Hope for the Best

by Vanessa Lafleur

  “No, of course not,” he insisted. His eyes met Lareina’s and his expression softened. “I’m a little bit afraid, but I’m mostly worried about you.” He smiled.

  She quickened her pace to keep up with Aaron’s long strides, and fought back the impulse to insist that she could take care of herself. Being capable and independent didn’t have to equate to being alone. Just because Aaron would be watching out for her didn’t mean she wouldn’t be doing just the same for him.

  “Do you see that up there?”

  Maybe a few miles in the distance, she could see buildings stretching toward the sky. Surrounding the shimmering magnificence of the city, in spirals that stretched away from it for miles, stood rows and rows of what appeared to be small black dots. So many houses they would pass on the way back to civilization. What happened to the people who once occupied all of those houses? Shivering, she pulled her hood up to block the wind.

  “That’s Dallas,” Aaron shouted. His pace quickened so Lareina jogged forward to catch up. “We can be there before dark if we hurry.”

  The thought of real food and dry shoes enticed her. She wanted to run until buildings surrounded her on all sides. No more empty land. No more grass and sky with nothing in between. The goal of running toward Dallas felt so much better than the fear of running away from Galloway. She gladly settled into the faster pace Aaron set and stayed at his side.

  Her soaked shoes sloshed against the pavement, but her worries eased with something manmade beneath her feet. That, coupled with houses lining the street on each side, gave her hope that people still had some power over nature. She had grown weary of seeing concrete crumbled by newly growing trees, buildings attacked by vines, and nothing but disintegrating foundations when she needed shelter the most. Starvation, she knew, was as much a possibility in the city as in the wilderness. Plus, entering the city added new risks of disease and the dangers that came with overpopulation during desperate times. Despite all of that, it was a relief to be back in a game with familiar rules. She understood how the city worked; she knew how to survive there.

  “Hey, where are you going?” The two of them had been following the curving sidewalks of a neighborhood for the last half hour, but now Aaron stepped into the waist-high grass of a former front lawn. Lareina stood firmly on the street, refusing to move within three feet of the rippling grass surrounding a large yellow house.

  “The street is going to loop around and through those houses. If we cut through these yards in a straight line, we’ll get there faster,” he explained.

  She didn’t want to take any shortcuts, any unnecessary risks, and she felt safer with concrete beneath her feet.

  “Come on, Lareina, I’ve been watching for lights in these houses, and I’m pretty sure no one lives here.” Aaron took a few backward steps deeper into the yard.

  She stepped up onto the sidewalk but couldn’t bring herself to set foot on the lawn. “That’s not what I’m worried about. Before they left home, a lot of people built traps so no one would bother their houses. It’s especially dangerous this close to the city.”

  Aaron rolled his eyes and walked back toward her. “I know you’re used to danger around every corner, but these houses look to have been abandoned for years now. I highly doubt there are any traps still in working order if there ever were any in the first place.”

  He has a good point, she thought. Dallas was more populated than San Antonio and if those traps were going to be sprung, they would have been years ago. She wanted to get to Dallas before dark as much as Aaron, and her hesitation only slowed both of them down.

  “All right.” She took her first steps onto the overgrown lawn. “But let’s keep our eyes open for anything suspicious just in case.”

  The hood of her jacket had slipped, so she pulled it over her head to repel water dripping from tree branches and followed Aaron around the side of a house. Scanning the ground for suspicious wires, mounds of dirt, or unusual piles of leaves, she tiptoed across the yard. Every step took incredible courage as she imagined a net dropping from above to trap her, or her feet tripping some wire that would shoot an arrow through her leg. The walk only took seconds but stretched into slow motion for Lareina. Finally, she reached the end of one yard, prevented from entering the next by nothing more than a chain-link fence.

