Separated

by Michael Blue

  "What are you doing...?" Erlina asked.

  "You said you needed stiches right?"

  She nodded.

  "Well there's a laboratory up ahead where students would perform operations on frogs and stuff..." Nate enlightened her.

  "You don't have to—"

  "I want to," he insisted.

  Opening the door, Nate went ahead of her. Gradually, he couched down because of the fallen Stalker from earlier. Erlina just followed his every movement, doing the exact same thing. He put his hand back and looked at her, shushing her by putting his finger to his lips. Sneaking up on the legless Stalker, Nate drove his hatchet right into its head, hammering it about three times in the cranium. After a few moments of confirming it dead, he walked back to a door where Erlina stood by. Nate carefully opened the door, looking around to make sure nothing was in sight. Walking in after confirming that the room was safe, Nate went to exact location where most of the tools were. He searched the draws a little more and picked up a small plastic bag with curved needles. With it, he gave Erlina gave suture thread. She thanked him, putting it in her bag. Although being in this school was probably the scariest thing she'd ever done, she was nothing but grateful for Nate's help.

  He walked out of the room, and Erlina followed after buckling up her bag. Considering the weight in her bag, it wasn't heavy. It had quite a few pounds to it, but that didn't bother her as long as it was doable. Since the two were closest to the regular flight of stairs, they decided to make their way down those instead. It was a good choice, until they both heard a loud shatter as if a baseball had flew in through a window.

  "What. The. Hell..." Nate said.

  Slowing down his footsteps. Erlina held on tightly to the railings as she walked down behind him. She had an idea what if could've been, but was afraid to jinx herself if it wasn't the case. Making their way to base level of the school by reaching the last flight of stairs, Nate noticed the glass of the chapel door had been broken through and that there were shards of glass all over the floor.

  Out of the sides of the steps, a Clicker ran out, listening closely to it's surroundings. After hearing a couple of footsteps shuffle around, it quickly turned and croaked at them. They both yelped in terror and Nate pulled out his handgun, and gave the sucker a bullet in the head twice as it came closer to them. Thanks to his quick actions, the creature fell flat on its back in seconds, twitching as it became lifeless.

  "Uh, Nate..." Erlina said.

  Unable to finish her sentence, Nate fearfully looked at her after hearing numerous crying and screaming from down in the basement. Nate, grabbed Erlina by the shoulders, telling her to run back up the stairs, and they shuffled the quickest they could, and made it back towards the second level. The cries were coming closer and closer, and Erlina turned back to see about seven to eight Runners and Clickers chasing after them after they reached the end of the hall.

  "Put on your gas mask, we'll be reaching the basement straight from these stair cases!" Nate warned about the back stairs.

  Erlina remembered the spores, and the duo put their gas masks on as quickly as they could. Erlina was having the most trouble multitasking, but just before they reached the basement, she had it worn safely on her face. There was another exit in the basement other than the first one Erlina entered in. This one was one of those double security doors. Nate was already at the door, with one side slightly open waiting for Erlina to exit first. Breathing heavily she ran outside, and Nate followed.

  Placing her hands on her knees for exhaustion, Erlina heard a soft yell. Erlina turned to see Nate fighting to close the door meanwhile having a runner's arm tightly clenched around his neck. Tensely, Erlina quickly pulled off her bow from around her shoulder, and pulled out arrow from the quiver. She aimed at the Runner's face; notably a spot between its two glowing red eyes, and fired. The creature squealed and released Nate's neck, causing him to hold his neck and slide down unto his rump with his back against the wall. He was exhausted from all the running and staying in that building was nothing compared to the outside. He brought his weak arms up and took off his gas mask, inhaling the fresh cool air. Fresh air was something that was never overlooked after all those spores started swarming places. Erlina, followed and did the same, but at a more gentle level. Nate stood up, and made a head movement, signaling the young girl to follow. Erlina followed Nate to the parking lot she first stood in to enter the school.

  "So!" Nate excitingly said turning around.

  "So?" Erlina said looking up at him in, completely confident with his next choice. However, there wasn't much of one.

  Nate was happy to see that her smile had gotten wider from when he met her.

  "I guess this is it," he said turn around and pacing back towards her.

  Erlina's smile vanished clean from her face.

  "What do you mean?" Erlina said.

  "I'll be going back to my camp,"

  "Bu-but you can't...It's not..." Erlina said dreadfully.

  Nate looked at the alone child, fixating a look of discomfort,

  "I have family, Erlina...They're probably wondering where I've been, and I've been worried sick about them."

  She stared at him and he anxiously looked back.

  "Okay..." said Erlina, crushed.

  She bit her bottom lip and tears began flooding her eyes again. She hated crying, turning to wipe her eyes with her arm.

  "Hey!" Nate exclaimed. Quickly walking up to her and bending down to her height, "Hey, hey...don't cry...I'll be fine,"

  "What if I never see you again?" Erlina asked worriedly.

  "Believe me; we'll see each other again,"

  Erlina knew that was a damned lie, but she appreciated the attempt.

  "My family...we have room for one more person," Erlina admitted. She showed him their house by directly pointing at it. But it still wasn't enough to convince Nate to stay.

  He grabbed her hands and looked her in her bright brown eyes,

  "Erlina, you've-you've given me hope," he said tearing up in the eyes, "An all new kind of hope," He paused. "No matter how much you lose, you just have to keep on fighting for others and yourself" he said pointing at her heart.

  Erlina sniffed loudly.

  "You're one of the bravest people I've ever met, and I'll never forget about you,"

  Erlina, ultimately, reached in for a hug and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, causing him to kneel on one knee. However, he hugged her back. He grabbed her tightly as he felt a knot form in his throat.

  "Thank you so much for everything," Erlina's voice cracked, "I'll tell my family everything you did and I'll always remind myself..."

  Nate released her, and told her to go while he safely watched her make it back home. He knew it wasn't a wise decision to do such a thing to go voyaging on his own, but he didn't have a list of options at the moment. He had to get back to his camp, see his family and friends and spread the word about James and Everett and especially Erlina. As Erlina crossed the street, and made it over the fence, she stopped and turned to wave goodbye one last time. Like when he met her, she was twiddling with her fingers until he waved back with a chuckle. Unable to take her eyes off of him, she walked behind the house, fully out of sight. Nate sniffed, and wiped his eyes. A part of him wanted her to at least come back to wave again, but she didn't.

  "Stop being a bitch..." he said to himself after wiping his own eyes.

  He fixed his book bag upon his back and held his hatchet tightly in his hand. He walked off, leaving the premises.

  Autumn

  * * *

  Joshua was in the car, with his leg up, looking at the stitches on his legs. He would play with them from time to time, rubbing his fingers on it back and forth as if it were strumming some harp. He'd probably feel much better within a couple of weeks. He was, without a doubt, feeling much better than the couple of months when he had first gotten it. Also, hunting and exploring had done its part in strengthening his leg.

  He was in the passeng
er's side of his mother's car and Erlina sat in the back, behind the driver, looking out the window with her head rested on her hand. She had just woken up from a short nap. She noticed that the number of abandoned cars on the road had fluctuated rapidly, but this time there were five or six cars every mile or so. The road was really foggy and the sky looked solid and gloomy. They had left the house they were staying at a couple of months ago for their safety. More bandits had made their way into town, and Pamela wasn't going to stick around and wait for someone to get killed. It was fortunate that they made it out alive. Now, they were heading west for whatever reason. According to most of the highway signs, it mentioned that they had been travel through Nebraska. Every now and then, Pamela would stop at practically any rest stops they could find to literally stop and rest. Siphoning gas every couple of miles worked efficiently too. They would choose their places wisely depending how many Infected had overrun the damn places.

  "Mom, where are we even going?" Joshua questioned.

  She took a long while to reply. Truthfully, she didn't even know. There was one thing she was hiding from the both of them.

  "We can take a look through here..." Pamela said while slightly turning the steering wheel, "Look for more things..."

  Pamela drove off the highway and unto a road where a sign read, "Crawford". One thing Joshua could definitely admit was how much better his mother became at driving. She had gotten a little more reckless with her steering, which was a good thing.

  Joshua looked out the window and examined the area they were driving through. It was completely different from New York. Queens had so many buildings and fast food restaurants on every block. Crawford looked boring and really bland; small casual diners and shoe shops. The buildings and houses were cut really low; they resembled ranches. Their guess could've been that the population was really small, because there had only been about four to five cars abandoned on every block. A lot of signs were written in graffiti on the walls, but a lot were in Spanish. Therefore, you could tell that all that was mostly left were Spanish speakers. After a couple of minutes of driving, Pamela made a full stop in the middle of the road. She took her keys out of the ignition and put it in her black colored coat pocket. They all climbed out of the car, making sure that it was locked after they got out.

  Unlike before, they all had different tops and small coats. Joshua wore a dark grey sweater coat; warm enough to keep him snuggled in this kind of weather. As always, he wore his black beanie and had a new pair of mustard colored pants. Erlina was the only one who changed her entire appearance, and she was clothed in denim jeans rather than the black ones. Her jacket was a navy rain coat.

  They all grabbed their backpacks and immediately began scavenging.

  "Alright, let's check this area..." Joshua said, "I'll check that diner over there, and you and Erlina can check that clothing store or what other places you can find."

  Pamela nodded and walked off with Erlina under her arms. They were conversing as they were walking. Joshua watched them safely make it across the street and opened the door leading into the clothing's store. Joshua turned to continue searching the diner. The diner wasn't too large, it was medium sized. There was broken glass all over the musty floor, and a lot of the stools had been over turned. Much of the weeds and leaves from the outside had happened to grow inside and dangle over the window like icicles would during the winter. Something that would be nice to come across would be some food. They had found some stale sandwiches back at the rest stops, but it wasn't enough for all three of them. The most it would last was two days. While Joshua searched and searched he could only begin to imagine how many people must have passed through here and looted it dry. He went behind the counter and searched through every shelf and every corner. There was nothing except empty cans of foods and drinking bottles,

  "What can you do with this junk...?" Joshua asked himself before walking off.

