Locked Away [10k Z Nation]

30

"Cody," my sister called me. Her voice was far away, but in my ear at the same time.

"Yes?" I answered, my voice was also very far away, and I couldn't feel my lips moving with my mouth. This confused me.

"Let me go. I'm okay, and daddy is too. I forgave him, and you should too." her voice sounded very mature and distinct. I had difficulty trying to think of the meaning behind any of those words, I didn't want to anymore.

"Okay," I smiled, although I could see nothing around me, but it wasn't dark. I felt peaceful, and happy.

"Do you want to come with us?" her voice asked again, this time I could see her faint silhouette at the end of a long hallway. Someone taller stood behind her, and they waved.

"Can I?" I tried to step forward, but my legs were rooted to the ground, except- I couldn't see the ground. This room had no beginning and no end.

"If you come, you can't come back." she told me, her voice sounding farther and farther away.

"Never?" I tried to look behind me, but my vision stayed in place. I couldn't think of a reason to stay, but something was holding me back.

"Never." I almost couldn't make out her voice.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, and succumbed to the darkness of the room.

-

"She's awake!" A man cried. I was thrust into a completely different darkness, a familiar darkness, the back of my eyelids. The ground under me was moving slightly. Where was I?

My ears adjusted slightly and I hear the roar of tires. I was in a car. They didn't have cars at camp...

I was safe.

"Cody? Cody!" another voice cried, but this voice was much closer to my head.

"Should we pull over?"

"I don't see her moving. Are you sure she isn't dead?" a distinctly meaner voice spoke.

"She's been breathing- she isn't dead." that was a girls voice.

I pulled my eyes open, which felt like ripping duck tape off my skin. I winced at the light that was streaming through the car windows. I tried to sit up but my body felt stiff and my head pounded.

"Lay still." Addy gently pushed my shoulders back down into someones- someones lap?

A grinning 10k looked down at me, his eyes were flooded with relief.

It was so good to see him. I felt the full weight of my emotions in my chest, they expanded so much I thought my heart was going to burst. We were together. We were safe.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked hastily, I sat up despite Addy's request. She rolled her eyes, but they didn't hold any annoyance. I grinned at her and then looked around the car. Mack lightly ruffled my hair, and even Cassandra looked happy I was awake. Which reminded me...

"How long have I been sleeping?" I asked the car

"About the two days." Doc told me from the passenger seat. Warren eyed me through the rearview mirror.

"Murphy wanted to leave you on the side of the road, but we wouldn't let him," Addy whispered to me and I shook my head. Murphy folded his arms across his chest from the third row.

"Where did we get this car from?" It was nice. And familiar.

An uncomfortable silence blanketed the car.

"It's your dads. It was the only one at camp." 10k looked at me sadly, but there was something else in his eyes. The memories of the rescue resurfaced all at once, sharp and painful.

"Oh." The dam keeping in all my sadness didn't break, I didn't cry. I was too strong for that now. I am a different girl.

"Where's Kailey?" I asked softly, thinking of the small girl that resembled a zombie more than my sister. Her vacant eyes would haunt me the rest of my life.

"We had to leave her behind. She wasn't human anymore." Warren spoke up, her voice tender, but informant. "I'm sorry."

Something in her voice was shaky.

I didn't quite believe her.

My head hurt too much to press the subject much more, I would find out the truth later.

"I understand." I grunted as I laid my head back in 10k's lap. I may not cry, but I could sleep.

"What happened to the town?" I asked again. I silently promised myself this was the last question I would ask.

"We didn't have time to do anything, you had passed out and we needed to get out of there. I'm sure that boy has told the whole camp what happened by now." 10k whispered to me, I could only guess he was referring to Stephen.

I realized that he still didn't know who Stephen was to me, but I guess it had to stay like that.

-

By the time I woke up again, the sky was dark. We were slowly piling out of the car and deciding sleeping arrangements. I squinted into the darkness and an abandoned gas station comes into view.

Warren is standing watch for now, the rest of us can sleep. I am led into the small station and we salvage whatever supplies wasn't already picked over by other survivors . Cassandra finds some blankets and we all huddle under them.

"10k?" I asked him in the darkness. We are in the corner, away from the rest.

"Cody?" he answers my question with his own. "Could you call me Tommy when we're alone?"

The request hits me in the gut and I nod, not trusting my voice not to break.
I had almost forgotten that a number wasn't his actual name.

I hear Warren pull open the doors, but I don't face her.

"Everybody, get some rest. We can't afford any more diversions like that, we're getting Murphy to California," her voice hangs in the air.

"Or die trying."

I squeeze my eyes shut and my heart races. For now I was safe, next to my favorite boy in the world, maybe even a boy I loved, but there was a mission we needed to complete.

A mission that held a whole new kind of adventure.

-

IT'S OVER!!! Last call everybody, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here!

On a soppier, sweeter note:

Thank you to everybody that has stuck with this story all this time, it means so much to me...  I'm gonna try to upload chapters of "Walking the Earth" which is a very different kind of 10k story. Comment if you guys want a sequel to "Locked Away" I'd be interested in writing it, but only if enough people are interested!

I LOVE YOU ALL, AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT!