighting chance. And I knew there in the shop, that you were a good person.”
I glared at him and said, “You don’t know how wrong you are.” I painfully rolled myself away from him and closed my eyes praying that sleep might take me away from this nightmare. I heard Seth as he quietly tip toed out of the room and slowly closed the heavy metal door behind him. Finally, alone, I allowed myself to cry for real this time. No holding back. Every tear I had in store poured out onto the pillow beneath me, as my body shook uncontrollably.
Chapter Three
I tried to avoid the group as much as possible, but that was difficult given my current condition. Despite my desire to be independent, I required their assistance for everything. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom on my own. It was in a ridiculous location. You had to go down three sets of very long, steep barely held together, metal staircases just to get to it. “I’m afraid the main floor washroom was under renovation when the plant shut down, so we’re forced to use the only other working washroom. The main floor washroom is on our to-do list, but we just haven’t found the time for it,” Jane had explained the first time she helped me down the staircase.
Seeking Daylight Page 2
