It was her third cereal bowl. 

The five of us watched Velna with wonder. She just threw everything in her mouth; Spam, protein bars, cereals, Toblerone, everything. She was like this hungry pet which had been left by its owner for eight months. As she dropped her last empty bowl with not a single drop of milk left in it, she burped, long and gross. 

“I have no comment.” Berta left the room to get some fresh air.

I sat slowly next to her on the couch. She still licked her bowl like a dog, and of course I offered her another portion of food, but she declined.

“You sure?”

She nodded.

Everyone started to disperse everywhere, continuing their works on something, but I stayed beside Velna. I wanted to learn more about her. I mean, she was this mysterious Russian girl who survived the apocalypse by eating her brother’s dead corpse and pointing her gun towards any stranger who stumble inside the supermarket. This little girl was exactly the main character of one of Stephen King’s horror books.

She watched the burning fire on the fireplace with complete astonishment. Her expression described her feelings very well. Her eyes followed every spark and every wiggle that the fire made, and you could even see her beautiful irises reflecting the light. It was a quiet moment for about ten minutes, and after that, I decided to talk to her and maybe ask her some questions.

“Where are you from, Velna?”

Her eyes were still fixed on the hearth, but her lips moved after I questioned her. “Latvia.”

“Ah, Latvia. Amazing country. I’ve been to Latvia before.”

Finally, her gaze moved from the fire to my face. Somehow, my words struck her and brought her back to her past, when her family was still complete. She saw me as one of the humans still existing, and that everyone else was this dangerous monster you need to avoid.

“Really?”

“Yeahhh…. I’ve been all to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. Such awesome countries. I really wish to go back there.”

She smiled, for the first time ever she related to what I had to say. 

“Me too,” she said.

“So why moved to America?”

She shrugged both her shoulders. 

“Do you like it here?”

She shook her head. “Latvia safe. America danger.”

I smirked a bit, afraid to tell her the truth that every country was basically fucked.

“When did you move here, Velna?”

“Age seven.”

I nodded in understanding. 

Then, she seemed reluctant to answer my next questions. I realized it brought her back too much, and her little soul got wrecked more and more trying to remember. She had been through a lot, so I left her in a moment of peace.

I watched her eyes going back to the fire, and I watched her tiny face. She reminded me of Ashley (though I told you a bajillion times about it). The way her messy hair crumbled by her face and shaded her eyes was just like when Ashley had her ninth birthday. It was a terrible morning for her.

I was twelve and I was still a nobody. We went to school that day and immediately as Ashley entered the classroom, her friends just bombarded her with cake and food and all sort of water. It was pretty brutal for a nine year old girl, but it was a brutal school with rich kids anyway. 

Did Ashley cry or did she laugh and throw food back?

She cried.

She ran to the toilet and she said that those cake throwers weren’t her friends. They were the bullies. And they threw rotten cakes with fungi.

Her blond hair got ruined, and it looked exactly like Velna’s. She cried helplessly, and I remembered running towards the toilet with a worried face. I found Ashley crying in the corner with her hands hugging her two legs. Those kids apparently spitted her with mean words. They said; “Congratulations freak! You’ve reached a day closer to death.”

And then they threw her with more food and slimy syrups. The audacity of these assholes was unbelievable. 

I told her that I would always protect her. I told her that I wouldn’t let anyone touch her, including those fat bullies who terrorized her school life too much.

And later that day, I picked one of those cake throwers (apparently the gang leader, Cary) and locked him in his own locker. I told him to never mess around with Ashley anymore. Those boys had been punished by the teacher by messing the classroom up, but I punished them some more.

I threw the key of the locker to the bushes and Cary’s cult followers then had to dive in those thorny bushes to find the key. Those nine year olds got pretty banged up with all those cuts and scratches, but justice was served.

The headmaster punished me the day after. I didn’t mind. It was worth it. 

I had to do it. I promised Ashley to protect her.

Anyway, back to the apocalyptic world.

I was about to take a bath and I almost stumbled on Jon who was carrying these two giant cans full of gasoline.

“The hell are you doing with those?”

“It’s a long story.”

“No, tell me right now.”

