Theia ceased paying him any attention when she saw something that brought a smile to her face. Entering the dining room area was Matt, the latest comer. He was skittish as always, though he was now wearing the full attire of one of Marcus' soldiers. Theia sprang up and ran to him. When Matt saw her, his face lit up as well. Spencer stopped speaking. “You made it!” she said happily.
“Yeah, kinda,” Matt shyly replied. “I just said I was going to try to be like you guys... They were like, 'okay.'”
“Awesome. We have food over here. Real food, I mean.”
“Cool. I am a little hungry.”
Theia guided Matt by the hand to her table and tried to squeeze them both back into her spot. Spencer decidedly stood up and left, which made Theia feel poorly, but only for a moment. Then it occurred to her: she remembered that the food was only served once everyone came to the area. No one who arrived after got any food, no one got to have seconds. “Oh no...” she said to herself. “I don't know if they're serving any more...”
Matt looked worried. “You mean I can't eat?”
Theia wasted no time taking the matter into her hands, swiftly rising and walking toward the kitchen. One of the guards blocked her, pushing her back. “Matt's hungry!” she exclaimed aggressively.
“Don't care,” said the man apathetically.
“Sit down, Theia,” she heard Marcus say from the dining area. Theia shot the guard a dirty glare, then obeyed the boss.
“All right, everyone listen up.” Marcus stood in the middle of the dining room addressing all of Theia's peers as several of his men entered. “We have a problem on our hands. Our enemy is covering more and more ground.” Theia could hear the older kids express their excitement. This meant a mission. “We need to stop them. If we don't, we'll all be their prisoners, or be killed on sight. I'm gonna be honest right now; we're losing the war. Something needs to change that. Can I count on you guys to help us?”
The kids roared like a tribe that had cut off the head of their greatest foe. To Theia, it was deafening and appalling.
“Have you been outside yet?” Theia asked her buddy. Matt shook his head, great terror in his eyes. She wanted to help him but nothing came to mind as to how. “Do what your leader says... It should be over before long.” That didn't help at all, she scorned herself. As the others were continuing to cheer and jump about, she checked her surroundings before leaning in toward Matt's ear. “Hide,” she whispered. Matt's face conveyed acknowledgment and confusion.
Theia looked at his hands. “Where's the inhaler?” she frantically asked him. Matt shrugged, though seemed just as worried as she was. He must not have known he'd go straight from eating to fighting... Theia stood to ask an adult about it, but before she got far, she was stopped by an obese man with a bushy beard.
Tiny lips moved that forest of hair up and down as the man said, “You must be Theia.” She reluctantly nodded. “I'm Teddy. You're coming with me. Your friend, too.”
She looked back at Matt. “Matt's coming?”
Her excitement turned to despair when Teddy replied, “No.” The man pushed on Theia's back, leading her through the crowd as kids and adults alike were grouping up and distributing weapons. “We have to get there before the others,” he added. Theia tried to look back toward her friend, but it was already too late.
Stepping outside, she found Spencer already by the car they were taking, along with four others. “You got shotgun,” said Spencer. Theia heeded, though where she sat couldn't have mattered less to her.
“Teddy, can't I bring Matt too?” He ignored her as he started the engine then peeled away.
It felt good to get away from the building again, but she dreaded the destination more than remaining there. Driving there was a fairly short trip, but in those brief moments, Theia saw the road she had ventured alone: Burnside. As if fate was toying with her, she saw their destination was Big Pink. Last time I saw that building..., she thought. Then memories returned to her; memories of freezing, starving, solitude, confusion, despair...
“Get out already!” demanded their leader. Theia had failed to notice they had stopped and someone opened her door. She virtually fell out, apologizing to Teddy. “Inside. Quickly now.”
