Still breathing | Original story

Chapter Twenty Five: Bad memories

Word count: 1666

I stepped out of the hospital, nothing seemed worth it anymore. I had been so fixated on the safe zone that I thought everything would be good when I made it there. I thought everything would be good if I found where my parents were taken. But I was so very wrong. I got answers at least, but I needed more.
Why hadn't that thing attacked me? Am I a monster? Am I one of them, a carrier of the virus maybe? What about that infected back when I was in Tyler's group, was R the reason I wasn't killed? Finding out what R meant without any information would be difficult, to say the least, I could be R for all I knew. If R even is a thing. And when did it happen because the infected looked ready to eat me in that tunnel? What changed?
The wind from outside seeped through my trousers and top, making me feel like a block of ice as I walked. We made our way back over the fence and kept walking, I didn't know where. It was growing dark. Logan had a protective arm around Lily who looked pale and drained. Wait, was it Logan that changed the situation? But I've known him forever, he can't have changed things.

"Rem! Remi." I lost my train of thought as I saw Caleb rush towards an abandoned car, his hand reaching for the door handle as he attempted to get in. Flashes of Ella screaming filled my mind.
"Stop!" I yelled and rushed over to Caleb to pull him away from the car. I ended up pushing him away and he looked up shocked. Everyone around me went silent whilst I stood there sucking in air fast.
"God calm down Rem's, its just a car," Logan spoke up later.
"A car which could be harbouring an infected person!" I yelled at him, tears tried to force their way out of my eyes as I remembered Ella and that stupid car. "If you haven't noticed they could be anywhere and everywhere."
"What the hell happened to you!? You've lost your chill," Logan shot back as he held a whimpering Caleb in his arms. He didn't actually think he could just appear after so long and suddenly get to say what was right and wrong when there's clearly danger everywhere we walk.
"Well, you wouldn't know what happened seeing as you left me!" Tears were free flowing down my cheeks.
"That wasn't my fault and you know it!"
"Ladies, ladies, calm down," Lily interjected. "Let's just check this car out, my mum can drive," she said as Logan and I glared at each other, breathing heavily after our argument.
He let Caleb go, who looked at me cautiously before sniffing.
"Sorry," I whispered as the gang checked the car out. When Caleb said nothing I slunk away and searched the car for a key; not before looking underneath the seats. I looked in all the overhead compartments and the down one with no luck. I searched the floors and in between the seats but whoever's car it was, didn't want strangers to get it. I was about to give up when Archie pointed to a shimmer of something on the floor. I watched him walk over and pick it up, showing off the key triumphantly as he made his way back.
He passed it over with a smile, I just hoped there was fuel in it. I pushed the key into the lock and held my breath, Archie gave me a reassuring look as I turned it. It made a rough noise before dying again, I looked at it hard in concentration and tried again, hoping it was just warming up. On the third attempt, when we had all lost hope, the dials in the car lit up and stayed that way. The engine purred away.
"Let's get going," Jasmine smiled as I got out of the drivers chair and she took her place in it. Lily joined her up front whilst I went into the back next to Archie, who was holding Caleb, and then there was Logan who sat in the seat farthest from me.
"Where are we heading?" Jasmine asked from up front. Silence filled the car. I was about to suggest Archie's to get food but the man himself spoke up before I could.
"I know a place. If my corpse-watching and geographical knowledge are correct there's a jail close by that would be a perfect hide out."
"How would you know that? Been in prison bad man?" Logan spat out in a mocking tone.
"Actually, my dad took me there once," he chuckled. "Long story."
I bet he had a map of the whole place back at his, he was much better at maps than I'd ever be. It's just weird he wouldn't suggest his house over any other place. Maybe he wasn't as smart as he made out to be, or maybe he was avoiding it for a reason. Perhaps he had already said his goodbyes and he didn't have it in him to start with the hellos again.
"Would you like to sit up front and give me directions?" Jasmine asked a little unsure of herself. Archie looked down at me, I probably looked so afraid and vulnerable as the days terrors drained on me. He seemed to be asking for reassurance, making sure he could leave me and I'd be alright. I half smiled and put a thumbs up to him, I could tell he appreciated my effort to seem alright.
"It'd be my pleasure," he finally replied before turning to Caleb. "Come on kid, time to ride up front whoo."
"Whoo!" Caleb repeated over-joyed.

Lily squashed into the middle seat. I closed my eyes for what seemed to be a second but when I opened them we were on a country road, I wasn't sure where as every inch of grassland in England looked the same.
I stared up at the sky. Pale blue with a hint of faded clouds. I could tell the car was going fast by the whizzing of the trees that past my view, and a blur of melting snow that covered the ground. The sky stayed constant. As though it was following us. When I was younger I used to think the moon was following me, I suddenly felt the same way about the clouds.
"Pretty right?" I turned to Lily and saw she was also looking out the window, her eyes fixed on the gentle clouds. I nodded and turned back to the window myself.
"Yeah, I never really appreciated a view like this before," I spoke softly, thinking back to 'before'. Before the world went to shit. "My family and I would always go on little road trips." Like this, I almost said. Until I realised that even though the roads may be similar, the circumstances weren't. "And yet my face would always be glued to a book that I was either reading or writing in."
"Same here," Lily sighed. "I would be taking selfies with my friends or just be on my phone." That was when I realised how much we had both taken life for granted.
"Its funny though isn't it?" I began, more to myself. There was a pause, the wind from the open window up front began to gently touch my hair and cool my heated face. "How we only notice how pretty the world is...when it's ending." Silence filled the car and for a second I thought I should've kept the thought to myself.
"When did you become so bloody poetic?" Logan asked me sarcastically, to which I rolled my eyes.
"About the same time I reached the shop," I replied just as harshly.
I knew I wasn't mad at him for leaving, I honestly didn't blame him and in a way I was glad he was alive. Could it be possible I was mad at him for going out with Lily? Inside it felt like someone had literally reached into my chest and had started to tug at my heart. Not because I liked him, not anymore, but because I knew things weren't the same as they used to be. I just wanted us to be friends again, like old times, but we couldn't. Whilst I was trying to find him, he had found someone else. I sighed.
"Look I know you guys hate each other but you need to let things go and get along! If not you're both going to end up dead," Archie called from upfront, looking at us through the mirror above.
"I don't hate him," I mumbled and crossed my arms.
"Well I don't hate you either... you just happen to be a little bitch," Logan replied with a smug smile.
"Well, you just happen to be an asshole!" I fake smiled back as warmly as I could. "And you're a lucky one at that."
"How so?" He asked me confused.
"Because I haven't pushed you out the car yet."
"There's no getting through to either of you." Archie sighed in defeat and rubbed his temple.
"She started it!" Logan told him bitterly as if he were a child being told off.
"Wooww really? How old are you, five?" I questioned him.
"See!?"
"You're provoking me!" I outburst, hearing how childish it sounded but not being able to stop it from coming out.
"You're both setting a bad example for Caleb now please, I mean this in the nicest way, shut the hell up," Archie said it so sternly that we both shut up instantly. He could tell he had won and let out a long breath before leaning his head backwards onto the head rest. "Glad that's over." But I could already feel the next argument Logan and I would have forming like black clouds before a rain shower.
"We need some fuel soon, I don't know how much further we can go," Jasmine told us as we were shadowed in the thick of the trees all around us.