VII - Josh
Dark,
empty streets have a unique character to them.
It isn't always an unpleasant character, but it is one you cannot
completely trust. They are peaceful,
but full of potential energies: handholding, kissing, running, theft - violence
and rape. You cannot trust dark
streets, but you can find unexpected treasures on them. That character takes on a different form
depending on circumstances. For the
four survivors from the apartment block that character had become twisted. There was little hope of treasure on these
streets and the potentials they all felt were fear, pain and death.
Josh
led the way, feigning confidence. He
knew that the people with him were relying on him somehow to get them to the
hospital in one piece. He knew the way
and he held the torch and it all kind of made sense. Except, of course, that none of it did. He was just a teenager, a troublemaker, a bored delinquent who
was unsure as to how he had found himself in this other life, one where he
could lead and where people listened to him and where the price for such
responsibilities was terrible danger.
He tried to look confident, but how could a lie like that ever end well?
Even
aside from his own leadership skills, Josh doubted that the hospital was going
to be any better than any other part of the city. It was like they had all descended into hell somehow, a private
hell, just for the four of them. There
wasn't going to be anyone else. They
would find the hospital and it would be dark like the rest of the city, or
worse: part of some new nightmare with more fire or reigning meteorites or any
thing else you might want to pick from the apocalypse section of your dinner
menu.
Josh
shook his head. It didn't help to think
that way. It didn't help to think at
all, but there are some things it's hard to keep from your mind. He tried to think about something
mundane. School. All his friends, not that he had many, they
were somewhere else entirely, or dead, or...
Family. He wasn't close
to any of them. He had left his mother
behind in their apartment and hadn't even thought about her until now. That seemed to render any concern he might
have had moot. If he didn't care
before, why should he do so now?
But
what if she was back there, trapped in the apartments surrounded by those
monsters? She hadn't been a great
parent, but that didn't mean she deserved that. No one did.
How
many others might there have been?
It
didn't help to think that way. It
didn't help to think at all.
"Charlie?"
They
were crossing a deserted junction and Charlie had stopped midway, his gaze
following the south road towards the city centre. The glow of the fire was nowhere to be seen.
"Charlie,
we need to keep moving." Paige had
walked over beside him and Josh now stood a few feet away from the curb,
shining the torch back in their direction.
Charlie didn't respond. Paige
knelt down on the tarmac and leaned in close to the boy. "What is it?"
He
raised an arm and pointed down the road.
"My mum lives that way."
"Do
you want to go and see her?"
He
shook his head. "No, but... I wondered...” He turned to look at Paige
and Josh caught a glimpse of his wide, earnest eyes reflected in the beam. "Is she alright?"
"I
don't know, Charlie, but we have to keep moving."
The
boy nodded gravely and Josh turned the beam away.
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