Journey in the Aftermath

Chapter 9: Choking on a Crush

This chapter is told by the POV of Steven

This is taking too long. We have been walking practically nonstop all day. My legs are dying. Everybody is getting crabby and Jessica is falling asleep walking

"Can we take a break?" Levi says talking to Devin

"No. If I can still walk with these heavy ass ice pops dangling from my torso, then you can walk just fine" he replies bitterly looking at his arms

"But your killing us!" he snaps back "Just look at the little girl, she's barely even walking"

"Hey back off asshole, I might be a little girl but I am tougher than all of you" she says then stumbles a little bit. Devin turns and looks at her then stops walking. He gets down on one knee facing away from her

"Get on" he says in a low but soft voice

"Excuse me? What?" Jessica says blankly

"Get on, I'm going to carry you" he says looking back at her

"But you're crippled! You don't even have the use of your arms! Why would you still want to carry me?" she says and kinda starts to calm down a bit

"Because. You are tough. You remind alot of myself, which is why I know that you will hang tough until your very last breath. So, go ahead and get on, I know you want to, nobody will think you any weaker for it" he says and looks forward again "But you can't fall asleep because you have to hold yourself up ok?"

"Devin... Ok.." she nervously stammers and climbs onto his back. He gets up and begins walking again

"Hey Devin?" I ask walking next to him

"Yeah man?" he replies

"How exactly did you survive the explosion? Me and Jessica were far away from it but the debris reached even us" I ask and Jessica lifts her head up to listen

"Well Steven, I survived because of magic. Magic and a shit ton of mutant spider dust" he says and Madeline giggles a little bit "If you really want to know, one explosion blew a hole in the wall and another blew me out of that hole and I landed in a tree. The biggest explosion knocked down that tree and as I fell I jumped off and hit the ground running and that's that" after that we all kind of march on quietly again.

We finally make camp when the sun goes down and Jessica falls asleep and slips off of Devin's back while he's walking. There is no talking between the group for a while as most people don't want to conversate. Levi and Jessica fall asleep, Devin tells us he is taking a walk then disappears, and me and Madeline finally talk after not being able to sleep for about an hour

"Hey Steven, you want to play a game?" she says getting bored

"I don't know. What kind of game?" I respond hoping its something that can tire me out or at least distract me long enough for the sun to come up

"I'm gonna tell two truths and a lie and you have to use your powers to guess the lie, but I'm going to try to stop you from getting them right by thinking random thoughts" she says and I get kind of excited because I get to train and play at the same time

"Ok, that sounds fun, go ahead and start" I say ready

"This will be easy. I can control ice, I think Milton is stupid, I like raw fish" she says smiling

"Ok, I'm pretty sure the raw fish is the lie" I say laughing a bit

"Ok, this will be a bit harder. I'm allergic to dogs, I like fishing, and I've never had my first kiss" she says keeping a straight face. I close my eyes and concentrate

Bark bark, meow, love eating caught fish, smooches, blub blub, I'm a porcupine, I hate dogs, trees are fun

I hate dogs? Love eating caught fish? Ok, got you.

"The kiss one is a lie" I say sure of myself. She blushes a bit then looks down

"Actually, I've never had my first kiss. I was thinking to myself I hate dogs to throw you off, I hate them now but I'm not allergic" she responds softly

"You've never kissed anyone? Wow.. Me either.." I say and she looks up at me. We meet eyes for a second and I feel something in me that makes me want to kiss her so bad. I lean in and close my eyes, we kiss then she immediately pulls back causing me to land on my face on the hard ground. She stands up quickly and blushes bright red

"Umm.. I'm sorry, I wasn't supposed to do that.. I don't think now is a good time for a boyfriend, I'm sorry!!" she says and quickly turns and walks away. I watch as she walks through the trees leaving me on the ground broken hearted

"You're moves are shit, bro" I hear behind me, I turn and see Levi laying there staring at me. I stand up and brush my face off "Like for real, that was harsh. You good?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." I reply and head off in the opposite direction of Madeline. I come to a small pond and sit at the edge of the water. I sit there looking at my reflection for a long time before I notice the figure sitting on the other side doing the same. It's Devin. And he's obviously been crying. I get up and walk over to him

"Dude, are you ok?" I put my hand on his shoulder. He looks up at me with tear filled eyes

"I can't save them. No matter how hard I try, I'm not going to be able to save them all. They're going to die and it's because I'm not strong enough" he says then looks back to his reflection

"Hey, shut up. None of us would be here if it wasn't for you, you saved everybody in the group at least once. You're our leader. Our-" I'm cut off by an arm pressing hard into my neck, someone is choking me from behind

"Steven? What are you doing?" Devin looks at me confused. I butt my head back and contact with something hard. I fall to the ground next to Devin and look behind me to see a really pale boy come out of mid air, becoming visible before our eyes

"Oh well, I don't need to be invisible to kill you pests" says the boy