Ophelia

by Rain, Briana

  There were three highlighted routes, and a key in the bottom right that explained what each color was.

  “PLAN A, PLAN B, PLAN”

  The bottom right corner was torn, and a small piece missing. I guessed that the part that was gone contained a “C”.

  The first plan went along the main highway for as long as possible, and was undoubtedly the fastest way there. The other two seemed more stealthier, and took roads that were as thin as floss on the map.

  I found where we’d started walking after our escape vehicle had gotten stolen pretty easily. It was the only piece of the road in “PLAN A” that intersected with a railroad.

  Looking at the map, and recounting the hell that was all the walking that we did, I barely had a clue where we were. But, according to “PLAN C(?)”, if we managed to get ourselves north, then we should run into a road that runs west and east, which would take us to another road, that would branch off to another road. That should take us on an invisible trail that’ll lead us to the safe haven we’d come so far to get to.

  The destination of all of the plans was the same— a small oval with a line coming out of it labeled “Lake Kodas” in sharpie, even though there was no water even close to the oval. No river, lake, or anything on the map.

  Lake Kodas, you better be ready, because come tomorrow, we were all gonna get there. Alive.

  I quickly folded the map, and told Clyde to get some sleep. He protested, but I told him I’d only keep watch for a few hours.

  It was the truth, although probably not what he imagined, because after maybe three-ish hours, I had enough energy to continue crying. Addeline, who was either already awake, which I’d hoped, or who had been woken up by me, which was more probable, told me to go by the others and rest, but didn’t mention the word sleep. I didn't think I could, and I was right. After taking her spot between my siblings, I spent the night awake, and numb.

  I almost wanted to go back. To confirm or deny this horrid truth. Was she really gone? What if I was hallucinating from all of the hits I’d taken to the face? What if I dozed off and it was a dream?

  But even I had doubts about my sleep-deprived doubts. She was gone. My mommy. My best friend. Our leader and guide. Our wise protector.

  I wanted to scream. I deserved to scream. To let out the pain and all of that nonsense. But I couldn’t. Even if I didn’t exactly fully care about myself, I owed it to the others to stay quiet.

  When I was able to reach my hand out all the way and still see it, I tasked myself with waking the others. We were getting to safety today, even if it killed me. Clyde seemed surprised. Addeline looked at me with pity, and neither of the twins wanted to cooperate.

  They would’ve listened to Mom.

  Thankfully, the southerners stepped in, and got them on their feet.

  Carefully, like it was a parchment scroll from the times of Ra, I unfolded the map again, and confirmed my train of thought: that north was the direction to go in.

  I told the others once we were all ready, which didn’t take that much time, considering all of the food and water was gone. It further instilled my drive to get us to my mothers friend. To sanctuary.

  Because we wouldn’t make it another day out here.

  Chapter 48: Fury

  It was maybe two or three hours straight of walking before anyone mentioned a break. Clyde gently suggested it on account of the others, but he wasn’t looking too good himself.

  Neither he nor his sister had asked about the map, or what direction we were going, or what distance until our destination. It made me wonder if they were just being sensitive, or if Clyde had lied, and had indeed looked at the map.

  I, myself, was wondering about the distance part when Clyde came up to me, a hand nonchalantly placed where the old man had kneed him in the stomach.

  “If you want, I could take a look at that, if you wanted.”

  I felt defensive, and insulted, even if a small part of my mind knew that he was just trying to help. I narrowed my eyes and folded up the map quickly, but also carefully.

  “Are you implying that I don’t know how to read a map, Clyde?”

  It was just the two of us. Addeline had taken the kids a few yards into the trees for a “potty break.” The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the Salmons alone. It would’ve been just too easy for them to walk away and leave the trio of children to fend for themselves. I mean, they didn’t sign up for this. They probably didn’t want to spend whatever time they had left as babysitters.

