Je Ne Sais

Five - Reconcile

She looked...decayed.

That was the only way I could describe her.

The earlier cheerfulness and radiance of her visage had disappeared, re-layered with a pallid, distant sheet of grey with lines of pain.

My heart was striking bolts against my chest, and my eyes welled up on seeing her in this way.

I opened my mouth, and shut it, unable to say anything, and then opened it again.

What came out was a strangled whisper caused by the perennial knot in my throat.

"C-car-rie..."

She smiled a sorrowful smile, which somehow made all the lines and dull grey nonexistent and the pain in my chest subsided by half.

Before I broke down into a cross between a lamentation and an emotional outpouring, the nurse was suddenly there, holding a folder containing a sheaf of papers bound with a paperclip. She cleared her throat with the calm but neutral expression that news reporters that were about to launch into a discourse of bad occurrences.

I had no doubt that what was about to come was dreadful as well.

"All set? Let's go, Car-bear."

She rolled her eyes and glanced at me with an exasperated look from the blue-grey rucksack she was currently stuffing a few books into.

"Even you know that the nickname is childish. Come on, Kate, grow up, just a little?"

"Ehh. Maybe I just keep using it to irk you. You look so cute when you're irritated, you know that?"

She blushed, and shaking her head, she turned back to her rucksack with a smile splitting her cheeks. She plunged the last novella down and with a tug at the zipper, she was ready to trek.

"All done! Let's go, I can't wait to explore! I'm so excited to see all the flora and fauna."

We were currently in a motel room adjacent to a small hill valley all set for trekking up the hill with a few more people in our tour group. We were led by a short thin man, Calvin Penn, who was just outside, ringing the doorbell, presumably to call us out for the pre-trek brief.

"Coming, Calvin! We just finished with packing, getting our bags!" I yelled out in the general direction of the window while trying to pick up a backpack and two duffels., when I realized we forgot to get some fruit for snacking on the way.

"Car, we forgot to get the fruit! Would you mind going over to the surplus mart and getting just a few? I'm so sorry for not remembering, it's the brick building just behind us."

"It's fine, I forgot about it too. Just a sec, you take the bags out and I'll be back with them."

With that she grabbed some change and jogged to the back of the lodge in which we were staying.

Finally having succeeded juggling three bags with just two minimal arms, I found myself in a group of campers fueled by nervous excitement and coffee with Calvin situated on a boulder dividing his gaze between his phone and a GPS locator. He called over, "Where is your partner? Everyone's partner is supposed to stay together for the trip."

I responded with a harried smile and told him that she would be a minute.

Then we heard a muffled bang.

Carrie was mildly disgruntled as she walked over to the store. Last minute discrepancies really sucked. The store had brick walls with wood floors, which was surprisingly cool for the weather. She noticed that it was a hotchpotch of all kinds of things, from clothing to weaponry to food. She picked up a few oranges. On second thought, some black grapefruit as Kate was fanatic about them.

Passing to the counter, she saw someone who was lurking around in the corner, staring at some camo pants. She felt an odd suspicion, but shrugged it off.

"Yep, that's the lot. How much, please?"

The cashier mumbled "That'll be 13 bucks." while bagging the stuff. She grabbed the money and was passing it over to the cashier when she saw the suspicious man a few feet across her, his face shrouded by a turtleneck.

Arm stretched out, clenching a gun.

Yep. That happened.

Also, WE'RE BACK. It's been a year.

New cover, more story.

Happy new year.