Absolute Contamination

7/ Road Block

CHAPTER 7: ROAD BLOCK

  

We avoided conversation for a while, knowing that no matter what we said, it wouldn’t make us feel any better. To pass the time, I distracted myself by watching the mosquitoes that the flashlight at our feet attracted. As their spectator, I watched them dance in front of the light, oblivious to the hell we were going through.

With a hoarse voice, Hunter ended the silence. “Have the colors changed?”

I turned my attention to him, and for as far as I could see in the dim light, he wasn’t even glancing down to find out the answer for himself.

It was easy to tell by the way he sat there so nervously, swallowing more than necessary, that it was only an appearance he was trying to keep up for my benefit. Despite the fact we hadn’t been really getting along all that well during the past few hours, I still noted he wasn’t coping as well as he wanted me to believe.

He wasn’t the only one though, because after all, wasn’t I the best at pretending to deal with everything better than I actually did?

Ignoring the bad feeling in my gut, I gathered all my courage, or as much as I could, and not giving myself the time to change my mind, I looked down at Hunter’s test.

Relief washed over me and I let go of the breath I had been holding, something I wasn’t aware of until I saw the dark color of the test in front of my brother.

“You’re good!” I smiled at him, but his posture didn’t change the slightest bit.

“Yours?”

His question awakened a fierce fear inside me. Perhaps this time I wouldn’t have luck on my side. For all I knew, the moment had come that a piece of paper would reveal I was contaminated. What would happen then?

“What does your test say?” Hunter repeated when I didn’t reply, still not showing any sign of relief about his own results or even as much as worry for what my test said.

“I don’t know…” I trailed, not feeling like admitting that I was too afraid to find out.

But, there was no need to prolong the scary feeling, a feeling that maybe wasn’t at all necessary. I managed to force myself and do it – I looked down. 

“What is it?” Hunter asked, finally showing some emotion. However, no matter how badly I wanted to tell Hunter that there was no need to worry, I simply couldn’t, because between my hysteric fits of laughter, I barely even had the time to gasp for air.

One wave of hysterics after the other hit me so forcefully that I literally toppled over, onto my back. A moment later, I had to curl up on my side, because my stomach simply hurt too much from laughing.

Tears of laughter trailed down my face as I vaguely noticed Hunter snarl something intelligibly at me through gritted teeth before he snatched the paper strip from my hand.

That was when I felt like my fit was over, until Hunter sighed in relief and I heard laughter bubble up inside him as well. It wasn’t long before he lay down with me, on the cold ground, laughing as though we were the two happiest people in the world with not a single care on our minds.

“Perhaps we should just stop for today and move on tomorrow.” Hunter suggested after a few moments had passed.

No longer feeling the urge to laugh all misery away, I considered for a mere second and nodded in agreement.

While on the road all day, too much had happened along the way and a good night’s rest was most likely the best option for us now. Though, I doubted whether I was going to be able to sleep at all. It had occurred to me that each time I let my mind wander free, it ended up entertaining me with the most horrific or depressing thoughts. Each time I did not try to keep my mind occupied, I would get lost in painful memories or worst-case scenario ideas that didn’t help me to get any peace of mind at all.