The Dying Generation

Chapter Four

It was dark, I couldn't see a thing. So I listened to my other senses.
I could hear crackling, like a fire burning. I could hear a few people's screams in the distance but they were very faint.
I could feel tremors in the ground and hear loud crashes.

Flashes of images appeared in my mind, they went by too fast to really even study them.
Blood, I saw blood. I felt pain. I began breathing heavier, I felt fear burning strongly in my chest.
I saw blurred images, some were even moving. But the angle I was seeing it in was weird, it looked like I was looking up at something that was moving.
"Hey," I heard a voice. I felt pressure in my side and loud bangs.

I whined, blood flashed through my head even faster until..
"Hey."

I felt almost a stabbing pain in my right side. My eyes shot open, I was panting.
I was laying on my back with the blankets spread out.

"Hey, you okay?" Someone poked me in my side.
I jumped up and back to the wall, flinching in pain from the scar caused by my sudden actions.
It was Alton, he stood in front of the box with the wall of it opened.

He rolled his eyes, seeing my reaction. He pulled his hand that was in the box away.
"Fine, be scared of me. That's fine. Thought to check up on you when I heard you crying."
He said with full on annoyance lacing his words.

He placed his hand under the glass wall that laid flat down, he was about to push it back up to lock it in place, to lock me back in.
Quickly, I crawled to the opening, when he lifted the wall up, I placed my hand on it.

He froze and stared at me, seemingly unsure of what I was doing.
I didn't even know what I was doing, I just didn't want to spend another moment in the box. I hated to be in it.

His eyes narrowed at me and his mouth went into a straight line, then he responded with: "You don't like being in there do you?"

He still intimidated me, I kept glancing down or away to avoid eye contact, but I nodded to answer him.

He exhaled, easily letting go of the glass wall of the box and stuck his hand back into it.
My heart about stopped when his hand came around me.
Of course I wanted to back away, but that would only cause me more harm. Any sudden movements I do hurts me.
At this point, I partly accepted what was happening.
He lifted me up and out of the box, his grip was a little uncomfortable and tight, but it wasn't enough to irritate the stitches or my ankle.
What was he planning to do?

I couldn't help but think, would he hurt me?
From what I have seen, he is a little rough. I also heard he is considered one of the bad kids.
But even bad kids have a heart, it just matters when they decide to listen to it.

There was a door, on the other side of the room.
He walked over to it and threw it open. On the other side of that door, there was a huge room.
It was all dark and had band posters all over the walls.
The room wasn't exactly the cleanest but it wasn't too bad either.

He plopped down onto his dark colored bed, lowering his hand that contained me to the plush surface. He opened his hand, easily letting me get off on my own.
Not able to stand, I crawled off, when I did he took his hands away.

"Curious." He pinches the back of my shirt, lifting me about completely off of the ground. Then he lowered me back.
I rolled to my side. He took my left, uninjured foot in between his pointer finger and thumb.
When he did this, I was dragged a few inches towards him. It was like he was checking me over.

I grunted, he let go, having my leg drop when he had let go. I scooted away a little, looking up at him while he leaned over me in curiosity, his shadow casting over me.
"You know who I am, I want to know who you are." He said a little blankly, his eyes squinted like he was studying me.

Strong.. I need to be strong..
if I want to know what happened to me, if I want to be connected to my past. The stronger I am, the more I'll understand.
I took a breath, barely huffing out the first sound of my name.

Alton looked at me weird, tilting his head. He stayed quiet, waiting patiently for me to say what I needed to say.

I tried to gather all of my courage to speak, I had to turn my eyes away from him to ease the tension.
"C-Cl-...C-Clay.." I barely forced out, I could feel a tear run down my face.

His eyes went wide, he sat back.
"Y-You spoke!"
He leaned back over me, I kept myself prompt up in my elbows, watching him at all times.

"Okay, okay." He regained his calm composure.
"How old are you?"
He seemed like he was biting his tongue, trying to hold back a bunch of questions.

I glanced around the room, but I answered him once my eyes fell back onto his huge eyes.
"T-Ten."
I brought my left arm back up to my face to wipe away the wetness that ran from my eyes uncontrollably.

"Wow..." He mumbled, looking off to the side.
"Okay one more, where did you come from? What was your life like before you came here?"

I didn't respond right away, I looked away, starring off at the floor on the other side of the room.
I thought hard, trying to reach memories that were out of reach in the back of my mind. Only finding that I still couldn't remember.
I know I had a life before, I had to have came from somewhere. It scared me that I couldn't remember anything.
I felt lost..

"Clay.." Alton barely tapped my left foot with his pointer finger.

I felt another tear roll down the opposite side of my face. I quietly cleared my throat to hide any tremble in my voice, wiping at my eye.
"I-I don't k-know.." I said quietly.

Alton's eyes narrowed at me in confusion.
"You don't know..?"

I shook my head, refusing to really look at him. Feeling a little discomfort, the atmosphere was uncomfortable.

"You mean, you don't remember anything..? Your Mom, Dad.. Siblings..? Home?"

I shook my head as he was asking this, a family or home didn't sound familiar to me.
He sat back, his legs were crossed Indian style on the bed, he stared at me. Must be thinking.
He took his right hand and ran it through his choppy brown hair. He sat with a hunch.

"That's weird, Curious what made you forget.. Maybe you could have hit your head..? Medications they could have gave you in the lab had a weird effect on you..?"

I kept looking off to the side, then I just shrugged my shoulders.

"It'll probably come back later then..." He sat back, fixing his shirt.
He turned his head to look at the digital clock on the nightstand then back to me.
"It's still pretty early, do you want to sleep back in the box or in here?"

I looked down.
"No box." I barely shook my head.

I heard him huff, when I looked up, a startled yelp escaped my lips when he suddenly grabbed the back of my shirt and lifted me off the ground.
I panicked when I saw the ground so far away beneath me, watching everything change from under me when I was moved to another side of the bed. He set me back down on the right upper corner of the bed, then reached over to the table next to the bed and turned out the lights.

He paused for a moment.
"You're not gonna run away right?"

I stared up at his shadowy form that laid next to me, I could feel his eyes on me.
I shook my head no but realized at the same moment he probably can't really see my movement.
"No.." I said lowly in case he didn't see me shaking my head.

"Good.." He finally laid down.
"Don't need my Dad getting pissed off at me again.." He mumbled under his breath. Staring up at the ceiling.

I rolled onto my side, curling into myself, at lease the best I could with my scar. I moved a few inches closer to the pillow, cuddling up to it as an attempt to keep a little warmth.
Until something was thrown on top of me.
I flinched, but stuck my hand up to move it off of my head, since it encased my whole body.
Peeking out, it was Alton who tossed part of his blanket onto me. But he had his back to me, completely still and quiet like he was pretending he didn't do anything.

I stared at him for a moment, then just shook it off and bundled myself up into the fluffy quilt. Closing my eyes again.
Taking a while but sleep eventually took over me.