  Letting out the breath she had been holding, she looked up at Aaron. He grinned back at her and his eyes said I told you so. She wanted to jump up and down, to celebrate their victory of crossing the yard unharmed, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing the extent of her fear. Instead she placed a foot in a space of the chain-link fence and hopped over. Aaron followed and they crossed the next yard without difficulty.

  As they continued to make their way across back patios and over fences, the sun sank, leaving the world shrouded in darkness. It didn’t make sense, but the less she could see, the more secure she felt. Her increasing courage decreased her need to scan every inch of ground in front of her and allowed them to travel faster. Nothing bad is going to happen, she decided. We’ve made it too far for anything to go wrong now. And Nick is the only one I’ve ever seen actually get caught in one of the traps. There probably aren’t that many. She focused her attention on the houses they passed instead of worrying about any imagined hidden dangers. None of the houses seemed worth mentioning until they landed on the other side of a tall wooden fence. Moonlight outlined an all-brick mansion with a wraparound deck. Despite the overgrown lawn and untrimmed shrubs, she couldn’t pull her eyes away.

  “Look at that house.” Her voice was a whisper of admiration.

  Aaron made a soft whistling sound. “That place had to be difficult to abandon.”

  Her imagination carried her inside. She visualized each large room with plush carpets and chandeliers that sparkled in sunlight. Staring up at a bay window on the second floor, she imagined sitting there, looking out at a green yard, watching raindrops drip from leaves and splash into the pool. It stood obstinate to the changing world around it. A fortress against storms, riots, wars.

  “I want a house just like that someday.”

  Aaron stopped and turned around to face her. Despite the darkness she could make out a look of surprise on his face.

  “I never imagined you would want fancy things.”

  Lareina’s cheeks grew warm, but the night hid her embarrassment. For a while she didn’t say anything, but her shame faded quickly. “I’ve never owned anything more than the clothes on my back. Is it so wrong for me to dream of more than that?”

  “No, of course not. I guess I just didn’t think you’d ever be able to settle down in one place. You can’t have a house like that and run like this.”

  Shaking her head, she approached the next sturdy wooden fence. “I’ve done enough running for three lifetimes. All I want now is to find a place where I’m allowed to stay.”

  Aaron reached the fence first and hoisted himself to the top. “Hmmm, that’s funny. Nick always guessed that you would never be able to stay put for more than a year.”

  She stiffened at the mention of Nick. Her hands, already on the fence, gripped so tightly her knuckles ached. “Why were you guys talking about me?”

  Aaron just smiled and slid over the fence, dropping out of sight. Lareina hoisted herself up halfway to follow.

  “I want an explanation when I get over there,” she demanded through cracks between the wooden planks.

  Instead of the teasing refusal she had expected from Aaron, an agonized shriek echoed through empty darkness.

  Chapter 34

  Ducking back down, she plastered herself against the fence and braced her feet against the ground, ready to push off and run to safety.

  “Aaron?” she whispered.

  A whimpering like an injured animal continued on the other side of the fence. Instead of running, she peeked over the fence, surveying the grass, a swing set, and a trampoline all glinting in the moonlight under a coating of heavy raindrops. Aaron huddled be
low her against the fence, clutching his leg. Satisfied that no other people or animals waited on the other side, she scaled the fence and lowered herself to the ground near him.

  “What happened?” she asked, trying to control the panic in her voice.

  “I can’t get it off,” he groaned through clenched teeth.

  Lareina followed his gaze. A metal contraption was clamped tightly around his leg from his ankle to his knee. It reminded her of the bear traps her Montana replacement parents hung on the wall in their living room.

  Aaron, desperate to remove the crushing pressure that cut deeper into his leg every second, tried to separate the jaws.

  She pushed his arms away. “Stop, you’re going to make it worse. Just give me a second.”

  He tried to hold still and remain quiet, but involuntary spasms and whines shuddered through his body. He clenched the thick grass in both hands as she examined the trap with her cheek against the ground.

  “Can you get it off?” he whimpered. His breathing was speeding up.

