The Aftermath: Parts I and II (3 page)

She drank again, "It's why I wish you would talk to me," she said looking at them desperately.

"That's not to say it was all sunshine and rainbows, I mean we had our fair share of fights and conflict.  They were passionate and slightly horrible, and yet we still managed to be mature about it.  We could disagree on something and discuss it like adults, or sometimes we would get in screaming matches.  I suppose it's not the most healthy relationship, but it was for me.  I had never had sane discussions with someone about our problems even after a huge fight we could still have a normal conversation.  Not after our last fight though, not after I got the job offer."

She poured a very large drink.

"I told him I felt I had a worthwhile chance to change the world, he told me I was signing up for a lie.  I thought he was jealous that of all the people in our team he wasn't the one picked.  Or that being away from me for a few months wasn't worth my being a valued member of the scientific community.  He told me he had never been hurt so much in his life.  That if I knew him I would know he would support me in any real endeavor to further my career.  However, this was not a real endeavor, and that the only thing he knew is once I was shut behind the doors we would never see each other again."

Pause

"I wonder where he is... I wonder often."

There was a longer pause.

"Music is another thing I wish I had more control over.  I mean they gave us some of our top choices, but you know I can't remember the last time I heard Magical Mystery Tour.  Like the books I have, the movies I've watched, it's just another thing I've repeated over and over.  And I guess that's all I want is something new."

She was drunk and angry

"I want something fucking new!  I want to know where the man I love is!  I want to be apart of a real discovery!  I want new entertainment!  I want someone to talk to!"

She couldn't stop herself from screaming at the glass.  But then she stopped and looked.

"Not that it's working on you is it?  I can be depressed, I can be angry, or I'm just me and you'll give me the same reaction.  It never changes."

The alarm on her watch went off and she paused.

"It's feeding time and you don't even react to that."

The words came out so softly they were barely spoken.  She walked to a button by the room and hit it.  Their food was dropped in and she turned away as they tore through the flesh stored up for them.

She sat in a continued state of silence and topped herself off.

"But you really don't care about what I want do you?  I can scream at you until I am blue in the face and it won't matter.  I can go on and on about any given subject and you won't care.  It's the same thing every time we do this.  It really doesn't matter what we talk about.  I can pick any random subject and it changes nothing.  After all this time if you were going to react to something I would have figured it out.  I mean I've covered pretty much every possible topic and I've never gotten anything from you.  It really doesn't matter that I am bored.  I can list off all the different things I wish I had here and it wouldn't make it appear.  I want something!  An answer!  A response!"

She found herself at the wall pounding on the mirror and screaming!

"ANSWER ME!  ANSWER ME! ANSWER ME!"

She repeated this for over an hour.  Her body felt limp, there was no life left to her.

"Please answer me"

She begged and collapsed.  And hour later she picked herself up and crawled up the stairs with tear stained eyes.  "You will never answer me"

She crawled up the stairs to bed.  Thinking about her routine for tomorrow.

He crept towards them slowly.  He had been watching them for awhile now and they hadn't noticed, but he was always vigilant.  It was simple luck that they hadn't spotted him yet, and he had no intention of pressing that luck.  He wasn't sure why he followed them, he knew they didn't want him around.  Yet for some reason he felt compelled to do so, and tried with all his might to keep a good pace with them.

"Did you find any food Tina?"  One of the women asked a younger woman as she walked up.

"No such luck," Tina replied.

"Well I guess we'll wait here and hopefully the others were more lucky,"  The first said with a heavy sigh.  Her voice was filled with disappointment though.

"I'm really sorry, Ronnie" Tina said meekly.

There was a long and uncomfortable pause between the two of them.  He could feel something shift between the two of them for a moment.  Anger, discomfort, and a little distrust.

"Look, I'm sorry.  It's not your fault.  It's easy for me to get disappointed when all I do is sit here and guard things."  Ronnie finally broke the silence.  "I know you tried your hardest."

They smiled at each other, some of the negative feelings seemed to pass a little.  With it leaving the air he could sense the overwhelming feeling he had noticed when he first stumbled upon the group.  Hunger, extreme and intense hunger.

He never could decide if he wanted it to pass.  He loved sensing that hunger, but hated seeing them so unhappy.  Or did he love that too?  Sometimes he really wasn't sure of his own feelings.  That he knew for sure, he really didn't like it.

Time passed slowly with the two girls sitting in the bed of the pickup truck.  They struggled for conversation.  He imagined after so long that they had simply run out of small talk.  Also in their present situation it's not like anything new ever came up for them to discuss.  It must be really boring for them, he would find himself thinking.  He was easily amused, even watching their boredom was enough for him.  They, on

the other hand, must be going insane.

"We found some!  We found some!"  A kid suddenly burst through the trees.

"Joseph!  Hush!"  Came a male voice running after him.

The child froze, as did the three adults.  They were all clearly excited but needed to contain it for now to make sure they were safe.  Their eyes were quickly scanning around to make sure no one had heard the child's cries of joy.

He ducked as he saw them scanning the woods.  He knew he was well hidden, but there was always the possibility they would see him.  He's always managed to find good hiding spots while following this group, but he knew at any moment his game could end.  If it had to end he would be prepared, but he truly didn't want it to.

The child hadn't been lying though.  Apparently he and the man had found a house that hadn't been cleared out.  They had brought back many supplies, but told the women that there was still a large stock waiting for them back there.

"In addition to the food, it seems like the type of place we can stay a few nights.  It's not very safe but we could get a rest,"  The man said.

"So then why did you and Joseph bring stuff back?  Lets just go?"  Ronnie insisted.

"It's a bit far, we can't make it there before dark."

