Colony Three (PAUSED)

Flashback Four

Papa needs a doctor.

He won't tell me what happened to hurt him, but his leg, the one with the scar, is burned.

Really bad.

He says that he's 'lucky,' because it's only his left leg and he doesn't need it to drive. I, for one, don't think there's anything lucky about getting your leg half burned off, no matter which one it is.

The people that attacked our...that attacked the house haven't followed us, Papa says. They know we won't be coming back.

We've only stopped once since then, to sleep. Papa slowed down and pulled the car off the road. Everything rattled around and I thought for sure the car would shake apart, but it didn't. The tall rows of unharvested corn hid us, and I slept somewhat peacefully.

Papa wasn't prepared for the house to be taken from us. The red car isn't packed with any of our supplies. The people who owned it had a few things, like gum and hand sanitizer, but not much in the way of food.

We eat what's in our bags sparingly. I had a granola bar yesterday, and a handful of peanuts today. Protein is good for staving off the hunger.

There IS a crate of bottled water in the trunk of the car, with thirteen unopened bottles, and eleven used ones.

Papa smiled for the first time since the night before the attack when he saw the water. "Worth more than bricks of gold," he said.

We find another field, mostly overtaken by lillyvine, near the cornfield. Papa and me use our hands to scrape away the vines. Beneath the vines are potato plants, just beginning to wither.

We pile the back seat full of potatoes. Most of them will rot before we can eat them, but why not take advantage of food while it's here?

***

Papa wants to trade our supplies. We've been heading north, towards Ohio. Lillyvine doesn't care if it's running on top of water or dirt. Most ponds and creeks are already choked with the stuff.

Your only choices for water now are the Mississippi, half overgrown, or the Great Lakes, which have remained mostly unaffected.

Papa says that it'll be more dangerous by the lakes, but we'll be able to have water. The government has kept purifying stations open up at the Lakes since the lillyvine got really bad.

I can't really remember it not being bad.

***

Gas stations don't work anymore. Papa is wary of stopping at houses after the last time, but we need fuel.

Most of the time, the sheds and barns we check are empty of supplies. Sometimes we find a few gallons of gas, or a package of matches, or a flashlight with batteries.

We've become night people. During the day, the car gets parked in a cornfield or covered in lillyvine while we sleep. When darkness falls, we drive, lights off.

A few times, people have woken up while we're stealing from them. One guy shot the back window of the car, so there's a little whistling hole that let's in rain when the duct tape peels off.

I wish I could sleep in a real bed again.