Chapter 3

“Wake up!” no response. “God damn it!  “Wake up!” I said”. The cut slowed its bleeding. A different towel is placed around his leg again. The shoestring is retied.

      How long has it been now?

      Has it only been about 5 minutes? Why do I even care? I don’t know who this is.

      Wait.

       I do. He is a boy who was born and lived at the same place as me. A boy who grew up with people who couldn’t be trusted, and who were a danger. Now a man, who could die because of me. He actually tried to help me. I have obviously zoned out because Josh says “Sis! Hello?”.

      “Sorry.” I come to.

      I look down and see my now blood stained clothing sticking to my body “Josh. Do you mind?” I grab my shirt. He lays Zachary’s head onto a blanket and walks over to where I am kneeling next to his calf.

      “I got it. Go ahead.” He rolls up his sleeves and gently applies pressure. I release my grip.

      “Thanks.” I walk away from Zach and Josh. I jump into the dumpster that I have sadly spent too much time in to begin a search for new clothes. I throw many things behind me before I spot a ripped up tank I had passed by earlier. “Well, it is in better condition than mine is in now,” I think to myself.

      I stand a few feet from the back of Joshua. I lift my tank top up and over my head. Holding the other close to my chest, I look over to see Zachary looking at me. I try to cover my uncovered chest with the shirt.

      “Really! What the hell!”

      Josh says, “Look sis. He’s awake!” As he turns, a look of horror crosses his face. “I’m sorry!” He quickly jolts his head facing completely away from me.

      I now glare at Zach, whom to my relief was awake, but seeing me unclothed, made me forget all of the happy feelings I had. He smiles at me and looks away.

      “I at least deserve that after you seeing me with no pants. Right?” His words are airy but hearable.

      “No!” I scramble to throw the clothing on me. It ends up on me backwards. I thrash my arms around until they are where they should be. I stomp over towards him.

      He turns and smiles up at me again. I slap him. He feels his cheek with his palm. I stare at him as I stand.

      “All right. I deserved that.”

      “Sure as hell you do!” I throw myself down to sit beside him. “How are you?” I say in a still pissed off voice.

      “I’m fine.”

      “Yeah, sure. You lied about that before.”

      “No. When you asked if I had a problem I replied that I did have one.” A strained smile follows his remark.

      “You obviously should have said something before you decided to be a wuss and faint.”

      “A wuss! You kidding me?! I am so sorry that I lost so much blood that I blacked out!” he screams at me sarcastically.

      “Well…you should be!” I yell back. I find myself standing.

      “We need to be quieter.” Joshua quietly tells us.

      “I know! I know.” I lower my voice.

      “And you,” he is now looking directly at Zach, “need to stop getting your heart rate up. Do you want to bleed to death?!” Zach didn’t answer. “That’s what I thought.”

      “We need to move.” I said.

      “And how do you expect me to move?” Zachary asks in disbelief.

      “I guess we could carry you? That might work.”

      We decide to wait to move him until it looks as if the bleeding was slowing down, and we waited for over an hour.

      Joshua packs up his and my belongings and carries both on his back. I grab Zach’s arm and carelessly throw it over my neck. He grunts in pain. “Could you try to no to cause me pain?”

      “You need to be grateful that I am carrying you at all.” I wrap my free right hand around his waist. We begin to walk. We walk very slowly. Most of his weight is on his good leg.  I can tell he is trying to not put his weight on me.

      “It is ok. I am stronger than you probably think I am.” He looks up at me, and I can see the pain in his sea blue eyes. I nod to assure him. More weight gets added to my load, but it isn’t much. He is still holding back, but at least it isn’t all of his weight on him, alone, anymore. Joshua follows a few feet behind to keep close watch on our backs. After a full block we decide to stop and rest.

      “Josh, get the blanket out please.”

      “Here you go.” Once in my hands, I toss the blanket down and lower Zach onto it. “We are not making much ground.” Hands on hips, I look around.

      “Just leave me here.”

      “Quit being dramatic. You know that even though you are a dead weight, we wouldn’t leave you.”

      “Oh, thanks. That makes me feel a thousand times better.” He rolls his eyes.

      I sit myself down next to him.

      “So, what’s your story.” He gestures towards Josh and me.

      “None of your business.”

      “Really? Why would you not tell me? I told you mine. You said “How can I trust you without knowing you”. Does this rule not apply to you, Kristen?” His voice remained calm.

      “Fine.” I sighed. Joshua was looking at me. “We grew up with a drug using mother. She died. I watch over Josh.”

      “That’s it?”

      “Yup.” I put on a face sarcastic smile, and he does it back.

      “You know, you are really defensive. Why?”

      “Why? Why am I defensive? I am because I am. Nothing to it. No deep inner thoughts or feelings that make me subconsciously do this.” I thought. “It is just how I am.” are the only words I say aloud.

      He raises his eyebrows at me. “Okay.”

      He resumes his normal pose, with his hands crossed behind his neck while lying down.

      Josh mocks him and does it too. Josh chuckles silently. I remain sitting with my knees up to my chest. I place my chin down between my knees and yawn.

      We have been walking for hours before our run in with the two men and were really exhausted.

