Part Three: The War
2094: Chapter Thirteen
“Oh.” I begin. “That would be a lot to think about.”
I’m shocked. That’s all I can think, all I can say. I didn’t expect that to happen, let alone from River. Why did he kiss me? I’ve only known him for two weeks. You can’t fall in love with someone if you’ve only known them for two weeks?
Giggling from behind us fills in the silence. I turn around, and spot a girl. She’s older than me, probably by two years. She has stunning long, wavy black hair, and toned olive skin. The girl has brown, almost black eyes are filled with amusement as she stairs at us.
“I’m sorry. If I knew you guys were... busy, I would’ve let you be,” I can tell that she’s holding in her laughter as she says this.
River looking embarrassed grunts out, “Just go away Abby.”
“Trust me, I would if I could. But,” Abby begins, “Warren sent me up here to take over watch. He said you guys need to sleep, since you’re leaving for the big fight tomorrow, so if you don’t mind,” she points her hands towards the stairs.
“Whatever. Lets just go,” River demands taking my hand. I pull away, but still continue to walk with River to the stairs. He pulls open the trap door, and we both go down it. Before I leave, I catch Abby staring at us, she still has loopy grin on her face.
I close the trap door behind us, and River and I are plummeted into silence. We go down the steps not speaking a single word to each other, but eventually River breaks the silence.
“So, what do you think?” I give him a confused look, so he adds on to his sentence. “What do you think about the idea of you and me?”
“I’m,” I start, “I’m confused that’s for sure. But I can’t bother to think about that. I just need to keep my attention on Nova Vida. You understand that right?”
He looks at me, and I can practically see the hurt in his eyes. “Yeah, totally.”
We quietly walk down the stairs. Guilt starts to creep up, as I think back on what I had said. But the truth is I don’t want to like him, and I don’t want him to like me. I don’t want anyone to miss me when I’m gone. I was thinking about what will happen when I tell Warren who I really am, and the reality of it is that I will have to sacrifice myself. If they know I’m the cure, they’re going to want to save the world.
I don’t want anyone to be sad when I’m gone because that will be worse than the guilt I’m feeling right now.
We make it to the end of the stairway. I open up the door, and quickly walk out, trying to avoid River as soon as I have the chance. He doesn’t make the effort to walk beside me.
I decide it would be best to follow what Warren said, and get a few hours of sleep before we leave tomorrow. I walk by the cafeteria room, and it practically looks abandoned. It must be one in the morning right now.
Finally, when I make it to the bedroom, I sneak in silently just in case Sophie’s sleeping, but when I go in I find her wide awake. She’s staring at an image, but it’s impossible to tell who it is of. I notice to tears falling down her cheeks, but she quickly brushes them away.
“You okay?” I ask, sitting down on my bed.
“If you defy okay as completely and utterly miserable. Then yes, I’m okay,” she says, sounding way too old for her age.
Uncomfortably I look around the room, but eventually I let my eyes land on hers. “Want to talk about it?”
“Not with you.”
“Okay then,” I say, slightly offended. “I’m turning off the light.”
“Whatever.”
I reach over to the lamp, and let the room plunge into darkness. With my thoughts thinking about River, I barely hear Sophie crying from the other side of the room. But I don’t say anything.
I close my eyes, and let dream world take over.
There’s a boy, his face is unclear, almost blurred out. He walks to a plinth. Clutching his wound, he stumbles even closer. The sound of gunfire and screamed orders ring out through the tunnels. He barely pays attention. He has to reach it, has to put a stop to all of this. The pain sears through him, causing him to falter and catch his breath. Something approaches him from behind, loudly, rushing. Adrenaline kicks in. He spins and fires a volley of shots from his sidearm. A few hit their target, most go wide, hitting the masonry. It falls over, bleeding, writhing. He turns back to face the plinth. He almost feels it scratching at the back of his mind. It’s trying to talk to him. Adrenaline still flows through him. He speeds up to a jog.
He no longer notices the anguished screams of his comrades. No longer hears the unearthly growls. No longer perceives beyond the plinth. He is mere feet away. He reaches into his pocket. The object is still there. He removes it. It seems to move on its own towards the plinth. He places it on the plinth.
It is done. Mission accomplished. A few more volleys of gunfire sound out. He notices them now. There is a tearing sound, followed by a cry of anguish. Then silence. He sits, back resting on the plinth. He pulls out a cigarette. There are growls. He lights the cigarette. He takes a long draw, holding it for as long as he can. The things enter the chamber. He stares the leader directly in the eyes. He exhales. The things approach him, slowly. They are not sure what to make of him. He continues to draw on the cigarette, savoring it. They are close. Feet, maybe. He picks up his sidearm, places it against his temple. The things realize what he is doing. They stop. He smiles, takes one last draw and fires.
His body slumps. The shot echoes. Blood pours out, dousing the flame on the cigarette. His face becomes clear, not blurry any more. It’s River. I scream. There’s a pool of blood surrounding his head. His eyes roll back in his head, and he’s gone forever.
I wake up covered in my sweat. What was River doing? What did he need to do so badly, that it cost him his life?
I turn around on my side. Sophie’s not in here, she’s not in the room either. She must’ve already left. I get up deciding it would be best for me to leave as well. I push the dream to the back of my mind. It probably meant nothing. It did mean nothing.