  “No—“

  Every step he took, he was stepping on eggshells. And I was the one who put them there.

  “Listen. We go in this direction. I don’t know how long for. We’ll hit a road, then we’ll follow that road.” And maybe find some supplies.

  Jinx.

  He started saying something else, but the others came through the trees and rejoined us. With no more words exchanged, I led the five of us onward, wishing my mom was here to do it instead.

  As it turns out, we had been only twenty minutes of walking away from proving that I was a genius. The others all looked surprised when we emerged from the trees and onto a road.

  It was an out of the way, cracked road, well used by the locals. The evidence of this was the pile up of a few dozen cars, most of them pickups. It looked like a crash a ways down the road had blocked its inhabitants from leaving, or going, and the thick trees stood guard on either side of the road to help with that.

  “We should split up, and see if any of these trucks have any supplies.” Clyde said.

  “No!” I— yelled. “I— I mean, yes. Yes, we should search for supplies, but we need to stick together.”

  I saw now why in the horror movies, the whole “splitting up” thing was such a big deal. My heart was pounding to the point where it had to be doing some serious damage to my ribs at the though of it. I was terrified.

  “Okay… maybe we can compromise? Ads and Lucky go one way, and you, me, and Vi head the other way?”

  I glared at him, but reluctantly nodded. Only because the idea of getting to the compound before sunset was too tempting, especially when we were so damn close.

  Addeline received the shovel from her brother, and went along the road with my brother, who had his pocket knife gripped tightly in his hand, the blade opened.

  The cars weren’t all crumpled against one another and jammed together. They were fairly spaced apart by at least a few yards, about when the driver probably realized that they would have to hike it from here on out.

  The nearest car was a pickup, with a well used tarp covering whatever was in the bed. The three of us wordlessly searched the truck, with Vi trying the doors on either side, and Clyde and I working on the ropes that held down the tarp. It wasn’t until we’d both finished undoing the knots, that we realized that there was a slash in the thing, and whatever treasure that once laid underneath was long gone. All the doors were locked also.

  As we walked to the next vehicle, Clyde gently touched my arm, letting Vi go ahead of us.

  He looked uncomfortable, like he either didn’t want to talk to me at all, or he didn’t want to say what he was planning on saying.

  I stopped walking.

  “When my Ma passed— a few years back— I beat the shit outta my best friend. He just said something… and… I don’t know. It set me off, or something, I guess. Point is: if you need to… scream, or hit something, or whatever… I’m here, I guess.”

  I kept my eyes glued to the ground, knowing that if I looked up, there was a hundred percent chance of me crying. Again. However, if I didn’t make eye contact with him after he said that really nice thing, the chances of me crying were slightly reduced.

  When they say that you’d use math everywhere in life, they lied. When it came to emotions, math played no part.

  Throughout the past few days, I’d made a conscious effort not to touch my face, due to the whole dirt and unsanitary thing, but here I was, pressing my
hands against my face. I hid myself, and glided my hands up so that my palms were pressed against my eyelids, and my fingers pulling on my hair.

  Keep. It. Together. You’ve come too far.

  Quickly, I rubbed my knuckles against my eyes. Clyde pretended not to notice that the area between my forehead and my nose was suddenly damp. I thanked him with a swift nod and walked past him.

  We went through several vehicles, but found nothing. Every single car was locked, and every speck of anything was looted from the beds of the trucks.

  Luck and Addeline jogged up to us and informed us that there weren’t as many cars in the other direction, which, personally, I couldn’t have been happier about. The fact that we were together didn’t ease my anxieties, but it did give me less things to fear, for which I was thankful fo—

  “Down.” The whisper was quiet and sharp.

  I couldn’t tell which southerner sounded the alarm, or what for, but I could tell that I hit the ground so hard that I scraped up my palms.

  Yeah. That stung.

