by Briana Rain
“Ophelia? Ophelia is that you?” Vi squeaked like she was in pain. Like, Clyde reached out to see how far away he was and accidentally touched Vi’s bad shoulder. In response, like any good big sister would do, I lashed my foot out and hoped to kick him.
“Oof!” Yeah. I got him, “Apologies, little lady.” He shifted closer to me, making the floor creak.
“Ophelia, listen, I am so, so, so very sorry that I hit you. You gotta know that I would never— that if I knew— that it— I couldn't see a dang thing and I still can't, even now. And I'm— I am so sorry Ophelia.”
He sounded sincere. So sincere. Like, even though we were in the middle of the apocalypse, with zombies banging on our doors and his sister being sick, he was still pretty broken up about this.
Or, I was just completely and utterly full of myself, which was highly probable.
Still, I didn't respond. My face hurt and I was cranky, which was completely justifiable, given the situation.
He sighed, making me feel horrible, and this time it wasn't physically. But before I could tell him it was cool and that I knew it was an accident he stood up and walked away.
Chapter 35: Crates
“Are they… are they gone?” I blinked many times, trying to wake myself up.
What?
“What?” Clyde asked in a deep whisper, and by the creak of floorboards, he was probably standing up.
“Listen… there’s nothing.” James was right… there wasn’t a sound above the whispering of the wind and the leaves answers that came with it. And if there was a Crazy out there, its noise level would definitely be above the sounds of nature.
“We need to check first.” I groaned, groggy and in pain.
If we were leaving this place, then it needed to be done right.
“How do you suppose we do that?” Harrison spoke up from the back of the train, where he held and comforted Addeline. Once my mom left and fell asleep next to the twins and I, he was quick to move. James, bless his soul, was still keeping watch, with my bat balanced across his lap.
“We stack the crates, and send someone up to check it out.” I nodded towards the hole in the ceiling, then remembered it was pitch black. “Through the hole in the ceiling.” I reached over and shook my mom and my siblings awake.
Mom groaned.
“Who's gonna do it?” Clyde asked the group.
I got up, and immediately regretted it. It was like that feeling when I got out of bed too quickly. I leaned against the the wall until it passed, my hand on my head, thankful that all the lights were off and no one could see me and this moment of weakness.
Clyde turned on his flashlight, along with Mom. I kinda wished that they hadn't, considering that I still had a wad of tissue stuffed up each nostril.
“Probably one of us, since Addeline’s out of commission and you guys won't fit.” I said
The you guys I was referring to were the adult males in here, because, even though I knew that Clyde and Harrison would be more than up to the job, their shoulders just wouldn't fit. Not without widening the hole, at least. Which would most definitely lead to tetanus and a ton of noise. James was completely out of the question, given that his recovery from his bullet wound isn't going too smoothly, like it did in the movies. I had no clue what was up with Addeline, but I knew that she wasn't up for scaling a tower of crates anytime soon. The us that I suggested for the task ahead was one of the Astors.
It just now occurred to me that my voice was probably a lot more nasally than normal, given the wad of tissues stuck up my nose. No one commented on it, though, and I was grateful.
“We need to start stacking.” I said. “Clyde, Harrison, you’re the strongest.” I walked over to the crates, but not before I saw the glare exchanged by the two. I lent my hand to help James down the hazardous stack of splinter-ridden crates, and was mildly surprised when he didn't refuse it. It was time to be concerned when the tough guy put away his toughness.
On the way down he stumbled into me, from a wibbly-wobbly box or just plain weakness, or both. He awkwardly collided into me, and we were pressed together for two bits more than a moment. He steadied himself using waist and I caught him from falling by grabbing his shoulders. He stood up straight and I grabbed my bat off of the boxes and stepped to the side.
With us out of the way, Clyde and Harrison started working together, instead of participating in the Alpha Male Of The Apocalypse Contest 2K28. They actually worked really well together, which was a surprise, but most importantly, they worked quietly.
When the tower started getting too high, Mom and I had to start helping the guys, which I really didn't like because I was so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so soooooooooo tired. Exhausted. Mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and any other ally you could think of.
By the time we finished, daylight was breaking. It wasn’t enough light to see anything except silhouettes, and since every sort of ally I had was exhausted, I fell asleep.
Chapter 36: Tower
“Ophelia. Ophelia c’mon. Ophelia. O…”
Ma? Mom, go away. There isn't any school today…
“Eh?” Even though there wasn't any school, I still opened my eyes to find my mom shaking me awake. I was… not at home. I—
I was in a train car with other survivors of the ongoing apocalypse. Very, very different from home. Very, very far away from home.
It shook me, but I didn't have time to be shook. I could actually see Mom, which meant that the sun had risen enough for visibility. Enough to check whether or not it was safe to escape this wretched area.
We were in Montana. Just one state away from Washington. I could almost taste the promised safety.
Once I was awake awake, and not just conscious, Mom patted me twice on the shoulder, and stood up. I followed suit, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, which probably wasn't the brightest idea, because even I couldn’t remember where my hands had been or the last time I’d sanitized them.
