The Oblivious Oblivion

Chapter 6: Nothing Left To Call Home

"Did you hear that?"  Clover whispers to me, we're crouched down behind a car, and she raises her head to look through the windows.  The crackling of the fire is the only sound that remains. The alarms have stopped, putting an eerie silence on the seemingly deserted town.  Littered only by the abandoned houses and burning cars.  Every once in a while we hear a scream, from the monster, but then we heard from from ahead of us.  Finding out there's more than one is pretty terrifying, because they don't look like the Infernals, and we don't know if they're the Shifters they talked about.  This could be something completely new. 

"Hear what?"  I crawl around the side of the car looking for anything in the wasteland of what used to my road.

"There it is again!"  She stands up and I immediately yank her back down.

"What are you doing, you almost killed the both of us last time you did that!"

"I'm telling you I heard something, it sounded like... whimpering."  Getting on her hands she crawls to another car and looks inside.  "Oh my god, Theo,"

"What?"  I crawl over to her and look inside the car window.  Inside sits a child, too young to be out here alone, but old enough to know not to make noise. 

"We need to help her."  She reaches for the hand but I stop her."

"What if it's a shifter?"  She looks at me questioningly.

"She's a child."  I reluctantly pull my hand back.  The girl scurries to the other side of the car as Clover opens the door and looks in.  "I'm not going to hurt you, we're here to help you."  She extends her arms and the girl covers herself with her own.

"Let me try."  She steps aside and I look in at her.  "Hey, I'm Theodore."  She lowers her arm cautiously.  "It's okay, you can trust me, do you know where you're mommy and daddy are?"  She shakes her head and a tear forms in her eye.  "Okay, that's okay, we can get you back to them safely, alright?"  She seems to nod her head and I lean into the car.  "Can you tell me your name?"

"Amy."  As we get closer I can tell she's shaking.

"Well Amy, that's a beautiful name, this is Clover."  She pokes her head from behind me and smiles.

"Hi."  It's short, her voice is trembling and terrified. 

"Alright, so do you know where you live?"

She sits there for a moment thinking, before saying her address, proud of herself that she remembered.

"Good job, you're a smart girl Amy."  She smiles and jumps cradling my right arm, just like Clover did to my left.  I stare at her for a second before moving slightly making sure not to disturb her.

"Theo, her street is right down there, we should go check her house first."  Her eyes dart between me and Amy hopefully. 

"Mommy and Daddy live in a yellow house with a brown roof."  Amy's voice comes out muffled as she pressed her face into my arm.

"Okay, so we're looking for a yellow and brown house."  I look at Clover and she tilts her head slightly and I look back down at Amy.  "Amy, would you rather I hold you, just holding onto my arm might be uncomfortable for you."  She looks up at me with wonder and extends her arms, her hands grabbing at the air and in hugging motion.  I chuckle picking her up and holding her to my chest.  She closes her eyes and drifts off as we slowly make our way down the street.

"She can walk you know."  Clover mutters under her breath and I look at her and laugh.  "What?"

"Nothing."  Amy squirms and I adjust her in my arms slightly lifting her back up.