The two women nodded but looked clearly upset.  He could understand that feeling, knowing about a safe place just out of reach but unable to get to it.  There was no clear memory, but he had a vague recollection of being in a similar situation.

Each of the group took a spot in the bed and sat around eating the food that the boy and the older man had brought back.  Once again more awkward silence.

"Thank you Richard for bringing us back food,"  Ronnie said to the man.  He nodded, it was clearly just as much for himself and his son as for the two women, but some sort of need to be polite compelled her to thank him.

He found himself wondering if maybe Richard and Ronnie had a thing going or if she simply wanted it.  With only one man and two women he wondered if there was jealousy at all, or even if the idea of a sexual relationship was a factor for the group at all.  He supposed that each person's sexual drive would be different under the circumstances just like it was in the normal world.  Though many supposed in survival situations it would be increased because of all the adrenaline and such.  The question really was would sitting around barely eating actually constitute the type of survival situation that people were talking about though.

The rest of their meal was fairly silent and he noticed they were looking off into the distance.  He followed their eye-line and saw what bothered them, the sun was setting.  He knew they were tired of sleeping in the open, but moving in the night was not wise.  They all shared concerned looks but quickly got ready.

Joseph got locked into the cab of the truck while two adults lay down in the bed of the truck in sleeping bags.  The youngest took her spot on top of the truck with a gun out.  He wasn't certain that their set up was really the safest.  The look out was far to visible which would only call attention to the other two in the back.  The boy was fairly secure, but without the other three to protect him he wouldn't last more than a day or two.

He knew the key was not keeping your eye to avoid them, but rather keeping simply out of sight.  Being on guard was important, but when your look out could be so easily spotted they would draw more in than keep them away.  If he were a part of the group their look out would be sitting in the bed so that way in the dark all three would be pretty close to out of sight.  It would also mean if they saw a small group they could all just hide.  Their enemies were easy enough to trick, it is just a matter of not being seen.  With her up so high she would be seen for sure.  What their plan was though wasn't really his concern.  The only thing their survival gave him was entertainment so it really didn't matter.

After a few hours Ronnie woke, "My turn Tina" was the only thing she said.  The two women quietly switched places.

A few hours later another switch happened, it was a rather boring night for him to watch.  There was no danger for them, so no reason for them to do much other than sleep.  They all rose with the sun and he got ready, he was curious if they would just leave the truck or try to take it.  It wasn't long before he realized they had the same issue to work out.

"Where is the house?"  Tina asked as the group picked through what was left of what they had brought back last night.

"It's just 5 miles to the north, but there is no possible way to get the truck through the forest," Richard replied.  Joseph was struggling to wake up and mostly being ignored.

Once again while watching them he thought they weren't being wise.  If he wandered off searching for him would lose them precious time, and probably risk their own lives.

"So we leave the truck then,"  Ronnie retorted.

"Yeah and when we have to move on, it won't be here waiting for us,"  Tina snapped.

"We haven't seen another human in days, weeks even.  What makes you think that if we walk away from this truck that it will just disappear?"  Ronnie growled back.

As he observed them he became more convinced than ever that there was clear jealousy between the women.  He had never really seen women being so catty, but he had never observed two women in such a high stress situation struggling to survive.

"Tina is right, this truck is one of our few assets.  We can't afford for it to disappear,"  Richard stepped in trying to stop the women from fighting.

"Then what is our plan?"  Ronnie said after a few moments of silence, trying to calm herself down.

All three stood for a moment clearly thinking about their course of action.  He could observe that the road was clearly blocked but that they didn't want to waste too much time.

"We do both," Richard finally stated, leaving the two women confused. "We walk to the house today, get the supplies gathered up and make it safe.  Then tomorrow we come back for the truck and try to get it to the house."

"That seems like a lot of work if we aren't planning on staying there for very long."  Tina said, though this time it was less argumentative.

All three realized this was correct too.  There was another moment of long silence.  He was curious about what they would do.  Both suggestions were equally bad, but for different reasons.

"Maybe I was wrong, maybe leaving the truck is the best option.  I mean we could get the gas out of it so it wouldn't be as tempting to steal it."  Tina broke the silence again.  She was trying to make peace, but was also just anxious to get off the road.

They all were though, he could see it even from his distance.  Richard nodded and began to grab the gear they had been using to siphon gas while the women started to grab all their gear from the truck and pack it up as well as they could.  He observed that they had gotten lazy with the truck, and probably also gathered much more than four people could carry when they needed to move quickly.  They needed to figure that out for themselves dependency on their car had the potential to cause them great danger in the future.

About an hour later they had their gear packed up and were ready to move.  He was happy they were moving somewhere safer, but he knew it would be hard to follow them.  Maintaining the perfect level of distance that he wouldn't lose them but couldn't be heard was always harder when on the move.  They started off north like Richard had said, and he waited until they were in the woods before he started to follow.  He needed to cross the road as quickly as he could, like them it was not safe for him to be out in the open.  He was relieved though that they were moving slowly enough for him to catch up.  Joesph made it a lot easier for the group to be followed, it also meant they were very quiet though so it was a constant balancing act between too far and too close.  The journey had few distractions and he never was one.  

After a few hours he heard their joyful voices, and he after he walked a few yards the house came into his sights.  They had all run in and he could hear them clattering around.  He knew they were making too much noise, but they were so happy to have a place so he could hardly blame them.  It also gave him a chance to find a place.  They would be hard to observe while inside, but he found his bushes and took his place.  There was a window to see in, and they were loud enough and he was close enough he could still hear them.

"This place is great, maybe we could stay awhile,"  Ronnie said hopefully.