Torn

Prologue

We were running. But not from the vampires, this time. We were running through the forest to catch our possible dinner.

"Get it get it get it get it!" Kalee muttered under her breath.

Brad grasped for the bow to shoot our single, precious arrow, but the deer had already slipped away. "Great job, Kalee!"

"Well sorry. I didn't know deers spoke English."

I sighed. "Let's just get back before it gets dark." We headed over to our "camp". It wasn't much: just a tent that we fold up and hide whenever we leave the area.  Vampires occasionally roamed the woods at night, so we would always be back at the tent before the sun went down. A broken curfew meant death.

Brad wrapped his arm around my waist. "It's okay, Audrey," he said, kissing my forehead. "We'll get one next time." I could hear the uncertainty in his voice. There wouldn't be a next time. That was the only deer we had seen in years, and it was alone. I think it's fair to call them almost extinct. Just like us.

As we got ready for the cold night ahead of us, my mind kept wandering to the deer. The look of pure fear in its eyes when it saw us. The same look in my parents' eyes as I peered through the shutters of the closet they hid me in when I was eight. That was one of the first attacks. After that it was madness. News reports to stay off the streets when alone. Public announcements to not go outside at night. Then not to go outside at all, period. Then the reports just stopped, but we didn't need them to see the mangled bodies outside on the streets, the blood splattered against the walls, the screams at night....

I shuddered. Almost 9 years later and it still disturbed me. It shouldn't really. I was one of the lucky ones. Since my parents had died before it got bad, the government was able to put me in a safehouse. After a while, they couldn't let any more people in, since it filled up fast. Soon, they couldn't even take care of us. People in the "safehouse" started dropping like flies. Eventually, I was alone. Just me and my radio. I'm still not sure today how I was able to survive. After that is a blur. Somehow I ended up with Brad and Kalee, and it's been like that for as long as I can remember...

"Audrey, are you okay?" Kalee asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"What? Oh, no, I-I'm fine. I'm fine...." Kalee looked at me worriedly, then got back to work.

Soon we were huddled together in ragged old blankets. I really missed the days we could still light a fire without being found.

"Well, I'm going to go to sleep," Kalee announced after a while. "Goodnight you two. Wake me up when it's my turn to take watch" She staggered over to the tent and Brad and I were left alone.

Brad scooted over closer to me. "Can we talk?"

"Yea, of course."

He paused. "Well, what do you think."

"About...?"

"About us."

"What about it?"

"Well...where is it going? It can't go on like this forever. We can't get married, 'cause I don't think any    officiants are still alive to do the job..." He went on a little after that, but I didn't hear. Marriage? I'm 16!! Then again, who knows how much longer any of us will live...

"I don't know..." I replied. "It's just... not that serious yet."

"Audrey, we could be the last human couple in the world. If we don't try to repopulate somehow--"

"Wait, that's all you see in me? An Eve?" I searched his face, looking for an answer. He didn't respond. Furious, I stormed off, ignoring his stammers.

I can't believe it, all this time, he just wanted the mother in me... I thought to myself. And to think that I was actually falling for him.

I sat on the shore of the little stream near our camp. To get my mind off Brad, I looked through the branches above me and stared at the stars. I found the only constellations I remembered. The Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. I traced a line with my finger from the Big Dipper to the North Star. I remember learning in elementary school about how runaway slaves would use it to guide them north to freedom. I wish there was a star to lead us to freedom. For us, there was no north. There was no freedom. Only hiding.

Man, I wish I brought a blanket. I curled up in the dirt and fell asleep.

The dream was always the same. I would "wake up" in my bed, to the buzzing of my alarm clock. I remember how much I hated that thing. Now I actually miss it, the familiarity of the annoying beep, knowing that everything is right in the world, and my biggest problem was getting up in the morning.

It would be my normal routine. I would get dressed, go downstairs, eat breakfast, and go to school. Except in my dream, instead of third grade I was in tenth grade, the grade I would be in now. The faces of my classmates were blurred, since I've never actually met them. Everything was... normal.

And then the nightmare started. It would get dark and stormy outside. The doors and windows would come crashing down. Vampires would rush through the openings and attack whoever they could get their hands on. The room quickly filled with blood and screams. Some people were fighting back, and I tried to join them. But then I felt hands on my shoulder. I spun around and was face to face with the man who originally put me in the safehouse, hours after my parents' deaths.

"You need to get somewhere safe!" he was telling me, pulling me away. I tried to fight against him to join the fight, but he was too strong. He dumped me in a small steel box. The second the door closed, I heard him scream. Then it was silent.

I woke up with a start, realizing that the screams were real.