  I looked around. Vi and I were between two cars, with Addeline on the other side of one of the cars, and Clyde whispered something to Lucky behind the next truck, a few yards ahead. Clyde patted Lucky’s shoulder, and my brother crawled underneath the truck.

  I decided to do the same with Vi, so I tapped her shoulder and pointed to her twin, then to the truck between us and Addeline. She nodded, thankfully getting the message, and wedged herself under the pickup. Her pack wasn’t an issue, because during the walk, Clyde had offered to carry it for her.

  I looked at him as I thought about him, and he held up two fingers, then peaked through the window, shook his head, and another finger was added to those two.

  I noticed that both of his hands were free, meaning that his sister still had his shovel. Though, if push came to shove, then I guess he could just use his rifle as a melee weapon. It probably wasn’t the best thing for the gun, but the alternative probably wouldn’t be the best for his well being.

  I heard a sickening snarl, which I hadn’t really had the absolute pleasure of hearing, because nearly every time I’d come into contact with one of these things, they were shrieking and screaming. Or they were dead before they knew what hit them. But, mostly the shrieking.

  Three Crazies. At least one close enough that I could hear it snarl under its breath. I turned away from Clyde.

  He couldn’t help me now.

  The Crazy that was closest was coming up behind me, around the back of the truck, and on the opposite side that Clyde was.

  Now or never.

  I knew that the thing was behind the truck, so the area that it could be at was relatively small.

  It was a fresh one. A young girl, who couldn’t have possibly been older than me. It was in an outfit similar to mine, and with a bag hanging on by a string across her chest. I swung as soon as I saw her, as she was just a tad closer than I anticipated.

  I whacked it, but not before it had half a second to begin a shriek. It went down, but a quick glance to my right told me that the others were looking in this direction.

  Quickly, I stabbed the end of my bat through its face, just to double check, and then charged the other two. They were a sizable distance apart from one another, and if I got to one of them soon enough, then there would just be one.

  I wound up my arm, but, for the second time today, my math failed me. It’s what I get for not double checking my work.

  Instead of bringing the bat over my right shoulder with two hands, I had to wind it up over my left with one. In the middle of my charge, I slipped off my pack, and put the straps both onto my left arm, so that it would be a shield.

  The closer one was your average, ripe, rot-riddled Crazy, but the farther one was fresh. Too fresh. Too strong. Too fast.

  The ripe one was the first one on the receiving end of my bat. At just the right time, I released my arm, and it clocked it so hard that no human would be able to get up from the hit. Unfortunately, these things were no longer human, and I’d only dazed it.

  Right as I hit the first one, the second one, with nearly half a foot on me, collided with my shield, but instead of being deflected, like I had desperately hoped for, it clung on. My body weight wasn’t enough for this one, and it reached for me, it’s almost dull fingernails apparently not being dull at all, as it managed to give my shoulder a scratch that was a mini version of the one on Clyde’s back.

  Speaking of Clyde, he was coming up behind the Crazy, running like a maniac… with just his empty rifle as a weapon.

  Before he could get halfway, a shovel came into my vision and killed the Crazy. I kept my mouth closed, and turned my head to the side to find Addeline, who had snuck up behind me, pulling the shovel out of the gooiness that was the inside of a Crazy.

  She then turned her attention to the dazed Crazy, smacked its face with the flat end of the shovel, which successfully knocked it back down, and then finished what I started.

  “You’re hurt.” She looked tired. I didn’t notice before but her eyes were bloodshot as well.

  “I’m fine.” I brushed her off. We keep going. We had to. I had to. If I stopped now, I was almost afraid that I’d never get up again.

  “Ophelia you should really—“ Clyde had caught up to us, probably feeling odd that he not only missed out on the fight, but wasn’t needed entirely.

  “I said I’m fine. We keep going.” I cut him off.

  We’d spent too much time here already. We needed to keep going. Keep going.

  “Bu—“ He tried to say something else, that was probably important in his eyes, but I interrupted him.

