Re-ans

Re-ans Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Useless Vision

As spring turned to summer they were finally nearing their destination. It had been slow going. They'd had to change vehicles a few times, and right now, they didn't even have one. It wasn't like they hadn't had to walk before. But they hadn't found any proper replacement transportation in almost a week. Everything they'd found was either dead, empty, or crashed. They didn't have much in the way of supplies left to carry though. Each of them had their handguns, with very few bullets, two water containers, though they were near empty, and very little food between them. They'd lost their map nearly a month back and were just basically following road signs at this point knowing their general heading.

It was also early July, and had turned unmercifully hot. The boys had long since abandoned their shirts and were baking in the Virgina sun. They tried to keep sunscreen on whenever they could find some to keep the risk of sunburn down, but they ran out of that quickly. The girls had found tank tops and shorts, but none of that helped really with the heat. Especially when their water supply started to dwindle, and with no map, they had no way of knowing where to go to find more. Luke looked to his left in time to see Jess start to fall sideways. Gavin managed to catch her, but he was nearly as bad off as she was and almost fell over too, he probably would have if a tree hadn't caught him. He turned to Denis.

"We rest." Denis said, walking toward the tree's cover at the side of the road. Luke made his way over to Jess.

"Baby what's wrong?" She seemed unable to hold her eyes open.

"So dizzy." She managed. He scooped her up with every bit of strength he had left in him when she started to fall over again and carried her over to a more shaded area. He checked her water containers, they were completely dry. His own supply wasn't doing much better, but he did have a little left. He knelt beside her and tried to get her to drink.

"Yours." She said, turning her head, and shoving it away weakly.

"Don't turn into me now baby, that's the last thing we need." He said, giving her a smile, finally she gave in. They only had about a day left in them before they were through at this point. "Keep an eye on her." He said to no one in particular as he took off deeper in the woods. When he was far enough away from the others he began to smack himself repeatedly in the head. "Damn visions, why won't you help." He growled.

They needed water, soon, and a rest. They'd been moving constantly for days except for night. Sometimes they were lucky enough to find a shack to sleep in, but most times they were camped in the middle of the woods. They'd set up sound traps all around them in hopes of protecting them, but he knew no one slept well without walls. "Water, water, water." He whispered to himself, eyes closed, as if hoping this would bring on a vision. Nothing. "Damnit."

He still felt responsible for all of them even though he wasn't in charge anymore. They were going to die, and psychic boy couldn't get a single vision to save them. What good was he? He couldn't watch them die. He lifted his head up from contemplating the ground just in time to reach his arms out to grab the re-an that was reaching for him by the throat. It overbalanced him, sending them both to the ground. He rolled to the side to try to get the upper hand, but he hadn't realized he was on a slope till he and the thing started tumbling down.

He landed hard, his shoulder smacking into a large rock at the bottom of the hill, he groaned out in pain thankful that it wasn't his skull that had struck. The tumble seemed to disorient the re-an somewhat, and Luke rolled to the side. He managed to pin the thing down with his left forearm to its throat and reached around blindly with his right hand till he found the large rock his shoulder had smacked into, then he started pounding it into the thing's skull until it lay still. He rolled off of it then, panting and pulled his gun out of the holster, he sat up and looked around. The immediate area he was in was empty. That is, except for a beautiful blue stream. He fell back to the muddy ground trying to catch his breath.