Warm Bodies: The Answer

Of Drowning

Julie's eyes flicked open and she gasped, grabbing for her throat as the dream fell from her, of drowning and being unable to breathe.

Then the pain hit and she moaned and squirmed against the hard trunk, her whole body alight with sharp hurts and deep aches.

And she was cold. Terribly cold. As she blinked, trying to understand where she was, it slowly came back to her with the burbling chatter of the stream. A stream she could barely see now, because it was dark. Night had swallowed the world, and her with it, stolen the warmth of the sun, made her stiff with pain and the deepest chill.

Moaning again, she tried to get up, remembering her failure from earlier. So much earlier it seemed, what had happened? She'd only meant to close her eyes for a few minutes...

At least she was still alive. They hadn't found her, hadn't killed her.

But was Rowan still alive?

Jesus, don't think like that. Of course he is.

Nodding to herself, Julie gave herself no more time to think and tried to get to her feet again. The pain roared up within her, and cursing, she pushed through it and the exhaustion, and curled up onto her knees, then up to her feet.

Head swimming, surrounded by the darkness of the forest, Julie just stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. A deep shiver gripped her and she gasped with the motion as her ribs and arm spat back in pain.

Back to the town, get Rowan, get away.

Nodding again, Julie felt for the gun at her belt, and then stared into the woods, waiting for her vision to open up a little. The moon was out, the thin crescent shedding very little light, but the stars were blazing. A brilliant sea of shimmering haze above her head, and for a minute she stared up at it, wavering on her feet, her eyes bright with wonder. She'd seen them like this before of course - another benefit of the apocalypse - but it never got old.

Distantly, through the trees, she could see the flickering light of fires, and knew that's where she had to go. Releasing a sigh, she kept her gaze to the forest floor and walked forward.

And kept walking, even when thorns pulled at her jeans and she tripped a few times on rocks and branches she'd missed in the dim light. Even when everything had started to run together in her head, and she wasn't even sure where she was anymore, or how long she'd been moving, she kept walking, till the fires stood tall on the terrible wall, and the skeletal, pecked and stripped remains of the corpses hanging above almost seemed to move in the harsh, dancing light.

Her body wasn't even hurting anymore, but she was having trouble feeling her fingers, they were chilled to numb stumps.

Following the wall around, Julie came to the gate. The town was quiet inside, but she could hear someone shuffling on the other side, a guard, possibly by himself, keeping vigil.

Blowing a not-so-silent raspberry, she moved back to the forest edge, and grabbed a branch as thick as her arm and about as long. Then she returned to the gate, and threw it as hard as she could across the width of it. The branch gave a satisfying crack as it fell, and Julie pressed back against the wall, in the deepest shadow she could find, and waited.

And out came the soldier - the thin kid she remembered from the hillside after Rowan had been taken. What was his name... Bill? Bobby?

She watched him move toward the branch for a second, still trying to remember his name, before she jerked, realizing she was supposed to be acting, not thinking, not wasting her time on a name... what the hell was wrong with her?