Reset

A single shot rang out and echoed across the hollow and barren land.

It happened so fast, Malcolm barely registered it. The shot hit Amy somewhere on her right side. The force of the hit blasted her like a spinning top, around and backwards, slamming her into the side of the buggy with a ‘thunk’.

Malcolm let out a scream, shoved the buggy in gear and lunged forward to grab Amy as she slid downward.

“Should I count again!” The woman yelled and pumped the chamber once more.

“Let me get my friend!” Malcolm had a grip on her left arm, and without getting out, using all of his strength, he pulled her toward the buggy,

Amy was alive, and with rubbery legs stood enough to roll into the buggy’s passenger seat.

As soon as she was in, Malcolm tossed it in gear, backup, spun around and sped as fast as the cart would move. He kept driving, going from looking back to looking at Amy who had slumped forward nearly on his lap, her leg half out of the vehicle.

Down the gravel road, through the gate and onto the field, Malcolm didn’t stop until he was sure he wasn’t followed. Then he tossed the buggy in gear, bringing it to a jolting halt.

“Amy.” He breathed heavily and lifted her gently to sit back in her seat. When he did, he saw her entire chest was saturated with blood. Her right arm was completely gone and there was a gaping hole in her chest where her shoulder should be.

Amy’s face was completely drained of life, eyes wide open.

He whimpered, touching her face. “Amy. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Her lips moved, and her eyes rolled back. “Malcolm.” She said weakly. “For me. Find out what happened. My family. Please.” On her last words, her head slumped forward to his hand and Amy died.

He was at such a loss. One of the only people he knew, had left in the world, had died. In that empty field, he just wanted to break down. He was in complete shock. Malcolm trembled, not knowing what to do, where to turn. He turned off the power to the buggy. In danger still or not, truth was, his melting pot of emotions at that moment had beaten him, Malcolm couldn’t move.

TWENTY-FIVE – Linked In

Finally Jason started to talk. It took a good half hour into the trip before he said a word, and the conversation opened up with his history of carsickness.

Nora offered to pull over and let him drive if that would help. He declined.

“I’m good for now,” he said.

“All the way around?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, when we first woke up down below, you were positive and upbeat.”

“I was vague about everything, it was surreal. Once reality kicked in with my memory, it all hit me.”

“I understand.”

“And really, can we be positive and upbeat right now. This sucks, Nora. Sucks. We don’t know how long we were in stasis, it was at least a year. They didn’t tell our families we were alive. So they suffered believing we died. It’s a heavy load to carry.”

“There’s a reason that we are alive.”

“Yes, someone decided that we were prime specimens and needed to be saved for a rainy day.”

The corner of Nora’s mouth lifted in a smile. “That’s a really good analogy.”

“It works. How are you? Honestly?”

“Scared. I have a painful knot in my stomach that isn’t going away. We woke up to tragedy. We woke up to a different world. Only none our families may not be a part of it. Every time I think of it, I get sick. I’m inwardly obsessing about it. I am going over it in my mind, what I’ll do if I can’t find them. What next? Once I realized who I was, I realized I missed them and love them so much. But when I realized what had happened, I also realized I may never see them again.”

“I hear you. We weren’t there for what they went through. We were robbed of being there.”

Jason got ‘car sick’ and Nora had to pull over. He wasn’t sure if it was the ride, the heat or his emotions that caused him to get ill. Stopping the buggy just outside of Franklin Tennessee, didn’t make things any easier on him. At least emotionally, it was completely different than the highway or even Redstone Arsenal.

They both knew when they got back in the buggy, it was going to get more difficult by the mile.

The amount of foliage increased the further they drove north, until they could barely pass on the road. Vines and trees crept through the concrete highway, there was no distinguishable ‘side’ of the road, and it was as if the highway merged into a forest.

Nora stopped and stepped out of the buggy and peered ahead. “What did we miss?”

“Apparently, a lot.” Jason, too stepped from the buggy, only he spread out a map. “We’re five miles from Nashville.”

“Where is it?”

“Beyond the trees.”

“This isn’t right,” Nora said. “I mean, how can this be so overgrown and Redstone wasn’t.”

“I don’t know.” Jason grabbed a bottle of water, took a drink and stared at the map.

“We can’t drive through. We don’t know how thick this is or how deep this goes.”

“I say we give it a try. Go as far as we can, see what’s ahead.”