The Wall

Myrtle Beach

Daniel

The whole forest was gray and silent.  It was getting old. No one talked, and we all eventually matched the environment emotionally. Keller’s shoulder was healing  without a problem, and things dragged on. Eventually the ashen forest dissolved into a clearing, and then after a mile or so, a highway. We stopped short. The highway ran perpendicular to us, going east to west. The asphalt was cracked and rugged with bright green grass growing triumphantly in the cracks. Grace bends down and picks up a couple of blades and says, “I think green is my new favorite color!” She holds the blades tightly to her chest in a gesture of affection. Junie smiles wearily and takes out a map, brushing her locks out of her face to due to the wind. 

“We have about three miles ‘till Myrtle Beach!”  We all cheer a bit. And we keep moving. I stop for a moment and say, "The ash was cleared away from this whole place."  The rest of them stop and turn towards me. Junie raises her eyebrows and looks around us, nodding in agreement. She says, "Danny's right. It's like the road was plowed, so that would mean people." It felt like an elephant just came into the area. Keller speaks up, "We don't really know what society is like nowadays, do we?"

"What if everyone is super-advanced and we're just, like, behind in society and crap?" No one really answers that and we look to the north.

We started out towards the metal skeletons looming ominously ahead of us. It wasn’t long before the road broke away to sand.

“Hey, look at these things” I say to no one in particular. Junie looks at me and says disinterestedly, “Yeah those are leeks, dude”

“Like the vegetable?”

“Umm. Yeah, sure, Danny”

Keller picks a stalk, “Good, I’m starving”, and just bites off a ginormous piece. He then scrunches his face and spits out a green wad, “It’s nasty”

“That’s because they’re loaded with sand, you idiot!!” she laughed.

“The vegetable part is nasty” he retorted intelligently. Grace snorts a laugh and trips on a crack in the ground. Keller rushes to help her; her jacket was torn and her left arm was bleeding. Keller gently set her down and Junie expertly grabbed her depleted med-kit. “Oh, Grace, why are you so klutzy?” The girl grimaces and mutters an apology. Junie was wrapping gauze around Grace’s arm when a metallic sound clinked and rolled toward us. I picked it up. A fine mist turning into a gray cloud of vapor sprayed all over my face. I involuntary throw it from where it came from, feeling dizzy and nauseous. Junie yells my name and multiple shouts cry out. It sounded muffled and far away. More clinking and rolling. My vision swirls and my head bumps lightly on the ground. An arrogant voice I didn’t recognize purrs, “And three, two, one, lights out."

Ana

Four people lay on our cots. Using our blankets, and our supplies. But whatever Lucas says, goes, I guess. Speaking of him, he meanders in to look at the captives. He goes to the red head and pushes the hair out of her face to reveal a dirty face. He then goes over to the ash-colored brunette and stops short. For the first after countless missions, he nods and says in an eerily soft voice, “Ana, hand me her stuff, please.” I look at the five bags sitting in a pile next to the latrines. I picked up the one that had “Allen” uniformly stitched onto the camouflage. He dumped it out. Just military things, nothing of what Lucas was looking for, I guess. I hand him the other bag, a faux-leather satchel, the only one that wasn’t army grade. He opens that bag with more caution, as if he knew. 

Girly stuff, like a journal, a polaroid, an extra pair of boots. And a box. It was wooden and once painted, but that has chipped away to mere blotches of color on top of cedar wood. It was locked. Lucas looked at me. “I think this is it. I can handle it from here, Ana”

“Do you want me to guard the others?”

“No.” So, that was all? I shrugged and opened the door a couple of feet to the left of me; knowing that he wouldn’t be back until late tonight.

Grace

I could hear voices, a girl and a guy’s, talking softly back and forth. The steady dripping of water, and a deep thumping sound vibrating through my bones. Slowly, I opened my eyes,bracing for a blinding glare. Nothing. It was dark. A door clicked shut. The girl and the guy had  ceased talking. I sit up gingerly and look around. Junie was to my right, and Keller and Daniel were just south of us. A boy with dark brown hair and green locked eyes with me. he looked vaguely. I scrutinized his face while he just stood there like an idiot. That’s when I saw my stuff littered on the ground. That’s when I saw my box in his hands.

“Hello,” He said pleasantly. I stared at him incredulously. “That’s mine,” I say, sounding childish. He lifts the box and tosses it to me. My hands catch it, but I fumble and it falls to the ground. It splits open, telling eleven-year-old secrets. A silver pocket watch with black roses etched on the cover skids out, and a yellow envelope slides smoothly across the concrete. I stare at it. The boy clears his throat, “Excuse me for a moment,” he says at the best possible time, and exits through a door behind him. I pick up the watch and open it. It was still ticking, but most likely keeping horrible time. The face had a white-ish pearl sheen, with silver dots to represent numbers. 

I stuff the watch in my pocket, realizing my arm was bandaged. With my hands trembling, I picked up the envelope, which was addressed to an “L. Allen” in slanted handwriting. The door suddenly opened and I jumped. The boy was holding a box the same size, but in better shape than mine. He opens it and pulls out a similar-looking envelope. I step forward and take it quickly from his hands, trying to minimize the contact. He stands there, expecting me to look at it. 

On the front of the envelope, it was addressed to a “G. Allen”. Me. I look up at the boy. He opens his mouth like he was going to say something, but closes it. I was looking down at the envelope when he says, “Grace?” That’s when  a girl with crazy-long black hair and pale skin barged into the room panting, she says to the boy, “Lucas! Charles is freaking out about the Roadrunners. He wants full forces on the outside.”  Lucas spares one last glance at me and calls out, “Stay here, “and the the black-haired girl,”Ana, let’s go.” Before sprinting with Ana out the door.

L. Allen.  

Lucas Allen.

My brother.

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