The worst familiar sights were right before her eyes, and at her feet... Theia had gotten out of the car, stepping directly onto the fingers of a cold corpse. After removing her foot, she was completely frozen. These bodies were the oldest she had seen; the most decayed. Like time had erased their humanity, both outside and within. Before the others saw her lagging behind, she forced herself to catch up, painfully, regretfully, stepping on several bodies.
Inside the building, there were more, fresher bodies, Theia saw. It seemed a deadly force had already swept through. Teddy led them to the stairs, then up.
“We should stop!” said Theia.
Teddy seemed out of breath, anyway. He demanded, “What?”
“Someone's already here.”
“Yeah, our own people,” said Teddy. The other kids laughed at her as the group continued toward the stairs. Theia apprehensively followed again, finding herself close to tears. At the second floor, all came to a stop. Sure enough, more of them were already present. None were faces she had seen before, but nonetheless, there were several adults accompanied by even more kids her age. The floor had its share of dirty mattresses and scattered clothing everywhere. A lot of people were living up here, Theia could tell.
Teddy informed them that they would be waiting there for a great deal of time. “It might even be days,” he added.
Theia could not block her curiosity, prompting her to ask, “Why would we be here for days?”
“We're waiting for the troops to arrive. We're keeping our turf guarded. We'll stay here until we don't need to be here anymore.”
His words immediately made her think of her asthmatic friend. She wanted to go to Matt, but she knew neither Teddy, nor any of the other adults, would permit it. Then she realized her mere presence would be useless. Where would I find another inhaler? She recalled where she got one before, and she repressed the memory immediately. It cut out all her previous thoughts too, leaving Theia to stand there on the second floor with nothing to do, no one to interact with, and no thoughts to ponder. Not even of her father. Being lost in her thoughts made her miserable every time. It was better not to think, only accept.
Theia came to a window overlooking the street from which they had come. Some of the bodies were on their backs, facing up toward her. She couldn't look at them any longer, not even in her peripheral. It wasn't much of a view to behold anyway. If only I could see things from a higher place... She requested permission to do so, but Teddy responded by ordering her to stop asking questions. While the others occupied themselves with board games, reading, or their own personal niches, Theia remained at the glass, staring at the windows of the buildings opposite.
“It's scary, isn't it?” she heard someone say.
On her right was Spencer again, more shy than she had ever seen before. “What?” she asked, though she had heard him clearly.
“I think it's scary... You know, the dead people down there.”
All-of-a-sudden, he's scared, not shy, she thought. And although she agreed with the assessment completely, there was hardly anything to say about it. “Yeah...”
“Think they'll come back someday?”
“Dead people stay dead,” said Theia bluntly and condescendingly.
Spencer paused. “What if they don't?”
“They just do, okay?”
“I'm sorry...”
“Why'd you have to listen to Chase, anyway?” The outburst even caught her off guard. “He hurt people for fun. He killed my friend. The only boy that was nice to me. Not you! You were never nice to me.”
“I was afraid of Chase,” admitted Spencer. He began to add something, but his voice cut short.
“Whatever.” Theia turned around and began to step away.
“Please don't hate me
,” she heard Spencer say.
The fragility in his voice touched her heart. She couldn't walk away from him, though part of her still wished to be angry with him. It wasn't his words that gave her a change of heart at that moment. It was the feeling she felt behind the words. She felt what he felt. His regret, his pain, his longing for the world to be a better place... Theia turned to face him. When Spencer looked up at her, she stepped before him. “I don't hate you.” She wanted to hug him, but felt that would be a little awkward. “I'm sorry, too.”
Spencer smiled.
As everyone waited for either something or nothing to happen, Theia and Spencer spent every minute henceforth in each other's company. About every hour, the adults gathered all the kids for quick verbal lessons on how to handle weapons. Theia felt it to be redundant, since everyone but her already had plenty of experience using guns. All the instruction did was remind her of her father. He never liked guns... she kept thinking. When everyone was released, free to occupy themselves as they wished, Theia and Spencer talked and got to know one another. She told him of her escape from under the kitchen sink, and how Spencer's group with Chase were the first people she met. The story disturbed Spencer. Theia found herself unintentionally making Spencer feel worse about himself with her story, for which she apologized again.
