Trust fall (trust#1)

Seventeen

Location- Nevada, middle of nowhere

ashton
You never stop being crazy. Ever. I know that is something that sounds ironic coming from a person who is losing his mind but it's true.As I lay here curled up underneath a tree in a bare spot we managed to find I figure that out. Elaina wraps her arms around me and her head rests on my chest, her legs are entangled with mine. She looks nice this way. She looks peaceful. I want to let myself dream and drift but I spent so many years somewhere other than here. In the moment. Out of the blue I hear a bit of a faint whistle and a dog barking.
"Elaina.elaina." I hastily whisper.
"Mmm"she mumbles snuggling closer to me.
The barks are getting louder and I hear the dog trainers near them.
"Elaina up we need to go"I say with more haste this time.
She wakes up and looks at me for a second before responding.
"What? why?" She says.
I put a hand over her mouth and signal for her to listen.
"Trackers. They knew we'd stop soon." She says pushing herself up off me. I shake my head.
"We need to go." I say leaning up as well.
She gets up and reaches for my hand. I grab her hand and pull myself up.
"You're hurt?" She asks.
I look down at my leg and notice a subtle drip of blood coming through the ankles of my pants.
"Crap" I say.
"We don't have time for this. We need to go." She says starting to move in another direction. I follow. Here we are, back at it again, running for god only knows how long. We start off slow but gradually get faster as the dogs get louder. Now we sprint, barely missing the branches and vines at our feet. Unable to see what's in front of us very clearly, we continue in as straight of a line we can be in. We dodge trees and fallen limbs, and jump over stumps and burned branches. We never stop to look at each other, we never let go of each other. Not until we lose the dogs. Not until we reach the huge field. I'd call it no man's land.
"They'll lose us here." Elaina exclaims, stopping to breathe. Her hands have a strong grip on her knees and she stares at the blackened ground. The moon is bright enough to light up the stretch of land we stand on.
" oh my god..." I say breathlessly.
"What-what happened?"I ask confused as to what I'm seeing.
"They burned it."Elaina responds, sitting on some burnt wood.
I don't understand what I am seeing. Hundreds of homes, buildings, and stores burnt to the ground. This isn't fit to sustain life. There are so few buildings that survived.
"They missed a few, c'mon we have to get some shelter." Elaina says getting up and pulling me forward.
What once was sidewalks sits cracked and with missing chunks. What once was a suburb has three houses still standing, with wood rotting and broken windows. What once was a busy downtown sits abandoned and destroyed.
"W-who did this?" I manage to murmur.
"Government" Elaina responds.
She finds a lone standing house. Branches are littered around it and the paint is chipping off. You can see it was once a pale blue color. The house looks as if a family lived here.
"There's no one inside. I promise. We need to sleep somewhere though" she exclaims trying to get my attention. I can only manage to mumble out a distorted 'okay'. I halfway watch as she kicks the door open.
"Ashton. Ashton I need you here with me" she says pulling me into the most decent house we managed to find..
I mumble a few inaudible words. Elaina manages to pull me into the house and up some stairs. I see three rooms. One, small with a bunk bed in it. Race cars line the bedding of one twin mattress while princess's cover the other.
The second room is covered in rock band posters over the walls. A purple, blue, and black blanket covers the full sized mattress. The third room is fitted with a king sized bed and a black and white blanket. A family of five. Two small children, one teenager, and two parents lived here. Though the house is dusty and rotted in all sorts of places, it is still a home.
"Here." She drags me into the parents room. Which makes sense considering it is the cleanest. Though I noticed drawers jerked open and clothes pulled over the edges in each room. They must have left in a rush. I walk forward and lean on the bed. It smells clean, the washing powders smell so fresh, dust lingers over the covers.
"The government basically told everybody they had three minutes to be out of their houses or they'd get burned with the rest of the town." Elaina says, closing the door.
"Why close the door?" I ask.
" We need to keep as much heat in as we can. Considering there is no heat and it's like twenty degrees outside." She says.
I don't question her, rather I decide that since we are safe and the door is locked I can take off my sweater. I crawl to the top of this huge bed and pull the covers back before laying down. Elaina takes her sweater off too and lays beside me. We pull the covers up and lay a few inches apart. The silence is deafening. I stare at a ceiling fan and wish I could watch it move. I wish I could feel her breaths match mine, our heartbeats match in speed. Her breaths slow as she feels safe in my embrace. I want to let myself drift into a sleep I haven't had in 373 days. I lean up and remove my shirt because the seams bother me. I put it with my sweater and look over to see Elaina sleeping peacefully. Her breaths have slowed and she seems to feel safe. It's hard to believe a girl like her committed murder. I lay back down and put an arm around her waist. As soon as she feels that she moves closer to me. "Huh" she half speaks, through her momentary waking. She wraps an arm around me and lays on my chest. My hand is on her back and I can't help but smile. This was my dream. This was my dream for years, to drift off to sleep with someone I think I love in my arms. To feel safe in their embrace. It isn't a dream.