Fahrenheit 452

~Chapter 2~

"Cold.., shiver, shake..cold, cold, cold..shake..shiver, cold" As Clarisse opened her eyes, she noticed she was back in 'The Box'. "Great", she mumbled. As she slowly got out of bed, she wrapped her arms around herself so keep herself from shaking so much. She blew out a breath into the air and could see it very faintly. She rolled her eyes. "Don't they know anything about HEAT..?" she said. Clarisse delicately walked towards the little window in her room and rested her chin on her arms which were folded in front of her on the windowsill. The sight was still the same. Beautiful landscape and then further away, the dark city. Still in ruins.

"Oh Montag..I hope wherever you are..you're alive..and weren't laid down with the city.." Clarisse thought. She turned around and as she was going to sit back on the bed, she heard faint shouting out in the hallway. Shouting, yelling yelling, loud noises, cursing. Clarisse ran up to the door and looked out the little vertical rectangular window. The yelling got louder as people ran by, older and some of her age. The men in the dark coats were herding the people down the hallway. 'What is going on?', she thought. She pushed a button on the intercom to her left and said "Hello?, Doctor?" "What's going on? Why is everybody running and yelling?" No answer..,only static."Damn it", Clarisse whispered.

As she continued to look out the window, she heard a familiar click, and then a beep. She stepped back as the door to her room slid open. Clarisse whimpered as she slipped on her slippers and slowly peeked outside of her room. "Oh gosh..", she said; her heart pounding. Nothing to the left of her.., nothing to the right of her. 'Okay..' she thought. Bang. Bang. Boom! Crashing, yelling, then gunshots. Clarisse gasped and stepped back into her room. A man in a black coat appeared in the doorway, blood running down the side of his head. Splatters on his clothes and neck. "Come with me Clarisse", he said and motioned for her to come to him.

He looked around for a moment, then back at her, "Hurry up! Or I'm just going to fucking leave you here." Clarisse sharply inhaled and quickly walked towards him. He took her hand and they ran left, down the hallway. As they ran through the big building and down bloody, trashed hallways, Clarisse slyly examined the man's face. There's no doubt he was attractive, slightly younger than she would've thought. Definitely taller than her, at least six inches or more. Around her age maybe. He had black hair that was slicked back and shaven on either side of his head. Broad shoulders. High, sculpted cheekbones. Bright blue eyes, almost cat like; and dark eyebrows that framed them well. Straight nose and full lips; not too big, not too small."I want to touch them"

She thought as she blushed and came back to reality, focusing more on what was happening around her. It looked like they were almost to the front of the building they were in. Big double doors marked their exit. They came to the end of a hallway, and he looked down to smile at her as he was carefully looking around a corner. Spotting a mechanical hound slinking around, sniffing. Clarisse looked down and noticed they were still holding hands. She looked up at him and whispered, "Is this still necessary?" she asked, looking at their clasped hands. He looked down at her, then at their hands. "Yes." He said it so quickly and quietly she almost missed it. Clarisse huffed. 'Umm, okay', she thought.

They slowly started moving towards the doors, trying to sneak past the hound. Walking outside, Clarisse smiled greatly, closing her eyes to take a breath of air and sighed as she exhaled. She missed this; fresh air, the sun, nature. She took her slippers off for a moment to feel the grass underneath her bare feet and giggled; the earth underneath her feet felt lovely. The man in the dark coat looked over at her with an amused look on his face. Clarisse looked over at him with a puzzled look, "What?" she asked. "Nothing." he replied.  As the wind blew, a dancing dandelion caught Clarisse's attention.

She let go of the young man's hand and smiled brightly as she plucked the fragile little weed from the ground. As she turned around, she held the dandelion out in front of her and looked at the young man. He looked at the yellow puff ball, then back at Clarisse. "What's with the weed?" he asked. "Take it", she replied. He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment before he reached over and gently took the dandelion from her. "Now what?" "Rub it under your chin." He looked at her with a confused expression on his face. "Well..,why?" he asked. She looked up at him with her big dark eyes and replied, "If you rub a dandelion under your chin and it rubs off, it means that you're in love."

The young man in the dark coat looked at Clarisse as he slowly put the dandelion under his chin and started rubbing it. Back and forth. Back and forth. Some of the petals fell off but not much. He looked down at the dandelion once more than back to Clarisse. "I don't think it quite worked out too well", he said. Clarisse smiled and sighed as she continued to look at him. "Well, that's okay." 

"Mhmm." he mumbled. Clarisse looked up and realized there was still blood on the side of his head. As she reached her hand up to move his hair out of the way, he grabbed her wrist and stopped her short. Clarisse gasped. "Did I do something wrong?" "No." He looked at Clarisse through a narrow gaze. "Just don't like people touching me very much." She slowly pulled her hand away and looked down. "I apologize, I was just going to look at the blood on your head. Is it yours?" "No." He replied. "Someone else's; got shot and splattered. Hell, I have blood all over me." Clarisse nodded and asked, "What's going on anyway?" Looking around, he said "This place got invaded by a bunch of mechanical hounds. Everybody started running and screaming. These men then came in after with big weaponry and gas masks. A lot of people died in there today..."

His voice faded to whisper as he continued to look at the big building. He looked down at the ground for a minute, put his hands in his pockets, then turned around and started walking away. Clarisse looked around with a confused yet sad expression, slipping her slippers back on and starting to walk after the young man to catch up. "Where are you going?" Clarisse asked. "Well everything fell through back there and people need help. So I'm headed to the city." "What's your name? If you don't mind me asking." The young man slightly looked back at Clarisse over his shoulder. "My name's Rhode. Nice to officially meet you Clarisse."