Crack Attack: A Collection of One-Shots and Other Disturbing Shit

Proofless - Chapter 13

           "Rob! Trees!" He takes off for the crooked line of trees down the road from the house and I limp as fast as I can behind him, hoping that we can take cover before she manages to somehow get out of her prison cell. The weeping willows weep for us and drag their whip-like fingers across our skin as we duck down in the shadows on the side away from the road. I fall flat on my ass after a shooting pain reminds me how fucked up my right foot is. We wait there and catch our breath - it's really hard to sprint after spending a month strapped to a bed. He turns to me, the dim light from her house reflecting in his eyes as he peeks around the tree again. "Now what're we gonna do? There's like... nothing out here." And he's right: the only other thing that we can even see from here is another group of trees about a mile down the grassy, hilly field of emptiness.

"I think we have to go for it, man. Just stay away from the road and if you hear anything, hit the deck. The sooner we get going, the better chance we have of getting somewhere without her seeing us." He nods before he turns to look at me with an unreadable expression on his face. He reaches over and brushes a willow leaf off of my shoulder in an unexpected moment of tenderness. Damn it. I don't want to have this fight right now.

"You okay?"

"I'll live. Let's go before she catches up to us." He stands up and holds his hand out for me to take, and I won't lie - I hesitate for a second before I take it. I don't want him to get the wrong idea about how things are going to work on this side of the metal walls.

"Let's hit it." We jog over to the left, slowly moving away from the road and toward the next outcropping of trees. When he starts to get ahead of me, he turns and jogs backward to watch behind us while I grimace and trudge my way forward. I can't tell if the grimace is more from the stabbing in my toes or the fluid running down my thighs. At least I won't have to deal with that shit anymore. He spins around again and almost stumbles on the uneven ground, throwing his hands back to break his fall before he catches his balance with a defiant grin.

"You're going to break your leg if you keep doing that."

"Quit worrying. I'm fine. I'm not gonna leave you behind, you derp."

"I might leave you behind if you can't hobble with me. I can't carry your ass." He glares at me and stops, waiting until I pass him so that he can punch me in the arm.

"Are you callin' me fat?"

"No, I'm calling you stupid." He doesn't know how to respond to that and it takes him a few seconds to catch up to me and punch me again.

"You want me to leave you here?" He checks behind us one last time before he pulls ahead, panting as he comes to a stop next to the closest willow and peers over the hill. It takes me another minute or so to catch up to him and I find myself holding my foot up off of the ground to try to get it to stop pounding. Judging by the burning on the bottoms of my feet, I am going to have blood blisters after this little excursion, too. "Rob, look. Is that a town?" I brace myself up against the tree and wobble up next to him, leaning back against the trunk to rest while we figure out our next move. When my back hits the tree, something moves in my pocket and I immediately yank the phone out to check it, knowing that its chances of still having a charge after a month are next to nothing. I hold in the power button... and I don't even get a warning screen to plug it in. I don't have a charger for it even if I find a power source. Fuck. "Rob! Stop screwin' around and look!"

"How far do you think that is?" I ask as I rest my foot up on the tree and wipe off the sweat running down my face. I didn't realize how warm the air was until now. We should have grabbed some water out of the house before we left. The constellation of white lights seems impossibly far away and I am starting to wonder whether or not we'll be able to get there.