Pulse

Chapter 3: Adam Vos

My attention gets caught by a young man, a few years older than me and a little girl, maybe around nine years old or older, running away from three of the human nightmares that are roaming in the center of Amsterdam. The girl cries and screams, and she's desperately holding onto the young man's arm. I approach them with the car as I am trying to figure out a way to help them. I don't know why, but I just can't let them go. And so I drive closer to them and hit the brakes.

"Get in the car!" I shout and the young man catches his attention towards me. "Run!"

He drags the girl and runs with her. They must be around ten meter away in the distance from the car. They run for their lives. Literally. The young man continues running, he glances quickly to assure himself that the girl is still behind him. Then he turns his attention to my car as he is dragging the young girl after him.

"Run! Come on! Run!" I yell at him, my Dutch still not being perfect but I do my best to encourage him to run. "Sweet mother of -" I mumble angrily, interrupt myself as I honk the car.

They're running as fast as they can, approaching a big water fountain that's built beautifully. Well, basically they're running on the area that's not meant for cars. So I decide to rebel, and I drive the car over trash cans and whatnot until I manage to reach the man and brake the car next to him and the young girl.

"Get in the fucking car!" I growl at the them in Dutch. I didn't mean to come off as rude, but the stress was taking a toll on me and I just wantthem to make it alive to the car.

The man's stressed eyes look at me, his soul almost looking like it's destroyed from the things he might have seen. Though, he obeys me, lifts up the young girl and gets in the car in the very last minute. Had they stayed out there in the open a second or two longer they'd be dead. I push the gas pedal and drive through the pedestrian street. The autumn morning makes it easier for me to drive through Amsterdam, but it's a bit of a challenge when having a grown man next to me in the front passenger seat crying loudly in the shoulders of a little girl and not calming down until after the next ten minutes. I succeed on getting out of the big center of Amsterdam, although it had its violent turns and twists, and now we're going through the smaller roads in the city of Amsterdam, approaching the border of the city. So far there are no signs of the hideous humans. The man finally calms down, sniffling in the tissues I managed to give him earlier.

He buries his face the little girl's hair, who's silently sitting and crying in his lap. I look at him and then look at the road again. I sigh. The look he has on his face tells me that he's lost someone dear to him. I know how that facial expression looks like. I've seen myself in the mirror with the exact same look on my face when I had lost someone. How can I help a man who's just lost someone who stood dear to him? I am only a stranger that happened to be there in the right place and on the right time, saving his life.

"Thank you." He manages to push the words out through his tears. "You saved us."

I look at him, still driving and keeping a look out on the road.

"You're welcome." I say and think for a second. He keeps snifflingin the tissues. "What is your name?" I ask him.

He looks at me, his blue eyes reflecting in the morning sunlight. It's 6 AM, and by this time, if the world wouldn't be going to shit, I'd be waking up and prepare my breakfast in order to get to the university.

"Adam Vos. Her name is Griet." He replies shortly and then nodding to the little girl in his lap. "You?"

I pause.

"My name's Lykke Jones." He nods and I nod, a bit awkwardly. "Is she your little sister?" I ask referring to Griet.

"Yes." He replies.

"How old is she?"

"Nine. Today is her birthday." He says trailing off.

I nod, not really knowing what to say nor asking him why he is so upset. It hurt somewhere inside of me when I heard that today was this little girl's birthday. She's supposed to have a birthday party with her friends in the backyard of her home with colorful balloons and get a puppy as a birthday present. Instead she gets to watch the world burn.

I look at Adam. Besides having blue gorgeous eyes, he's got dirty blonde colored hair and some scruff on his face. His sister has the same kind of dirty blonde haircolor and the same blue eyes. You can tell that they are related by looking at them. When Adam looks back at me, I can see that he's destroyed. It seems he finished crying, as if all the little energy he had left was taken away from all that crying and now he just felt numb. I take a deep breath, forcing my courage to ask and not sound like I'm kicking him out of my car, because I really am not:

"Do you have anywhere to go, Adam? Any other family? Friends?"

He shakes his head.

"Most of my family is dead. I've only got Griet left."

"How can you be so certain?" I wonder.

"Because Utrecht is only filled with the plague. There are no survivors. They contained the area and didn't let anyone out. A slaughterhouse of a city."

I look at the road, the sun rising halfway in the sky. He calls these things the plague. But the plague is a disease, not a human. Adam rubs his eyes with his hands, trying to wipe away the feeling of having cried a lot from his face. He doesn't look like he's got any hope left. Adam looks at me.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Adam questions me, as if he was a cop questioning a suspect.

"Denmark, Copenhagen. I have family there."

Adam nods understandingly. He rests his head on the headrest that's build on the seat. The poor guy has no family, or at least that's how he made it seem like. He has nowhere to go with his little sister. And so would I, if I wouldn't be going back to my birthcountry. My family is my destination.

"Will you be driving through Apeldoorn?" He asks. "There's a massive panic room built there. Two of my friends might still be in the city taking refuge."

"You want me to drop you off there?"

"That would be splendid, if you could." He smiles a little. A little fire of hope ignited in his eyes.

"Apeldoorn it is." I say.