Freedom Fires

Chapter 8~ dance away the pain in the rain

Jamie had agreed, but only if she took a shower. Laughing as though it were a joke she ignored him until he insisted by blocking the door.

                “Come on really Jam?” she asked looking past him hungrily.

                “Since when did we start with nicknames? And nope try to atleast think abit, you’re entering a world filled with people down there, it wouldn’t hurt to wash off the layers of dirt and blood caked on you.” He replied looking at her meaningfully.

                Looking down she growled glaring at him as she seen he was right, her blue t-shirt was barely visible and faded with the layer of mud while the long skin tight black pants that she had been issued at the camp were torn to shredded revealing pink bruised skin beneath. “Fine, lead the way” she said crossing her arms as Jamie hobbled ahead of her down the corrider to two doors on which hung the two signs from the old days. Remembering the past Tallen sucked in seeing her mothers ghostly figure walk through the door on the right.

                “Hey you ‘kay?” Jamie asked grabbing her arm to steady her, immediately pulling her thoughts away from the hallucination.

                Shoving off his hand she cleared her head to clear her mind, “perfect, is everything in there?”

                “like towels and extra clothes? Yeah, just make sure you leave things the way they were. I learned the hard way,” He said chuckling at a recent memory. Nodding she pushed through into a startling clean white room complete with a shower, sink, toilet, and huge blow dryer.

                Pain was the first thing she felt, powerful and overwhelming in her chest. Blooming like cigarette smoke  making her choke. Had she lost her mind? She couldn’t remember ever being this hopeless, this lost. The past, no matter how much she tried ignoring it , had repeated itself in the form of new places, new people.  The porcelain floor reminding her of the nights she danced in the kitchen to her favorite music.

                Slipping under the stream of hot water her muscles eased, reminding her of how before Kyle had left she never had a care in the world. Maybe it was true, she really had lost her mind. Wouldn’t be the first time a young survivor offed herself because reality had come rushing back, she had carried out enough corpses from the showering barracks to know.

Scrubbing off layer after layer she massaged the knots out of her limbs working her way back through time, until she was once again an innocent girl who had yet to live through the outage and its ensuing wars. Closing her eyes she blocked out the past and focused on what awaited her outside.

Jamie, with his chocolate brown eyes sent a shiver down her spine. The way his skin was always so warm against hers, made her feel safe, was the only sane thing she could wrap her mind around. He had entered her life by chance, fate, no. she scolded herself for even thinking fate had brought them together. It had to be chance, that he happened to help her when those wolves had eaten her alive. It was nothing but chance when he turned up when Tyler went wack, and had helped her escape unhurt when he decided to take a bullet for her.

                Another type of pain hit her heart, bruised and close to shattering, she wondered why. He thought again about how he had helped her through her nightmares and sucked up the pain because she asked him to. realization hit her, leaving her breathless as the water started cooling down into an icey rush.

                Stepping out Tallen grabbed a towel quickly shutting off the faucet, did she actually care about him? Impossible. Looking in the mirror she shivered again, her green eyes staring back at her as if her reflection dared her to reject the idea. ‘But it’s insane’ she thought shaking her head as she sat on the toilet seat looking down at her hands.

                Angry at herself she stood up pacing back and forth muttering to herself, “Do I?” Taking a look at the mirror the same challenging face looked back at her and for a second time Tallen realized deep down she really did like him. ‘What does that mean?’ she thought fear seaping into the momentary happiness. ‘He can’t know, he’d think I was crazy for sure’  She thought again. Hearing a huff of impatience outside she noticed Jamie must’ve been waiting for her the entire time. Quickly trying to rid her mind of any thoughts about him she glanced around spotting a closet with plain clothes, similar to the ones from camp.

                Ignoring another impatient huff from behind the door she retrieved her filthy shirt, there was no way she was going to wear Camp clothes that she wasn’t already used to. turning the faucet in the sink on she drenched her shirt scrubbing the dirt off vigoursly until there wasn’t any to scrub off. Throwing it to the side she turned to her pants repeating the process before approaching the blow dryer.

                Pressing the button she first untangled her long red waves knowing that if she didn’t they’d be annoying as hell later. Then placing the shirt under its current she made sure it was alittle extra warm before throwing it over her head, thankful atleast for the new undergarments, she dryed the pants adding a few extra slashes to the lycra fabric smiling at the thought that it made her look alittle more badass. ‘hey you’re the first to escape a camp I’d call that pretty badass’ she laughed at her thoughts before pulling on her pants and admiring her lean figure in the cracked mirror.

Slipping outside Jamie smirked at her choice of clothes, “Guess we both don’t like their clothes, to much like the camps right?” He asked.

                Curiosty struck her, he never said anything about being from the Camps,“How do-“

                “Unimportant you hungry ‘cause I’m starving and you took long enough in there,” He said changing the subject, clearly he realized his mistake.

                Shrugging she aware that her body was screaming for food, “Take the lead,” She smiled following him again as he maneuvered through endless halls. How did he remember where everything was?  She wondered as it seemed they may never find the end to this maze of grimy halls and half-broken stair cases. As her mind wandered back to the night when Jamie had found her and tyler, after knocking him out he still had managed to find her. Curiousity stirred in her mind, how did he manage to find her? After all she had never mentioned where she was going specifically in the city and it had taken three days travel to even get there to begin with. Suddenly she had the urge to run away, she if he would find her again.

                “Come on, really?”

                His voice relieved her of her childish thoughts, “what?”

                “You’re actually going to go run and expect me to find you?” His answer shocked her, how had he known?  “Come on Tallen it’s written across your face.” He laughed though it didn’t quite reach those eyes filled with concern and alittle bit of fear.

                “No I was just to shocked that you even thought that that’s what I was thinking about,” Tallen replied smoothly regaining her composure and taking a few steps toward him smirking.

                Squinting at her he seemed to contemplate if she was telling the truth, crossing her arms she tried her best to remain neutral, “Are we going to eat or what?”

                Shrugging he turned and continued hobbling down the hall seeming to take her lie, as she followed she suddenly picked up the scent of food, real hot cooking food. Mouthwatering she came up behind Jamie, “are you going to move fatso?” she asked. Concern flitted through his eyes, but she ignored it wanting only to get her hands on some food, pushing past him her heart stopped. Her senses getting assaulted stunning her into silence.