Broken Spirit

Chapter Three:Music

Music. I never understood it. How someone could make tons of different sounds to form a beautiful thing. My mom always said that music calmed her down, that music would sweep into her soul and take out the bad. But how could sounds take out the bad? Never the less I would always try and make music. I would bang on tree stumps and throw rocks into the stream, but it always came out as bangs and splashes. Never music.  But that wouldn't stop me from trying.

We were walking West still, about ten miles from the heap. Dylan was whistling softly well Lilly's tail was wagging hitting his leg, a soft thud could be heard from our feet hitting the dusty ground. I closed my eyes listening to the sounds trying to hear the melody from them. But the moment was ruined by a splash of water hitting my forehead. 

"Damn it" I heard a soft whisper from Dylan before Lilly's wines. I opened my eyes to see small splashes of water hit the ground. It hadn't got bad yet, but if we didn't get to cover soon, we'd be in trouble. The rain here was acid, if you were under it long enough, you'd be a puddle of goop.

"We need to hurry and hide," I said feeling another drop, but this time with a slight pain. 

"Ware though," Dylan asked looking around, all around us were dead trees, nothing to cover us from the rain. I soon spotted a large piece of metal, probably moved from the Heap to here. I pointed over to the piece. 

"There," I said before starting to run over to it Dylan and Lilly right on my heals. I slid to a stop right at the large piece of metal. It looked worn down, barely big enough for me and Dylan. I tried to lift it up, but it was too heavy for me to lift. 

"Dylan!" I screamed using all my strength to lift it up my heels digging into the damp ground, I soon felt someone lifting it up as well. 

"Ow! Mother of God" I heard from beside me, I soon felt some more heavy water hit my bare hands, pain shot up my arm as I let out a small scream. Dyland and I lifted the huge piece of metal before hurrying under it. Lilly soon came under as I took off my jacket which was steaming from the acid, I threw it on the ground right by me, Dylan was taking him off as well. 

It took twenty mins for the rain to come down to a drizzle. The huge piece of metal was rested on our backs keeping it up. We made sure to stay away from the sides where the water was falling off the metal onto the dark ground.

"Let me see your hand," Dylan asked reaching out for it. I gave it to him, seeing the now new scars from the acid embedded in my hand with all the others. You get a lot of scars when you live in a world like this one. 

"You'll survive," Dylan said before dropping my hand before grabbing his now dry jacket which had tiny little holes all over it from the rain before putting it on.

"I could have guessed that," I told him giving him a sarcastic look before rolling my eyes. I grabbed my jacket and threw it on before patting Lilly's head. Dylan got out from under the metal piece before lifting it up more, so I could get out. I hurried out with Lilly as Dylan let the metal piece go. 

Dylan and I started walking again in complete silence. We usually didn't talk unless we needed to or found an interesting topic, usually didn't happen though. 

You could smell it before you could see it.

The Mud Pit. They were all scattered across the United States. They were huge mud pits that if you went through them, you'll most likely get stuck and drown in mud. I've only seen one once, I only remember the smell and all the mud I had to clean off my clothes from walking around it.

"Can you smell that?" Dylan asked as he put his hand over his nose in an attempted to stop the smell. 

"Who can't" I replied waving my hands in front of my nose. 

"How far away do you think it is" Dylan asked.

I shrugged "I don't know, maybe a mile away it seems" I replied.

It was about a mile in when we saw the mud pit, it stretching about five miles, it wasn't very wide which was lucky for us. 

"We're gonna have to go around," I said already feeling my feet start to sink slowly into the mud. 

"It's gonna take longer, and who knows how far away the Viles are," Dylan said looking out across the mud pit. 

"Then we better start walking," I said walking past Dylan. 

It must have been two miles before we heard them.  The roar of about twenty engines coming towards us. We turned to the sound before sprinting along the mud pit. I soon stopped before we could get any further. 

"What are you doing Erin! We need to go now" Dylan said pulling on my sleeve well I stood still.

"No," I said pushing his hands off of me.

"We need to go through, it'll be faster," I said pointing to the mud pit. If we went around we'd definitely be caught, but if we went through the mud pit we might survive. Dylan looked at me before grabbing my hand and pulling me into the mud pit.

My feet soon started to sink, but I kept moving my legs in a swimming motion to keep from sinking. The mud stuck to my skin as if it was second skin. The smell made me cough at the same time we heard the truck doors slam. Dylan and I "running" faster, hearing the men shout orders. 

We were about three-quarters of the way to the other side before I stopped completely. Dylan looked back at me well Lilly got to the other side. 

"Erin come on," he said grabbing my hand and pulling, only for me to stay stuck.

"Shit" I whispered, "I'm stuck". At that Dylan grabbed both my hands trying to pulling on me, but I felt my self-start to sink. 

"Dylan go! Now" I yelled at him, tears pricking my eyes. Dylan just looked up at me, we could hear the Vile men now start to slip down into the mud pit well Lilly barked.

"No," Dylan said before finding my foot through the mud and used it to push off of, well pulling on my arms. My legs were suddenly jolted with the rest of my body forward, I slammed into Dylans back me pushing him forward. He started to run, still grabbing my hand in case I started sinking again. 

Dylan got to the edge of the mud pit pulling me up with him. We laid on our backs coughing and wheezing. Lilly suddenly growled before we heard guns start to click. When we looked up, Vile men were surrounding us with guns pointing at our heads. 

"Shit"