“It's really hard to... you know... walk away and say no,” said Spencer. “Chase killed people. I thought he would kill me, too.”
Theia nodded. “I know.” She grinned a little. “Like my dad said, 'you can't change the past. You just gotta move on.'”
Spencer asked, “Where is your dad?”
He never told me where he went..., she thought. But she said to Spencer, “I don't know.”
The boy looked at her with a lingering stare. “Theia?” he began. “Can I -”
“Everybody up!” screamed an adult. The kids obeyed at once. Theia rose slower than the rest; her mind was still intent to hear what Spencer was going to say. Spencer though, was already on his feet, gathering up with the others around the adults. “Get ready,” the man said. Teddy, like the other adults, was handing out guns to them. Spencer was given a rifle, while Theia was given a pistol. “Stay with your bosses. We got enemy troops closing in fast.”
Theia, Spencer and the other boys in their group followed Teddy, who led them back to a window. “Okay, kids,” the hairy man said. “See those people walking up the street down there?” Theia's peers acknowledged. She had difficulty seeing, attempting to see above the boys in front who were taller than she. “They may not be dressed like it, but that's our foe right there.”
“What's a foe?” asked the one among them who was obviously the youngest. Theia took him to be no older than eight. She saw Teddy roll his eyes.
“My god, just aim where I say to aim, got it?” Teddy nearly screamed. He led them away to the stairs, where everyone else was crowding. All the others had seen what was approaching as well. Teddy led his bunch around a corner by the stairs. Theia crouched, with Spencer to her left. He was the more exposed one.
One of the adults signaled another to go ahead of them. Theia understood he was scouting. Several minutes later, he returned upstairs, simply nodding at the leader who had sent him. What's that mean? she wondered about the gesture. Then, twenty minutes later, after everyone had started relaxing their guns and some of the kids were complaining of the wait, Theia finally heard activity. It was not originating from inside, though.
The city was silent one second, a full war zone the next. It was impossible to tell who was winning. Fear struck Theia, before her part in this had even begun. How will I get out? she screamed in her mind. Her body started to sweat and tremble. I won't live unless we win...
Men charged through the first floor. She heard the sound of impending doom. It only takes one bullet, she thought. For some (futile) comfort, she recalled Marcus saying that she likely won't be shot because nobody shoots children. That doesn't mean it's impossible.
There were heavy, rapid footsteps coming up the stairs. Her heart nearly ceased beating. “NOW!” screamed one of the adults, and then the others with him. Theia ran away instead, and she dragged Spencer with her. He didn't resist at all. Even in his panic, he trusted her.
“Get the hell back here!” Teddy screamed at them in the brief moment he could.
Theia found a desk to hide under in a secluded corner. She was prepared to wait there, down on her elbows and knees, until tomorrow if need be. She had never seen Spencer terrified... She put her hand on his back, feeling him tremble. The cries of aggression, the screams of pain, the deafening blasts and screeching gunshots left Theia frozen. Though her hands covered her ears, they did little to muffle it all. She could hear the battle being pushed back to where they hid. They're coming for us...
Spencer's shaking worsened. His fingers trembled violently against the marble floor like teeth chattering on a cold day. “No! No, no, no!” he screamed. “I can't take this!” He pushed himself forward from under the desk. Theia reached out to stop him, but missed. Spencer bolted. She followed, wanting to pull him back, but once Spencer reached the open area again, he was met with the bulk of the battle. Theia saw everyone, the familiar and unfamiliar alike. Their people were losing.
Shots pelted Spencer through the wall to his left before he could run back. Three in total. He screamed as his legs collapsed, his head slamming hard against the floor.
