Day 52: The long road.

Jude was almost crying from the dust in her eyes, so she shut them tightly, as if that would stop it. Anything, she thought, could happen now. The stories of apocalypse were not this kind, they were zombies, brain-eating, not this. She didn't know which one was worse. She couldn't see anything when she reopened her eyes, just hearing breathing and a whimper, but otherwise, it was silent apart from the hissing of gas. Why are they doing this? What did we do so wrong? The hunger was getting to her, and she wished she hadn't given Scarlett her piece of meat. The hunger less stomach was long gone.
 
It hadn't been what Quinn expected, but then again, nothing ever was.
He'd quickly doused himself with the bottle of water he'd taken from the burning wreck and pulled the bandages around his eye over his mouth. It exposed his grotesque scars and the hole where his eye had once been, but it was all he could do.
The gas was burning, but he had slowed down it's effects.
He was practically blind, but he could hear well enough, his ears picking up a little of the slack that his missing eye had left behind. The rapid, heavy footfalls and frenzied panting told him enough.
In the distance, he saw a small, child-like form, lost and cut off from the rest of the group. Quinn made a beeline for her, and as he got closer he could confirm that it was Alaya.
Another form seemingly materialized out of the vicious fog and with an emaciated hand with black, cracked fingernails made a grab for the small girl.
Quinn made it just in time to grab her by the wrist and pull her back.
With a deafening raw, Quinn's shotgun turned the cannibal into a pile of bloody meat. He spun quickly to put another one down with another point blank shot.
"Climb onto my back honey, just put your face into my shirt, don't look whatever you do."
Quinn hoisted her up onto his back as he ran, trying to get out of the fog and smoke. Chaos had come in mere seconds and it was a wonder anyone had survived at all.
 
Jude saw someone run, and she wanted to do the same, but she couldn't consider abandoning Aria. She couldn't lift her since they were the same size and she might collapse on her weight, and besides, Aria would not want a dramatic rescue. She could drag her but what if there was a stone.

Shoot her, Jude. She can't live forever anyway. She's twenty-two, she's lived enough life. So, you'll miss her and regret it.

No. Jude wasn't doing that. She began just shaking her sister, to wake her up, before simply lying next to her with her stomach to the floor. This was all so wrong, so broken. It made Jude feel sick.
 
Matt reached out grabbing Jude by the wrist, his grey eyes were wide and wild with determination. "Get on your feet right fucking now. We're getting out of this." He got to his feet lifting Aria on to a his shoulder. He kept a steady pace knowing that if he stopped he wouldn't have the strength to continue. He spotted Quinn as the smoke thinned. They could have walked forever, everywhere they looked was gas and suffering, he made his way uphill to the highest point in the city an abandoned fort, only about fifteen meters across and open to the cold but the gas was thin and there were no buildings to blow up. He sat Aria against a wall and took the gas mask off her, her condition had already improved but she wouldn't be going far for a day or two. He walked over to his sister, holding her limp hand.
 
Jude didn't even have to protest. She had got up and by the time they'd reached the fort was so tired she wanted to sleep and wake up in a few days. "Thank you...for everything," she said to Matt, discarding her cloth. "I...just..." I owe you a life. Just, you've done so much we don't deserve. She ended up just smiling, a weak and tired smile.

Aria didn't know what had happened, but she felt different. Distant. As if she had no connection to these people around her who saved her. "Aria, I'm so glad you're okay!" Jude hugged her, and Aria saw the reflection, "Don't touch me." Jude hesitated, "Why?" Aria shook her head, "Go away. I don't like you." Jude was hurt, this was her twin sister who was rejecting her. "You can't stay here," Aria addressed the group, or at least, what was left of it. "We are all going to die. We need to get far away, where there's no wind."
 
"Alright then, for one thing there will be wind anywhere and everywhere, second is that you are in no condition to be going anywhere or for that matter giving us directions. You of all people should be dead. Your silly little stunt meant that you inhaled a nerve agent, you should be a convulsing mess. There is a reason the use of that stuff is a war crime, no one should have to die in their own piss, shit and vomit." He drew the revolver, "Or would you rather be killed by your own friends or family?"
 
Jude nodded, "I wish I left you there. I don't think you're the sister you were born as." Aria scowled at them both, "How do you know that, Matt?" She raised her eyebrows. "Don't shoot her, please," Jude asked, "I'll talk to her," she whispered to him.

"Aria."
"Jude. I'm...I'm sorry."
"No, Aria. You're right. We're going to die. I'm doing you a favour."
"Jude, don't leave me."

Gunshots could be heard, before Jude walked out. "I can't believe I did that."
 
Matt stood there and flinched as the shot rang out across the city, He held in one hand four bullets, he squeezed them tight, pocketing the empty revolver. He took a deep breath to clear his mind knowing that he had no intention of pulling the trigger on anyone but himself. He looked at Alaya who sat limply, her empty blue eyes staring off into oblivion. He sat with her wondering if she could even know what had just happened. He put an arm around her and shed a tear or two, "I promise you all, no one else is dying, not a fucking chance." He spoke so quietly, so softly that it was as if to talk in any higher a volume would disturb the dead.
 
