Beyond the Sun

21

Sitting in a brightly lit room, Annie looked dead ahead at the wall opposite to her. It seemed like forever as she sat in this room. In fact, she'd only been here about an hour, all the survivors of the tornado had been bought to the hospital to be checked over for injuries; including Martha and Clark who had been taken into a separate room to discuss what had happened. The journey to the hospital was silent. Shock overruled grief now, and really none of them seemed to know what to say to the other.

Annie winced slightly when something was placed over her leg. She looked to the dressing which was covering up some stitches. It seemed the cut to her leg was deeper than she thought. She honestly didn't know how she was managing to still hobble around on it. "Here, these will help with the pain." The doctor said while handing her two painkillers and a glass of water. "Your mother has been called," Annie swallowed the pills slowly and looked awkwardly around. Her mother. She gripped onto the plastic cup, how was her mother going to deal with this?

So far, no sudden dramatic event had happened, that she knew of, for her to work through. For all she knew, this one thing could set her off. She shook her head, she had Robert. Unlike her dad, Robert seemed rather in tune, and caring, and he would look out for her. Her mother would be fine. Herself, however, wasn't. She limped around the hospital trying to find Martha and Clark, but she ultimately failed. She sat down in a waiting area and placed a hand over her eyes. She wasn't going to cry, although she wanted nothing more than to do that.

Hearing her name being spoken, she looked up and saw Martha slowly crouching down in front of her. Annie reached forwards and wrapped her arms around the older woman. Martha seemed to huddle into her and hold her tightly too. After a few moments, she pulled away and stood. Holding out a hand, she helped Annie stand and together they left the waiting area. Honestly, she didn't know how Martha found her. Maybe a doctor had pointed her in Annie's direction or something? Blinking and looking around, Annie couldn't help but frown, Martha seemed to be on her own. Which begged the question of: where was Clark?

Because her mother and Robert were still away in D.C., it meant that Annie had to stay until tomorrow at the farm. She felt awkward. She felt like an intruder. They had lost a husband and a father, though she could share their grief to some extent, it still didn't compare. She wasn't sure how she got here, or when, but Annie was sitting in the spare room staring at the wall. Everything had been such a blur. She still hadn't found out where Clark was. Snapping to attention she frowned suddenly.

One thing she knew for sure, people dealt with grief differently, but one thing she knew for certain was that Clark was quite a sensitive person, he'd either bottle up everything, or let it pile up on top of him before it got too much. She knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't deal with this well. Not that anyone can deal with death well. Moving out of her room after getting changed, she awkwardly walked down the corridor. Peering into Clark's room, she wasn't surprised to see it empty. Turning and moving to the stairs she managed to walk down them, she spotted Martha in the kitchen, just sitting.

Biting her lip, Annie turned and moved to the front door. Opening it slowly, she looked about. She couldn't see Clark out here, tilting her head to the side she narrowed her eyes when she spotted a figure sitting on the roof of the barn. She knew there was a way up to the roof by climbing up and out from within, so shutting the door behind herself, she made her way over. Opening the barn door, she spotted the ladder and the little hatch on the roof. Climbing was a hard task, but she managed to do it, and soon she was pulling herself up and out of the dark barn. Shutting the hatch, she moved over and sat beside Clark. He didn't even move, or register her even being present.

"What is it?" Clark asked eventually, his voice low yet short. He still didn't move to look over at her. Instead he sat staring straight ahead at the vast stretching farmland before them.