      “Sleepy?”

      Well, yeah. We slept two hours last night.” I reply. Zach sits up.

      “I will keep watch.” He pushes himself against a wall to sit himself straight up.                       

      “I don’t know.” I reply hesitantly. “I mean, you are injured.”

      “I can reach you from here. I’ll wake you up.”

      “I am so tired right now Kristen. I say it sounds ok.” I look and see that his dark circles are now the dominant feature on his face. Beneath his crystal blue eyes, they seem as if to been shadowed.

      “Fine. If you promise to sit there, and actually keep watch I’ll let you.”

      “Will do, sir!”

      I glare. I will lie down, but I do not trust him that much. He might fall asleep, or he might run off. He might even try to kill us. I’m not that gullible, and why would he think I am?     

      I lay my head on the blanket next to Josh. It isn’t cold, but actually nice, so we don’t need one for covering our bodies. After about five minutes, Josh seems to be asleep. I lay diagonal to Zach. If I slightly open my eyes, I can clearly see him.

      After ten minutes, he is still there, looking sideways, and even up. Exhaustion seems to be setting in. I drift in and out of sleep. “Stay awake!” I think, “Just stay awake.” I feel myself falling asleep. I imagine my hair getting stoked back, but I know it didn’t actually happen.

      What seems likes hours later, I awake to see Josh and Zach chatting. I continue to lie there and listen.

      “… been on the streets exactly?”

      “Two years or so. You?” Zach asks.

      “Um, by myself or?”

      “Yeah, by yourself.”

      “Well, what time is it?” he chuckles. “The time I’ve been on the street is since your sister stabbed me. I’ve always been under the gang’s radar and guard. Haven’t left them till now.”

      “Oh. What all have you seen them do?” Josh asks hesitantly and quietly.

      “They have done things I don’t even want to tell you, or that I want to relive myself. I usually drink a lot, so I don’t remember too much. But, they have raped, drugged, killed, tortured, and little things, like stealing things from people.”

      “Why do they do that?”

      That is a question I have always asked and never gotten an answer to. I could never come up with a good enough reason for me to be able to understand them. Why do they do what they do? Why?

      “Because they can.”

      The words ring in my ears. Of course it’s because they can. They can do what they want. Who is going to stop them? No one.

      “They can do all of this because no one can stop them.” Zach continues. “It’s a free world, and it’s all for them.”

      I start to show sign that I’m just waking up. I move my hair and stretch out my arm. Eyes half open my body turns towards them and yawns.

      “Morning.”  They say in unison.

      “Morning.” I slur the words out of my mouth. “What have you guys been doing?”

      “Just talking.” Josh says.

      “About?”

      “Guy stuff.” Zach says.

      “Oh, got it.” And the subject is dropped. They exchange a look and I pretend to not see. I wonder what they were talking about before I awoke.

      Everybody, but Zach, grabs their things and packs them up.

      “Sleep well?” Zach asks me while Josh is running around trying to quickly put his belongings away.

      “Fine. Just fine. I mean I can’t sleep too well. I’m sleeping on concrete.”

      I reach toward his arm to lift him up to continue our trip. I wish I knew what to say.

      I feel like we are always going somewhere and never stopping, but we never get anywhere. We are literally going nowhere. Maybe there is somewhere that isn’t like this. Maybe farther out in California, Texas or Oklahoma it is safe. Maybe it is only New York like this. If it was, why wouldn’t other places help us out? We should be safe too.

       Safe. That’s where I want to be.

      Broken lights flash by as we walk. Noises of crying, thumping, and talking fade as we pass by Black Homes.  We walk for hours.

      Awkward conversations take place. We finally stop when we see the remains of a bridge. It lays in pieces in the ocean and on land. Most of it is gone completely.

      “Why did we come here?” Zach asks.

      “It is one of the bridges that led to the other parts of the country. I was hoping it was intact.” I shake my head. I just want to get out.

      “Well, we are obviously not getting out this way.” He says sarcastically.

      I stand there staring at the bridge’s remains. It’s gone. It’s pieces crumbled and halfway in the ocean. My heart hurts. My eyes sting from staring.

      “I don’t need this right now!” I yell at Zach. I run off and sit. Tears slide down my face.

“Kristen!” Zach has managed to hobble up right next to me. “What’s wrong?”

      “I really do not feel like talking to you! Ok! Can you just go?” I shout at him as my hair flies around in the wind.

      “No. I can’t. I’m not going to. What is the matter? It is just a bridge�"“

      “It is not just a bridge!” I interrupt, “It could have been away out for all of us!” Zach looks down. My arms go up and gesture around.

      “Yeah. I guess that would have been nice.” He pauses, “You know I didn’t take you to be the kind that cried.” He half smiles towards me.

      “Shut the hell up.” I slightly giggle. “God, I’m sorry.” I go to wipe my tears, but Zach already had his finger on my face. I turn and he wipes my eyes and smiles.

      “Where to know?” he asks.

      “I…I don’t know.” I stutter. “I have nowhere I need to be.” I finish wiping my face, stand up, and regain my seriousness.

      I exhale. “So, where should we go?”

 

 

Author's Note

It is under construction and subject to change.