Apocalypse

19: Her

"Wake up!" I cried.

I shook him a few times. No response. Tears filled my eyes. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be dead. He had to stay.

"You can't do this! You have to stay!"

I sobbed into his chest. That's when he started convulsing.

His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his mouth was foaming.

I sobbed into my hand. At least he wasn't dead.

He eventually stopped and slumped back to the ground.

I listened to his chest and heard a faint beating.

I kissed his face over and over. Thank God.

I heard the door unbolting and turned around. I grabbed a nearby nail and poised it in my sweaty hand.

The door swung open and a tall skinny boy, probably eighteen, stood with a shotgun slung over his shoulder. His brown hair was matted down on his forehead. His facial features were similar to Ryan's, the curve of his lips, the soft way his cheek bone's arched.

His eyes grew wide at the sight before him.

"What happened?"

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I-I'm Jack." He took a step forward and I stood up, the nail still in my hand.

"M-My brother." He pointed to Ryan.

I lowered my arm. "Your brother?"

"Yeah, Ryan. He's been missing for two months. Who are you?"

I wasn't going to jump into the relationship details. "I'm Arizona, somebody he met along the way."

He rushed over to his side.

"What happened?"

"He got stabbed with a rusty nail. He started convulsing a minute ago."

"We have to hurry. If he was convulsing that early, he could die a lot sooner than we expected." He slung Ryan over his shoulder.

I opened the door for him.

"This way." We turned down a narrow hallway and down a flight of stairs.

We twisted and turned down dark damp hallways, running into the occasional guards whom Jack shot.

He opened another large metal door and we were engulfed in sunlight.

A bright yellow truck waited for us.

Jack slid Ryan into the backseat and sat in the drivers seat. I sat in the back with Ryan.

The engine sputtered and Jack sped away. Ryan started convulsing.

"He's convulsing again."

"Ok just let him. If you interfere you could hurt him even more. There is a first aid kit in the seat pocket. There is a needle back there with the vaccine."

I fumbled around the back of the seat and found the kit.

"So you just have tetanus vaccines laying around?" I said.

"Who doesn't?" He grinned.

I injected it into his arm and squeezed his hand. Please wake up.

"So can I ask, how you two met?"

I smiled. "Dummy hunting." It wasn't a lie.

"What state are we in?" I asked.

"Crossing over the border of Cali to Arizona."