Reformation

21: Almost

"You know what I haven't eaten in a while?"

"What?"

"Anything." My stomach rumbled. The only upside of walking for miles and not eating anything after you give birth is that you lose the baby fat. "I don't know how I keep lactating."

"Ew. Don't talk about your woman problems like that." Ryan chuckled.

I laughed and punched him on the arm. Orpah screamed from up ahead and I drew my gun, but she wasn't screaming about creepers. Maybe quarter of a mile away, was a sea of people. Literally, a sea. Hundreds of thousands of people camped out. I tried to see what they were camping for when Ryan interrupted my thoughts.

"Cleveland."

My breath hitched in my throat as I saw buried in mist on the horizon, a faint city skyline.

"We're here." Chase said next to me.

The people waiting were pitiful. Hungry, cold, mangy, begging for food. Were we in the right place? We squeezed through small groups, clumping together, scared of everyone else. Suddenly, a tall yet scrawny man stepped in front of Ryan.

"Back of the line."

"Excuse me?" Ryan answered, sizing up the man, even with a baby in his arms he was still intimidating.

"Gotta wait like the rest of us. Are you special or somethin'?" I wanted to say yes but decided not to put a bigger target on our backs.

"These guys bothering you, pa?" Another man a bit smaller than the first, probably eighteen, stepped in our way with a shotgun.

"It's a free damn world," Ryan responded, pushing the barrel of the gun away from his chest. "But we will get out of your way." The men left and Ryan motioned for us behind a trailer.

"Those are the friendly people, towards the front they get worse," Orpah said. "We had a strategy, move a little at a time, then stop."

"Sounds like a plan." Chase said.

"We should stop for the night." Ryan suggested.

Orpah started a small fire and we huddled around, trying to blend in with the crowd. I was feeding Hunter when I heard a faint crackling, like an intercom turning on. Suddenly, an old, cranky voice boomed over the crowd:

"Two eighteen year old males, healthy, five foot seven." Then the voice was gone and boys from all ages were running towards the front.

"What are they doing?" I asked as I watched one boy stab another.

"The government asks for test subjects for possible cures, makeup testers, et cetera, they are lab rats. These people are desperate to get in, even if they die a slow and painful death because of it." Orpah answered. "The government figures, they have a giant group of people who are never going o survive, may as well put them to use." It was sick, but smart, and if it was the people's choice I guess it wasn't that bad.

The next morning we kicked out the fire and walked about twenty feet, then stopped for five minutes. This area didn't seem to care so we got pretty far in the beginning of the morning, but by the afternoon the people looked like they wanted to rip out eyes out. We were sitting for the seventh time today when something landed on Hunter's nose. It was a small speck of white, maybe dust? It disappeared. Then more came. They were cold and disappeared after touching something. Hunter whined and I pulled him tighter to my chest as more flurried down from the sky.

"Snow." I said. I had never seen snow before. Ryan had his head tilted back and was catching snowflakes on his tongue. I laughed and kissed him on the cheek. The snow stopped half an hour later and we kept walking, the ground slick with water. We were not dressed for winter weather and were freezing our asses off. At least there were no creepers it was so cold.