Dreamers- A Merome, Pooflan, Wroetostar and Minizerk Story

⋖Chapter 13⋗

Jerome's P.O.V.

It didn't take long for Mitch to begin to trust the boys, especially Lachlan. I may have been a little jealous of his closeness with the younger blonde boy but I supposed it was simply because I was used to having Mitch completely to myself and I wasn't about to hurt his excitement at having new friends. I think I knew from the beginning this new group would stick with us and it was discussed on a dark night when the younger boys were asleep. They were still ecstatic when we told them the others would be staying.

Mitch sidled up beside me, yawning tiredly. It had already been a long day and everyone was tired, Preston already asleep lying practically on top of his boyfriend and Lachlan was about to drop off too. I wrapped an arm around his waist and smiled, feeling him nuzzle his face into my neck.

"Tired?" I asked, whispering so I didn't wake the others. He only nodded, too exhausted to even reply. I moved him over a little so he wasn't completely lying on the ground and was more resting on my chest and leaned back onto the ground. The stars were out and I smiled, looking up at them.

It was peaceful just lying there with all of us. I liked it.

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It was odd to see Lachlan wandering alone behind us, on account of the fact that Mitch was walking beside me with his hand in mine. He, Mitch, was just as spacey as usual but he was instead walking beside me for some reason he didn't want to explain. I didn't mind though, I was quite happy to hold his hand and listen to the quiet humming he did when he wasn't paying attention.

Preston and Rob were walking a little way in front of us, talking quietly. They talked about a lot of things Mitch and I didn't understand, about religion and about the earth warming and although I tried to listen in, catch some information that might explain what they were talking about but nothing really helped me to decipher it.

That evening we stopped in another section of crumbled city, finding refuge against a half broken wall, too tired to really do anything. There was a fire crackling as we cooked some of the game that had been shot but it was mostly there to keep us warm. The frost was hitting hard, especially in the mornings, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was snow in the next week or so either.

Mitch sighed as he settled down against me, his eyes watching the crackling fire. His eyes were half glazed from exhaustion.

I held him close as he drifted off into a deep sleep before finally closing my eyes and slipping into a dream.

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I awoke to panicked whispering and shuffling around beside me. Mitch was still fast asleep when I opened my eyes, tucked up and sleeping soundly, but it became immediately clear that the noise was all coming from just beside me- from Rob and Preston. Both were whispering loudly, sounding panicked. Dawn was just breaking and I could make them out across from me.

"What's goin' on?" I slurred, turning my head towards them. "Is somethin' 'appenin'?" There was a pause for a moment before Rob replied, his voice shaking.

"Lachlan's not here, he must have wandered off somewhere, but we don't know where!" He sounded incredibly freaked out, moving about quite a bit. It shook me right awake too.

"He's not here?" I saw Preston shake his head in the dim light, trembling as well.

"We- we didn't hear him leave and we don't know how long he's been gone."

Gently, slowly, I shifted Mitch until he was off me and sat up, looking over at the other boys. Both we tangled up together, whispering urgently still, clearly freaking out. I tried to stay calm for their sake.

"Okay, I'll tell you what we'll do. You two go together and try and find him and I'll go the other way. He probably just wandered off because he couldn't sleep, he won't have gone far."

They both nodded shakily and stood up, allowing me to point them in a direction to start in. This clearly wasn't something Lachlan did often if they were freaking out that much but I was sure he was fine, the boy was incredibly spacey and off in his own little world so he had probably gone to get some water or something and wandered off without realising it. We just had to find him now.

I took off in the opposite direction to Rob and Preston, searching and quietly calling out Lachlan's name. I didn't get any reply but continued my search, heading down towards the river, where I figured he was the most likely to be- and I finally found him.

Lachlan was wandering mindlessly up and down the river bank, something clutched in his hand. As I got closer I realised it was a book and he was reading it closely, so closely that in the few moments I watched him he almost tripped and tumbled into the river. He didn't and righted himself, going back to his book.

"Lachlan!" I cried out, exasperated, finally catching his attention. "Thank god! Rob and Preston are worried sick! What were you thinking!?"

"I... what?" He stuttered, confused.

"It's dawn! Rob and Preston woke up and you weren't there and they panicked! They thought you'd wandered off and gotten lost!"

That made a streak of realization come across his face and he stopped walking, his eyes fixed on me.

"Oh I- I didn't realise." He admitted sheepishly. "I couldn't sleep so I went to get a drink and I found this-" He held the book up, smiling now.

"How about we get back to Rob and Preston because I'm sure they're missing you and back to Mitch before he wakes up." I interrupted, knowing that Preston and Rob would still be panicked, but hopefully Mitch was still sleeping. I didn't want him to wake up alone.

He nodded and ran to catch up with me, the book still firmly in his grip.

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If I had known what the book contained I would have seriously considered taking it off Lachlan before he could share all it contained with Mitch, but I didn't know. The two boys spent the day wandering behind us, having set off once Preston and Rob calmed themselves down from the panic that Lachlan had caused. Once it was established that yes, it had only happened because he hadn't realised where he was and yes, he was fine.

The information that the book contained wasn't revolutionary, at least for me, Rob and Preston, but for the other two... not so much. The book, its pages damp and slightly mouldy from the elements but otherwise fine because it had been mostly sheltered, talked about how the climate warmed and killed entire species and forests and, most unfortunate, it talked about the bomb.

We finally had a word for what the bomb was- a nuclear bomb full of radioactive material- and Mitch's face fell the more he read.

I hated to think about how I was going to explain to him that I already knew about it.