Salvation

Chapter 5 - Daniel

The brisk fall air was refreshing after the adrenaline rushed scenario only half an hour before. Their adversaries were really no match for his party in the least, but when battle came it was all the same. If truth be told it was over a little too quick for Daniel's tastes.

The scene that they had come to had made his blood boil. He would have preferred taking his time, making the scum pay for the pain they caused. Unfortunately the Sisters of Salvation taught swift justice, not torture. The darkness deep inside him screamed for retribution.

He looked at the poor girl in the cart ahead of him. She was sitting up, propped and snuggled into blankets. Her head fell, eyes closed and she slept for a few minutes. The wagon jarred a bit and her head snapped up and her eyes were open wide in alarm. He had a feeling that she would sleep like that for awhile.

He kept his distance. He wanted to to go to her. He wanted to hold her and tell her it would be ok. He wanted to protect her, not only from the monsters that lived in the world, but from the ones that would now live in her mind. He knew that what those men had taken from her was much more serious than the bruises on her skin.

Daniel had seen it happen first hand. He had only been seven years old when The Fall had happened. He could remember how everyone was so scared. He had been happy to stay home from school. He sat in his room playing video games for two days straight. He thought it was the best thing in the world. Until the power went out.

He was lucky though. No one in his family had become sick. They stayed holed up in their home. It was he, his mother, his older sister and his father. They had hung a yellow towel from their door even though there was no sickness. It prevented anyone from trying to come in and loot their house. A safe little family. That was until his father became more sullen and angry. He had family a town over and didn't have any way to know if they were safe or not.

No one really told them what the sickness was, it all happened so fast. He did remember something being said about a super Ebola virus, but thinking back that could have been speculation. The basic thought now was that everyone who did survive was immune. So the virus hadn't returned....yet.

His father and his mother would argue late at night. He would yell about not doing anything to help anyone. She would cry, beg him to stay, tell him it was the children that they had to worry about now. Sometimes it would get so bad that he would slip into his sister's room and crawl into bed with her.

Cynthia was three years older than him. She would cuddle him and try to not cry, but he could feel the shutters of her body. She was his safe spot. His best friend. She would tell him stories of how great things would be and the things they would do when the world returned to normal.

His father had finally snapped, about two weeks after the power had gone out. They woke up one morning to him packing a few bags of food and medical supplies. Daniel had cried and held his father, begging him to take him with. His dad told him to stay and protect his mom and sister. He had hugged them all, assuring them he'd only be gone the day. He wanted them to be brave.

That was the last time Daniel had seen him. Still to this day he had no clue what had happened to his father but he wondered constantly. Did he contract the sickness? Did someone hurt him? Or did he just keep going, leaving his family alone to fend for themselves?

He, his mother and his sister did what they could. It wasn't enough. He wasn't enough to protect them. About three months after his father had left someone had finally attempted to enter their home. He remembered the day vividly. It was Cynthia who heard the glass break from a window in the basement. She had rushed to warn their mother. His mother was furious and scared, but she took control. She put them both in the attic crawlspace, told them she loved them and went to defend her children. He would have liked to say that it was a happy ending, that a mother bear fighting for her cubs had triumphed. He could not.