On a sparrow's wings

Chapter 15 - Campfire stories

  The book shop had been left untouched by human or grey hands. Age wasn’t so kind though. The book covers were covered in dust, the titles unreadable under it’s thick layers. Cobweb sprawled like tiny bridges from corner to corner on the shelves. Little spiders walked on them carrying the prey that had been caught in it’s webs. People don’t look book shops, entertainment like books wasn’t on top of anyone's priority list and book shops rarely  had anything else in them. Anastasia was in luck as she had a large selection of books to pick from. She went around the store, and even though it wasn’t big she still felt as if she could lose herself in it, looking through the sections of the shelves. It was her own magical world, a break for a while before she had to go back to the horrible reality. She went from science-fiction to historical, from horror to mystery, from fantasy to… romance? The selection had only a few books left on it as opposed to the rest.

   Michael’s hand came into her view as it grabbed three of the books and when Anastasia turned her hand she saw it toss them into a roaring fire. It hissed and grew larger as the books landed inside it and died, and with them the people and stories within.

“Hey what are you doing?”, Anastasia grabbed his hand as he reached for more books.

“Making a fire.”, Michael pulled away from her grasp and reached out once again.

Anastasia stepped in front of his hand and crossed her arms, “You didn’t have to use the books! Someone spent hours of their days making up characters and stories and you use it as fuel!”

Michael sighed and turned around. He took out his axe and broke off shelves, the books falling on the ground into piles. He picked up the boards that used to hold them and threw them inside the fire. He sat at the fire his back against the wall.

  There were three books left on Anastasia’s favourite romance selection. She picked them one by one and dusted off the cover to see the title and read the synopsis. The first one had a bright red cover with a golden hair silhouette on it, or it used to once, it was all faded away and the hair looked more brown than gold. It was called Golden Love and the synopsis said that it was a story about a girl who struggles to find love for years when she meets a boy and she tries her best not to mess it up like the rest of her relationships. The second had a light blue color and a man standing alone in a street. The title was unreadable, Anastasia could only distinguish the word blue. The synopsis was also damaged, only a few words and letters could be read and it was only nonsense. The last one had a bright violet cover with the head of a girl with colorful hair. The title was a Misunderstood girl in a Misunderstood World. It caught Anastasia attention and she didn’t even need to read the synopsis before she put it in her backpack to read later.

  Anastasia joined Michael around the campfire, sitting across from him. The fire slightly hissed and waved every so often when some wind entered through the holes in the barricaded windows. The warmth of it had seeped into the small book shop and it’s light left a lot of shadows jumping up and down in the room. The biggest one standing behind Michael, the giant dark silhouette hovered over Michael and waved together with the fire. It made Michael look small in comparison. The fire’s light lit up Michael’s face exaggerating the dark circles around his eyes and the large bags under them. He was staring at the fire with an emptiness within his eyes. He pulled out a book and a can from his backpack. He opened the can revealing tobacco inside, he tore off one of the pages of the book and rolled a cigarette. Anastasia frowned at him for that but he didn’t seem to care.

  The silence was broken with a terrible screech from outside, it penetrated through the windows and bounced off the walls until it hit Anastasia’s ears and made her shiver. The screech was different from the normal grey one, it was deeper and raspier. More like the roar of a lion or the sound of thunder than a screech. As fast as it came it went, leaving only the slightest echo through the silent city. A few seconds past and screams rose from outside and shots went flying in the night. And one by one they went out, in a flash. The city returned to its silence as if the screaming was a cat that had been rummaging through a trash can.

  “Calm down. We are safe here.”, Michael’s rumbling voice slightly startled her.

“What is that thing?”, Anastasia hugged her legs close to her body.

“A grey.”

“Greys don’t sound like that.”, Anastasia looked at the window and back at Michael.

“Don’t know. People don’t tend to live for long after seeing it.”

“What do you mean?”

Michael lifted his head to smoke the cigarette he had rolled, “There are stories told around campfires in the dead of night. Of the great big wolf that runs through Chicago’s streets at night and kills any wondering the streets. Of a god released into the world to punish us for our sins. And others say that the greys are evolving, adapting to be better at killing us.”

