Cooper, who must have been watching over her the entire time, was suddenly there, his large body tense.
"Clara? Are you okay?"
She could have told him it was a stupid question. But then, she knew how lucky they had been. They could just as easily have been hurt even worse if the men had tried to shoot them. The only reason they hadn't must have been because they didn’t want to waste their bullets, but Clara had heard some shots… or maybe they just didn’t want to have to deal with the problem? She looked Cooper over, but with how fast he had moved, and so silent she hadn't heard before hand, she didn’t think he was injured. Was Dante injured?
"My head hurts," she said instead, reaching up with one hand to feel where the ache was worst and growing under one of her eyes. She remembered getting knocked in the face and that must be where the pain was coming from. But Cooper took her hand and lowered it to her side before she could make contact.
"You got a pretty bad bump to the head." Dante came up on her other side so she could see him. She looked him over as well, but he also didn’t seem to be hurt anywhere.
It was a testament to Cooper's worry that he didn’t push the other man away for getting too close to her. Clara huffed a quick laugh at how he said it, like she just tripped and fell, or was clumsy and knocked into something—so innocent.
Not like she had gotten pistol-whipped by a possibly drunk madman. She tried to think if she had hit her head some more after she hit the ground, but couldn’t remember. With the pain in her face, she'd barely noticed anything else. At some point, she'd even passed out, and she wondered if she had a concussion.
Then, she remembered everything else. She remembered how those armed men took all their things, all the food, the other supplies they'd brought, even the bikes—they had nothing left. She thought about the distance they had ridden, interspersing fast and slow speeds so they wouldn’t tire out too quickly. Then she tried to think about walking that distance, with nothing, not even water, on them. If she were upright, she would have felt dizzy. As it was, she just suddenly felt tired.
"How are we going to make it home," she muttered, speaking out loud what they all must have been thinking.
Day two was over unless she'd slept through day three as well, but she didn’t think so. They were supposed to be on their way back. She wondered how far they had gotten from the town when the guys thought to stop. She saw them exchange a look above her.
"We'll just need to keep walking in the morning," Dante said, sounding as tired as she felt.
Their situation had been the worst she had seen so far, and so quickly. It was a bit of distance from home, but the size of the town must have been close to theirs. Things were going bad back home, she couldn’t ignore that, but these people acted like they'd gone mad. She wondered where they got the alcohol, what they were burning to make that bonfire. It had been big enough for her to catch sight of the fire first instead of the people dancing around it that Dante saw. Were they breaking down more houses for the wood? They would have had to, assuming they'd kept the fire going for a while.
"How did the town manage to go downhill so quickly," she wondered out loud.
"Animal instincts," Dante offered, sitting down beside her. "They kick in for humans when they don’t know what's happening. It makes them violent and unpredictable. It's even there back home, the cops are just slowing it down, especially with the volunteer thing." He huffed a quiet laugh. "It was kind of ingenious of them, actually. Keep people busy and they don’t have the time to lose their heads. Make them think they're doing something useful, give them a feeling of entitlement, and they'll hold themselves back. It won't work for everybody, and it won't work for long, but for right now the situation can be handled because only a few people are breaking the rules. It hasn’t been long since it happened."
"It's been long enough," Cooper muttered, and she made a sound of agreement.
"Yeah, but imagine if it lasted longer. Some good has come out of what the cops are doing for the town. I heard some supplies were to be coming in while we were out on the trip. That's good for us, but it won't last forever. They're working with the hope that the situation can somehow be reversed or something, they're looking for a cause and how to fix it. We're screwed for the long term, it's why they're so worried about it. And if everyone else is experiencing the same thing, we can't expect outside help, not for long. We have stuff to trade, but even that won't last."
"Even if they found out the why," Cooper cut in, "it doesn’t mean they will know how to fix it. There might not be a way to do that. They're just worried about losing control, it’s why they're having people volunteer, to make it look like they're doing something useful when they're really being kept in line. It's why I didn’t join, why a lot of people haven’t. Most people know what's coming, so they're locking themselves up in their homes and isolating themselves from everybody. Then there's the curfew, the nightly patrols… did you notice when they send volunteers out, you're expected to look after yourself? You don’t get to have a gun if you aren’t in uniform."
It was true, though Clara hadn't thought of that. They must have a lot of weapons stocked up. It might just be they didn’t want people to start killing each other for 'the cause,' though when she thought about it, every time she went to the station; when she saw someone in a cop uniform, they had a gun on them. This trip they were sent on had plenty of dangers, but no one had thought to give them something so they could protect themselves, just go on blind faith that nothing bad would happen.
Clara had thought about carrying the gun they had at home but decided it was too dangerous. Nothing might have gone wrong, and with the situation they had been in, being found with a gun it might have just made the situation worse for them than it had been. Plus, after accidentally shooting someone before, she couldn’t hold a gun with such confidence again, even if it was the only protection she'd had. Cooper had offered to carry it, but she had said no.
