“Ok, here’s the church you so desperately wanted” Skeets said as he shouldered the doors open to the church.
I liked the church, it was long abandoned, but the gothic style to it made people keep it habitual. I guess people thought that eventually some pastor and his congregation would finally fill its stone walls with music again, give the red doors some life. But after the fog wall, the remaining kids kept a wide berth around the church. I guess they didn’t like the air around it or something. Whatever.
So after Skeets managed to overpower the hinges, Dave slowly walked in, his head bowed, his arms crossed across his back, looking like a child who was caught stealing by his mom. He slowly crossed the threshold, slowly looked up, took one more step, and smiled. “Whew,” He said, breaking the reverence of the moment. “Last time I entered one of these, I got zapped with a lighting bolt. ‘BAM’, and I was dead, keeled over on the spot. I guess these older churches are a bit more forgiving.” He walked over to one of the more together pews, sat down, bowed his head, and quickly began to pray. Skeets pulled me aside, to talk I guess.
“Sarah,” He whispered, “I really don’t like him. He seems a bit, shady. And this is me speaking apart from my feelings for you.”
I crossed my arms, I knew this act, he already played it on me once. “Skeets,” I began, “Or should I say Mereb?” I knew I already went too far by saying that, but I didn’t care. Here I had the chance to go and do something I had only dreamed about, and loverboy here was trying to stop that. “I know you’re speaking from you feelings, your voice always dips when you do. But listen, this man was in my house last night, and what did he do? He didn’t assault me, he didn’t try to compliment me, he protected me. Protected me from something that quite honestly, your mind couldn’t handle. I’m surprised I haven’t gone completely bonkers from what I saw last night, there’s a whole other side to reality out there Skeets, one that I can see, and no one else can. And I’ll be damned if someone like you who still has a heartthrob on me will stop me from seeing it, so Skeets, I’m telling you to do this: Go home, sit down, have a very large breakfast, and run around the fog bank, and tell me that Dave can’t be connected to it.” I turned around to storm off, but ran straight into Dave’s chest. I looked up, he looked weary, but hopeful.
“Something wrong here?” He asked. I opened my mouth to answer, but he shushed me. “ I understand, here, Sarah, go pack, and I’ll inform Skeets about me, and who I am.” He turned to Skeets, “I’m about to show you something very, very, very strange. And when I’m done, either you’ll understand, or you’ll go crazy. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?” Skeets nodded slowly. “Good,” Dave said. “Sarah, meet us back here in about ten minutes.”
I ran back to my house, and bounded up the steps. Then I paused: what does someone take on an adventure like this? Then I thought of what my grandfather would say: Anything necessary, nothing more, nothing less. I grabbed good-sized string bag, then scanned my room for what would fall under the category for “Necessary”.
The first thing I grabbed was my pistol, with the few extra mags and boxes of ammo I had, and my spring knife. I felt like I’d be fighting a lot of things, and if not, they might be valuable somewhere where they didn’t have guns. Next I grabbed my futbol shin guards: even if they weren’t on my legs, they still offered a lot of protection for my forearm. Finally, I ran downstairs and packed as much canned food and water I could carry. I was tempted to grab another outfit of clothes, but I remembered Dave saying I wouldn’t need them, oddly enough. I ran out the door, then remembered one last thing: a watch. I grabbed the two wrist watches I had, only grabbing both because I felt like one would end up breaking. I strapped both on and ran down the hill, to where I found Skeets and Dave sitting on a bench. Skeets looked up at me, and small, sad smile on his face. Dave got up slowly, and also looked at me, before walking behind me. Skeets got up, and walked towards me. “Do you really have to go?” He asked me. I nodded slowly, I couldn’t explain the draw I had the second I met Dave, but I knew I had to follow it. “Ok,” Skeets whispered softly. He looked over my shoulder, “Hey Dave!” He yelled. I turned around to see Dave doing the same. “You keep Sarah safe, or you’ll have more to worry about besides the Plague!”
I saw Dave smile through the sunlight, and he gave a small thumbs-up. “Go on Sarah,” He said, whispering again, “Just, make sure you come back.” I turned around, and gave Skeets a large, hard hug. “I will,” I told him “I couldn’t leave you will all these idiots.” I joked: he always called half the people in Sardin idiots. I heard him chuckle before he broke off the hug.
I looked at him, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, then ran after Dave, who was already a few blocks ahead of me, leading me to the place we first met.