I watched as Clyde lifted my little brother up near the top of the tower, as far as his tan arms could reach. The tower wobbled as soon as Lucky’s full weight was transferred onto it, and I had no choice but to rush forward. Everyone else who was well, did the same. Clyde stood next to me, our hands touching for a second. I pretended that it was less than a second. Like it didn't happen at all.
“You okay?” Mom steadied the tower next to me.
I wobbled as much as the tower did before we could steady it, but I blamed that standing up too quickly after waking up.
“Yeah.” Luck concentrated on not falling as he went from kneeling, to standing, and then climbing.
I glanced at the people on both sides of me, Mom and Clyde, and only one was looking back at me.
Lucky reached the top of the tower, so that his head was just sticking out of the top of the train while he crouched.
“Be careful sweetie.” Mom, being a mom, told Lucky as he began to stand up.
The hole was just big enough for him to get through without touching the sides, and scratching himself on the rusted metal. We couldn't see his face, but his torso twisted, and his feet shuffled as he turned.
Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Forty. A minute. Two minutes. Two and a half minutes. Two and three quarter minutes…
Lucky climbed down uneventfully, which was good. Clyde took his hands off of the tower to help him down, but all that movement made the tower dangerously sway and tilt.
“Jump!” Clyde held his arms out to encourage Lucky, but it didn't work on the rest of us.
This… was a bad idea. Yep. The definition of a bad idea. If you looked up ‘bad idea’ and clicked on images, this scene would be the first one to pop up.
At the same time this was going through my head, Lucky prepared to jump, and another train of thought went through my mind.
Please don't fall.
Chapter 37: Walking
Luck told us that there were about four or five Crazies left. They were spread out
around the cars, doing the ol’ Drool and Sniff, mostly towards the opposite direction that those villains made off with our stuff.
We waited. And waited a little bit more. Then after we sent Lucky up again, and he reported that they were still there, we decided to just screw it. There were only three or four of them, and we could take them on easily. When Lucky was on top of the tower again, we even asked him to put some of his weight of the roof, to see if we could escape that way.
No dice.
The metal immediately caved with the slightest amount of pressure.
So we gathered what we had, which wasn't much, and Harrison, Clyde, and I opened the door. It squeaked, but not loud enough to get any attention, which we all were grateful for. After we got everyone out, Clyde and Harrison went back to the fire to see if there was anything to be salvaged. They came back with Clyde’s gun and Vi’s Mickey Mouse backpack. Everything else was covered in that orange goop.
Jude— which probably wasn't even his real name— took off in the same direction we were heading in, so that was where we started. It was also the direction that was away from the lingering Crazies, so that was a bonus.
…
And we still are walking in that direction, following the road just inside the tree line, over an hour later. I would've said three hours, but Clyde told me that from the position of the sun, that it’s only been an hour.
What a load of crap. I knew he had a watch on under that sleeve.
Harrison, who was leading us, threw his hand up in a fist, and stopped. I’d seen enough movies to know what that meant. I also stopped, and crouched down, pulling Lucky, who was walking next to me, down with me. Clyde did the same with Vi. Addeline, who was still looking horrible, knew what that signal meant too, but James and Mom were a second late to the party.
I focused on the trees, at whatever Harrison could have seen to make us stop, but my swollen eye reduced my vision.
Harrison motioned for us to go forward, and he slowly criss-cross walked while crouched. We all followed, except I hadn't quite mastered the walk yet.
As a group, we crept forward, closer to the tree line. The closer he got to the edge, the lower and slower Harrison got. The group, myself included, mimicked him. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on.
Then he got onto his stomach and crawled the rest of the slightly uphill way. We followed. I pushed my face between two bushes and got even more dirt on my face. I winced when instead of moving out of the way, one of the branches poked me in the face, just under my left eye.
After getting past the aggressive foliage, what I saw explained a lot. Actually, it explained everything that just happened within the past four or so minutes. There were two… people. Yeah, they hadn’t turned yet. I couldn't tell gender or age, because they were a ways off. But they definitely were alive and as well as anyone could be in this mess.
They were also definitely looting our car. The Jeep that we had relied on for so many states was now completely crumpled into a tree on the other side of the road, on fire, and blood soaked. Jude and his kids laid on the road, near us, their heads riddled with bullets.
The girl had that absolutely gross orange slime around her. It was leaking out of her nose, ears, and bullet wounds.
We all seemed to process this information at the same time, because Clyde, swearing under his breath, started getting up.
Harrison, who was laying directly to Clyde's left, put his hand in the middle Clyde's back and shoved him back down.
“There could be others!” Harrison whispered, still keeping his hand on Clyde.
Being pushed down caused Clyde's face to ungracefully hit the ground, so after wiping his face with his hands, he said, “We can't let them get away with this.”
It almost sounded like a growl. A growl of someone who had their teeth clenched together and was on the edge of losing it.
“Yes. Yes we can.” Harrison whispered, glancing at Addeline and then the twins, and then stared ahead.