  “Shut up.” I reached out and slapped his shoulder lightly, keeping my hand there. I focused my eyes on the road by my feet. Listening. Concentrating.

  It was something familiar. Something getting closer.

  Something that I would never, ever in my short life forget.

  …eyes are as red as the sun. And the girl in the corner, let no one ignore her, cause she thinks she’s the passionate one…

  My eyes got impossibly big. My heart stopped. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

  “Kids! Let’s go! Now!” Thank god for Addeline Salmons.

  Clyde grabbed my arm, the same one that I was holding his with. It snapped me out of it.

  “Run!” I barked, taking off as soon as I saw the twins. They were with Addeline on the other side of the cars, while Clyde and I raced each other on this one.

  “Check doors!” Clyde yelled to the others and myself as he paused to do just that. I ran ahead of him to check the next one. It was a final, desperate move, because we all knew that we couldn’t outrun what was coming after us.

  Locked.

  In a panic, and totally not breathing right, I zoomed past Clyde to check on the next one. I got there just in time for him to speed past me.

  …Unlocked.

  “I got one!” I screamed.

  Clyde nearly ran himself into the back of a Honda trying to stop, while the others sprinted to catch up. I threw open the door so fast that it tried to shut again, and launched myself into the driver's seat.

  “Let me drive.” Clyde stood at the open door while I frantically searched for keys.

  I knew I’d have to hotwire something. I knew it.

  “No.”

  He started to say something, but I interrupted him, again, “My mother drove us this far, Clyde. She gave me the map, so, I’m going to take us the rest of the way.”

  I stopped going through the center console to look at him in the eyes. I expected him to protest, or insist that he was the best one for the job, which was true, but instead, he stepped up, reached in front of me, and pulled down the sun visor.

  The keys fell right into my lap.

  He nodded, then ran around the front of the car, to the passenger side. While he ran, I reached down and grabbed the seat adjuster, because where I was at now, even Clyde would be able to reach the pedals.

  The twins
were seated in the back with Addeline in between them, and the music from outside was coming in loud and clear. The old man had to be at the end of the jam.

  I pressed down on the break, jammed the key into the ignition, and turned. For a moment, I thought about how much it would suck if it was out of gas or the battery was dead, but the pickup roared to life, with just under a half of a tank of gas.

  “Seatbelts!” I yelled at the others as I put on mine.

  Listen: I wasn’t the best driver under normal, civil circumstances. But, now, there was someone with a gun chasing us and more than willing to pull the trigger. Speed limits, traffic rules, and police are also taken out of the equation here.

  The point was: the only movies about cars and driving that I’d seen were set on Fury Road, and they were so going to need those seatbelts.

  There was one car in between us and the crash that created this jam. The music and engine were getting closer, the vehicle slightly slimmer than a golf cart probably had little trouble going in between the trucks and trees.

  “Hang on!” We wouldn’t generate enough speed to just blast through the wreckage, even though that would be cool, so I stepped on the gas, and turned the wheel as much to the left as it would go.

  The sound of the metal scraping against the closest tree was awful, but short-lived, as I gunned it.

  “Are you insane?” Clyde readjusted in his seat and hung on to anything that he could grip. Lucky, who has had the displeasure of being in the same vehicle that I was driving before, knew that ‘hang on’ really meant ‘brace yourself, protect your skull, and pray’, so he wasn't smashed against the door, as Clyde was.

  “Eh, at this point, probably.” I wasn’t even going to argue it, or get offended. Instead, I leaned over, and pulled the map that my mom had slipped into my pack out of my pocket. I handed it to him, and eased off of the gas.

  “What?” He unfolded it.

  “I need a navigator. Here, take the wheel, okay. So we are… here, on this road. I need you to tell me when to turn.” I grabbed the wheel with one hand and kept my finger on the map, but put my eyes back on the road. I glanced at Clyde, and his eyes were as wide as they could go.