Sickness

~Part 19~

“Gale?” I say slowly. “Can you see anything behind them?”

Gale shakes his head. “Nope.”

All of a sudden, a huge orange and red light came from right outside the colony walls. The ground shook just like it did during the ‘earthquake’.

“They’re bombing again.” I say almost… calmly. “They’re running from that, but they still might attack.”

“They’re killers.” Gale says slowly.

I whip my head around, “How do you know?!”

“I don’t know. They just are. You need to run. They bite.” He says staring in their direction.

“No! I’m not leaving you! I have my switchblade.” I say fast.

“That won’t do anything!” he scolds.

“It will if you know how to use it.”

~ ~ ~

The wolves got closer until we could make out their faces. Gale and I froze in fighting position. The large red wolves looked like they’d just ran out of The Christmas Carol. They were red with bright green eyes and white speckles all over their backs. They didn’t even stop, or attack. They ran by, whimpering like domestic dogs do when they need to go outside. They were obviously built to kill, but weren’t in the mood. They ran RIGHT passed us. There were three of them. One of their tales whipped around and hit Gale, gashing his calf open almost an inch deep. He cussed as he plopped on the ground.

Once the dogs passed, I sat down next to Gale and ripped of the bottom part of my long white tank top. It was too big, and came to about my belt buckle once I ripped off the bottom 3 inches. I wrapped it tightly around Gales leg and tied it several times. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen.” He says.

I look at him surprised. “You didn’t know the dogs were going to slice your leg, besides its no big deal.”

“That’s not what I mean.” He says, wincing as I yank the knot. “I mean, I didn’t mean to get you distracted. If it weren’t for my ‘plan’ you could still be at the camp, training to be the amazing soldier you were so close to being.” He said solemnly.

I move over and sit next to him. I noticed a scar next to his eye from when I accidentally cut him during knifing training. I’d felt so bad that I’d actually paid a baker to send brownies into the soldiers community.

“Gale,” I say, lightly combing his tangled brown hair with my fingers. “you have to remember, that I wouldn’t have been able to go into combat pregnant without accidentally killing my baby. You could’ve saved my baby’s life by dragging me on your little mission. And that is all that matters to me.”

I bend over and lightly kiss his cheek.

“What? So I apologize for ruining your future and all I get is a peck on the cheek?” he jokes.

I nod remembering that the last time I got distracted with Gale, I almost felt my colony go down along with my sense of thought.

“Yeah, for now.” I say smoothly.

I took an educated guess that that might be something a regular girl would say if she didn’t want to kiss her boyfriend or something for whatever reason. But if their boyfriend was Gale, then lord have mercy on them! I gave myself a mental pat on the back for turning down that hunk of heaven.

“Um, we should, uh, get some sleep.” I stammered.

“Agreed.” Gale pulled the queen sized fleece blanket from the duffle bag and handed it to me as he proceeded to build his fire. I wrapped it around me, letting it warm my bare arms. “Cold?” Gale asks. “Yeah. This fire should help though. We should try to get to sleep fast so we can head out early tomorrow morning.” I say loosening my hold on the blanket and reluctantly handed it to Gale to warm himself. He curled up in it cherishing his snuggle time with it, then moved over and sat behind me as I pulled the blanket tight around me. I let out a deep breath and fell asleep on Gales shoulder.

~ ~ ~

The dawn awoke with a large rumbling of the ground. Sort of like a digital alarm clock. Accept, not digital… or electronic. And it doesn’t show the time. So, actually, nothing like it accept it wakes you up. Put your hands together for weak similes at 6:43 am.

Gale sat up fast, quickly avoiding clashing with my head right after him. “Let’s go.” I say quickly, getting up in direct unison with Gale. He shoved the blanket in the duffle bag and we set off through the desert, mostly jogging, saving our real speed if we sense danger. We jogged silently until we were so close we could smell the gunpowder. The wall was less than ¼ of a mile away. “Here we are.” I say quietly.

“Home sweet home.” I hear Gale mumble as we jog to a stop.

“What do we do once we get in there?” I ask.

“I don’t know. I guess we jus-“ Gale was cut off by a huge rumbling sound that send the ground into earthquake mode.

“Hit the ground!” I demand.

Gale and I flop to our stomachs as a huge wall of fire explodes directly over us. I could feel the heat off of it, almost sure it had given me 2nd degree burns. The fire wall was there and gone within in seconds. Gale and I stood to see what the damage was.

The entire North wall had a huge gaping hole in it due to a bomb. Concrete laid everywhere close and mostly inside the blast sight.

“Yeah.” I snort. “Home sweet home.”

He looks at me surprised. WHAT? So he can joke during a serious situation, but I can’t? Man, that’s harsh.

I look up at the charred remains of the wall and took off running inside, my once white (now black) sneakers hitting the ground hard as I attempt to run in these weird tight jeans.

Once I got far enough in, the smoke finally cleared, revealing what was left of our colony. There were people in the streets, running and screaming. Houses were boarded up from top to bottom. Buildings and mini skyscrapers seemed less tall with no windows. There were people being chased by sick people, running, screaming, and trying to fight.

“MAKE IT STOP!” I heard a yell come from inside a house very close to me.

I run inside the tiny cottage. The roof was patched, but there was still another huge hole a few feet from it. In the house, I heard the woman’s voice scream again. “IT HURTS!”

I ran back through the hallway of the tiny house to the bedroom. I don’t know how I heard the girl over all the noise, but I did. Guess it’s a mother acute hearing kicking in. In a little back bedroom, there was a young girl, maybe a little younger than me, pregnant and clutching her huge stomach. All I could think was: Oh my God. Lord God, please don’t make me deliver a child on this day! “HELP ME!” the woman screamed in pain.

I ran over to her and pushed her hair back. “Please.” She begged. “Please make it stop. This can’t happen. Not now.”

My eyes got huge. Dang it! “What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Con… con… OUUCH!” she screamed.

I guessed she was in labor.  I turned around and found Gale behind me.

“Hey!” I say swiftly thinking on my feet. “You said you wanted to save as many people as possible. Take her. She’s in labor. It’s probably hot as Hell in here to her. Get her out of the walls. Go as fast as you can, get her as far as you can. She’s a special case. I will find healthy people and send them to you with someone weak. Someone weak with someone strong. Just like training.”

I look at him, for the first time ever, Gale looked scared. REALLY scared.  “What about you?” he asks.

“Grab someone healthy and run.” I say with a slight smile as I move over to the girl.

I kick a dresser drawer out of my way and move to the side of her bed. “Come on hon.” I put her arm over my shoulder and lift her up, walking her slowly over to Gale. She let out a little cry after each step. She was a skinny girl, and just like the doctor said, she wasn’t as big as an average sized girl, so she’d be easy to… carry.

“Gale!” I look up at him quickly. “You can carry her!”

He ran over to me and scooped her up with a little grunt. “Go.” He said to me.

I nodded and took off out the door ahead of them. As soon as I rounded to the back of the house, I found a girl fighting off a sick citizen. She looked at me in terror.

Violet.