  Unzipping her bag, she rummaged until she found a screwdriver. “This thing is spring activated.” She leaned down toward the trap. “If I can get these two screws out, it’ll release the spring and the whole thing should open up.”

  The darkness forced her to work mostly by touch as she struggled to open the trap as quickly as possible. Even though it hadn’t seemed practical at the time, she commended herself for taking a screwdriver and a couple of Allen wrenches from a kitchen drawer at the last house. She wanted tools she could use to pick locks, but she had thrown the others in, unsure of what she might face in coming days. It pays to prepare for everything, she thought.

  One more turn and the spring popped free. The trap lost pressure and pulled open. Aaron gasped. His breathing filled the silence in rough, uneven gulps. A passing cloud slid along its course and moonlight trickled down. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away.

  “Lareina, you can’t be squeamish right now. I need your help,” he pleaded.

  Taking in a slow breath, she forced herself to turn her attention back to his leg. Blood soaked the bottom half of Aaron’s pants. Swallowing back the nausea that threatened to overtake her, she nodded.

  “I need you to use your knife and cut my jeans away, up to my knee, so we can get a better look,” he instructed.

  She didn’t want to see the rest of the hidden wound. How could Aaron remain calm when she could barely breathe? With a trembling hand she pulled out the pocketknife she’d found at the last house and sliced the denim away as instructed.

  Aaron looked down at his injured leg and groaned. The sharp edges carved a deep gash from his knee to his ankle. Even worse, bone protruded just below his knee. With wide eyes he assessed the damage to his mangled leg. She could tell he didn’t know what to do; even with all of the medical training in the world, he lacked the equipment to fix something so serious.

  Her breathing sped up again, so she forced herself to take normal breaths, in through her nose and out through her mouth.

  “I need you to push the tibia so it lines up with the bone above it,” Aaron groaned. “It’s just a broken leg.”

  Lareina stared down at the bone, the leg covered in blood, everything covered in blood. Just a broken leg? Reviewing the names of bones she’d read about helped to calm her a little, she tried to remember which one was the tibia. Where did it belong?

  I can’t do this. I have to do this, she told herself. I can’t leave him here. Her hands shook as she lowered them toward the injury. Breathing in shallow gasps, she placed her hands on Aaron’s leg, and despite his muffled yelps, pushed the bone back into the skin.

  Aaron leaned back, taking in shaky gulps of air. “You did it, Lareina.” She averted her eyes from him, then noticed her bloody hands. She couldn’t fight the queasy feeling in her stomach any longer. She crawled a few feet away and threw up in the grass—all six of her rationed crackers.

  “You okay?” He asked when she finished retching.

  It isn’t fair for him, she thought. He shouldn’t be comforting me. But she couldn’t look at the blood and bone where a healthy leg should be. Aaron would have been better off with Nick. Tears streamed down her face, but she ignored them. She spit a few times and wiped her mouth with her sleeve before crawling back over to Aaron. She sat down next to him with her back to his leg so she could only see his face.

  “Don’t cry,” he comforted. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “How?” she sobbed. “What are we going to do now? I can’t leave you here and you’re not going to be able to walk.”

  Aaron reached for her hand and squeezed it in his. “Hey, one thing at a time. First, I need you to help me clean this wound and splint my leg. Then we’ll figure out the rest.”

  Lareina gagged, bit her lip, and failed to breathe. She wondered which of them appeared paler and decided she would probably win that competition.

  He squeezed her hand tighter. “You can do this. I’ll tell you exactly what to do, and then when I have some money, I owe you a brick mansion.”

  She shook her head. “I would give up every brick mansion in the world if this had never happened.”

  Aaron nodded. The regret in his eyes reflected back in her own. “I should have listened to you. If I had just stayed on the road like you told me . . .”

  Using her free hand, she wiped tears from her face. “We have to stop,” she sniffled, “and deal with this. What do I have to do first?”

  “There’s a first aid kit in the bag.”

