Just Hold Hands

Chapter 18

The trees remained thick, trapping Theo and Catherine in their belly. The leaves grated like sharp teeth.

They walked west, following the path of the deserting sun. They were probably still in Wisconsin, but they may have wandered into Iowa, or maybe even Minnesota. They'd been walking for some time. She thought of Maria, well-fed and probably asleep, abandoning the doomed Earth. She wished she could say goodbye in any way that mattered, but all she had was her dying phone, outdated in this new world. Catherine stopped to take a drink of water, the one thing they had a decent supply of. Theo reached into her mostly empty backpack, withdrawing her phone, miraculously holding on to its last drops of power. She tried her best to say her goodbyes.

Maria, I want to say I love you, and I'm so glad you got off when you could. We're out of food, and we may find more, but it isn't looking great. There's nothing left on Earth, nobody's here anymore. Maybe when you all come back you can fix everything. Remember me when I do. I love you so so much, and I'm glad you have a future.

Love,

Theo

She hit send, the message didn't go through. Her phone screen went black in her hand, finally giving in, and Theo stared into the reflective surface. She was surprised to see her eyes puffy and glossy with tears. She just wished she could've saved Catherine, if not herself.

They walked on and on under the harsh cover of night, grasping hands tightly to remind themselves that they weren't alone in the darkness, and at least one other person still stood on Earth's surface. Theo was tired. It was nighttime and she felt it in her bones, every muscle in her body screamed for her to stop, and oh how she wanted to. She'd been walking for so long that she was ready to surrender herself to the horrors of either the homegrown woods or the foreign aliens, she didn't care which. But she knew, too, that if they stopped, it would not just be her chance of survival, however low, plummeting, but Catherine's, too. And she wouldn't give her up like that. Theo pressed on, no adrenaline to keep her going, just desperation to save the one person she had left to save.

Eventually the trees began to thin, and Theo took longer breaths when there seemed to be more air to breathe between the branches. She gained speed as she thought she may finally escape, Catherine coughing as she tried to keep up.

Theo stumbled out of the thick trees, Catherine beside her. Without the oppressive layer of foliage, the stars could shine in all of their corrupted fuschia glory. Theo looked up for a moment, then straight ahead, at the bona fide road the dirt path had led them to. Theo's eyes adjusted enough under the starlight to comfortably see. Before them was a road, a real one, with four lanes going two directions, perpendicular to the path, but curving past the trees to point west, cutting between rectangles of farmland.

Theo did not drop Catherine's hand in the open air. They stepped onto the road, where no cars came by. Everywhere was deserted. Theo didn't know if everyone was dead or on the run, or if Maria's ship was bigger than she thought. Maybe they were all hunkered down in their still-standing homes, praying that they'd remain so.

Down the road they went, and while Theo was initially grateful for the open air and semi familiar surroundings, she quickly realized that there was little difference from her previous circumstances. There were none of the saving graces she had hoped for, just endless asphalt and farmland that couldn't yet be harvested.

She could not be uncomfortable with Catherine's grip, not like she would have been before. It was the only thing tethering her to the earth, preventing her from drifting off the surface, past the aliens' ship, past Maria's, into the endless expanse of space. The world no longer felt so infinite.