Long Way Home

3. Nicole

Chapter 3.

Nicole.

Every muscle in my body was aching strongly. I struggled to move as my eyes flickered open. I groaned and winced as I pushed myself to sit up, gritting my teeth.

Natural light shone in through the open window and I smiled in relief, knowing the hurricane had passed. That had been the last thing I remembered before waking up.

My body tensed and my blood ran cold suddenly, causing a shudder to run up my spine. This wasn't my bedroom. This wasn't my house. I hadn't had a chance to get inside when the hurricane ripped through my town.

Now I was in a plain room with off-white painted walls that were flaking in the corners and deep brown doors. There was no furniture in the room and no curtains hung over the windows letting as much light as possible flood through the window.

I heard a groaning noise and turned, leaping to my feet immediately and staring at the noisemaker.

A boy of my age was laid on his back on the dusty floor, seemingly asleep. He was wearing shorts and the scorched remains of a tattered T-shirt. He had a dark tan and dirty blonde hair that stuck up at the front. I stepped forwards and nudged him with the toe of my trainer. He scowled but didn't move anymore than that. I knelt beside the boy, pressing my fingers against his wrist and listening to his heartbeat. His skin was hot to the touch like he had a fever. Brushing the hair out of his face, I took in his features for the first time. His cheekbones and jawline were prominent on his face, his forehead creased a little from years of frowning and scowling.

I'm not going to lie, he was good looking. Very good looking. He tossed his head from side to side as if he was having a bad dream, clenching his fists tightly. Taking a glimpse at his knuckles I saw they were criss-crossed with scars from either fighting a lot or getting seriously angry with a tree or a wall.

His eyelids fluttered slightly and I shook his shoulder gently. "H-hello? I need you to wake up..." I didn't know what to say to this stranger.

The boy frowned again and groaned before opening his eyes slowly, squinting to get used to the bright sunlight. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked up at me. When he spoke his voice was no more than a rasp. "Am I dead?"

I shook my head, looking down at him. "I don't think so..." I said, helping him sit up against the wall. "What's your name?" I asked home

"What's your name?" He replied, giving me a hard look like I was untrustworthy.

"Nicole Paver. Now what's your name?" I asked him again.

He cleared his throat before looking up at me. "Ollie Chase. Where am I?" He frowned in confusion.

"I can't tell you that...I've got no idea..." I watched him closely as he kept coughing, trying to get rid of the croak in his voice. "You need a drink." I told him, feeling his forehead again.

He batted my hand away immediately and pushed himself to his feet, looking down at the clothes he was wearing. "Useless..." He muttered and pulled the burnt T-shirt off of his body.

Ollie began to move towards the door, pulling something from his pocket and flicking it open. A knife. He took a deep breath and clasped his hand around the door knob, holding up his knife incase anyone was at the other side.

"Where are you going?" I asked him, peeling my eyes away from his body.

"I'm leaving. You really expect me to hang around here? I'm going back home." He gritted and opened the door.

"But you don't even know where you are!" I reasoned, following close behind him, peeking around the edge of the door.

We had been asleep in a one roomed house on a dusty, deserted street. There were no clouds in the sky and the sun was baking hot on my skin. Ollie was half way down the street and I had to run to catch up before he disappeared from my sight. I frowned, finding it weird there were no cars, bikes or people walking around going about their daily business.

I walked along behind Ollie, raising an eyebrow as he pushed open the door of a shop, walking inside. I crept in after him before the door closed, scanning the shop slowly, watching out for danger.

Clothes lined sale racks and Ollie walked along, snatched them off the rail, piling them into a rucksack before kicking a door open in the back of the shop, heading through into a staff room. I squealed in shock as he thrust a rucksack into my arms, telling me to fill it with things I want.

"Isn't this stealing?" I asked, worried about getting caught.

"Technically, yes. But who cares? Just take it, there's no one here to report you." He reasoned and pulled on a shirt that he'd grabbed from the shelves. Finding it fitted his body, he shrugged and began pushing things out of drawers and cupboards in the search for food.

"Ollie?" I asked, nervous of angering him. He didn't seem like someone you should get on the wrong side of.

"What?" He asked, pulling out a loaf of stale bread and eating in ravenously, closing his eyes to savour the taste of it.

"What's the last thing you remember?" I raised an eyebrow as he slid another loaf over the counter towards me.

"Dying. Well...I think I was dying. But I'm not dead now so I must've survived somehow. I don't see how though, I was completely surrounded."

"Surrounded by what?"

He was quiet for a long time before finally answering me, focusing entirely on filling his stomach. "Fire. I got caught in a wildfire back home."

"You were? Why aren't you burnt and stuff?" I frowned and blushed slightly, seeing the cold look on his face.

"I don't know. How do you expect me to know that?" He shook his head and opened a fridge, pulling out several bottles of cold water, uncapping it and draining a whole bottle in seconds to quench his thirst. "What's the last thing you remember?" I was noticing he didn't seem to like talking about himself too much.

"Hurricane..." I sighed, reaching over to take a bottle from him.

"You're from Florida?" He asked me, raising an eyebrow a little.

"Yeah, how did you know that?" I took a small sip of water, smiling as it relieved the intense heat.

"Hurricane. Duh. Florida gets loads of 'em. I'm not as stupid as I look..." He piled food into his rucksack quickly.

"Where do you think we are now?" I asked him.

"I don't know...but this is not California..." He froze and looked at me as he heard a rattling noise of a dustbin falling over outside. He pulled his knife out of his pocket instantly and flicked it open, narrowing his eyes.

Whenever we were, we weren't alone.

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