He sighed and dropped the cans down. He rubbed his hair like he was confused on how to speak.

“So umm… Berta and I found this big pharmacy next to that supermarket where we food, and we decided to check it out… well, because it’s a pharmacy. We scoured the whole place in ten minutes and found nothing, and I’m pretty sure I saw a military Jeep parked at the end of the road. Berta said that it was just a green SUV parked afar, dead and abandoned, but my gut keeps bothering me with this thought.”

“Oh… why didn’t you tell me this?”

“Well, because we got so many loots and you brought back a human eating girl.”

“Are you sure it’s a military Jeep, though?”

“No. That’s the thing. I can see things that are… that are not supposed to be there. You know what I mean?”

“Maybe. Go on.”

“So yeah, I don’t know. I got weary so I started forming a plan in my head to anticipate any sudden ambush.”

I scratched my neck and spoke, “But why didn’t they just open fire to y’all. How far is this vehicle parked from your position anyway?”

“Like… a quarter of a mile maybe.”

“That’s pretty fucking far.”

“Indeed.”

I got pretty inflicted. Jon’s gut was never wrong before, but he wasn’t sure of it himself so I didn’t really know how to make of it.

“Alright then. What’s the plan?”

“Setting this house on fire.”

“Ooookkaaaayyyy…. Imma shower now.”

When my whole body was blanketed with water and soap, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the overwhelming things that happened in this town. First, we found this cannibal kid who almost shot us, and then Berta and Jon got a massive amount of supplies at the minimarket near the pharmacy, and a military ambush could just happen any time. Oh and don’t forget about that hundreds of predator town folks inside that clothing store.

We took turn to watch that night and the first one was mine. Seeing everyone asleep kinda made me anxious. I saw them one by one, and I had this really big burden, like everyone’s lives depended on me. I didn’t know why, but I felt like their fates were my responsibility. I failed to protect my sister, and she was taken from me. I didn’t want to fail this time.

When my eyes began to surrender, I woke Berta up and slept beside Chase and Velna. She slept hugging the rabbit doll I found in one of the rooms, and she slept comfortably.

I think it was around midnight that I woke up by a loud sound. It was a barking of a dog. Everyone also woke up except Velna, and Berta ran to the bedroom where we slept with her rifle ready (the rifle which Clara took from the dying soldier that I rammed).

“What’s going on?”

Berta signaled us to shut up and we listened to the very quiet neighborhood. The dog from somewhere was still barking, and Jon became sweatier than he ever had.

“That’s those soldiers again,” he said. “The Jeep I saw…”

Berta plugged Jon’s mouth with her hand.

I got so nervous that I finally talked.

“Jon, where’s those cans?”

We started with the guest room, then the living room, then the kitchen. Everywhere we step, there would be gasoline on our feet.

“Those fuckers should burn,” Clara said while throwing the last empty can.

And after five minutes of blanketing the whole house with gas, we regrouped at the kitchen which had a backdoor. The backdoor would lead us outside, through the backyard, and we could make a run towards the garage where the van was parked in. We just prayed that those soldiers didn’t use the backdoor.

The barking of the dog stopped. 

“Took them quite a while to silence that dog. Are you sure that the dog even barked at soldiers and not… squirrels?”

Chase got a really nice point there. We were ready to lit the house on fire but we weren’t even sure if danger was actually coming.

But we didn’t need to answer Chase’s question.

A bang came from the front door. 

Footsteps could be heard marching inside the house.

And voices finally came.

“It’s all fucking wet here. What the fuck is this?” The voice from the guest room alarmed us that hostile was on board. They weren’t very skilled raiders apparently.

Jon led us out through the backdoor and reached for his jeans pocket for a match. I hugged Chase and Velna behind all the other people, and we watched as the match flew from Jon’s hand.

First, a spark.

Then, there was light.

And the house was set ablaze. Fire leapt high, and it found its way through every room, munching its way forward and forward, and burned everything in its path.

Smoke filled the night air. Screams hollered through the sky as those soldiers got torched alive in there. I could imagine their visions and thoughts as it blurred before their eyes, and their bodies then being grilled from the outside. The flame jumped to their skins and consumed them alive, turning them into worthless dusts and bones.

