There was a girl there. A seemingly dead girl.
Time seemed to come to a standstill at that instant. Theodoric just stared. He seemed to filter out everything – the sound of Adelbrecht stomping towards him, the fact he was supposed to be running away. It was just him, his heart thumping in his ears, face to face and nose to nose with the dead body with its head lolled limply to the side. His eyes widened in utmost horror.
She didn’t seem to be much older than him at all – thirteen years at the oldest. Her hair was a tousled mess of mousy brown, although it might have just been a dirty blonde. Her face was deathly pale. She was wearing a sort of soggy water-logged white nightgown, which completely contradicted the untied leather hiking boots that were far too big for her feet, and one mud-coated cream glove on her left hand. She was also completely soaked in some sort of liquid substance, Theodoric noted, as if she’d just stepped out of the shower fully clothed. Her eyes were half closed; he could just see the whites of her eyes, although they looked horribly yellow and sickly, and there was a massive gash in head. Blood, thinned and exaggerated by the water, was pouring through her temples and flowing down her face, along the ridges of her petite facial features and reddening her lips. She was curled in the foetus position, hands hugging her knees flaccidly. Theodoric felt his stomach lurch.
“Oh, god—“
He clenched his eyes shut, hoping it was all just a big nightmare. He wanted to run away as fast as possible, but somehow, as if drawn by some sick curiosity, he slowly reached out his hand and brushed his fingers oh-so-lightly against the girl’s bloody cheek. He recoiled almost immediately. She was damp and absolutely freezing. Theodoric opened his mouth to yell, but nothing came out. Just a pathetic rasping sound.
Oh, why couldn’t Adelbrecht have found me! If he had, this wouldn’t have happened! Why can’t he locate me already? Then he can explain this is all a nightmare and I can wake up...
“Wuff!”
“Aaaaaargh!”
Theodoric screamed as loud as he could, blood pounding in his head. Suddenly Woensdag, the twin’s dog, rushed out of nowhere and flung her body at Theodoric, knocking him down to the knees of the corpse! She gave him a humongous lick right across his face with her tongue.
“W-Woensdag! Get off me! Bring me your master!”
Woensdag’s floppy ears twitched a little and she sat up stiffly, cocking her head in confusion. Theodoric groaned.
“Find help!” he repeated. He pushed her massive paws off and staggered upright, head spinning.
Rather than obeying Theodoric, Woensdag hunched her shoulders and began snuffling around in the dirt and poking her wrinkly muzzle into the ground. She caught sight of the seemingly lifeless body and emitted a low growl.
“Wuff!” She barked again.
Theodoric’s eyes widened as Woensdag creeped closer towards the body. He wanted to reach out and pull her back by the scruff of her wrinkly terracotta neck, but it was like he was frozen. Woensdag sniffed the rim of the girl's mudstained and bloodstained dress, ears flat against her mongrel flearidden head, whining a little.
And then, without warning, Woensdag suddenly charged forward and chomped her jaws down on the girl's gloveless arm as hard as she could.
At first, Theodoric was terrified that Woensdag was trying to eat the girl. He clamped his hands to his mouth, preparing to throw up. But he was even more petrified when the supposedly dead child sat sharply up from her curled position, opened her eyes and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
The dead are alive! Even though the zombie apocalypse wasn't supposed to be until the 21st century! This was the first thought which ran through Theodoric's discombobulated mind. Woensdag must have been shocked too, because she released her gripped jaws on the girl's arm and began barking and jumping around like crazy. The girl herself was still screaming in a nastily high pitched note, clasping her injured arm.
Theodoric's head was swimming. The girl was alive! But how was that possible? It looked like she'd been shot in the head or something, plus she was wet and freezing cold! With a clatter of discarded metal sent flying, Woensdag turned around and ran around in circles as quickly as she'd arrived, adding to the noise by whining loudly. Theodoric squeezed his fists over his ears, wincing.
“You're alive!” He managed to yell over the racket.
The girl kept screaming, eyes rolling upwards towards the heavens.
“I thought you were dead!” Theodoric said again in desperation.
The girl's screaming was wavering now, as if she'd ran out of screaming gas. Then she adruptly stopped. Woensdag ceased whimpering, too. The silence was deathly.
Theodoric gulped.
“Who... are you?”
She slumped backwards against her precious wheelbarrow again and closed her eyes as if exhausted. Her lips moved a little as if trying to say something, but nothing came out. Theodoric, although his legs were shaking and wobbling in fear, knelt down beside her and peered into her face.
“Who are you?” he repeated, a little braver this time.
Her eyes flickered open again. The iris were a striking hazel colour, with small flecks of bright yellow-green in them. Theodoric was taken aback at how exceptionally smart they looked against the lumpy yellow of her 'whites'.
“I...ugh....”
“Take your time,” Theodoric reassured her, although feeling hopeless.
Woensdag crawled towards the girl with her tail between her legs, staring up at her with big black eyes. The dog smacked her flabby whiskered lips and then gave the mysterious girl a slobbery lick right across the bloodstained face.
“Ewww!” That seemed to stir the girl a whole lot. She cried out and tried to push the dog away from her, sobbing. “I hate dogs! Get it away from me!”
“Woensdag! Leave her alone!”
Surprisingly, Woensdag actually obeyed Theodoric this time. She came over and sat down beside him, looked offended.
The girl, now roused, stared at Theodoric with her huge eyes. She looked a little frightening, still pale and covered in blood.