"Our town may be holding it together at the moment," Dante continued, "but soon enough people will go crazy and do stupid things. The cops will lose whatever control they think they have, and they aren’t doling out weapons for everyone else as much as for their own sakes. Because when people go up against each other, they'll attack civilians, but they usually aim for authority first."
Clara couldn’t say that was true, at least that last bit. Until she remembered going to Mayor Charleston's town. She remembered how there had been a blockade put up around the center of the town, the people out in the streets milling about but concentrated on that blockade. She imagined, once they lost patience, if he allowed himself to grow lax, they would storm the building and take whatever he was keeping from them.
It was a different situation, though. The police were offering help, even though they were hindering the people that preferred to just take. But they would definitely aim to kill those people with weapons rather than those without.
She also reminded herself of what she did to the woman who was trying to shoplift, that time when she was helping out with the night patrol. And what the woman had tried to do, even seeing that Clara had a gun. It was like she hadn't cared for her life at all, she just wanted Clara out of the way so she could take what she had gone to steal. Clara was pretty sure that, had the woman been the one holding the gun when Clara encountered her, she wouldn’t have hesitated to take the shot.
Suddenly, it seemed entirely possible to her that society could crumble apart. Whatever the guys said, Clara believed the police were doing something worthwhile. But she, herself, had been willing to help, and yet, when it came to keeping herself unharmed, she had shot someone. It was an accident, and she had regretted it, but she had stopped deluding herself into thinking that, if it really came down to it, she wouldn’t have taken the shot herself.
She knew she would have. If it was a choice between her and some stranger, of never being able to go back to her family again, nor to Cooper, she would have chosen her own life over someone else's.
Hell, she didn’t want to see it, but she had made the decision the day of the crash. When she and Cooper had been going off to school just like any normal day and gotten stuck in traffic. When all the cars shut down, when she saw the plane coming down, her first instinct was to get Cooper out of the car. The second to jump out herself and run so he would follow, even knowing there was a risk he might not, no matter how sure she had been that he would.
Clara had told people to run, knocked on cars, shouted like a mad woman. But she hadn't done that as soon as she was out of the car. She ran like her life depended on it, which she had been so sure it did at that time. It wasn’t until after she had run some distance that she realized that other people were still sitting in their cars. After she heard Cooper call out to her, is when she even remembered that it wasn’t just her in danger. Even so, not a lot of people moved when she told them to, and it didn’t occur to her to stay longer and convince them to follow her because it would lower her own survival chances.
She thought about everything that had happened up until then and thought about what she would do to protect her family. She wouldn’t do quite what the people in that town were. They looked like they had gone crazy, but she would certainly ignore everyone else that existed to protect her own family and herself.
"Clara," Cooper called softly. "Do you think you can walk? We didn’t get far because I wanted to stop to get a look at your injury. I want to rest, but we can't do it here, we're still too close to town."
He didn’t say how much it worried him that she had been unconscious, but he didn’t have to. He would have just carried her and walked on, and they would have been further away, but he must have been worried about making her injury worse. She had blacked out, and that could only be a bad sign.
"I think I can."
She didn’t sound sure of herself, but then he was helping her up. He moved slowly, and she was grateful for it. First, she sat up, going still when vertigo hit her. It made her head ache worse for a moment until it dulled to something manageable. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she got her feet under her and he pulled her up with him as she stood. She had a moment to congratulate herself, but then she was concentrating on walking. She stumbled, but Cooper kept an arm around her, and they were walking.
Clara leaned against Cooper heavily as they moved, but he didn’t mind. Dante was walking close on her other side in case Cooper needed the help. Clara just concentrated on putting one foot ahead of the other, making her exhausted body keep moving.
She thought of making it home and getting into her bed for a long period of rest. She probably would have to see someone for the head injury. There was no way to tell how serious it was. Clara knew people could die from concussions; that she could go to sleep and never wake up. She didn’t care about it just then, but that was the pain in her head, and the ache in her body talking.
They didn’t make it far before she began to feel dizzy again. She tightened the arm she had around Cooper, hoping to hide it from them. But her breathing had grown short and her legs were moving sluggishly. And they slowed considerably not long after she started to feel a pressure growing behind her eyes. She willed her body to move as she wanted it to, but then that only made her head hurt worse, and she winced.
"Why don’t we call it a night," Dante suggested.
For once, Cooper didn’t argue with him. He lifted Clara up, but they only moved a few steps away before sitting down again. She wasn’t sure why they couldn’t just stay where they were, but then they huddled under a tree since it began to rain.
There was still the possibility of a concussion. Clara wondered if either of them had even thought of it, but she didn’t want to tell them. It would only worry them more, and she didn’t want them telling her not to go to sleep. As things were, they would have to take the risk, because there was no way she could continue on as she was, and it would be unfair to Cooper to have him carry her anymore. it would only slow them down, anyway.
Clara rested her head on Cooper's shoulder and drifted back to sleep.
