The Portal - Pain Is The Password

Chapter Twelve - Fated

Blood, sweat and cries of frustration are the combination of hard work, at least in the case of the trio. Fate has already made a small cut with the help of the huge fork in her right arm, Silas is sweating profusely under the hot sun, they all are, but Silas is constantly on the move. Dried dirt is much harder to remove from the floor and edges of buildings than Audrey had orignally thought, so everytime a stubborn piece stays where it doesn't belong she cries out.

Two hours it has been since they left the abandoned house and begun to restore the cleanliness to the town. Unfortunately, the only sign of this is the pile of bin bags leaning against the wall of a house, full of dirt-filled sponges, mouldy fruits and veg and cut up pieces of cans and gum stuck inside them. Despite the town not looking much better, the three of them have already had to restock four times, Fate's shovels breaking with the amount of pressure put onto them, Audrey's sponges becoming so full that touching them made her hand turn grimy and Silas' bin bags filling to the brim. They haven't had a break yet, no water to wet their drying tounges and no food to fill their hungry bellies, they continue working as the setting sun cools them down. 

Of course, they notice when the rain starts to fall in a refreshing manner. They even hold open their mouths for a few blissful moments before snapping them shut, not particularly satisfied with the water they got. The rain falls harder and harder but none of them seems to mind, even as it causes goosebumps to rise, even when it dribbles down Fate's back and makes her shiver. Even when it soaks them all so much that they can't see. They continue working because they know the job isn't going to be completed if they give up. Audrey's favourite quote is "life isn't about hiding from the rain, it's about learning how to dance through the storm." Or something along the lines and she thinks that it applies perfectly to this situation.

Ten minutes after the rainfall gets so bad that Apple manages to unclip himself from the wagon and walk into a dry shelter, is when Silas falls about laughing. Neither of the girls gets what he's laughing at but they begin to laugh too, his laugh is contagious. A few minutes later they get it, they look stupid, pulling weeds and scrubbing the floor, picking litter and continuing even when it begins to rain. They all laugh so hard that their sides hurt, they all scoot over to the cleanest place in the lot and lie down, in the rain. The hard floor beneath feeling softer with the rain, Audrey knows this is impossible but it doesn't matter, as long as she can feel it.

They lay like that for a while, not talking just letting the last of the laughter drift away until they really need to get up and start what they were doing all over again.

Birds are chirping, that's one the first times Audrey has heard them since she arrived here. It reminds her of home. They would love to say they worked all night long, the three of them, but that isn't the truth. At ten pm they crawled into the wagon and didn't even bother setting it up, they changed and covered themselves with blankets. Audrey had to make sure they were sleeping before she changed her dirty bandages with new ones. She's sure that she has an infection now but it shouldn't be that bad, her skin is turning green and chunks of it are falling off. She convinces herself, nothing is wrong.

They're hardly refreshed, they have bad backs and huge bags under their eyes from sleeping on the floor all night. They have no inspiration to continue with the quest. Now that they think about it, this quest may not be picture perfect, the ones you hear about in the books but it's just as difficult. The town being abandoned for over half a century, no one but an old man living in it, makes it pretty hard to clean.

They wobble out of the wagon, holding onto each other for support. Silas and Audrey stare greedily at the vegetables, the ones that look like they have maggots crawling through them. Fate glares at the tower of trash, emitting a ghastly smell and leaking some ooze of dirt and gum at the bottom. She pulls a face of disgust.