"No, but she went nuts, you saw her," Jude said, her hands shaking. "I'm sorry I had to do that," she said, though her eyes shown more than grief and guilt. It was as if she was glad. As if she'd done a good thing. Maybe she thought she had. Aria was still there, in her mind and her heart, and they were identical twins so Jude believed the bond was stronger. "She wasn't ready for this all," she whispered to herself in a kind of comfort.
 
reena had to sympathise with jude, we'd all lost people
 
Quinn slumped onto the ground, removing the bandages from his mouth to hang limply around his neck.
He heaved a long, weighted sigh and hung his head.
Many of their group had been killed by the nerve gas, the older and less mobile of them. Quinn knew it had been the only thing he could do to leave them...they were already dead. He had managed to get Alaya out of there, but how could he really ever know if the life of one little girl was worth so many others?
And now Aria was gone too, a girl who had shared very little connection with Quinn but had at least come to his aid in a tight spot. He made a mental note to shed a tear or two when he had the time.
How could I allow this? I used to help people, god damn it! I used to save lives, yet the people around me are dying like flies! Damn it! Damn it all to fucking hell! Just what the fuck did we do to deserve this? His hands squeezed the ground, white knuckles clasping clumps of dirt and dead, yellow grass.
His skin itched like mad, his scar throbbing like it was opening up again to spill his brains out into his lap. He hunched forward, pressing his palm against it to try and keep it all in, to try and stop his grief and anguish pouring out in a visceral tidal wave of blood, pus and rot.
He fished impotently around in his pockets for another painkiller, knowing it was the wrong thing to do, knowing it would make him dull and fuzzy around the edges, but unable to resist it's potent allure. He popped the tablet and swallowed it dry.
He wanted to puke, but there was fuck all to bring up.
There was just...fuck all...
 
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" so now what? you people are going to need all the help you can get if it's running from biters and needing supplies i'll help out gladly." reena knew that this group wouldn't last so she thought to herself 'if things head south I will have to leave them, I can't bare to get close to anyone otherwise i'll end up dying just like my sister did'.
 
Jude nodded. "I suppose." She smiled at everyone to try to lighten the group's spirits. Most people were dead. It felt like the whole world was dead and Jude was just spectating what little was left. "Maybe we should go and have a look at what we can find?" she suggested. She knew that nobody was in the mood for anything: the shelter was gone, and the group was broken, and it was all so messed up, but she had to get her mind off stuff even if nobody else needed to. She suddenly remembered, "The water. Did anyone get the water?" She had a panicked expression. To be honest, she suspected Aria to come flying out and offering to go down. But she didn't.
 
"I think we should bury the dead first
she points to the recently deceased friends
 
"I'll get it," Matt's knees cracked loudly as he stood bringing a twitch of a smile to his face. He picked up the gas mask and the rifle and added,"I'll go alone." He sighed hanging the weapon over one shoulder, he pointed to a building built of mostly red brick, a block of flats a bout four stories tall, "have a look in there, gather what you can and find a place to stay for at least a day or two. Be careful of what you do, the area still has power and light or even heat is likely to attract unwanted company and that gunshot won't likely have gone unnoticed." He reached out to hug his sister who seemed only now to be coming to her senses.

"What? Where are you going? How did we get here? You can't just l...leave." All Alaya remembered prior to the gas attack was the truck, the fire, the pain. Why did she feel so weak, it felt like she'd just swallowed a razor blade.

Matt saw the confusion in her eyes and hugged her, "you saved a good few lives with your idea. All I can smell is piss mind you but thanks to your quick thinking, I'm alive." He smiled, kissing her on the forehead, "I need to get us some food and water, I won't be gone longer than an hour. If you feel like your having trouble breathing or you just feel any worse than you do now tell someone alright, for gods sake to hide it or hold it in." He nods looking at the body, "outside of burning or sea burial, we can't do much, we have neither the time nor the means to do anything without being either spotted or heard but that's up to family and family alone to decide but something that can wait 'till morning. It's dark as it is and we all need to eat before we starve and the gas won't exit the body without a fight."
 
Jude looked at Aria, "Well, I'm her family," and it dawned on her she was practically alone, "And you guys are my family." She smiled, particularly at Alaya. The girl was so innocent, yet quick. She didn't want to burn nor throw her into the sea. She guessed if she burnt her she could keep her at least, but in the sea she stayed human rather than ash. She didn't know. She could do both; burn then sprinkle the ashes into the sea. She'd see the world that way, but Jude couldn't explain what was going through her head. "I guess we should listen to your brother," she told the young girl, bending down to look at her. "Don't worry, it's gonna be okay," swallowing the lump in her throat, "It's gonna be fine and dandy, okay?" She didn't know if she was telling Alaya or herself.
 
"who said we had to burn her?"
reena then realised
"may I ask you to do a quick favour, we need to penetrate the brain before she comes back"
 
"The what before the what?" Jude was so confused. This wasn't zombies, at least, she didn't think it was, "And nobody is removing Aria's brain. At all." She suddenly became very protective of her sister. "I won't allow it, I'm sorry, but she's my sister and I'm not letting her suffer more."
 
renna had seen this first hand the toxic gas has something in it that changes the dead "trust mme when I say we need to so this I'm not saying remove it just sever the spinal point"
 
((Just a heads up that the closest thing we'll find to zombies and the like is starving people who may have been a bit closer to an explosion than they'd like, that and cannibals. If you wan't a taste for the ideas I'm getting read Brother in the Land and The Road.))

Alaya watched her brother walk away, there was something in his cold grey eyes that seemed off. Maybe it was just a natural instinct that the brain just brushed aside in everyday life, whatever it was it scared her. She sat there for a long moment, looking out over the city, across the water and at the countryside across from that. She felt her heart thumping in her chest, the cold wind snapping at her soft features, gnawing at her fingers, the taste of blood persisted as all of reality seemed to be held for a moment. She still had no idea that Aria was dead, she had barely any idea that she had had any such life saving idea her brother claimed she'd had.
 
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