Into Darkness We Walk

Nobody for Miles

By now, conversation had run out; the time on Evan's watch was ten thirty-three, which only made Gavin more tired than he already was. "Can we stop and rest, please?" He pleaded, rubbing his right eye like a sleepy toddler.

Evan stopped and looked back at him, sighing. "We might as well; we need to eat, anyway."

"No, that can wait until morning. We only have a limited supply."

The area they chose to sleep on was burned black to the dirt, with not a sign of foliage or cover anywhere. Which was fine, since it gave them a wide view to see if anyone was coming.

But then, as Gavin turned in a circle and surveyed the area, he felt an intense fear creep up from his insides. Panic took him over, and he began to hyperventilate. So open, so exposed, wide... wide open...

"Gavin! What's wrong? Breathe!" Evan placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a rub.

"Too wide... too wide open, can't, can't breathe..." Gavin managed to gasp out.

"Close your eyes. Come on, close 'em."

After doing so, Evan continued, "Breathe slowly, deeply, take controlled breaths. Focus on your breathing; nothing else."

Slowly, Gavin felt his panic attack cease. Once it was under control, he opened his eyes, but focused only on Evan. "I can't stay here, the area's too wide open."

Evan nodded. "Phobia, right? I think I've hearda that."

"I didn't even know I had it," Gavin replied, yawning. He could barely stand; even now he couldn't even keep his eyes open. "Dun thing I ca wah..." he mumbled, yawning once more.

Smiling softly, Evan murmured, "Alright, I'll carry you,"

Picking Gavin up along with his pack, he carried him to a safe spot away from the road.

That night, Gavin had the strangest dream.

He was standing in front of a forest, the same one, he came to realize, that was by the AM PM. There was a brief moment of blackness, like he had blinked, and then beside him was Evan. Neither of them spoke, but they seemed to know something was going to happen without communicating.

And then the forest was on fire.

Running out of the forest were people and animals all ablaze, each one of them screaming without making a sound. He recognized some of the faces as people he knew; his friends from school, his teachers, other classmates, his family, even his older brother, who was in the Army. There was even that girl, Maxyne, and her cat, slowly walking out.

But, somehow, the fire didn't seem right. It felt... different. Alive, in some way. Gavin didn't know how to explain it; all he could do was feel it.

The fire reached him and Evan. Instead of curving around them, like he had expected it to do, for some reason; it went through them. No, not through them, into them. Inside them, right into their hearts and souls, bonded with them, became part of them.

And then they were the fire, ripping across the entire country, riding a dry Easterly wind, destroying everything in sight. "All of them, burn all of them! Burn them all! BURN THEM ALL!"

Gasping, Gavin sat up with a start. He was sweating the Pacific ocean, so, with trembling hands and shaking fingers, ripped off his jacket, hoodie, and then shirt. Why was he wearing so many layers? It was spring, for Christ's sake. But then again, this is Washington.

Well, was Washington.

Bundling up his clothes, he tossed them by his backpack. The undershirt would suffice for now.

Pulling at his shirt, he squinted up at the sky. Why was it so warm? It was cloudy, or at least he thought they were clouds. 'Maybe it's smoke from the fire, blotting out the sun and creating a kinda greenhouse affect.' The part of him that remembered stuff from science thought.

That made sense; like when there's a lot of bombing, and the smoke turns the water inside the clouds black. Like his math teacher Mrs. Bergevin says: "Sense making?" And the class is supposed to answer "Making sense!"

Laying back down, he turned over to his left to find Evan on his side facing him, sleeping. Even in his sleep, he had that same hard, pain-filled, depressed expression that hadn't left his face since they had begun their journey. He missed the smiling Evan and his trademark grin. It was most likely going to be a while until he saw at least half of that smirk.

Suddenly, he felt like talking to him. No, that wasn't the right word for it; he felt like opening up his chest and skull and giving him his heart and mind. He wanted- scratch that, needed- to completely open up to him, to lay it all out, reveal everything he'd ever kept cooped up inside.

He was so glad he was asleep. "Evan, I know you're asleep, and I hope you stay that way, because what I'm about to tell you is something I'm not even sure I want to hear,"

Taking a deep breath, he began at the beginning.

Most of what he said was trivial stuff, but, as his age in the stories grew older, the content became less trivial and more devious. "... and not long after that, a picture of me by some unknown person was posted on the board in my Japanese class. It was of me, with reindeer ears and antlers, and I was holding Christmas lights that were tangled all around me. I mean, sure, it looked cool, but it was kinda creepy, yaknow? But that was only the beginning. After that, near the start of February or the end of January, I can't remember, another picture went up, but this time I was in heart boxers, and shirtless, and had a tattoo of a heart on my chest. And I was wearing dangly heart earrings, and a heart bracelet, and there were Valentines all around me. This one was colored in red and gold marker. Again, cool, but weird, like creepy weird.

"But then, when the class was making Valentines in Japanese, a girl came up to me and gave me a Valentine, saying it was from an anonymous person. I really started to get some stalker vibes then, especially since it said I was awesome, or something along those lines, I can't really remember now.

"When Saint Patrick's Day became near, I half-expected there to be a picture of me up on the board, but nothing showed up. Although, drawings from what I'm guessing is the same artist went up in my picture's place.

"I allowed myself to believe it was over, until my friend Chang found a drawing of Master Chief on his desk. He sits in front of me, so a part of my brain told me that that picture was for me. It turned out I was right when a girl in my second period class gave me the drawing and a comic in Japanese. Again, the person who drew it remains anonymous. In the comic, the girl's name is Raf, and apparently she really likes me, but is way too shy to talk to me, so she just admires me from a distance. The girl in the comic wears glasses and a hoodie, which could be less than half the girls in my Japanese class,"

Gavin looked up at the dark sky, silent now after all of his confessing. "I don't know what to do now. I mean, I know now why those pictures kept showing up and I received that Valentine; the girl likes me, but doesn't know how to tell me, so she does it in the only way she knows how. She wasn't trying to be creepy, she was just trying to express how she feels."

He rubbed his hands down his face in exasperation. "I tried not to dwell on it, blow it off, yaknow, but something like this can't be ignored."

Solemn, he rolled back onto his side. "It doesn't matter now; she's probably dead, anyways,"

Then, in a quieter tone, "Never even got the chance to know her name or who she was."

He went silent again, breaking it only to say, "Thanks for listening, Evan; I really needed to vent."

Closing his eyes, he fell back into sleep.