On a sparrow's wings

Chapter 7 - Back together

  After an hour of running and walking downstream houses appeared around her. By then she had been dragging herself for the past twenty minutes, hoping to find any place safe enough to sleep. She was barely keeping her eyes open so she opted for the first house she saw. She entered it and saw the tree house in the backyard and decided that would be the safest place to sleep in. She scoured the house to find an alarm clock.

  She was lucky enough to find one that was still working. She pulled out the pack of batteries She had been keeping. She put them in and the it sprung alive, I brushed the dust of the dial and went into the tree house. She couldn’t afford to sleep for long if she wanted to catch up to Michael, she had lost enough time already. She set the alarm clock for five hours from now and went to sleep.

  Her sleep was blank, no  dreams or nightmares. But she still woke covered in cold sweat and struggling for air. The alarm clock had not gone off. She checked it and saw that there was still an hour. She took out the batteries of the alarm clock and left. The moon was still in the sky in it’s pale glory.

  She ran through the lonely streets of the suburbs. The original color of the little houses was barely visible, the colorful paint that once covered them had been destroyed by the years, along with most things. The cars had been lying dormant for a long time and it showed, when Anastasia looked at them she felt their sadness, they had been sitting unused for so long that they had lost their purpose. Everything was looted, windows and doors broken, tires, boards and different parts that held the houses together were gone. Bigger stuff was left out in front, couches, sofas and tvs. Lying covered in dust and some in moss.

  Anastasia saw the smoke coming from behind a house further from her. She snuck up to it and saw the light of a campfire in the house’s backyard. She snuck along the fence and slowly lifted her head to see. It was Michael, standing in his usual grumpy position, leaned against a tree next to a campfire.

  She stood up, “Michael!”.

Michael quickly pointed a gun at her face. When he realised who she is he sighed and lowered his gun and returned to sitting sit.

“What the hell? Watch where you point that thing?”, Anastasia exclaimed and jumped over the fence.

Michael grumbled and kept looking into the fire.

  “Why did you leave like that back at the gas station? I could have died.”, she sat across him, crossing her legs.

“I don’t care.”

“What do you mean you don’t care? What’ve I done to you?”

“I am not your babysitter, girl.”

“I don’t need a babysitter, I can take care of herself. As you can see I managed to find you all by myself. Without-”

“Do you ever shut up? I don’t know how your brother tolerates you with all this yapping.”

“i don’t do that.”, I didn’t know what yapping meant but I assumed it wasn’t good.

  “And I don’t know how your friends tolerate your rude silence.”, Anastasia put her hands closer to the fire to warm herself.

“I don’t have friends.”

“Now that can’t be true. Everybody has at least a few friends. What’s the point of living if you don’t have someone to share it with.”

“You share it all you like and I will survive.”

“Life isn’t about survival it’s about living. About having a good time with the people you love.”

  “And when someone takes them away. Then what?”, Michael lifted his dark eyes, the dark circles around them almost making them a shadow.

“I wouldn’t let that happen. I-”

“You wouldn’t do shit.”, Michael’s hand clenched into a fist, “You are just a little girl. And little girls-”, he looked away and Anastasia could see his eyes water a little, he swallowed, turned back to her and continued, “And little girls don’t stay little for long.”, he turned his gaze into the fire.

“You don’t know that.”

“I know a lot more than you, gir.”

“Stop calling me girl!”, Anastasia rose and clenched her hands into fists.

Michael turned his head to look at her, “Or what? You gonna kill me?”, he looked back at the fire.

  Anastasia calmed herself down and sat back next to the fire. Silence followed. Anastasia wanted to give up on Michael and keep going alone. Couldn’t he have been a little bit nicer? She  wondered about him, what was he like before all this, was he always like this or could he have been different before? Are some people like that and they can’t change or is her approach wrong?

  Her thoughts wondered to Ethan. She still didn’t know where he or if he was even… alive. No, no he has to be. She got a little closer to the fire and hugged her legs. She didn’t know where this Red Fist base was and what to do when she got there or how to get in the city even or how to maneuver through it. It was all so confusing to her. She looked at Michael. But he knows and he can help me, but not for free it seems.

  She started thinking of something to give him to help her. I barely had any food left and all her cigarettes wouldn’t be enough to buy this from him. I had to think of something. I could lie to him. I mean he hasn’t acted the best with me, it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it, right? She wondered was it worth it? If she made a good enough lie he would help her but if he found out.

  She had been thought lying was bad and she didn’t like doing it but with everything out to kill her and her not being as strong or tall as others she had to use other things. Along with the sneaking she learned to lie, she wasn’t great at it at first. But eventually she became good enough in it. It came in handy when dealing with people. But she never used it to hurt someone and this might. She looked once again at Michael and back at the fire. No, I have to do this, for Ethan.

  After constructing her lie she looked at Michael, “Hey Michael. Would you help me save her brother if I pay you enough?”

Michael didn’t react.

“In exchange for helping me save her brother I will tell you the location of an old military bunker, full of supplies.”

  When this all started the military stockpile supplies in underground bunkers but the greys proved to much even for them. That and all the raiders and bandits they eventually died out or joined other settlements. All the bunkers were picked clean. Although some still believe a few more were left hidden, filled with enough supplies to last a lifetime. She tried to exploit that in Michael.

“Bullshit. All the bunkers have been scavenged.”, he still didn’t look at her.

“Not this one. That’s how my brother and I survived. We used some of the stuff but there is still a lot of food left. And also a lot of guns.”, she tried her best to say that in a convincing tone.

Michael was still sceptical asking her a few more questions but she managed to answer them all skillfully. And after that he was satisfied and agreed to help.

  She was so happy she could burst. She raised her arms in triumph when Michael stopped looking and yawned. Tiredness swept over her. She laid her sleeping bag out and laid inside it. The memory of Michael leaving her swam to the front of her mind. She opened one and eye and looked at him. But eventually She fell asleep leaving whether Michael would leave her to him and fate.