The Spaces Inbetween

Chapter 6. New Horizons

    It's been a week since we broken out of the compound. Over half of us decided to stay there and wait til help arrived. About 300 of us have been trudging through the woods. As me and Naomi took charge we saw the faces of hope dim down to faces of despair. After an entire week of nothing but woods and treacherous terrain even I would start to believe that we were going to die out here. Before we left I made sure we grabbed as many supplies as possible, but even at that we were running short on them.
    Above all else I had a reoccurring dream of me being trapped under the rubble after the explosion. Everytime I wake up I keep wondering how I survived. I realize that I have new abilities and I know that's what really saved me.
    "What are you thinking about Loki?" Naomi said poking me in the cheek.
I looked up and smiled.
   "Oh you know, just how much I miss our bed and stuff."
    "Don't lie to me Loki. Are you thinking about your shield thing?"
    "Yeah. I... I just don't know how I to use it. I don't even know what it really is. I can feel it within me, and something else but I don't know what."
I looked her in the eyes while I said this. She told me within time I would understand more. I know one things for sure. She was going to help me through it.    
    Later that night we set up camp. Twenty people decided to call it quits and head back to the compound. After handling the dispute when them everyone went to sleep. Naomi and I shared a large sleeping bag. The nights were extremely cold sometimes so we kept one another warm. Even after all we've been through she tells me right before we go to sleep "If you make any moves what so ever I'll kill you myself" then proceeds to kiss me on the forehead and say goodnight.
     It was about 3am when we woke up to the sound of someone screaming. I burst out of the sleeping bag to see what was going on. I turned on my flashlight to see someone running away screaming about a spider in his sleeping bag. I went back to sleep after that. After finally waking up the next day we set forth again. I was so incredibly happy that we saw a cellphone tower. It was old and falling apart but everyone took it as a sign of hope. We saw another and another and everyone started becoming happy again.
    That was until we saw that there was a massive mountain in between us and hopefully civilization. Naomi took charge and started going up the sleeping giant. It started off as a slightly elevated plain. As we went further and further we had to start going on all fours almost. Until finally we we reached a part that had almost flat ground. Me and Naomi called it a day and plopped down in the center. We had some people go scavenge for dry wood to burn. I looked off into a abyss like distance and saw storm clouds ready for war.
Throughout most of the night thunder had broken the deafening sound of silence and the lightning crashed into the ground killing the darkness for a brief moment. All of this while snow pounded the ground and all of us. Most of the fires had died down and people slept closer to one another for warmth. Me and Naomi held each other until morning. When the sun had finally risen we all saw that the once green ocean of trees was now a white sea that never ended. As people were getting up they noticed that almost half a foot of snow layed around us.
    As a last push we trudged through the snow and back up the mountain wall. Everyone was assigned a partner or group to stay close to. As we closed in on our goal to the top of the mountain I heard the slip of some rocks and the screaming of a young boy. I looked down immediately to see one of the younger kids falling down. As much as I wanted to help him I knew I couldn't. It put a grim feeling in everyone's head.
    "Everyone! Watch your step from now on. More so than you have before. We don't need to lose anyone else." Naomi shouted out and looking at me.
    "This nightmare we're all living in isn't going to end any time soon, is it Naomi?"
She looked at me and just shook her head then looked forward. This was eating all of us alive. No one could have told us it would be this bad. My fingers were starting to go numb with every ledge we had to climb up. On the last ledge we came to I pulled myself up and saw flat land. Even more so I saw no peak. We had finally made it to the top of this mountain. I grabbed Naomi and helped her up. People rushed up and and joined us.
    Naomi started to tear up when she came to the edge of the mountain and saw hundreds of buildings in the near distance. I came up behind her and put my arms around her waist pulling her in closer to me. I leaned down ever so slightly and whispered in her ear,
    "We did it. We actually did it." She smiled and grabbed my hands at her waist.
    " Not yet. We have to still make it to that city first."
I hugged her tighter letting her know that everything was okay now. The sun had started to set and gave this beautiful crimson color to the sky. For the last time we were going to spend the night outside in the wild. I felt the peace come over me.
As everyone had dozed off and the air began to cool into a brisk and chilling atmosphere I had fallen asleep.
Whilst alseep I had a new dream.
    "You're going to lose her you idiot. You'll never make it to the town." A strange person said tome.
   "Who are you? What are you talking about."
   "Who am I? Who are you. But a self absorbed little asshole?"
    "Screw you man. I didn't do anything to you!" I started to get angry. Until I saw it. Saw him.
    "For you see I am you. Loki Takisu. I've come to warn you." He said walking closer to me.
   "How? You look nothing like me. You sound nothing like me. Who are you!"
This time he walked twords me.
   "I really am you. I'm the you you're going to be 10 years in the future. A broken man with nothing to live for. You're going to lose her. Naomi. Things will never be the same after that."
Realizing what was going on I shouted one last time.
   "I'm dreaming right now. I know I am. We're still on the mountain and Naomi is in my arms. So on the count of three... I'm going to wake up and this will all disappear.
One...
Two...
Three."
Once I had said three my eyes shot open. Naomi shuffling around and finally sitting upwards. The sun had come up. I yawned and blew off that crazy dream.
    Naomi woke the rest of the people up. We started packing everything. One last gaze at the beautiful veiw bestowed upon us. It was absolutely breath taking. We all started making our way carefully down the side of the mountain. Naomi stopped me in my tracks.
    "We can't go this way, we'll have to start going down diagonally. There's nothing but a drop."
Surely enough she was right. I walked over and saw the tremendous drop down below. As I turned around I heard the cracking of rocks.
    I swung around and saw the ground beneath Naomi give way. She went with it and as if it were in slow motion I jumped to the edge of the cliff. Narrowly grabbing Naomi by her arm. She hung there trying her best to grip the rock and get back up. The sound of cracking returned. She looked at me.
    "You have to let me go! It's too much weight. You'll fall too if you don't let me go Loki."
I couldn't let her go. My grip was slipping due to the sweat on our bodies. She grabbed my hand with her other hand and looked at me. Almost as if she was looking into my soul.
   "I'm sorry." She said as she forced my hand open dropping her. My hands reached out further for a split second but grabbing nothing but air.
     "NAOMI!"

Hey guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I decided to leave everyone on a bit of a cliff hanger for this chapter. I hope you stay tuned for chapter 7. New characters will rise and even some crazy events. So as always stay tuned till next time. Don't forget to check out Love and Loss. My other book for more of my writing. Love and Loss has a second book coming out in late 2018!.
        -Max Garcia