“Let’s get out of here!” Clara screamed, leading us away from the house and towards the garage. It was about a minute run from the house, so we should be fine. We hoped every soldier was inside, being barbequed to their brains.

We crossed the street and was about to reach the garage’s door when I saw two bright lights came speeding up to me. The sound of engine threw me apart, and I knew what was going to happen. I saw it speeding towards me, the green Jeep.

I saw it, in a brink of a second. I knew I couldn’t avoid the impact, and Chase would be rammed too. Velna and Jon ran a bit ahead of me. I could only hope they were out of range.

All that thought was in my head for less than a second. I quickly pulled Chase and hugged his entire body with mine, shielding him from the impact. The car roared towards us.

And I felt it, the immediate stream of pain shredding my nerves to pieces. I felt it on the back of my body, and we bounced forward towards the sidewalk. The Jeep hit us.

I tumbled forward while Chase was still in my hug. We fell to the sidewalk, and both my eyes grew dark and gory. Fireflies started appearing out of nowhere, and my ears rang like they shouldn’t be.

I saw Chase with one eye as he woke up. His face glowed with worries. He shook my body several times, and I couldn’t even register his voice. He was just yelling to me.

I saw it faintly, the sight that happened behind Chase. The Jeep’s driver getting out from the car, walking slowly to another body on the ground. 

Her hair was blond and her body seemed little. I thought it was Ashley for a second.

Everyone was shouting and the hot air pinched my skin when I tried to focus. I tried to stay awake, to fight the pain and to stay awake. 

I saw the man with the half burned head, and his hair was almost completely gone. I saw him picking the fainted girl. Berta and Clara held their guns high, but they refused to shoot. Jon looked at the man with intensity.

Screams and yells aired. Berta shouted something, and Clara almost cried.

Everything happened so fast. It was like a wind, bristling away like it never happened.

And finally, an echo of the sound of a shot chimed in both my ringing ears.

I watched as the lifeless body dropped to the ground. Her jacket was sprayed with dark red liquid, and strains of hairs flew to the night. Screams broke off from everyone. Clara and Berta started shooting.

The man dropped to the ground with many bullets in his face. The man lied right across me.

I crawled to him slowly, something inside me was definitely broken. It was the face of a murderer, a maniacal perv. He was General Stellar.

He was deformed from the blast, but he somehow made it.

Everyone fixed their gazes to the dead body in the middle of the sidewalk. The body of a girl who I promised to protect with all my life.

Chase saw me saw her, and he tried to calm me down. Every nerve in my body turned active like volcanoes ready to erupt. I helplessly crawled to her still body with ache all over me. My left ankle strained in pain, and I could feel the bone crackling behind me, right on my back. But still I proceeded slowly to the body. Not even Chase could stop me.

I saw both her eyes glared open. The color blue tinted her eyes in the most charming way, but it felt like life had been drained from them. I saw a hole right on the right side of her head, and another one on the left. Her skin was pale and cold.

I saw Ashley. Her neck cut open.

I saw Velna. Her head was drilled with a bullet.

And I saw me. I lied. I lied when I said I would protect her. I lied when I said I would protect them.

“I will protect you.”

Lies.

Those are lies.

I couldn’t protect anyone, not even myself. I let those people die, those kids.

I was helpless. I was useless. I’d rather be dead.

Ashley came to me in that dark moment. She stared at me with two piercing eyes. 

And a sudden thrill powered me up. Suddenly, I had a superpower. Anger.

Anger boosted me up. I picked my axe and went for Stellar’s head. I chopped his head. I smashed the dangerous side of my axe towards that snake man. I did it again, and again, and again. His brain churned out, his blood rained to the pavement. His head deformed.

And my superpower got retracted from my body. The energy died down. 

Before I closed my eyes, I saw Ashley’s angry eyes. She saw me with complete disappointment. 

I let those people die.

And nothing happened after that. Suddenly, I felt all the pain inside and outside my body. I exploded. Nothing was left. Darkness consumed me. I saw nothing… everything turned pitch black.

-----------

Art by : Chamomile on WeHeartIt on Pinterest