XXXIII - Charlie
Charlie
led the way through the ruins of the factory.
He had been eager to and Paige, for all her attempts to stand in as his
mother, had let him this time. She
looked tired, he had noticed, and sad and Charlie knew that she didn’t really
believe that they would find Josh. He
wasn’t sure Henry did either, but it was clear the old man wanted to give them
a mission after his revelation. It
probably made them both feel better.
Charlie
knew differently. He just knew,
the same way he had known when to head back to the others in the hospital or to
climb into the factory in the first place.
The same way he had known to wait before. He knew, now, that Josh was still alive and that they would find
him and, strangest of all, he knew where.
So
Charlie led and Paige and Henry followed behind him, not talking, just watching
were he was leading them with a sort of numbness. He could feel it off them, a combination of tiredness, sorrow and
fear which left them a step away from the zombies in those films his father had
watched sometimes when he wasn’t enjoying his women. He would have worried about them, but he knew that when he found
Josh it would get better anyway, so he just ploughed on ahead through the
darkness, making sure he always stayed in sight, making sure they really were
following.
And then,
suddenly, he knew he was on the home straight.
He felt a rush of certainty that they would find Josh just ahead, around
the corner.
How do
I know? he wondered as the feeling grew stronger. But it was a stupid question.
He knew because his guide was leading him, as it had led them all since
the start, bringing them together, guiding them to the hospital, showing him
that glimpse of the past which had been a piece of a puzzle in itself. Then it had led them through the city, using
the blockades put there by the bad guys to make sure they didn’t miss the next
thing it had wanted them to see. It had
led them, through Charlie, to the inside of this factory, to hear that strange
ancient language being prayed in the past and, Charlie knew, to make Henry see that
he needed to believe the things he had been taught, to tell them all what was
really going on, putting the puzzle pieces together.
But
just who is my guide? he wondered next.
That was a trickier question.
Charlie didn’t know much about God.
He had never been to Sunday School; his parents had never had any
interest, and it wasn’t the kind of thing they talked about much at
school. All he knew was what a few of
his friends, who did go to Sunday School, had told him once or twice at
lunchtime at school. They said that God
was in charge of everything and that he looked after his people. Though it was clear that Henry didn’t
believe in God anymore himself, his story a few minutes before had been all about
him. As Charlie pieced it together,
marching down a corridor towards the place he knew they would find Josh, it all
seemed to make sense.
God is
leading me, he thought with sudden clarity, and he smiled at the thought.
And then
he skipped around a corner and Josh was there, leaning against a wall, flushed
and breathing heavily as if he had just run to get there. Charlie stopped and stared at him until Josh’s
eyes flicked open and he glanced down towards him.
“There
you are!” Josh said, his eyes widening in surprise, “we were looking all over
for you, are you-”
“Josh?”
it was Paige’s voice from around the corner, “Josh, is that really you?”
Charlie
could hear her running now and a second later she was sliding around the
corner, tears on her cheeks, and then she ran past him to envelope Josh in a
sudden, brief hug.
“I
thought you were dead!” she sounded almost angry, “What happened to you? Where did you go?”
“I, uh, I
managed to run away past those monsters and… I guess I got lost.”
Charlie
stared at the older boy in surprise, then glanced at Paige to see if she had
noticed the obvious lie, but she was smiling now and her tears were coming more
freely.
“Thank
god,” she said and Charlie realised that, whatever else was going on, he had to
agree.
The
night is still dark, he thought, and there are still monsters out there,
but God is guiding us and he will keep us safe, like my friends always used to
say, and he stared up at Paige and Josh, and Henry when he came around the
corner to join them, and he just smiled.
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