ragnarok - rim of the world

It's On Us

Out of breath, still running, our legs started to wear out.

"I told you that was a stupid idea. You idiots almost got me killed," Dariush ranted, "I don't even wanna be at summer camp. I should be in Cabo taking jelly shots of someone's ass cheeks. Slow down. Slow down."

We came to a well-deserved stop. My hands rested on my knees as I tried to catch my breath. The pain in my side was still there, becoming an increasing problem. 

"What do you think these things are after?" Zhenzhen asked.

"Food, maybe? Resources? It's possible their planet went dry, and they came to raid ours," Alex suggested.

"What gives you that idea?" Dariush inquired, curious as to what his genius response would be.

"Nothing! It's the most common invasion movie plot." 

Fair enough.

"Maybe they're here to find mates," Zhenzhen proposed, "That would explain the erotic rendezvous with Dariush earlier." I giggled.

"Whoa, whoa, no. We're not gonna do all that, okay? That was strictly platonic. Let's just head north, okay? To the desert. Get as far away from that thing as we can, all right? Far away..."

"There is no away from those things," I spoke up. 

"Hope's right. The only way we're gonna survive is if we get this key to Dr. Fielding. It's what that soldier was gonna do."

"He died."

"No way, really?" I sarcastically remarked. I just got an ugly stare from Dariush before he continued what he was saying.

"Okay, look, if a bunch of bad-ass marines can't get that key 40 feet away without getting deep fried, what makes you think we can get it 40 miles?"

"We have to."

"What?" 

"It's on us."

"Okay, we're not going anywhere until we get some food," Zhenzhen voiced, ah, the voice of reason, "Maybe even some sleep if we can."

"All right, all right, fine. What's up with chico?"

We all turned to him. I could see tears welling up in his eyes and his nose running.

"It's my street," He stated, though something seemed off. 

"Great! Can we go to your house?" Alex asked enthusiastically.

"That's my house, but...it's not my home. I haven't been totally honest with you guys. I was in the mountains because...I was in juvie." 

My eyes widened at this revelation; he didn't seem like the kind of kid to go to juvie.

"And I escaped. So even if my mom is here...she's not gonna wanna see me."

We stood there silent for a while, soaking it in. I felt bad for him; it must be hard to know that your own mother doesn't want to see you.

I put my arm around his shoulder as we started to walk off, hoping to be of any support.

"Go, go. Jump left!" Alex shouted as an alien ship passed overhead. We quickly hid in the bedsheets on the clothing lines.

"What the hell was that?" Zhenzhen asked.

"Run, just go!"

"Where do we go?"

"Follow me," Gabriel instructed us as we ran behind him.

We stopped in front of a house, Gabriel's house. Zhenzhen led the way.

We stepped in to the house, with funiture strewn about the place. It was as if a tornado hit through here.

"Oh damn. We need to get my man Jacobi up in here."

"It's looters," Gabriel noted. Makes sense.

"All right, uh, let's find something to eat. Man, I need a T-bone steak, some cheese eggs, and Welch's grape."

I noticed Gabriel slowly looking at the place, seeming to reminisce. 

I put my hand on his shoulder; in a weak attempt to comfort him.

"You okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah, yeah. Just...weird to be back, I guess."

"I can only imagine." A brief pause crept in between us before I spoke up again, not wanting to leave him in an uncomfortable position, "Hey, why don't we find something to eat?" He agreed with me as I followed him into the kitchen. However, as we started to walk, a strong and sharp pain came to my side. 

I winced in pain once I felt it, capturing the attention of Gabriel.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked me, his hands hovering around me in case I fell.

"Yeah, I'm fine...just, uh, got cut, yeah. I'm good though, I'm good," I tried to explain.

He started to lift my shirt to see how bad it was. He seemed to wince even worse than I did when he got a sight of it.

"I, uh, there should be a med kit around here somewhere. Let me treat it for you."

"Ah, okay." I didn't bother to object, it would probably help so what could go wrong? Other than the alien coming to attack us, or my cut getting infected, or maybe more alien dogs coming from...maybe I should stop.

"Are you ready?" he asked me.

"Yeah, just do it." I tightly closed my eyes, waiting for the pain.

He quickly cleaned off the cut with a wipe, I winced in pain once more but quickly recovered once he removed it.

"You okay?" 

I just nodded my head, not being bothered to reply.

He got a hold of some antibiotic ointment and applied it all over the wound. Luckily for me, this didn't hurt as much as the cleaning.

"When did you get it?" he asked while still applying the cream.

"On one of the multitudes of times we fell," I chuckled, we had been falling quite a lot today.

"It doesn't hurt too bad, does it?" He seemed awfully concerned for me. 

"Well, uh, not really I guess. I haven't had much time to even feel it with all the adrenaline today."

He had now covered it with a large gauze bandaid. 

The pain of the cut seemed to die down substantially after he did everything, or maybe it was because I was alone with him that I didn't notice the pain.

"You're all patched up, you should be good for a while." He took a step back, seeming to admire his work.

"Thanks," I said to him, looking him in the eyes, "You didn't have to do this, you know."

"I wanted to."

With that, we both stared into each other's eyes. In that instant, all the pain disappeared and I felt calm. Looking at him, just being with him, seemed to calm me down.

Our little moment was cut short by Dariush popping his head into the room.

"Hey, you- what's going on in here?"

I hastily stepped away from Gabriel and cleared my throat.

"Nothing, what is it?"

"Come get food, Hope." His narrowed eyes darting between the two of us.