Dawn Of Rebellion Collection

21. Gabby

The wind howls as it rips through camp, sending the pelting rain slanting sideways. Throughout the night, it keeps us awake. It must be really late by the time I fall asleep.

In the morning, I wake disoriented. Where am I? I"m in a bed, but not alone. I"d been dreaming of home. Not the abandoned building in the east end; no, home was a little house with blue trim and a red front door. There was a fireplace we"d curl up in front of on cold days. The kitchen always smelled like freshly baked bread and whatever mom was making for dinner; she was a great cook. Maybe that"s where I am. Maybe it wasn"t a dream. Maybe mom and dad are making breakfast, just like any other morning. I"m smiling when I finally open my eyes.

Reality comes rushing in at an alarming speed. Mom and Dad are gone, the little girl sleeping next to me is not Dawn, and I"m far from home with no hope of returning. What a world.

The events from the night before race through my mind. Even after last night, I still don"t know where I stand with Jeremy or anyone else in this grotty place. Claire stirs beside me, but as I look around the room, Jeremy isn"t here. He must have moved me to the bed and then slept on the floor last night. I feel kind of guilty for that.

“Gabby?” Claire"s sweet voice breaks my heart every day, reminding me of my sister.

“Go back to sleep, Claire. I"m going outside for a bit.”

She lets out a little cough and falls back to sleep.

I climb over Claire, looking for my clothes. I still have the blanket tied tightly under my arms. I find my clothes stretched out near the fire pit. To my surprise, they"re actually dry. They"re cleaner than they"ve been since I got here, but then, so am I; must"ve been the rain. I quickly dress and head out the door.

I"m not prepared for what I see. It turns out that we were lucky to still be under a roof when we woke. Last night"s storm has tossed the place. The ground is littered with thatching that has blown off some of the huts. One or two have been destroyed altogether.

People are moving about, trying to make sense of everything, picking up. Some have already started repairs. I make my way over to my section of the camp. It is slow going because the ground has turned to mud. My shoes act like suction cups. With every step, I have to use all my strength to take the next one.

I find Jeremy helping clear some of the trees that have fallen in the middle of camp. As I walk up he doesn"t smile or acknowledge me. Maybe last night"s conversation was a one-time thing and now he"s back to hating me. I refuse to let that be the case so I continue walking towards him as if nothing is wrong. I reach him when he is in the middle of trying to move a fallen tree. It"s not too big and under normal circumstances, Jeremy could handle it without a problem. The mud, however, is making his job very difficult. I don"t know what to say when I"m within earshot so I just stand there for a minute.

“Hey Gabby, I could use a little help if you would be so inclined.” I choose not to be bothered by his rudeness. Instead, I"m just happy he said anything at all. With my help, we"re able to get the tree over to where they"re piling the rest of them. We walk back towards the center of camp side by side to get the next one.

We work like this for most of the day. Neither of us saying much, but working as a team.

“Jeremy, don"t we have to go pick oranges or something today?”

“Not after a big storm. We have to rebuild the camp.”

“Oh.”

“We probably can"t even get to the grove right now anyways; Not with all this mud and such. Come on.” He gestures for me to follow him, “Let"s get some food.”

I still don"t know how everyone else will react to me today, so I"m a little reluctant. Jeremy just keeps walking without looking back. I decide to brave it because I"m hungry. I have to run to catch up with him. Daft move. If the mud makes walking hard, then running in it is impossible. I end up face down, covered from head to toe. Jeremy stops and turns around to see what the noise was. He is grinning as he looks down at me; the first smile I have seen on his face.

“Not funny,” I say through gritted teeth. He begins to chuckle as he extends his hand to help me up.

“Come, I"ll show you where you can clean up.”

Letting go of my pride, I grab his hand and pull myself to my feet. He starts walking off and I follow him, exasperated.

We reach a patch of trees that are surrounding a small pond. I tell him to turn his back and I strip off my grotty clothes. They are heavy from the weight of the mud. I sink down into the water and sigh. It feels great. Once I"m clean, I scrub my clothing between my hands and reluctantly climb out of the pond.

I wring my clothes out the best I can, but I know they"ll still be wet most of the day. Oh well, I guess I can live with it. I put them on and go find Jeremy. He"s leaning on a tree nearby, singing in a low voice. I don"t know the song, but his voice surprises me. He doesn"t hear me coming until I"m right next to him. He stops his singing abruptly and starts walking back to camp.

