Irradiated

Chapter 10: Soldiers

Waking up that day proved to be much more harder if I hadn't slept much. Sadly, I didn't sleep much.

We were getting closer and closer to our destination, meaning that soon, we would come face-to-face with Trevor. With the passing days, I started thinking much more about his perspective.

On our travels, we had to kill to survive, no matter if we wanted to or not. Derrick killing Norman, us attacking those Moderates when they first enslaved us, killing those Lankies that were strangely in a group. They were all murders we had to do. Yet, some of Trevor's murders were for no reason.

Still, I understood what was happening to him. As soon as things hit the fan, he started losing his mind. Literally watching your world crumble and shatter around you was terrifying. So, the madness drove him into a different kind of insanity he couldn't escape. At least, not on his own. Becoming what he was, it helped vent off the anger of what he thought would be the end of the world.

"Maybe, there's a chance for him to go back to what he used to be." I finished explaining my thoughts on Trevor to Derrick while Angeli sort of eavesdropped.

"That sounds pretty close to what I was thinking. I was telling you that he does care about you, but he's probably gone too far in all of his raged murders to go back to fix his mistakes."

"It's never too late to try." Angeli defiantly spoke, a sure voice replacing her usual one.

"If he's given the chance to fix them, then he might." I added in.

"Yes, I suppose you're both correct. It would make sense." Derrick shrugged, as if he already knew.

"How does it make sense to you?" It seemed like he was just agreeing with us to brush us off. I wanted to know if he truly agreed.

"Anyone in their right minds would take the chances they get to fix things. Trust me... I would know." I glanced at Angeli, who was about to ask another question, but I gave her a stern glare to quiet her.

"Anyways, where are we going after we reach Enschede?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Hoge Veluwe. That'll put us right on track again, except with the lost time. We'll pass right through Tilburg and cross over the border to Belgium after that."

"Sweet! Just two more places to go!" Angeli exclaimed, excited about getting closer and closer to France.

"Why do you want to get there so badly?" Derrick questioned her, intrigued with her enthusiasm.

"I've always wanted to go to France." She shrugged and continued walking down the beat-up and cracked street. Through the cracks, grass sprouted out while some places were fully covered in grass. Old houses and buildings surrounded us. In the distance, two skyscrapers leaned against each other, about to fall over and break to pieces. Without the support of one, the other would fall. I glanced at Angeli when that thought came to mind.

"It's so depressing, how some people used to live here, but were forced to leave..." I remembered how back in America, they made everyone evacuate immediately, leaving behind the lives they had built and the place they learned to grow up. There were only enough boats to hold half of the whole country and millions of people were left stranded in the inhabitable American terrain.

"No one was forced to leave. It's just that they panicked when they heard what was happening overseas and didn't think about staying in their homes because our countries hadn't gotten contaminated. Asia was only able to escape it for so long and it became just as bad as America in a few months." Derrick explained.

"That's why when the Americans were looking for a place to settle, many died on the way here. Some of their boats went to Asia first, only to find it in the same conditions." Angeli continued. How had I not heard about this before? They saw how my expression went blank and realized that I had to be one of those Americans.