  Looking through the cupboards and cabinets, he was lucky enough to find a box of matches. A little part of him rejoiced silently on the inside. Taking the box of matches to look through it, there was a fair amount left to last them a couple of weeks. If they ever planned on building campfires of anything else that needed flame, they could count on this. Pulling his backpack to his side, he quickly unzipped it and tossed it in. Zipping it back up, and putting it on his back, he looked around for more items. Heading out behind the counter, he went straight into another room across from it. The diner's kitchen was big, but it looked like it had been untouched. There was a fridge, and Joshua was stupid enough to open it. Of course there was nothing in there; if there were, it probably would've been weeks or months old. Closing it back, he inhaled and exhaled to himself, a small sign of disappointment. He searched everywhere, finding nothing of good use except for some magazines that his mom would enjoy reading. He'd tell her about it later though.

  Walking through the diner, he made sure that he didn't step on too much of the glass shattered from the windows. Floors like these were really dangerous, considering that he could get his leg wound reopened. He slowly made his way outside, having glass crunch underneath his feet every step he made. Once he exited to the store, he looked at his mom and Erlina waiting at the car.

  "Did you find anything?" Joshua asked, already knowing the answer.

  They shook their heads.

  Joshua looked around and noticed a church he couldn't get his head off of the time they drove into the small town. It wasn't huge, which was good on their part, because it didn't require too much searching, but it was definitely the largest building in the area.

  "What about that church?" Joshua said pointing towards it.

  Both Erlina and Pamela turned their heads to look at it. Pamela thought it was worth a shot and looked at Joshua,

  "Are you sure?" she asked reassuringly.

  He nodded, and continued walking north of the area.

  "It's like a ghost town," Pamela said while following him.

  "You can never be too sure in these kinds of areas," he said looking over his shoulder.

  Pamela figured what Josh was trying to say. Small towns had fewer chances of too many people getting infected. Even though people fled the area, there were chances that people could stick around to kill the remaining few. It wasn't like Manhattan or anything, where it was overrun by infected. Stakes were high over there and the infection must have probably taken over eighty-five to ninety percent of the borough. It was the one place in New York that had to be quarantined, isolated, and "decontaminated" immediately to protect other people.

  They were all armed. Thankfully, they were able to take care of themselves these past couple of months. Things went pretty smoothly, and they found enough bullets that hadn't gone to waste. Erlina probably found two or three arrows out of all that time, but she definitely improved with shooting sharper, quicker, and with perfect timing. She said that she preferred the arrows over guns because it's more like a silent killer. Sixteen arrows were all she had.

  Finally, they reached the doors of the church. Just like every other area, it was overwhelmed with vegetation. Vines crawled up and down the chipped wood of the walls and wrapped themselves around the old dirty pillars. The doorway welcomed them with one door that was left slightly open. In the front yard of the church was a statue, with sculpted, molded drapery. Erlina stood behind to examine it while Joshua and his mother made their way to the stairs.

  "Who's that?" Erlina asked looking closely at the face of the statue. It didn't take her long to notice that it was a female, "I thought you told me that God was a man, Aunty Pamela?"

  Joshua scoffed. A bit of an annoyance seeped through, and Erlina knew why. Immediately, Pamela turned around; literally and figuratively doing a one-eighty, ignoring Joshua's obvious attitude. Whenever she told Joshua about God, he completely dismissed it. It wasn't that he didn't believe there was a God. He believed in something, he just didn't know what. And if there was one, why didn't he or she come down from heaven yet? The world was pr
actically over twenty years ago.

  "He is a man," she confirmed as if she met him before, "A lot of other churches praised Mother Mary, the woman who gave birth to God,"

  "Why?" She said.

  "Well, she was a virgin...and God sent down an angel to give birth to the son of God..."

  "Now's not really the time for a biblical lesson, mom..." Joshua said crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.

  "Oh, hush!" she said sternly.

  "A virgin can't have a baby, can she...?" Erlina questioned. She didn't look curious nor concerned. It sounded like a question, but Erlina was just trying to reassure that it wasn't possible.

  Whenever something about religion or faith came up, Pamela was the first to become the preacher. You could say it was sort of hypocritical in a sense; murdering people and having so much blood on your hands, but she'd only do it for the protection of her family. It was understandable in a sense, but she would transition herself from a church mom to a hardcore survivor in such a bizarre manner. One thing Josh could admit was that her speech hadn't gained the least bit profanity. It was the only thing that prevented Joshua and Erlina from gaining such bad mannerisms.

  Turning their attention back to the church, Joshua saw big black words written on the wall in graffiti. It read, "Intrusos son asesinados".

  "What's that?" Erlina asked.

  "Eh, I don't know. Something else in Spanish?" he said not really caring.

  Neither of them knew Spanish. Pamela only knew the basics, like yes and no. Not thinking too long on it, Joshua opened the door that led into the church. The doors made a loud creaking noise, and it echoed. Startled crows flew away from the sound of the door. Inside of the church, the tiled floors were old and cracked in most places, some even missing. Most of the roof had cracked and fell in, being able to view the sky from the inside out.

  "It's been so long since I've been inside a church," Pamela said. The heels of her knee high boots clicked the tiles louder than anyone elses.