Smirk

Chapter 4: I hate the Kane.

            I woke up that morning leaning up against a tree. I stretched out; every bone in my body ached. I looked around me and my heart beat sped up. Blood was splattered everywhere around me. It looked like a murder scene. As I looked around some more I saw my hoodie a couple feet away; it was blood soaked.  What happened last night? I help my head in my hands as I tried to recollect what exactly did happen last night. I remembered walking back from the ration center with mine and my mother’s food. Oh shit. My mom. She must be terribly worried. I quickly got up but wobbled a little, only to fall back down to the ground. I was shaking terribly, but it wasn’t even that cold outside. Suddenly all of last nights events came rushing back into my head. There was a boy… no two boys. They had saved my life. I remembered everything now, well only what I was partially conscience for. I looked for the bag of food they left and saw it sitting to my right. So I wasn’t going crazy.

                I once again tried to get up with the bag of food in my hands. I stumbled again but was able to regain my balance. I was only about a quarter mile from my house so it wasn’t long before I reached it. The street I lived on was busy with children, like always. Even though there was only about 10 tiny houses lining the street, about 25 families lived here. A group of children came running full force to me, like always. About 5 of them jumped and tackled me screaming various things. They were really the last thing I wanted to deal with now, but I couldn’t just push them away. I laid pinned on the ground with the small children atop of me. It was really sad that a group of small children could pin a 16 year old to the group, but I wasn’t exactly the strongest person. A 10 year old nicknamed “Mouse” spoke up first.

“Kai, Kai, Kai, where have you beennnn.” His voice squeaked as he talked, which is how he was given the nickname Mouse. I sat up pushing the rest of the children off of me. Everything in my body hurt even more after that tackling.

“I was fighting the biggest monster you can imagine!” I said in an eerie voice. I had all their attention now. I got up to act out last nights “events” for them.

“I was just about to leave when I heard a shriek. ‘Help me, Help me!’ A young pretty lady tugged on my arm. Pointing to the building.”

“He was a giant… rabid… Bear! He had just taken food from the ration center!” I said stomping around like a giant. This got a reply of “Ohhh” from the kids.

“What did you do?!” Another kid screamed out.

“Well, I fought the bear with all my might. It was hard, he even stole my jacket from me. But, look at these guns.” I said holding up my arms, in reality my arms where just skinny sticks but the kids didn’t know better.

“Did you get the girl?” Mouse shouted out this time.

“What do you think?” I said with a smirk making a kissy face. This caused a laughter to erupt from the group of kids. It amazed me that these kids who had absolutely nothing could still smile in the worst of times. If only we were all still this innocent. I joined into their laughter even though I still felt terrible from last night’s events. The laughter of the children stopped almost simultaneously. All their eyes were fixed behind me.

“Where were you?” A deep voice spoke behind me. I knew instantly who it was.  His name was Zurui and he hated my guts. He was 6’2, a whole foot taller than I was, and was a year older than me. He was the oldest of the kids on my street and he made sure everyone knew that. Zurui wore an eye patch and had burn marks splattered across his body. He sure had been through a lot, and wasn’t exactly someone you wanted on your bad side.

“He was fighting monsters!” Mouse shouted out before I could stop him. Zurui laughed at this remark. He grabbed ahold of my wrist tightly which made a yelp escape from my mouth.