Failure of Glory

Chapter 7

Jolie sat at her workbench with sparks flying, not only from her brain but also from the electric device in front of her. She gasped and pulled her hand back as yet another spark hit her hand. Jolie was having trouble concentrating, she was trying to make the mask while re-reading the journal and battling her inner thoughts. She still wasn't sure about giving this mask to her sister but a deal was a deal and she wasn't one to go back on her word. She shook the burning feeling away from her hand and turned to the next page in the journal.

August 4th 2043

Today I ran into what I thought was a starving man. Upon closer inspection I saw that his skin was caved in, showing his ribs and cheekbones. Some parts were decayed and others melting off, it made me sick and I threw up the small breakfast that I had. There was a pole sticking down the man's throat and blood oozed down the side of its stretched out mouth. When I tried to get closer a group of people came from the shadows, they were all big and had scars. They were covered from head to toe even though there was no fog out. I thought that maybe they were newcomers to the surface-I thought that I could help them but one of them pulled a dagger out and a cruel smile spread across his face.

Jolie's grip on her tool loosened as she focused more attention on understanding what she was reading. Although the man hadn't pulled a dagger out on her, the man from the journal was starting to sound an awful lot like the man she had encountered on her first time on the surface. There were differences though, the man had been alone and he hadn't used a dagger on her but rather a toy car. She also hadn't noticed any scars but then again she was too scared to notice anything other than the advancing Howlers.

The man who I assume was the leader kept walking towards me and I couldn't move. I don't know if it was fear or shock that there were more people alive but I was frozen in my spot. The man came up to me, his smile was growing with every step he took toward me and then he raised his hand and sliced the dagger across my face. I don't know why I couldn't register that this man was a threat before but once I felt that line of burn across my face it wasn't hard to get my body moving. I thought that they were going to follow me but when I looked back they just smiled as I turned the corner. Today was meant for finding others and I accomplished that but not in the way that I had hoped. Now I can't see out of my left eye and I'm scared to leave my bunker.

Yet another similarity. The man that Jolie encountered didn't follow her, he merely smiled as she left.

If you encounter any scarred, masked people beware and proceed with caution. They are not friendly and they are not looking to help.

"Ahh, crap." Jolie pulled her hand back from yet another spark. She examined the tip of her finger which had turned bright red. She knew that a blister would be forming soon and she wasn't looking forward to it, one had already formed on her pinky from a burn she had received about ten minutes ago. Jolie pressed on it a bit before flexing her fingers and deciding to give up for the night.

She had been working all night but she had been splitting her attention between the mask, the journal, and her thoughts. It clearly wasn't going so well considering she had three burns two of which were blistered. She knew that it wasn't the best idea but that night when Aaliyah got the journal she had been extremely tired when they started to read it and she was really just rushing through the information so she decided that she would read slower this time.

She put her head in her hands and let out a deep sigh. Jolie pushed her chair back and decided that it was time to go back to sleep. She stepped carefully over the rubbish on the floor, hoping she wouldn't trip over anything and wake up her family. The only time Jolie could work was at night when everyone was asleep so that her parents wouldn't get suspicious about what she was making and come walking in.

This also meant she was staying up all night and sleeping all day, which her father didn't like very much. They'd been in three arguments in the past week over the sleep thing alone. Jolie didn't understand what he wanted from her, he didn't want her to leave her room but he was upset about her not having anything to do but sleep and eat. She had already read every book in the bunker-which is how she learned about engineering.

Her mom had broken after the first argument and decided that Jolie should be able to roam through the bunker as she pleases but Hasan was quick to shut that down which led to an argument between him and Naomi.

So everyday Jolie slept until Aaliyah woke her up for a meal then went back to sleep until Aliyah woke her up to tell her that her parents were asleep. She worked until the clock on her wall hit five or until she got frustrated, whichever one came first, which was usually frustration.

Jolie slipped through the darkness and into her shared room, closing the door softly and slipping into bed. She made sure to wear her pajamas to bed so that she wouldn't wake her sister up when she came back into the room.

"You're back early tonight," Aaliyah mumbled, cutting through the silence and making Jolie jump.

"Um yea. I got a bit frustrated tonight and it was either this or throw the mask across the room and risk being caught," Jolie laughed softly. "It's going slow because I'm a bit distracted but your mask should be done by the end of the week. We'll start planning your first trip out next week," She said, settling into bed.

Aaliyah hummed in response and fell back asleep while Jolie started counting sheep, trying to ignore the throbbing coming from her most recent burn.

With each burn she had to sneak into the kitchen to get cream for it and tonight she didn't feel like stumbling through the dark, trying not to wake everyone up. Tonight she just wanted to sleep and forget about everything.

One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep. Four sheep. Five sheep. Six sheep... eighteen sheep. Nineteen sheep. Twenty sheep.

And she was out.