Putting on the original close that I had first worn to the rebel base, I leave the room. Warren told everyone that was going to fight to meet him in the training room the next morning. So that is where I go.
Nobody else is up, it must be early in the morning still. Warren wanted us to leave before sunrise, so we can get there sooner. But Nova Vida is still considerably far away, so we probably won’t get there until tomorrow night. Plus, we have a few stops to do along the way.
I finally start to notice more and more people as I get closer and closer to the training room. They’re all dressed in pounds of clothing. Some are even wearing bulletproof vests. That is smart, but I think it’s just extra weight. I got out of Nova Vida with what I’m wearing. I’m pretty sure I can make it into Nova Vida the same way.
I bump into a girl, and I almost lose balance, but luckily I stop myself before doing so. But the girl wasn’t so lucky; she fell down hard on the ground. I offer her my hand, and she takes acceptingly. Her black hair was in a mess in front of her face, but she quickly fixed it.
She scoffs. “Watch where you’re going.”
“Who are you?” I ask. I haven’t seen her around here before, but she seems awfully familiar.
“What’s it to you?”
I shrug.
She rolls her eyes, but she answers anyways. “Rosa.”
Her name also sounds familiar, but I come up blank. Rosa taps her foot impatiently, waiting for me to move. When she realizes that I’m not going to she quickly goes around me.
I continue on my way to the training room, wondering where I knew her from. When I finally make it to the training room, it’s already filled with all the people that were in here before.
I can’t see Warren, but I can hear him talking. “I know this is a very dangerous move for us. I know a lot of us will get killed in the process. But that’s the price we have to pay to save the world. Any of you weaklings out here can leave,” his voice is harsh, but truthful.
“We all know the plan. We all know what we have to do. Remember what our objective is. Do anything to take down Kuro. If we kill her, we kill Nova Vida. We’ll attack tomorrow when night falls.”
Warren pauses for a moment, but soon continues. “Everyone in this room is a fighter. Everyone here has something that they lost because of Nova Vida. And together we shall fight!” Cheers fill the room, but I stay silent.
Everyone moves to the exit of the room. I spot Zed through the crowd, and join him. We both walk through the hallways, and follow the crowd through the door leading to the stairs. There must be around eighty people going to Nova Vida. The resistance has twelve trucks, so it’s going to be tight getting there.
Zed and I are near the front of the group, so we’re the first to arrive in the small house. Just hours ago River had kissed me here, and now I’m not even sure where he is. But I know he probably hates me.
I follow the group outside, and I am met with a dozen cars. Most of them are trucks, but there are a couple tanks, trailers and jeeps. Each will probably be able to hold five to nine people, but we will most defiantly end up being squished.
I catch Ford standing by a large black tank, and decide it would be best for me to walk over to him. Warren said that we would be traveling with our group, plus a few other people.
A light layer of snow covers the ground. I’ve heard of snow, but I’ve never actually seen the real thing. The snow is like a thin white carpet on the ground. Except it’s made of water not cotton.
Finally, I make it to Ford. “Are the others coming soon?” he asks me.
“Yeah, Zed was just behind me a couple of minutes ago. I’m not sure where he is now though. The others are on their way,” I tell him.
“Good,” Ford begins. “I want to get on the road as soon as possible.”
We’re quiet for a moment, but then I speak up. “It’s amazing.”
“What is?”
“The snow.” I say gesturing to the frosty flakes on the ground.
Ford gives me a long thoughtful, but then shakes his head. “Not when it’s stained red,” he walks to the other side of the tank, and gets in. I realize why when I notice Reagan, Zed, Dani, River, Chase and Whitford walking towards me. I also notice to people that aren’t part of our fight group walking with them. I soon realize that’s it’s Rosa and Abby.
My hearts stops when I see Abby. She knows what happened last night. She saw River and I kissing. I just hope to God she doesn’t mention it.
“Hurry up. Ford wants to leave now,” I tell them.
Chase scoffs. “So demanding.”
All of them walk quicker to the tank. Abby comes over to me. “I see you and River aren’t speaking.”
“I have more important things to think about than love.” She shrugs, and I continue. “I’m guessing you and Rosa are coming in our tank, for the ride?”
“Actually we were moved to your group in general. We’ll be fighting side by side.”
I don’t say anything to her, but instead get into the tank. There are only two seats in the tank, and they’re at the very front. Since Ford is driving the tank, I quickly grab the seat beside him. There are buttons all over the place, but I don’t know what they do.
Everyone else piles into the tank and has to sit on the ground. Ford turns around, so that he is facing everyone, and then starts talking.
“I know you all are a bunch of teenagers, but at this moment I need you to act like adults. We need to take down Nova Vida without any of you dying. So please act mature, for the sake everyone’s lives.”
We all nod in silence, and Ford starts the engine of the tank. He pulls out once he sees the other vehicles leaving. The tank bumps along the ground a few times, making me feel bad about the others sitting in the back.
Finally, we set off to destroy Nova Vida.
I know, it's a short boring chapter, but don't worry, it's about to get really good! More action! More zombies! More Nova Vida!
Introduced to new characters tell me what you think of them! Make sure you comment/vote!
Question of the chapter: Who would you want to be your zombie apocalypse partner?