Chapter Nine
Clara woke up a few hours later.
She wondered for a second why she woke up because it was still dark, but then her growling stomach made her realize. Her stomach was hurting from hunger. She hadn't eaten enough of what they'd carried to be full, she had eaten just enough to hold back the hunger. With all their food gone, they would have to make it back home hungry.
That would be a problem. Thanks to the food shortage, she had been eating even less than she usually would. So, had Cooper, and she wasn’t sure what Dante's situation was like. She had been moving around even while eating less, and her body had gotten used to it, but she was significantly weaker than she had been when she ate balanced meals. Now, she saved full meals for breakfast and dinner and had a small snack for lunch. In the beginning, she would get dizzy spells and hunger pangs for not eating enough, but both went away after her body adapted.
This situation was different from that. Her stomach growled again, louder, and she doubled over, wrapping her arms around it, pressing against her stomach. Having some water could have helped a bit, but even that was gone. Those bastards had left them with nothing, after all. She would have to deal with this until they made it back, and she cursed those men for doing this to them and enjoying themselves. She could remember them laughing, just before she passed out, as they made shot after shot while Cooper ran with her in his arms.
How long had it been since she had eaten? She had been out the whole day and now part of the night. Already, she had been eating less since she realized the family would have to start taking rations, even after she found the food Tessa had hidden that gave them security for quite a while. And she'd eaten even less on this journey because the food they carried hadn't been very much, and they'd been planning on stretching it until they were sure they could make it back with what was left, just in case something happened. Now she didn’t have even that little, and her stomach was practically caving in on itself.
None of them could have predicted what happened, but she still cursed the situation they found themselves in.
She forced herself to move, shaking the other two awake. She wondered if they had rested at all while they looked after her, but the longer they stayed away, the harder it would be for them to get back home without the food and water to tide them over. Her head felt a little better, some of the aches were partly gone, even though she could feel the large bruise on her cheek and wondered if the bone was broken.
Think about it later.
Maybe when she got back, she could talk to Alice, or better, go see Felicia for a professional opinion.
"Come on guys, get up," she encouraged, moving away from Cooper's arms to stand up, then taking his hand and tugging him up after her. "I think enough time has passed. We can't wait too long. We need to go, now."
No one would come after them, she was sure, but that wasn’t their biggest problem at the moment.
The better to start moving when they still had some energy left and before the sun came out. If they got dehydrated, it would only be worse. She doubted they would find some natural water source on the way, she hadn't seen any. The other two would be in the same situation she was in, and it would only get worse once the sun came out, so they had to make good distance before then.
Dante groaned as his eyes fluttered open, but he didn’t get up. "I can't move until I've eaten something."
Clara winced. She felt the same as him. Another hunger pang hit her stomach, and she almost doubled over from it, holding herself back because she didn’t want them to notice. But even though she felt sympathy for him, it was urgent that they moved, or they risked starvation out here, or worse, coming into contact with other people that might hurt them. They didn’t need more of a hindrance; their situation was bad enough. Dante had to be glad he didn’t get hit, or shot, and needed to stop whining when it wouldn’t help anything.
She couldn’t bring herself to say it, but Cooper s
eemed to have no problem with it.
"You need to pull it together," Cooper snapped, realizing what Clara was trying to do and shaking her off to stand up on his own. He stumbled a little, but then he was steady. "Get up and let's get going right now or we'll never get home. You're not the only one here who's tired and starving."
He must have realized like she did, the problem they were currently facing. She made the mistake of nodding.
Clara winced as a shot of pain went through her swollen face. She reached her hand up, fluttering it over her cheek where the ache was coming from. She wouldn’t touch it, though. It might just hurt more. She did wish she could see it, but that would have to wait. Trying to move her head as little as possible, she started walking, hoping the other two would follow her lead. After a moment, she heard them coming up behind her, Cooper moving until he walked to her right. He shot her a worried look, but she ignored it. There were no words she could give him that would reassure him.
They walked. She pushed herself to move as fast as she could in her current condition, Cooper and Dante keeping up with her. She wasn’t sure what time of the night it was, but they needed to walk a bit of distance before the sun truly became a problem if they wanted to make it home in one day. The cold air cleared her head a little, and she was grateful for it, even as she wrapped her arms around her body to ward off most of the chill. Cooper tried to put an arm around her, but she pulled away without looking at him. It would only hinder the both.
They walked until the sun came up over the horizon. They kept moving even as it climbed up the sky. She could feel the heat, but she ignored it. Her body moved slower, though, almost sluggish, and she was growing warmer until her skin felt slick with sweat, to the point she was uncomfortable. They were all silent, and no one bothered to speak, knowing it would just be a waste of energy to do so. They didn’t take too many breaks, and Clara's legs ached, especially after biking it the day before. Exhaustion pulled at her limbs, but she pushed on until the sun was falling down the opposite side of the sky.
Zero Power (Book 2): Trying To Survive Page 7
