Survival

Part 32: Valerie

We left on the same day that we said goodbye to Marcus, teary eyed and quiet.

Everything was packed and Aluna was in the cab waiting for me to join her. Something was missing. Jeordie caught onto it before I did, of course.

"Where's Pancake?" He asked suspiciously, looking around the van. Seriously though, why was he so fond of that dog? It just ate Marcus.

"Did you untie her from the bush?" I asked in response, biting into a piece of lemon preserved apple I had found in a bag at McDonald's.

"Ah. Nope." Jeordie jogged over and fetched the dog. She trotted over beside him happily, growling quietly the whole time. I tried to ignore the fact that the blood staining her fur had once belonged to Marcus.

"Everybody ready?" Aluna started the engine. Aris gave her a salute from where he was just finishing refilling the fuel tank and dismally wandered into the back of the truck. He had been utterly empty since Marcus died, as though all his will to survive had vanished. I sincerely hoped it didn't stay that way. Aris was such an integral part of this group and his good nature would be sorely missed.

I swung into the passenger seat of the cab. Aluna had already broken into her red liquorice stash from the glovebox. I snatched a piece for myself and settled into my seat. The liquorice tasted a little odd, but maybe that was just because I could still taste lemony apple.

"I miss him already." Aluna sighed as she began the slippery drive over the river.

"Me too." I was making new arrows, a chore that I had sorely neglected of late.

"He was just always... There. You know? He was just always there." Aluna said slowly.

"We all knew he wouldn't make it for long." I said cautiously. Was it too early to bring logic into this?

"Yeah. That's true. But I was living in denial, you know?"

"I know."

"We gave him as best as we could. And nobody else got hurt. I guess that's the main thing, when it comes down to it..." Aluna took a deep breath and nodded to herself. I patted her bony knee.

"It's gonna be okay."

"Yeah. I know." The van lurched as it grumbled up the bank and out of the river.

Aluna drove in silence whilst I hunted through the cab for a cable of some sort. Bingo. There was an audio cable in the glovebox. I plugged it into my iPod and then clicked the other end into the AUX jack of the stereo.

"Whatcha wanna listen to?" I asked her, scrolling through my music selection.

"How do you still have any battery left dude?" She asked in wondrous jealousy.

"Jeordie found a portable charger."

"Daaaaamn."

I started up my Porcupine Tree playlist, well aware that Aluna wasn't into metal. The sweet melodies of Steven Wilson filled my ears. My mind flooded with with memories of home. I used to listen to this playlist at night when I was falling asleep, curled up under the blankets and engulfed by the night with the comforting weight of a sleepy cat on my feet. Winter nights had always been my favourite. Nothing quite compared to the joy of snuggling yourself into a burrito of blankets, escaping the freezing night air around you. Especially when you weren't alone. Jeordie would always come for sleepovers and, without fail, I would fall asleep on his shoulder halfway through some kind of horror movie. I never could stay up late. After 10 (or sometimes even 9) it was always a struggle to keep my eyes open. Jeordie would of course mock me for making 'dinosaur noises' in my sleep, but I don't think he really minded.