“That was beautiful. You shouldn"t have stopped.” He turns to look at me for a second then turns back to keep walking.

“You don"t know what you"re talking about.” I can"t tell if he"s angry or being defensive for some reason. I said beautiful, right?

“I never would"ve guessed you could sing like that.”

“Drop it, OK?” I do as he asks, but only because we"ve reached the others and my stomach is growling. What I find here surprises me. No one is staring and the conversation does not stop just because I"m there. They"re still not making an effort to talk to me, but this is a huge improvement.

I grab my food and find a place to sit. I"m alone until Amanda walks up.

“Can I join you?” she asks.

“Sure, if you can find a place to sit that is.” She smiles at my joke and sits across from me. Jeremy joins us as well.

As I"m eating, I look around, trying to find Claire. She isn"t here. That"s odd. Mealtime isn"t really optional. Everyone needs to eat and food is only available twice a day. I glance at Jeremy and find him searching the crowd as well.

“Where do you think she is?” he asks me.

“I don"t know. She was still asleep when I left her this morning.”

“I"m going to find her. She needs to eat.” He gets up and goes to grab some food for his sister.

“Wait,” I yell after him. “I"m coming with you.” I don"t run this time, but I do speed up a bit.

We reach the door to the hut Jeremy shares with Claire and stop. Before we enter he calls in to his sister.

“Claire? You in there?” At first, there"s no response. We"re both listening intently when I hear the faintest sound of a cough. I look over to Jeremy, but he"s already darted inside.

I go in slowly, very aware that this isn"t my place. I stay by the door, not wanting to intrude on the scene that is playing out before me. Claire is in the same spot that I left her in hours ago. Her eyes are closed and she is curled up in a little ball. I would almost think she was sleeping peacefully if it wasn"t for the constant shivering. Jeremy is kneeling beside her trying to wake her up. I turn as someone else enters the room and see that Amanda has followed us. She doesn"t seem to mind intruding as she walks past me and crouches down next to Jeremy.

“She isn"t waking up Mandy. What"s wrong with her?” His voice is no more than a whisper and there"s a quiver in it. I wish I could help him but, despite last night, we"re practically strangers.

“Jeremy, I need you to back away and let me try to help her.” First me, and now Claire, I"m guessing Amanda is the unofficial doc.

“But…”

“Jeremy, go. I need you to build a fire in here. Go try to find some dry wood, and tell someone to bring me a bowl of water and a dry blanket. She"s already sweat through this one.”

Jeremy finally gives in and walks out. I go to follow him because I need to do something useful.

“Gabby, you stay here. I need your help. Jeremy would"ve just gotten in my way.” I don"t really know how I can help, but I listen to her anyway. I get the feeling in situations like these, everyone just does what Amanda tells them to.

A few moments later, a girl that I don"t remember ever seeing comes in with a bowl of water.

“Thank you, Kait.” Amanda takes the bowl and the girl leaves.

Amanda hands me a rag and I immediately dip it in the water and start cooling down Claire"s face. She is burning up. I know there isn"t much more we can do here. Living in the east end, you learn very quickly to accept limitations.

My sister, Dawn, used to get sick all the time. Usually, she"d get over it fairly quickly, but there was one time when Dawn was so sick that she couldn"t even get out of bed. I waited and waited for her to get better, but she just kept getting worse. I was fifteen at the time and I"ve never been more scared. I ended up breaking into one of the medical buildings nearby and stealing the medicine. I never told Dawn how I got it; she wouldn"t approve, but I couldn"t lose my sister.

I can"t lose Claire. She is the one bright spot since I"ve gotten here, but there is no medical building this time. Jeremy hurries back in and builds the fire. It"s a hot day, but Claire is soaked in sweat and freezing cold.

“Jer.” It"s quiet, but we all hear it.

“I"m here.” He comes over, sits next to me, and grabs her hand. Claire reaches with her other hand and grabs mine. We sit her up just enough so that we can help her drink some water, but that"s almost too much for her. She falls back asleep soon after.

Amanda leaves the room, saying that sleep is probably the best thing for Claire. Jeremy and I are both still holding her hands, even though her grip has loosened.

“I should never have let her outside before a storm,” he mumbles.

I vaguely remember Claire coming in a while after me, soaking wet. Without even thinking, I reach over with my free hand and grab Jeremy"s. “You can"t blame yourself. It"ll drive you nuts.”

He doesn"t respond, and he doesn"t remove his hand from mine. With neither one of us wanting to leave Claire"s side, we sit in silence.