  Reaching both hands into the backpack, she searched for the little white box by touch. An absolute silence engulfed them again. She closed her eyes and pictured the city. Lights shone through every window revealing restaurants and shops. People bustled in the streets, dressed in their best clothes for an evening out. The aromas of food lingered on the breeze, the melodies of music bounced through a window, the sidewalks and buildings radiated heat absorbed all day from the sun. Her hand found the first aid kit, and she opened her eyes to harsh moonlight.

  Chapter 35

  “Please, can you help me? My friend is hurt,” Lareina pleaded. The woman passing by pretended not to hear and crossed the street. She had asked at least thirty people for help, but not one of them would even stop to talk. They all seemed preoccupied, wrapped up in their own problems, watching for some invisible force lurking nearby.

  “Fine, pretend we don’t exist,” she shouted after the woman.

  “Hey, it’s all right,” Aaron said. “Let’s take a break.” He leaned heavily against her, unable to support any weight on his right leg. It had taken another day and night for them to hobble into Dallas. They moved as one slow, lumbering person, receiving suspicious glances from everyone they passed. A building dread permeated the air. The city remained quiet in the middle of the day. People hurried down sidewalks, eyes downcast, avoiding conversation. Music didn’t play, children didn’t shout, doors didn’t slam, and half of the shops remained shuttered.

  Helping Aaron to a building with steps that opened up to the sidewalk, she lowered him to the second step, and sank down beside him. Her eyelids weighed fifty pounds. In her worry and rush to get Aaron to a hospital, she had barely slept in two days. She couldn’t think clearly anymore, but she couldn’t rest until she found help. Why didn’t Dallas function like every other city? Even fever-ridden Austin had maintained some sort of normalcy. She tried to hope for the best like Aaron suggested, but optimism felt like an unrealistic emotion in their situation.

  Lareina pressed her hands against her aching eyes. It would be easy to leave Aaron. To walk away and never return. To be free and keep moving. To pretend someone would eventually come along to help him. It would have been cruel to leave him outside of the city, but here . . . She knew no one would come, and if the situation were reversed, he wouldn’t abandon her. Would he? Her real parents, replacement parents, Home for Children directors, and Nick had all decided she wasn’t worth the trouble of keeping around.
She couldn’t do that to Aaron.

  “What are we going to do?” She spoke into her hands, which muffled her voice.

  “Lareina, I think you need to leave me here.”

  She pulled her hands away and turned to him. He was still very pale, but he looked serene in his decision. “What? No.”

  He remained serious, looking down at his outstretched leg wrapped in bloody bandages. “Don’t argue. There’s no reason for both of us to die.”

  The pendant’s cool surface burned into her chest, reminding her of the day she’d left Susan alone and bleeding outside of San Antonio. She couldn’t do that again. Before she could protest, she spotted a man coming down the sidewalk toward them.

  “Hey, can you help me, please?” she called. “My friend is hurt.”

  The man slowed down. He noticed Aaron’s leg and gave them a sympathetic look. He pointed down the street. “There’s a hospital two blocks that way,” he said, then bent his head forward and walked away quickly.

  “Thank you,” she shouted after him. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. Leaning her head against her knees, she closed her eyes to rest for just a minute.

  “Are you sure you’re up for two more blocks?” Aaron asked.

  “Of course I am. We can both rest at the hospital.”

  She stood, then pulled Aaron up so he balanced on his good leg. They continued with their halting walk to the hospital. Signs pointed them toward their intended destination, but no ambulances sped by, no sirens ordered everyone to clear a path. The cool air pressed against them, silent, stale, heavy.

  Aaron hopped on his good leg, but he couldn’t move or even balance without support. She doubted he could even crawl on his own, but only a few more steps and they would arrive at the hospital. Automatic sliding doors would welcome them into a comfortable lobby, doctors would fix Aaron’s leg in a sterile white room, and nurses would present him with crutches so he could complete the journey.