SOJOURNER (III): tmr gally

43: I should be a brunette

Michelle 43

I walk in silence, staring at Rose's face. It's hollow. Her cheeks are much thinner than they were just days ago, and the bags under her eyes much blacker. Across her brow, there is a cut that bleeds a deep black blood. Anything could've happened to her. Maybe it's the lighting, or maybe she has the Flare too. It would explain why she is so silent and so still.

Jay keeps hanging behind us. I watch as he reaches a hand forward, as if he is going to grab her. What would he say though? Sorry for sleeping with Hilde? Sorry that you aren't enough?

Rose still hasn't said anything to me. There is another cut across her throat. How much of the blood on her clothes is hers? She is limping as she walks. Perhaps she has shattered her ankle. I made it through the town, just like her. Alone, at least for the most part. Wherever she went, it must have been awful.

Jay's hand reaches forward. He grabs her wrist. She spins around, shoving him against the rock wall behind us. Though she is close to a foot shorter than him, he flinches. His face tightens, the Adam's apple in his throat bobs up and down while he breathes in and out.

She whips out a knife, spinning it in her hands. Raising an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to act, or move, or say anything. He simply stares at her, waiting for her to drop the weapon.

It only occurs to me now that I haven't considered helping, and that I don't really plan on joining in.

Eventually, she lowers it. She brushes past me, walking further up the hill. Jay and I make eye contact, if only for a second. He pulls his head off the rock, shaking it back and forth. It's enough for me to know that he isn't going to try again. I would tell him something bad happened to her, but that fact wouldn't be news to him. In the Scorch, it is only bad things that seem to happen anyway. Rose isn't special in that regard. We've all seen klunk.

Brenda grabs my arm, pulling me forward. She gestures for me to keep pace with her when I try to slow down. Instead of resisting, I match her footsteps. The rocks crunch underneath our feet. Are we not getting close to daybreak yet? It feels like I have been awake for hours. Maybe that is just the effect of the constant sleep deprivation on my body.

I haven't slept properly in shuck knows how long. Certainly before Dave died. Maybe it was before Gally disappeared

"She okay?" Brenda asks.

I bite my lip. Not hard, but it splits open anyway. I can taste blood in my mouth. Every part of me is cracked.

Since Brenda is on my left, I have to complete turn my head to look at her. No vision has returned. I really hate Gally sometimes. At least, I hate what happened in the Glade. Though it wasn't entirely his fault, I still can't see properly. It's doubtful I'll ever heal from every wound he has caused me.

"As good for someone who was on their own for a week as it gets," I shrug. I don't know if it was a week. My head hurts from dehydration.

Brenda gestures up to my face. "Are those from being on your own?"

What a slinthead. Some of them, sure. Not all of them obviously, but I barely know this chick. I'm not delving into my past with her.

"See, this one here," she rolls up her sleeve to show me a long slice along her arm, "is from me. I did that in my sleep. Clawed my arm open, then tasted the blood. Freaked me out."

Right. That freaked her out. For a minute, I forgot Brenda was a Crank, but then it came bubbling up to the surface again. Is this what will happen to Gally first? If I see him again, will he be scratching himself in the night? Will he crave human flesh?