Journey to You

Don't Look Back

Journey to You

Chapter Three

Don't Look Back

"And I can tell that you didn't have

to face your mother losing her lover

Without saying goodbye

Without saying goodbye

'Cause she didn't have time."

-We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow by Soko

Calla felt frustrated by the lack of movement. They had been stuck in traffic for hours. The city growing no closer, near, but not close enough for them to enter. What had first started as a slow crawl forward had been completely shut down, and Calla worried they were going to start to turn people away.

Why else were they no longer moving forward?

Her head filled with the worst-case scenarios as she leaned further into her seat and glanced up at the rearview mirror where she could easily see her son sleeping peacefully in the back seat. The last twelve hours had been the worst the kid had ever experienced in his life, he had grown quieter since the zoo and worry filled every crevice of her body, drowning her in it, as she experienced the same unknown. It was her job to keep the worst of it from him, but this situation felt impossible not to have some of it leak toward him. She needed more information.

"I'm going to take a walk," Calla broke the silence. "See if anyone has any news, or knows what's going on, about us no longer moving, or the picture as a whole."

Brianna glanced at her daughter, not wanting her to go, but understanding that if she succeeded, they would be better off, rather than stuck here on the side of the road with nowhere to go. She wanted nothing more than to cling tightly to the last alive pieces of her heart, but Bri knew better, and wouldn't let her loss cost them something important.

"I'll keep watch over Mav," her mother nodded. "Just be careful, and don't be gone long. You never know when something might happen."

"Of course, I'll be back soon." She reached over to pat her mother's hand, in a similar way she had done for her just a day ago, before sliding free from the car.

As Brianna watched her daughter walk off, she accepted that it was for the best that Calla took charge and did things like this for them. Brianna didn't get around like she used to, she wasn't as young, and if something did go wrong Calla would have a much better chance of getting back to them before it happened.

Calla eyed those around her, wishing more than anything to catch sight of someone that looked as if they held authority, but she was surrounded by civilians, like her, who knew nothing, and were scared. A dangerous predicament, having hundreds of jumpy people, with no knowledge of what's going on, stuck with nowhere to go. Calla felt the nerves prick at her, but she tried to keep them down, at the back of her mind, so that she could focus on her task. Even just the smallest of hints would be more than what she had before. She would accept it, but continuing without anything would only get them hurt.

Luck seemed to be on her side when she noticed a small group talking to a man who seemed to belong to the army. He wasn't in full gear, but it was enough to recognize that he held some kind of authority. She excused herself through the crowd of people that had begun to escape their cars, piling around anxiously, as they talked amongst themselves.