Freedom

What Next

Two Days After the Harvest

We had been walking for almost two days in what seemed like complete silence. I mean, where can you go after what happened. What conversation is appropriate to have after that experience. 

"Lets stop here for a bit" I could see Liam was in just as much pain and confusion as the rest of us, but with his hero complex he would never let anyone else see that. Chubs broke the uncomfortable silence,

"I'm glad we left when we did. Even a minute later and I don't know what would have happened." He's right, I still couldn't shake the thought of what would have happened if one of us didn't make it. "Ruby, what happened after you got taken by the officers?" 

"He tried to break me, convince me I wasn't going to make it out of here. Convince me I was his and the government's property, and that neither you guys or I was going to make it." I felt my face getting hot, I was getting upset and I really didn't want to. I didn't want to talk about it, but I figured this was the easiest way to explain without getting into the horrible details. 

"We just need to move on from what happened at the East River. That place was horrible and not worth presence." Liam was visibly uncomfortable from the conversation. I didn't feel like talking to him about it, I thought we all just needed time to process what had happened.

"Zu, you wanna help me figure out dinner?" She nodded. Zu walked over to the two backpacks we were able to save from the fire. Chubs and Liam decided they would go and find suitable fire wood. Zu held up three Twinkies she found in the bottom of one of the back packs. "Twinkies again Zu?" I chuckled. She shook her head. "We can't eat Twinkies every day, we're going to get sick." She laughed and insisted these were what we were eating today. I loved being with Zu, she reminded me of my best friend when I was younger. Before the world went to shit, her name was Emily. I've told Zu stories about me and Emily back when I was in school. Emily, and in turn Zu, was like my younger sister. She was everyone's younger sister. "Zu, what do you think about letting do your hair? Get it out of the way." She enthusiastically agreed and I got to work on braiding her hair. It had grown out a lot since I first met her. She used to have super short hair, but it's grown out to past her shoulders. Zu and I sat on the forrest floor enjoying each other's company, we hadn't had any time time to do something like this in a long time. 

"Hey, you guys figure out dinner yet? We've got firewood." Chubs called out to us from farther out in the forrest. I saw him and Liam walking back with logs and other things to make shelter with. One of the backpacks had two tarps in it, so shelter was never really too much of an issue for us. 

"We've got Twinkies, not really a dinner, but it's something." I was trying my best to stay positive. At least we're all together.

"Good enough for me." Liams once sad demeanor was masked by this new fake positivity. I appreciated him trying to put on a brave face, but I just wanted to talk to him about everything. 

"We've got three, so we're gonna have to split them up." I looked down at the tiny traditional American snacks and started figuring out how to split this. Zu would definitely get one, and Chubs should get one. He got pretty injured in the fires.

"I don't need one, you guys eat them. I'm not too hungry." Liam always did his best to take care of us, sometimes to his own detriment.

"No Liam, you're eating something we're all going to split them." Chubs was right, Liam needed to take care of himself if he wants to be able to take care of the rest of us. I don't usually take part in discussing important decisions, but today was different.

"Zu you're getting this one, Chubs you're getting this one, and Liam you and I are going to share this one." I doled out the Twinkies and hoped everyone was fine with it. I sat down next to Liam and split the Twinkie in two. He had a facade that he was okay, but I could tell he was deep in thought. I reached out my hand as a peace-offering, he took it out of reflex but just kept looking off into the distance. The night crept in as we looked at the fire. "Chubs lets get a move on somewhere to sleep tonight." He nodded and we started to devise a structure for the night. After struggling for a good while, Chubs and I had put together a makeshift tent. Zu got settled in the tent and soon after Chubs turned in too. I walked by the tent and saw Liam still sitting by the fire.  I walked over to him and sat on the log opposite him. "Hey"

"Hey." His gaze didn't meet mine as I looked out towards him.

"You doing okay?"

"Yeah." I could see a glazed look in his eyes that troubled me. I moved to sit next to him. This time he let his guard down more. He rested his head on mine and sighed. "What if they come for us?"

"They won't, and if they do we do what we always have. We run, we survive, we work together as a family." He turned to me.

"Where do we go from here. We have no where to go now. I want to be positive and believe we'll find somewhere to settle for a while, but if the one safe place for kids was a hoax what can we trust? Ruby we're completely on our own out here."

"Well what did you three do before you started looking for East River?"

"It was the beginning of everything Ruby, we didn't know what we were doing. We just kept driving, getting supplies, and desperately searching for East River."

"Well we can't do any of that without a car. No matter what we do I say our first step is to find a new ride."

"You mean replacing Black Betty?" Liam's smirk was once again starring back at me.

"I'm heading to the tent, you coming?" 

"Lemme put out the fire, I'll be right there." I got in the tent and laid down opposite of Zu and Chubs. I was on my way to dreaming as Liam came in the tent. He tiptoed over to Zu and kissed her forehead goodnight. He walked over to me and laid down. I couldn't sleep that night, I kept almost falling asleep and then being woken up by the nightmare my last few nights at East River were. I moved backwards forgetting Liam was there. I felt arm move over me and heard him groan softly. "Nightmare?" he said sleepily.

"I'm fine." I said trying to deflect he situation while recollecting myself. His chin rested on top of my head as his other arm reached under my side. At first I was on edge, but I let myself relax into his warm arms. There was nothing I needed more than to just be held and know it was going to be okay. Even if Liam wasn't sure that was the case, he made me feel like the world was frozen for a second and I had nothing to worry about. The long night passed as I slept not knowing what tomorrow would have in store for us.