Linked

Chapter 20

We decided to spend the night under the stars.

After gathering supplies from the same, old gas station, attending to our extremely frigid bodies, and setting up camp not too far from the gas station, we all sat around the campfire and roasted marshmallows. A simple, fitting thing. Like a reminder of the good days before the Boss, and a welcome back to the world we could now return to.

I joined the group with a marshmallow stick in my hand, and hope in my heart. Just as I was sitting down, however, Dustin exclaimed, "She's waking up, everyone!"

Emily had been asleep the whole journey back into town. Her body was ice cold, and we feared she might never wake up. Yet, laying next to the fire and wrapped in many blankets, she began to stir.

We all slide into a position next to her and prepared for her eyes to open.

"G-guys?" Emily uttered weakly.

"It's okay, Emily. You're safe," Dustin assured her quietly.

She smiled at us with comfort and glanced at me. "Casey." We hugged, and then her eyes fell on the boy next to me, "Liam." Her eyes grew wide, and her smile broadened.

"Yeah... that's Liam," I answered. Somehow, from all the things I'd told her about him, Emily knew who he was. She saw through Liam's unknown figure and understood that this was the man that had saved us.

Liam looked my way and mouthed I'm famous! I chuckled, and they embraced.

"Thanks for saving me, guys. I was really, really cold."

"I bet you were, Emily. We were cold too. You were really strong to have waited for us that long." I tried to put into words how tough she had been.

"Thanks, Casey." She yawned, and I got up to retrieve some leftovers we'd bought.

"Here you go, Emily." I handed her the fire-warmed can of beans. She gratefully began to shovel them in her mouth and my mind tried to register how hungry she must be. Poor, Emily... Thank goodness she's safe now.

~~~

With the sun down, and the fire dying, Dustin, Cyrus, Liam, Emily, and I curled up on the ground with some blankets we'd bought. Cyrus, Emily, and Dustin passed out immediately, but Liam and I lay awake next to each other.

I listened to the sound of the fire's last crackles, and the cricket's first chirps; sleep would surely consume me soon as well.

"Hey, Casey?" Liam, rolled over to face me.

"Yeah, Liam?" I returned his gaze.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" I shook the sleep from my eyes.

"Well, I was just wondering... that if we're all free now... do we go back to our old lives?" I realized he'd been having the same thoughts as me.

"I don't know Liam. I mean, what else would we do? That's what the goal was all along, right?" I paused, trying to convince myself more than Liam. "We could finally have our lives back... You and I, we could be... a normal couple." We looked at each other and I took his hand. He sighed, and we rolled back on our backs. Our hands were linked together as we gazed into the stars... thinking.

"But, Casey?" His eyes remained fixed on the sky as he spoke. "How do we know the Boss won't come back for us? How do we know we're really... safe?"

Liam rubbed my hand, not really asking for a response. He then let go of my hand and rolled back on his side to sleep; leaving me with yet another question gnawing at my mind.

How do we know it's over?

~~~

Eventually sleep seeped its way into the cracks in my consciousness and took over. But soon after that, I began to hear an echo of sound through my brain. The sound called out through the dark walls of my slumber, and I realized it was a voice.

Casey. Casey! It cried. I knew this was someone's voice, but no one matched it's tone. In fact, the sound was so different from anyone I knew, that it sounded torn from any human-like speech.

Casey!

The words echoed through the void, and began to change from a whisper to a clear volume. The language grew louder, and then the message changed altogether.

Casey! Listen. Everything is about to change.

What? What could that mean? I tried to answer back, but for once my thoughts were cut-off. I was just along for the ride.

Everything is about to change, Casey. It repeated.

Everything will change... Let it happen. It will change for the better.

My mind wrestled with many thoughts. Everything? Change for the better? Who's better? And I don't want change. We just escaped change.

So how am I supposed to just let this happen?