Thoughts

The Child Apocalypse: Four

The truck came to a halt at the abandoned petrol station and the driver got out, slamming the door with a bit more malice than truly necessary.

He had his reasons though.

He had just been forced to move from his home into the unwelcome unknown of the world outside his domain. He had also been forced for years on end to live with this curse, or probably abomination was the better word.

Better yet, he was never growing up, meaning that this was a problem he was not likely to age out off even if he wanted to.

But these were not the reasons he was in a right state. The real reason he was almost tearing down the car door was because the girl named Alex was in it.

It wasn’t because of anything rather than the fact that she had fixed herself in his life and he had no desire to be near her. She was a source of trouble. He should have left her in Alabama and drove off.

But he couldn’t. And it was nothing to do with him being a good person.

He was just making his way around the car when Alex got out too, taking a nice long stretch in the process. For such small person, he had never seen anyone so damn annoying.

She had refused to leave his car when he was about to leave. He had tried every manner possible to get her out, even thought of resorting to violence, when she finally used her ability on him. She got him to do what he was firmly against by just touching him and saying ‘please’.

For someone who was supposed to be super strong, that was pretty pathetic.

“Where are we?” she asked after she had finally straightened from her stretching.

“Do I look like a map?”

She narrowed her eyes at him and the move would have evoked no fear in him if she had not just gotten him to do something he was firmly against five hours ago.

“Do you want me to make you tell me?”

He could literally chock the life out of her right now. All he would have to do was move faster than she would have time to react. But that would mean she would be in close range of touching her. Seeing as she had already hidden his shotgun who knows where, his prospects were not looking good. He let out a sigh of defeat and went to pump the gas. This woman was more dangerous than he was in all honesty.

“The outskirts of Louisville.”

Alex allowed herself a smirk as she turned to look at the open road. She could feel him cursing her to every manner of hell he knew but she didn’t care.

She was actually more preoccupied with where they were. This had been the hometown of Diana. She longed for so many nights to see it again, even if it was from a far as she saw it now. But Alex was glad her best friend was not alive to see it.

The Adults had built walls around it for good measure to keep them out. Parents to these children were treating them like a disease. Sure, they technically were, but they had developed ways to withstand it. They had ways of being close to them again. And after all these years, the walls still stood to separate the children from their love.

The boy was curious about this girl. He had seen other mutations. Most didn’t make it far. Most of them seemed to be aging too fast. Probably that was the common strain in the East Coast. But Alex, she was different. Annoying, yes, but different. This voyage she was on seemed more of an obligation than out of her own volition.

“It’s funny isn’t it,” Alex spoke as she turned back to him, “this life we are living.” 

The boy saw nothing amusing about the life he had led up until this point. The moment that fever broke out, he had never known any joy in his life.

She turned around to find him grimacing at her. No surprise there really.

“Why are you always angry?”

“Why are you always annoying?”

She was fuming with that as he replaced the pump back to its place and went back to the car. She was just about done with him.

“It’s called being charming… wait, I don’t even know your name,” she realized it just as he was opening the hood of the truck. Funny how she had never thought to ask this all day they had been driving across Kentucky.

“Why don’t you just compel me to tell you then.”

Ok, that was totally uncalled for. She didn’t want to use her abilities on him back at his home, not that he didn’t deserve it. Plus it made her brain hurt everytime she did it, but he didn’t need to know that. He just didn’t understand what was to the north. If he did, he would have been offering her the ride there himself.

“Can’t you just be nice for once and tell me?”

“Nice for once?” he rounded on her so suddenly that they were just an arms breadth away from each other, “Who was it that saved your life? Who was it that stopped the adults from taking you back to their camps?”

Ok. So he had been nice more than once.

“I’m sorry,” and she truly meant it. If he could have read her emotions, he would have known. But she knew that he was a walking ball of hatred who saw the world as a cynical place for anyone to live in. There was no point in trying to convince him of it.

“We need to keep moving,” that was the last meaningful thing he said to her as they traveled for another four hours again. Alex was thankful for the silence now. She could finally think about what she was doing. She was so committed to this plan she had inherited from Diana.

Wasn’t it crazy?

She didn’t even believe in it. Diana had convinced her to help in her escape from the camp. If Alex had known it would cost her her best friend, she would have never allowed it. All because she had been sold on the idea of nothing but false promises in the world she knew was only filled with hate.

“Do you know what is to the north?”

The boy’s voice startled her from her train of thought. He was never one to initiate conversations. Usually he was the one to end them.

“I do.”

“Yet you still want to go there?”

“Yes.”

He chanced a glance at her. She was playing with her hair again. She always did that when she was anxious or generally thinking about something bad. But one thing was for sure, he was not mistaken in his first assessment of her.

“You really are the dumbest person I have ever met.”

Alex thought about how she had survived all these months out her. She was more than capable to disagree with him. He had no idea what life was outside of his cocoon. What was in the north was salvation for them all. But why was everyone who was looking for it always ending up dead. And here she was, pulling this boy along with her on this crusade.

“I know.”