“And what do you think?”

“I don’t care. If it tries to kill me I’ll shoot it. God or not.”

  “How do you know so much about the city?”

Michael took another puff from his cigarette, “I do jobs here from time to time.”

“What kind of jobs?”

“Deliveries mostly. Not many people dare to go outside the safe zones and they pay well to those who do. It’s not as hard when you don’t go in a large group like most people usually do.”

“You must have met a lot of people doing that.”

“Sure. A lot of them feel like they have to talk to you when you deliver them the package. Rarely there is someone interesting, there once was a guy who was a brewer before this happened and he gave me a keg of homemade beer.”

“Yuck.”, Anastasia had once tried drinking beer and she didn’t like it. It tasted like dirt to her.

“Yeah. He hadn’t mentioned he made it with tree roots and expired bread. I broke his nose for that.”

“Really? It tasted that bad?”

“No, he tried to poison me.”

“And you broke his nose. To be honest I expected more from you Michael.”

Michael laughed, “Yeah, I felt merciful.”

  “Did any of those interesting people stick around?”

“No.”

“Why not? You could use a friend or two if you ask me.”

“Friends are-”, Michael looked deeply into the fire and returned to his cigarette, “Too costly.”

“Costly? What do you mean costly?”

“When you are alone you don’t have anything weighing you down. Friends can be used against you and they can-”, he took a deep puff of his smoke as he looked at the roof, “Betray you.”

“Friends don’t weigh you down! They lift you up! With friends you feel free, you feel like life is worth living and that it’s good to live. Yes they could be used against you but without them what’s the point?”

“Survival is the point.”

“This is pointless.”, Anastasia whispered under her nose. Michael either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

   A silence followed. Michael rolled a few more cigarettes and smoked them, he never smoked the factory made ones, they were more valuable than handmade ones. He let the fire fade a little because the smoke had started to gather at the top of the room. He went over to the window and made a bigger hole through it, leaving the boards intact only breaking the glass. He placed his backpack on the floor and used it to support his head when he laid on it.

  “What about your family?”, Anastasia broke the silence.

Michael flinched when he heard her and his eyes opened wide.

“Only my brother is left of mine. Mom and dad died when all this started. How about you? Did you have one?”

“Family.”, Michael muttered under his breath a few times before he snapped back to reality, “No.”, his voice was quieter than usual and less rumbly.

“Sometimes it’s better to talk about it. That’s how I dealt with it when my parents died. I-”

“Stop!”, Michael screamed as he rolled over to face the wall.

“I only-”

“Leave me the f**k alone.”, he quickly rolled over, his eyes blood red but teared up, “I told you I don’t have a f*****g family.”

Anastasia got closer to him, “Michael I-”

“I told you to leave me the f**k alone”, Michael’s voice was angry as he rolled around to face the wall again.

Anastasia got closer and placed her hand on his shoulder. He quickly spun around and threw her hand away, Anastasia quickly went away from him.

  She sat behind the counter, well away from Michael. She could still see his shadow from the fire and she could hear the slight hiss of fire and Michael’s low whispering. I shouldn’t have pressed him. He will open up on his own I just have to be there to listen. Anastasia smacked her forehead and called herself stupid, but quietly so Michael wouldn’t hear. After a while she pulled the backpack of her back and pulled out the bright violet book she took. She liked the girl on the cover, he colorful hair like a rainbow was spilled out on a canvas seemed to call to her.

  She began to read. The story followed this girl called Abby who was struggling to get through high school. Anastasia never went to high school so she had to backtrack and read a few paragraphs again to understand what was meant. The girl Abby didn’t seem to fit in into the high school and she wanted to have a boyfriend so she would. Anastasia kept reading, the book was funny at times and sad at others, sometimes even infuriating at others. Even though Anastasia couldn’t understand some of the words she got lost in the story. Abby became like a dear friend to her, Anastasia felt as if she was helping Abby find out who she was. Hours passed like minutes as Anastasia kept reading and reading. Fighting to keep her eyes open. One more page and I will go to sleep then. She would repeat to herself over and over until she could fight the weight of her eyelids and she fell asleep with the book still open and he face inside it.