Speechless

Chapter Ten

I immediately go wide eyed, not believing Jim is ahead of me. "Jim," I whisper. I turn toward Jason, except something is wrong.

Jason's not there.

"No, no, this isn't happening," I whisper to myself. I turn back to Jim and he is lethargically limping to me, wanting to devour my flesh and blood. I immediately grab my knife from my sheath and stand up. This is easy, I think. It's only one Gone, don't see it as Jim, it's just another Gone. This will be easy. But that reassurance wasn't so reassuring. I grip the knife tighter, so tight my hand aches and my knuckles turn white. "I'm so sorry, Jim," I whisper to him.

Right as I'm about to place the knife into Jim's skull with incredible force, i hear him speak to me. Aubrey, don't. I hear. Don't end me, it's your time. Let me take you into my teeth, you need to become like me now. I shake my head in disbelief. "No! Jim, this isn't you, think Jim! I know mentally you don't change, so listen to me!" I scream. Aubrey! I hear him yell, as he comes closer, and closer, and closer. Become like us! Then, out of nowhere, a heard for what looks like infinity behind Jim of Gone appears. I turn and turn and on all sides, there is no end to The Gone, they've surrounded me. "Where'd they come from?" I ask to myself, knowing Jim wouldn't answer. All I hear, from thousands and thousands of voices is, be like us, Aubrey, be like us! Then, I turn to Jim and he has ahold of my arm, about to bite down. "JASON!" I scream as loud as my throat allows with a lump inside of it. I'm screaming and wailing around, but Jim is not even two inches from my arm. "JASON!" I repeat. I'm helpless, hopeless.

That's when I hear his voice, "I'm right here, Aubrey," I hear Jason say. I see darkness once again, and realize my eyes are closed, I open them and see the sun, so I scream and sit up, backing into Jason and burying my head into his shirt.

"No,no,no," I whisper.

"Aubrey, it's okay. You're safe, it was a dream, relax," Jason whispers as he runs his hand through my hair, the other wrapped around my back, pulling me closer to him. I have my left hand on his chest and the other on his bicep.

"It was Jim," I whisper through tears.

"The moon?" Jason asks. I shake my head, sobbing.

"He was The Gone and he found us under this tree, except you left and weren't here," I say.

"That explains why you were calling my name," Jason explains.

"I was so scared," I talk into his T-shirt, which is now wet with tears. Jason takes hold of my chin with his fingertips and lifts my head out from his shirt.

"You're okay," he assures me. I nod and stand up. I wipe away the tears and the path of water the tears left behind and pat down my clothes.

"Let's go and find some shelter," I say. Jason stands up as well and grabs the green bag.

"Well then let's go," he agrees. We begin walking and I have to take a few more deep breaths before my hands become less clammy and I feel calmer. I've stopped trembling, and can walk without my legs feeling like jello. I take my knife from my sheath and realize how hungry I am. I've eaten very little. This includes some water and berries that were in the bag.

"We need food, before the snow falls," I say. "It's almost winter and it's only getting colder," Jason nods and we continue walking, except this time we look out for food more cautiously. That's when I see the tip of fur from a tail. The tail of a deer. "Sh," I whisper to Jason, lifting up my hand to stop him and lifting up my knife with the other. I square myself up and see the deer's head then it's full body off in the distance. I can probably throw my knife and hit the deer from where I am, but I slowly step closer until I'm very positive I can hit the deer. I hold my breath, grip the knife one last time, then I pull back and thrust forward, flexing my muscle I've gained, and see the blade spinning through the air, breaking through the wind as it flies and contacts with the deer's neck and then the deer freezes as it falls, plummeting to the ground and landing with a slight thud. That's when I breath again. "Got it," I whisper to Jason.

We walk toward the deer and I remove the knife. I place it back in my sheath and help Jason lift the deer. "We can't walk with this deer all the way to shelter, Aubrey," Jason states. We slowly place the deer down and stand there, hands on our hips, breathing heavy.

"Let's build a fire," I say. Jason nods and we begin to collect fire wood and make a pit. After the pit was made and the wood was collected and put into the fire place we created, I try to light the fire. "Hand me the lighter inside the bag," I say. Jason un zips the bag and hands me the lighter. It takes me a few tries, but I have a light after a while. I set the fire on the wood, and I slowly see an ember. The wood begins to burn and spreads like a forest fire. I step back and then, we have fire. "Easy enough," I say. Jason chuckles.

I take my knife out and cut the deer, it's a slow and gruesome process. After the deer was into smaller parts, the head set aside along with some other parts, I placed part of the deer on a stick, making a kabob, and roasting it over the fire. Jason does the same. We sit there in the daylight, the fire and the sun lighting up our faces, cooking our best meal in a long time. After a long while, our deer was cooked. Cooked enough at least. I take a huge bite and my mouth is immediately satisfied. I let out a single moan of appeal and Jason laughs, louder than I think he meant to. I pick up a handful of grass and throw it at him, we're sitting side by side. We both laugh and he pats my knee, both of us sitting criss-cross, and we take another delicious bite. "You know what?"Jason says.

"What?" I ask.

"We deserve one good day," he says. "One day of fun and joy,"

I nod and stand up, setting the rest of my deer on the ground where I was sitting. "What should we do?" I ask. Jason stands up as well and taps me on the shoulder,

"You're it," he says.

"You're kidding me," I chuckle. He smiles and runs away and I chase him. We play so many childish, goofy games I'm surprised both of us are still fifteen. I missed being little, having flowers in my hair, mom baking cookies, dad and the dog wrestling. Our dogs was Ferguson, he was a Great Dane. He passed before the apocalypse happened.

Soon, the sun went down and Jason and I put the fire out. We laid on our backs next to each other on the grass, looking up at the stars. He grabs my hand and we sit there, peacefully enjoying the silent night. I look over and Jason fell asleep, that's the last thing I see before I sleep, too.

I wake in the middle of the night, and so does Jason. It's not The Gone or a noise that wakes us,

It's the bright light of many army trucks surrounding us.