“SPENCER!” Theia screamed. She dropped flat and used all her strength to pull her friend back, out of the line of fire. “Stay awake. Don't close your eyes. Don't die. Don't die, Spencer!” She finally managed to drag him under another desk, where she could look into his eyes, but the sight she beheld sank her heart. One of the bullets had punctured his upper spine directly, while the other two pierced his left shoulder, leaving exit wounds. Spencer had already stopped breathing, seeing, feeling...
Theia ran the opposite direction of the battle, over desks and around partitions, until there was nowhere left to run. A private office to her right was her only remaining option, so she went inside, slamming and locking the door before hiding herself under a computer desk amidst excessively tangled wires and cables. She cried and screamed until falling unconscious. Silence befell her.
Theia was awakened by the discomfort of the desk leg poking into her back. Opening her eyes was a struggle from the tears that had dried around her eyelids. When she saw and remembered where she was, she did not feel awake. It was night. No one to see, nothing to hear. After a moment, she remembered Spencer. Quickly, she escaped the entanglement she had slept in, but once on her feet, she remembered why she was in that office. I saw him die...
The glass portion of the wall revealed that outside in the main area, there was nothing but frightening desolation. Nothing was destroyed, only trashed. She slowly stepped out of the office, carefully listening for sounds of activity, but there was still nothing to hear. Peering further out, she saw where the battle had taken place, and all that was there had been destroyed. Some areas, particularly the walls, were singed. That's the smell, she thought as she realized she had been breathing faint smoke since she woke. She walked over the debris back to the place of death, and death was exactly what she found.
All the bodies were grouped together and covered in some kind of tarp. Marcus wouldn't do this to dead people, she thought. She was thankful to not be able to see any faces. The coverings over them spared her of that. Just like before...
She had no fear of who might still remain. Theia found a flashlight among a pile of other miscellaneous supplies and used it to locate the stairs. As she stepped down through the darkness and the echoes, she once again brought herself to feel nothing. Her foot felt a body, but she kept herself from tripping over it. At the first floor, the smell of smoke and blood was still somewhat fresh, but the bodies down there were kindly grouped and covered as well. She walked to the nearest exit.
The moon's light showed the bodies that had been there long before she had arrived that day.
Her thoughts couldn't be put into words, but she felt, from the sights her eyes bore, the stages of death. She recognized she was the only one alive; the first bodies she had encountered were recently deceased, and those she was now standing among had decayed in the streets for months.
Memories of life before were nonexistent. There was nothing to miss anymore. So much death had numbed her desire to be free of the nightmare. She wished she was still asleep. She wished she could cry. All was drained of her from that moment.
Silently, blundering, only faintly caring to support her own body weight as she walked, Theia traced her memory back to Marcus' lair at the church. The city at large was not as silent as Big Pink. All the usual echoes met her ears, but she lacked the capacity to pay attention to them. It felt like years, and her legs felt sore. The soles of her feet bore blisters. When she came within fifty feet of the church, she was met by two men, their rifles pointed at her until they recognized her face and attire.
“Smart kid, finding your way back so far.”
There's nowhere else to go, she responded internally.
Being brought inside, she was met by the faces of her peers. Many of them had survived, much to her surprise. She only kept walking, without saying a word to anyone. Then, abruptly, she stopped, slowly turning around to face them. “Matt?” It was all she had the strength to say.
One of the adults answered, “He didn't make it.”
Theia nodded, her eyes halfway shut as she stumbled back toward her room.
Only a few feet from it, she heard Marcus' voice behind her. “You survived the battle. And you found your way back. Good job, little one.”
I still have my gun, she thought, as she reached her right hand to her hip. The thing was so light, she had forgotten she was carrying it shortly after it had been given to her. She turned around to look at Marcus, and the first thought to cross her mind was the image of three bullets striking his chest, draining all his blood, causing him to collapse onto his face. For a moment, she thought it was real.
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