Fever II (Josh)

II - Josh

            Josh lead the way through the dark and fog as confidently as he could.  He was trying not to think about the things he had seen in the apartment block.  He was trying not to think about any of it at all.  Thought led to questions and none of those questions had any answers that he could discern, so he just kept walking and he tried to keep his mind off it.

            He examined his companions.  Paige he already knew, although it was clear that the familiarity wasn't mutual.  He had seen her looking at him, and those looks had been laden with all kinds of exciting meaning, but she still hadn't actually noticed him.  He thought about all the horror movies he had ever watched and wondered if those sorts of situations, the kind of situation they were now in, naturally lent themselves to sexual tension.  Someone always got laid, and sure, they tended to die soon after, but he couldn't help but wonder.

            She didn't look so attractive now, however.  The events in her apartment had left her looking tired and she wandered along the street with an expression which said that she was still thinking about them.  Her husband was missing, her apartment had been filled with monsters and, Josh recalled, she had been looking stressed before even then.  He had heard them arguing earlier in the evening.  He couldn't imagine what she must be thinking now.

            Charlie walked at her side, close enough that it was clear he wanted to hold onto her, but still far enough away to show that he didn't trust anyone.  Josh didn't know much about him.  He thought that he vaguely recognised him as one of the kids who was always playing around the apartments, but other than that he couldn't think of a single detail about him.

            He was a scary-looking kid.  His face was gaunt and his eyes were slightly sunken.  Some of that was clearly because he too was tired, but there was something else.  It made Josh feel uncomfortable.

            The old man, Henry, was completely new to him.  He was pretty certain he had never seen him around before.  He looked like the bookish type, always hidden away in his room reading, and indeed he had left the apartments clutching a bunch of papers to his chest as if he was frightened of being separated from them.  Josh didn't have much sympathy; academics bored him and the old man had already proven himself to be far too much like one of his teachers.

            He lingered at the edge of the torchlight, now, reading one of the sheets of paper, held in a shaking hand.  His head was shaking also.

            Josh shone the beam of light over in Henry's direction and the old man looked up suddenly, eyes wide and blinking, before his face turned dark and his eyes narrowed.

            "What do you think you are doing?  Trying to blind me?"  He shouted.

            "Just wondering what it is you're reading."

            "None of your business!  Now turn that thing around so we can bloody well see where we're going!"

            Josh shrugged and did as he was told.  The old man was acting like a stuffy old teacher, and it irked that he was treating Josh like a student, but Josh wasn't stupid and he knew that they needed to keep moving.  As the beam rotated past Henry, around the silent granite buildings and back to the road ahead Josh caught a glimpse of a symbol on the back of the sheet the old man had been reading.  It looked like a cross but with the lines misshapen into loops.  There were other details around it as well, but he only managed to see it for a second.  There was definitely something odd about it.  He wondered what Henry could be reading about.  It looked like a religious symbol.  Was he some sort of theologist?

            The road they were on was one of the older ones in the city.  It wound its way up a hill from the university and the old town and gave a fantastic view of the city centre from its crest about a quarter of a mile up from the apartments.  They could see the top now, where an old convent stood watch over the city and the gnarled trees of its garden were silhouetted against the orange glow of the sky.

            "Look!"  Paige shouted as she caught a glimpse of that sky.  "There must be power in the city centre, the lights are on!"

            Josh picked up his pace as he marched up the hillside, anxiously anticipating those northern lights he had become so bored of.  Fog rolled over the top of the hill towards them and it took on that orange glow familiar to city-dwellers everywhere.  Paige ran past him, then, with Charlie following close behind and Josh watched them become shadows in the mist ahead.  He could see their excitement in the way they moved, the repressed motions of before transformed into fluid living motion.  And then Paige said something that changed the mood completely.

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