Radiation Point

Forty Two

I followed Jackson into the nurses station without a word. I couldn't bring myself to look at Mia's cot outside the door. Instead, I hurried into the room and lay down on the cot firmly attached to the wall.
The leather material crinkled under me as I stared at the ceiling tiles above. Clamping my eyes shut, I prayed it would work.
Jackson closed the door with a thud and pulled the chair from behind the desk so he was across from the cot.
"You need to clear your head for this to work," he said softly. "Are you ready?"
I nodded without a word. I couldn't look let myself think anyways. No. I needed to focus.
"Good," he said. His voice was calm and soothing, like he hadn't spend the past year barking orders for the Night Walkers. It was like he was a regular old doctor. "I want you to relax."
I could feel my shoulders stiffen. Right, relax. Easier said than done, I thought bitterly.
"Picture a flowing stream with cleansing waters flowing. Can you see it? Now I want you to step into the water. Let go of inhibition and let yourself float in the healing waters."
As I pictured myself stepping into the water that Jackson described, a strange thing happened.
I could hear the tinkling of the stream and it drowned out the voice above me. The stream was familiar and so was the forest around it. I closed my eyes and let myself float back to the forest; back to what I knew.

"I didn't think we would find this," Mia said, from beside me. Mia strode forward so she was standing at the waters edge. Without hesitation, she tore the sleeves from her shirt and dunked them into the water with a plop.
"I know. It feels like we've been walking forever," I said, moving to stand next to Mia. As gently as I could, I lowered myself to the cold ground next to the river and began unlacing my boots. The movement made my arm ache, but it wasn't like before. Before I put that strange sap on the bite wound.
With a sigh, I dipped my feet into the water and closed my eyes. It felt good to rest.
"Two and a half days," Mia said, gently ringing the sopping fabric. Setting her blue eyes on me, she smiled before gently rolling the sleeve of my shirt up to reveal the bite mark.
Her face twisted at the sight of it. It looked bad. I knew that. I checked it every night after Mia went to bed. But even as bad as it looked now, it looked better than it had the first night.
The bleeding had stopped, leaving scabs where the teeth marks had been. The bruise had turned from deep purple to a nasty yellow and black color. The swelling itself had gone done, though my arm was still inflamed.
"What's that stuff on it?" she asked, crinkling her nose. My arm was still sticky from the sap.
I shrugged.
"Let's just get this cleaned and keep moving," I said, not meeting her eyes. Mia gently placed the sopping cloth on my arm at looked at me.
Our two days in the woods had aged her. She looked tired with bags under her eyes and her cheeks looked gaunt. Every night she sobbed herself to sleep, but during the day she was the hard shell I saw before me.
"Where are we going to go, Nessa?" she whispered, as she changed the wet fabric out for the dry. Knotting it tightly across my arm, she pulled my sleeve down to cover the wound once more.
"The contaminated zone has to stop somewhere," I said, pulling myself up from the shore. "I'm getting you out of here. That's what mom and dad wanted."
Mia stared at me like she had swallowed something sour. Her face was taunt with tension and her eyes clouded over.
"We're not going to make it."
"Don't say that," I said sharply. "We have to make it. We don't have a choice."
Mia stared at me without a word, her face unreadable. Finally, she nodded, "You're right. I'm just so hungry."
Bending down to dig through the duffle bag our mom had sent us with, I pulled out our last granola bar from the bottom.
"Here," I said, thrusting the bar in her hands.
"What about you?"
"You need it more than me," I said, watching her carefully. I didn't tell her the reason she needed it more was because I could still die yet. I could still change. I couldn't tell her that if one of us was going to make it, it had to be her.
But she didn't question me any further. Instead, she hastily unwrapped the granola bar and shoved it into her mouth. When she finished, she held her stomach, as if she was still hungry.
"I guess lets go," she said, trudging away from the forest with an unhappy sigh.
I trailed behind her and tried to drown out my own simmering hunger and aching pain with plans of our survival. The steady crunch of our footsteps lulling me to complacency.
The woods were peaceful now. Though physically, I felt hopeless, the woods themselves began to lift my spirits. Away went the bitterness, and in came the awe of the nature around me.
The woods seemed alive with survivors. Animals scampered in the trees, shaking the leaves above us. The trees themselves seem untouched by the radiation except for the sap attached to many of them.
If the animals and the trees could survive this, so would Mia and I. I just knew it.
Feeling warm with hope, I hurried after Mia and wrapped her in a tight hug.
"What are you doing?" Mia asked, surprised by my sudden affection.
"It's gonna be okay," I said, tucking her hair behind her ears.
Her eyes were round with saucers as she looked up at me for affirmation.
"You really think so?"
I nodded, "I just have a good feeling. Something good is going to happen for us."
The sound of deep voices made me clamp my mouth shut. Panic flooded through me, washing away an good feelings I had, when I realized we weren't alone. Mia and I stood frozen, still wrapped in each others arms from our hug.
But the voices didn't get closer. In fact, they seemed to be going in another direction.
"Stay here," I whispered to Mia. Without waiting for a reply, I crept forward and moved as quietly as I could through the trees. Following the sound of the voices, I trudged through the forest, stopping in amazement when I found the source.
It was another camp. The camp had high fences surrounding it and was alive with people; guards and refugees everywhere.
"Can we go?" Mia asked from behind me.
I whirled around to look at her in surprise.
"I told you to stay put," I whispered back harshly. Mia only shrugged, as if ignoring me. Excitement was plain to see on her face.
"You were right. Something good is happening for us. Please Nessa, I'm so hungry," she pleaded.
I looked at her gaunt face and nodded, ignoring the nagging thought in my mind.
Mia broke into a radiant smile. She finally looked like the happy little girl she had been before our parents had passed. She began to push through the trees towards the camp, but I clamped my hand on her arms.
"Wait," I said. "We need ground rules. We can't let what happened at the last camp happen again."
Her smile dropped at my words, but she nodded. Leaning on the rough bark of the tree closest to me, I went over all our new rules. Rules to help us survive.
Mia nodded her understanding. Then her mouth twisted.
"Wake up."
The voice sounded different than hers. Deeper. But she looked at me expectantly, waiting.
"Wake up!"
Shock coursed through me as I was pulled from the woods and into a black void of nothingness.