Defying Death

Chapter 3

My senses slowly come back to me. There is a delightful warmth that cocoons me and I crack my eyes to see that I have a puffer jacket on top of me acting like a blanket. My head is resting on my arm and it has gone numb with my weight but no only mine resting on the crook of my neck is little Beatha's head her chest rising up and down with her shallow breathing. I slowly pulled my arm away and slowly stood up and started shuffling outside.

The memories came back to me in small glitches of my brain. One thing that stuck was Flavius, Flavius was doing something, he was looking for me and... I fell down and that woman said for me not to trust anyone and head north.

I blinked my eyes so that the colored dots dancing in my eye-sight would clear away. I looked outside to see that it was only dawn. Normally I would be getting ready but not today, today I was going to leave and do what that lady told me. Go north. I know that Beatha doesn't have much time left she is slowly slipping away and I need to stop it before she goes too deep.

I yawn and stretched, splashing some water on my face from a puddle. Once the water stilled and you could see past the ripples I glanced at my reflection. My hair is limp and a straw-colored blonde. It isn't a natural color but after washing in bleach for so long it has an effect on your hair too. My hair used to be a honey caramel brown now it is yellow. All muddies wash in bleach so that fleas die, the stink goes away and so you aren't a walking disease. I wasn't me anymore. The girl had empty, blank brown eyes and big purple bags underneath. Her sickly yellow skin clung onto her bones her lips were purple and were framed by a small scar that looked like it had been nicked by a knife. She had a strong frame that was not well fit at all, long and gangly. Through the moth-eaten holes on her black t-shirt, you could see ribs jutting out from pale skin that hadn't seen the sun for so long. Her pant's cuffs were rolled up so they didn't touch the floor and a piece of string was utilized as a belt. An alone treacherous tear rolled down her cheek streaking a line through the dirt that she hadn't realized were there.

"Hey," a voice said causing to snap me out of my thoughts. I jumped up and turned around to see Flavius panting bent over, trying to catch his breath. "I-need-to-tell you that you need to leave" he managed to choke out in between gasps as he looked up. The thing that made me nervous wasn't his urgent voice but the knowledge of what he had actually run. Flav wouldn't run for anything, the only other time he had done so in my knowledge was because he had been chased by the government when he was still a runaway.

"What is it?" I asked putting a soothing hand on his back so that he could recollect his thoughts.

"You need to leave. Immediately. Today. Right now."

"Why?" I asked my voice calm not showing how shaky I was inside.

"The government are after you. Now don't get all broody on me and don't you dare say that they always have been on your back. This time they are on you. There's been a word that escaped of the council having a meeting about gho- muddies they have been thinking of getting rid of muddies and hiding them from the public eye as they always have been but now permanently. Your dates will be put forward. I forgot to ask you last time and I know you shouldn't tell me, but... When is your's anyway?" He said not taking a breath until he had uttered his question. Saying it all so fast that I don't really think that I had understood it all.

He shook my shoulders and I realized that I hadn't said anything for a while.

"Okay," I breathed.

Flav's eyebrows rise so high that they should fall off. He looks at me exasperated.

"What? How are you fine with this? Where will we go?" He said

This time it was my turn. "What? What do you mean we?"

"I'm going with you. My soul sinks that you would think so little of me as just leaving you vulnerable."

"Firstly I am not vulnerable. And the answer to your previous question is that we will head north".

"Why north?" he asked. I just shrugged for some reason I didn't want to tell him that about the people there, like me, the walking dead, ghost. He probably wouldn't believe me, they were from legends not from real life. I just hoped he didn't persist on asking me about my date and who the people were up north.

***

After I gave the little food that I had. Stale bread, to Beatha. I packed up our little possessions and covered any trail that might lead the government to us from our shelter.

I met up with Flav again who was carrying a small backpack that had our things stuffed inside. I piggybacked Beatha and tied her up backpack style so that she wouldn't slip. I made sure that she was covered with our blanket so that she could get good use of what little warmth the blanket created.

I fingered the compass on my neck. It had an old rusty tin cover and had a strange carving adorning it. I had picked it up at a black market at the end of an ally pub that I cleaned.

I looked at the little red arrow that would guide us to our new destination.

"Let's go"