I made my way back around the front expecting to see everyone where I'd left them but they seemed to have moved on.
Looking over the clean now compressed snow I noticed something a bit odd, concave spots.
Freckles, maybe flakes.
Burgundy in color,
My feet fell under me as I ran inside,
following the shallows trail losing its warmth already.
Gritty, bubbling, boiling, blood,
Filled the porous hollow feeling in the chest of the man before me.
I didn't know him, even in the scene in front of me.
I felt relief in that.
His face it held no fear,
No anger,
Acceptance it's not a feeling you see at this type of moment.
But it's there all the same
He looks so peaceful. Why does death always look so calm?
May and Will huddled around him, trying desperately to break that serene state.
I'm so sorry,
I'm so sorry you have to survive this,
his jaw snapped open,
his gums contorting,
his eyes wild as his chest lurched forward and back,
the others grabbed his ribs and forced them back.
His hand pressed down gripping the couches' fabrics causing the hands to twitch.
The blood making itself known again,
And the noise,
I heard everything,
The skin blistering,
The tears falling,
The blood fussing, whining,
Stealing his life away.
What's happened?
What brought us here?
Gauze pressed into him.
We've all felt meat,
Soaked and marinated meats.
It's too similar to that, much too similar.
I forced my eyes open again and continued to watch them work.
The thread,
I've seen her sew before it's all the same,
some pressure here,
a knot there.
Then the silence,
the moment, it was over.
There was nothing else to be done,
nothing to say, it was still. That uncomfortable still. where your brain hasn't noticed you've stopped moving yet.
May placed down the needle,
Will stood slowly, his knees cracking as he did so.
“We need to get more supplies. He’ll… we need more antibiotics, stronger painkillers.”
May spoke looking over to Rich.
he didn't move,
didn't speak,
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
he was staring into the man watching his chest rise and fall,
He looked terrified, there's recognition in his eyes.
“We need to catch the train on the way back, hop on while it's moving, we can't drive to the stop, there's not enough time to wait for the next one.” May speaks hesitantly, looking at Juno standing by the door clearly shaken, but trying to stand tall all the same. Will ushers Juno out of the room giving me a look to follow as well.
“Easy, you did good kid, you did everything right.” He’s holding onto Juno, his hands bruising his shoulder. The adrenaline still has him.
“Rich will need help with the medicine run. May is our medic, we need her here and…” he glances up to Ella's room, he's not willing to leave her. Juno set off to begin packing, I followed.
“Juno, what happened?” He didn't answer, just continuing to pack. I sat at his desk waiting for some kind of answer.
“I don't know,”
He pauses
“Will spotted him, grabbed the kid and took off. I helped Rich get him inside.”
“His chest, was he shot?” Juno still wasn't looking at me…
he couldn't have been shot. The wound looked like a cut, and down the ribs not particularly fatal but just a bit higher to the neck a bit lower to the gut even just through the ribs…
He got lucky.
“Do you know him, did one of those husks find him?”
“Never seen him before, and no those things don't have weapons."
“Does Rich know th—”
“You need to pack, they'll pass through here late tonight. We need to be by the tracks, we can't be late.” I left him there,
no point in talking when he gets like this,
So I collect my things.
There wasn't much, I didn't feel the need to have much,
Being here it still feels so temporary, so hollow.
Let them prove to themselves they’re good people, nothing to do with me really.
I didn't know how long we'd be gone but it couldn't be more than a day?
Right?
I made my way back down stairs, the man's been moved, and the blood was cleaned. By who I can’t say.
Juno makes his way down as well, not long after me although he walks right past me. I followed a ways behind, As we both loaded into the car Juno placed his bag in the back with me before getting into the passenger side. It's an older make just a truck, with a big old truck cap. Nothing fancy, no labels and certainly no seat belts. Juno takes a moment to turn the heat on and mess with the sound system for a bit, he picks out one of the CD’s and tries to get the thing to take it, but it doesn't and we end up waiting for Rich in silence.
Rich comes by not long after he has a shotgun on his back and a backpack, I begin to worry I might have underpacked. But Rich hands them both to me before making his way to the driver's seat. I don't remember ever holding a gun before, I'm not sure I like it but I don't trust the thing enough to put it down. Rich isn't stupid I’m sure he has the safety on… but I'm not all too sure how to check.
Before I know it we’ve arrived not at the tunnel or anything really just backed up into the treeline near the tracks I hand the gun back to him. And grab my bag. Him and Juno both start to adjust the foliage to camouflage the car better. I suppose I should help but I'm not all too sure what's happening.
And I'm not sure what to ask him first,
I feel like I should at least try to comfort him,
or ask if they knew each other,
you know…
Something.
I look to Juno for some kind of guidance, but they're both just watching the tracks.
“Rich?” I probe as I'm really not sure what to do at this point. He looks over at me before realizing he didn't really ever explain.
“Oh, right, we're going to wait for the train to stop and then get into one of the cars.” I gave him a blank look, as if he explained anything.
“The people who keep the train tracks running will stop occasionally for the traders or anyone traveling for work. There are a few groups here but there's a stop by the water and almost no one uses it so it's our best bet to get on unnoticed.”
“We don't want to be noticed?” He pauses again.
“It's easier like this.” I think I’ve gotten enough non answers from him today and just end up biding my time.
Juno on the other hand isn't willing to give up so easily.
“What happened to him?” Rich pauses the words in his throat catch.
“We can't be sure…”
“Why’d you look at him like that? You know him?” He sighs, not quite answering the question.
“I have the right to know this shit. You can't keep putting us in danger like this! They’re right, we don't deserve to live like this!”
“JUNO, enough.” He doesn't seem angry, just tired, maybe scared.
“They could have, Just, We had to.”
… the silence held, as Juno's words hung in the air.
The horn of a train cut through the atmosphere for just a moment as Rich helped us aboard
We settled into the train car.
My heart felt heavy, the air was thick and still.
No one spoke, no one rested, not now at least.
Before I realized
We found ourselves in that tunnel again
I'm good with tight spaces but not this.
The stone walls slowly closing in on us,
Its teeth slowly move down to greet the slimy silk coating of the train.
It wasn't a comfortable feeling.
The thing kept jumping around. I swear I could hear the metal scraping.
The air snagged its fish line tendrils into the groves of my throat.
Slowly pulling,
threading the line.
I could taste it that familiar taste of fear
The moment held for a second too long.
But it was over just as fast.
Rich glanced over to us.
But no one dared to speak
We just continued to move
to follow the tracks.
The cart was small, nothing but empty crates and cages.
Juno had himself wrapped up warm and quiet. He clearly had no problem with the weight of the earth but he was bracing for something.
I just don't know what.
Until that second
When we found ourselves face to face with the maw's brother.
No longer did he threaten to crunch down on us now there could be no less holding us.
No wonder Will refused to be here.
The tracks hundreds of feet up.
The tracks in the woods had no age these…
They did and they did not age pretty.
I swayed closer to the edge, fascination holding my attention.
Rich grabbed my collar. I didn't notice at first, if there was a way he could close us into the cart I'm sure he would have but this was one of the few without doors.
He began pulling me back from the edge, as I slowly began slipping back into reality.
Should Juno and Bug, be Friends or Enemies
