Valeria - A Story Of Survival

Part 8 - The Mounds

The Mounds

When Valeria hit the floor, my heart sank. My first reaction was to yell out. 'Hey!' Gerry didn't react. Instead, he cradled the lying, dead woman's body in his arms.

I threw a sleeping bag over Val to protect her modesty and checked her head. There was a bruise around her eye, but she was breathing.

When Fi finally expired, Gerry, the calm and gentle man, screamed out in rage. I wanted to scoop Valeria up and leave right then, but I couldn't.

'You.' Gerry's voice was full of venom. 'You ruined everything.' He sobbed.

I backed away slowly and examined the well crafted pistol.

'We were just people! The bunker was supposed to be a second chance! This place was our second chance!' He continued. 'It was that husk. It all went bad when he got involved.'

Was he talking about Fencer? I thought. If the Sikes supplies came from him, then what did Fencer have to do with Sikes? I wanted to speculate and piece the whole thing together, but it wasn't the time.

'And then it was you and that girl. You take away our defence when you led the monsters away and you kill my... my wife.'

'Listen to me. I know you don't want to right now, but I'm the best you have, right? Pack up some stuff and come with us. We are headed to scrapyard. They will have what you're looking for.'

The distraught man wiped at his soaked cheeks. 'And what's that?'

'A second chance.'

The girl woke up about an hour later. I found the best fitting clothes I could find and dressed her before we left. I carried her in my arms as we marched forth along the stoney track.

She stirred as the sound of clattering stones intensified and before long she was fully conscious again.

'Uh, what happened?'

'You hit your head. I had to get you out of there.'

She looked to see what she was wearing and when she approved, she rubbed her bruised face, hissing at the pain.

She looked around. 'Where's Patrick and Oswald?'

'Uh. We still don't know.'

The memory loss was concerning to me. She had taken a lot of hits to the head in our short time together. At one point, I thought I was responsible. Like, my trying to help was the thing that was hurting her. Which led me to wonder if what I was doing was the right thing. She would probably have said yes, but she was just a child unable to see things from the outside.

She looked to be in deep thought before she groaned. 'Why do I keep getting knocked out? Was it another seizure?'

'I don't know what it was, but you hit your head pretty bad.'

'Wait, where's Gerry? And Fi?' As she said her name, her face foze like she had just seen a ghost.

'Did I...?' The horror was showing as her eyes darted from mine to the woods around us.

I set her down quick to get some air and crouched beside her. 'Hey, you didn't do anything wrong. Okay? You are the bravest damned little girl I have ever met!'

She smiled faintly. No matter what I tried, I couldn't take away the guilt she felt and I believed no one could. She was going to change and it was up to me to shape what she would turn into.

'And where's Gerry?' She asked plainly.

I hesitated and considered telling her the truth. 'We had to leave him behind.'