As for me, I… I didn’t know what I felt, if anything, about the situation. The child’s eyes, red eyes, stared blankly right at me, and don't get me wrong, I felt a little upset and a little angry, but I didn't know those people. And what I did know of them wasn't good. This is the Apocalypse. People died. Even if the way it happened is slightly unorthodox, people still died.
If anything, I felt upset about how I wasn't upset. And about our car, which was basically our HQ. A place to regroup. Now that I saw that someone who was infected was in it, and that it was on fire, there was no other choice than to accept—
Wait. Wait a minute. Hold on. Whoa there cowboy.
The car was on fire.
“Guys. The car’s on fire.” The way I said it, well, it was a captain obvious moment.
“Yeah. A lot of things are on fire.” James whispered, in a voice that was only used to confront a captain obvious moment.
“No, I mean, don't cars on fire… don't they explode?” I looked from James, to the rest of the group.
There was a moment there. A couple of seconds where we all froze. We all looked from person to person. It was the human equivalent of a computer buffering.
Finally, I scrambled backwards, away from the death and the looters, down the incline and into the woods. I found Lucky’s hand, and dragged him along with me, staying low. I heard the others quickly getting away from the road behind me. Although we were probably out of the blast range, I’d put the last of my gum on that we weren’t out of range of all of the Crazies that would come scrambling out of the woodwork because of it.
Harrison made his way to the front again, which I questioned. It occurred to me that he only knew the general direction of we're going, and not the place. Only Mom had the map.
And then I ran into the back of Harrison. He actually had his pack on him when we were ambushed, so I didn’t literally run into his back face-first, but it was close enough.
I stumbled back, and felt someone run into me, and heard someone run into them. After I looked back, I saw Clyde stumbling back behind me, and James behind him, with Mom, Vi, and Addeline behind them, narrowly avoiding the nonsense.
Harrison looked back at Mom. There was a dirt path in front of him, just wider than a sidewalk. It went left and right, which were none of the directions that we were heading in.
Mom came to the front of the line and chose right.
The right direction instead of the left one, that is.
We slowed down, which I was grateful for. I was sure that James and Addeline, who were both looking better, were too. Maybe they looked better because they were outside, in the fresh air and sunlight, and not cramped in a dark, smelly box with scents assaulting them and shadows hiding half of their faces.
Lucky tugged on my hand, and pulled me away from the chain of people.
“Ophelia! O, look!”
He continued to pull me towards the edge of the path while pointing into the woods. Right inside the tree line, off the path, was a bush of blueberries. Not just berries that were blue, oh no, these were real, actual, edible, familiar blueberries.
Lucky and I sped towards the bush, starving. The second we got to it, there was a whirring sound, and then a scream. I think the scream came from both of us, but who knew.
The ground crumbled out from under us and— no, wait. The ground stayed where it was, and Luck and I were hoisted into the air in a net.
The lure of food was too close and too promising for us to consider anything hostile, like a trap. It raised not only Lucky and I, but also the artificial blueberry mistake. We flew up so quickly that I feared that the rope was going to snap.
We stopped about fifteen feet in the air, with only Lucky and some rope between me and the ground.
Yeah, that would have to change.
“O! Ophelia! Lucky!” The others shouted our names as they tried to backtrack and locate us.
“Help!” Lucky, obviously the smarter of the two of us, yelled out for help first.
“Guy
s! Up here!” James was the first one I saw, so that was when I yelled for help. The way the net was, with another person and a fake blueberry bush, made me feel very crowded, and forced my mug against the rope.
Lucky was laying on his back at the bottom of the net, with everything squishing him, which, now that the group was here, needed to change.
“Lucky, grab the net and pull yourself up. You can't be under me.”
He made a face, obviously confused, or possibly insulted, like I thought that he wasn't strong enough. Or both.
“Luck. I am almost twice your weight and your age. When we get out of this and fall, I will break you. Get it?”
“Okay, okay. I got it.”
Good.
He grabbed the net and pulled himself up, like I said, and I slid under, my face no longer pressed against the ropes. My back was now to the ground though, so I couldn't match what was going on to what I was hearing.
“Guys! We can't find any anchor down here. Can you see anything?” A non-southern, male voice called up. I heard Crazies below us, but considering that James was able to stand there and talk to us, it was probably being handled. I hoped.
“O…” Lucky said.
That didn't sound good.
I looked from the trees, to Lucky, to his finger, which was pointing upwards, to my right. There, tangled in the trees, not too far away from our net, was another, but this one contained a Crazy, which was starting to stir from all the noise.
The fighting underneath us stopped, but I could still hear our group walking around and talking quietly to each other, which meant that all the Crazies down there were eliminated, and that everyone was okay. No one was hurt anymore than they already were.
“G—“ Lucky started calling out to our group, but I slapped my hand over his mouth and pointed to the other net, which now had a fully awake Crazy struggling in it. Not that I knew if they actually slept or not, but that was just what it looked like.
Unfortunately, even though I stopped Lucky from uttering a full syllable, that sound was all that Crazy needed to hone in on our location, even through the leaves and the branches.