“That's your dog?!” She shrieked furiously.
“Um, no, she's –“
“I knew it!” The girl complained in outrage. She jumped up to her feet without warning, pointing a finger accusingly at Theodoric. “He bit me! He drew blood! Look!” She shoved her arm beneath Theodoric's nose. There were a few tiny teeth marks and a small drop of red liquid, hardly anything compared to the amount on her face. “That thing should be put down! Wait until my father hears about this!”
Theodoric didn't know what to do, so he just gave a nervous awkward-souding chuckle.
“You're remarkable!” he gulped, staggeing up to his feet as well. “How on earth can you be practically dead one moment and then throwing a tantrum at me the next? I don't get it at all, but it's great! Where did you come from, anyway? The... asylum?”
Unfortunately, this was not the right thing to say.
“Shut up!” she screeched. “You're just a little kid, you don't know anything! And look at my clothes! What's up with this, hm? All this mud! I'm filthy!” Suddenly, without warning, she sunk her face into her hands and began sobbing. Woensdag began howling mournfully. Theodoric just stood there, not knowing what to do or say.
“Um,” he agreed.
The girl then stopped crying precipitously and paused. She slowly raised a shaking hand up to her eyes and stared at it in horror. It was covered in blood from her headwound.
“Oh my lord! What the heck did your dog do to me?! I'm BLEEDING!”
“Woensdag didn't do that! And she's not my dog, either!”
“Liar! I saw him do it! Are you really that thick?”
“Look at your face!” Theodoric was completely taken aback by this child. Even so, he bent down and picked up a piece of stainless steel scrap metal from a junk pile. He spat on it and rubbed it clean with his hand, then passed it to the girl. She didn't try to hide the disgust on her face.
“Your spit's on that. Ew.” She hesitated, then plucked it from Theodoric between her index finger and thumb as if it were a dead rat. She squinted curiously into the steel reflection at herself. Her eyes widened in shock again. “Holy mother of pearl! My face!”
She stumbled backwards into the pile of armchairs and leant against it in wonder, hand on her forehead. She gave a pitiful sneeze.
“Are you alright?” Theodoric asked softly. She ignored him.
“What...happened to me?” she whispered.
“I don't know. I found you here. In the junkyard, beneath a wheelbarrow. What's your name? Where did you come from?”
The girl gave him a hard glare in disbelief. Then her expression softened.
“I... don't actually know.”
“You don't? Everyone knows what their name is! Do you have a name?”
“Like I said, I don't know! I don't remember anything!” She shook her head, and then winced when she realised it hurt.
“Well, you certainly remember your hatred for dogs...”
“And... and I remember water.” No duh – she was soaked with the stuff. “Yes, I remember swimming or something like that. Did I drown? No, obviously not – I'm quite sure Heaven isn't meant to be a dump, a literal one. Is my sister here?”
“Sister? You have a sister?”
Theodoric and the girl were silent for a moment. She glanced down at the wheelbarrow from which she was discovered, frowning in concentration.
“Yes. I was looking for her, I think. Something like that. Can I read?”
“I'm afraid I can't answer that question for you,” Theodoric replied. “Here, can you understand this?”
He gently took her wrist in his hand and knelt down to the ground. He pointed to an inscription scrawled on the old wheelbarrow. It was the name of the company which designed it.
“Bly... Blythe's... Wheeblarrows?”
(It actually said Billy's Wheelbarrows, but Theodoric felt mean correcting her, so he didn't).
“Yep, pretty much. So now we know you're a girl who likes swimming who has a sister, dislikes dogs and was probably quite an avid reader..” Theodoic smiled at her warmly. She wasn't looking in his direction though, just staring hard at the wheelbarrow.
“ExceptI don't know my name, so I'm calling myself Wheelbarrow,” she said flatly.
“Um, you are? Wheelbarrow is a very... unique name.” Theodoric held back a snarky snort. “Why not Billy? I mean... what was it again? Blythe?”
“Blythe sounds silly, though.”
“Not as bad as Wheelbarrow.”
“Oh, if you insist! Blythe's an alright name, I suppose.” The girl – now Blythe – flashed Theodoric a quick smile. She then sneezed wetly again, shuddering. “Mm. I also remember what pneumonia is. Think you could give me a hand getting home? Or at least to a home?”
Theodoric didn't really know what to say. He had almost forgotten about the game of hide and seek, and the other boys were yelling goodbye to each other not far off. They'd completely forgotten about Theodoric, although Adelbrecht could be heard calling worridly for his dog in the distance. Woensdag gave a bark in return and scampered off, not giving Theodoric or Blythe a second look as he went back to his master. Theodoric would have been grumpy at them if he hadn't been occupied with Blythe.
“I don't really know about that,” he said simply. “You need a hospital.”
“Is there one nearby?”
“Yeah... it's not very nice, though...” In truth, Theodoric was deathly afraid of hospitals, but he wasn't going to let that show. Still, Blythe was cold, wet and bleeding and suffering from amnesia. She really WOULD be dead if they didn't get to one soon.
So he stood on his tiptoes and put his arm around her shoulder, therefore allowing Blythe to lean on Theodoric for support (which was a little difficult as Theodoric was about a head shorter than the girl). They made their way slowly but steadily through the rubble towards the junkyard gates.
“And... and I need to find my sister,” Blythe mumbled as they walked. “My twin, I think she was... I have to find her.”
“I know.”