Asleep (Completed)

Chapter Seven

I recall waking up crying. My body felt cold and weak. I felt like I had been stabbed with a knife made of fire.
I sat up and saw that there were many people around me. I stood up on the floor and stepped over people until I got to the door of the building I was in. Then, Burt jumped up from beside me and stopped me from opening the door.
"Are you crazy? If you open the door they'll know we're here!" He shouted and dragged me up the stairs in the room.
The room we walked to was empty except for one couch.
"Please explain what's going on this dream."
He explained how we were all refugees from a huge war happening near the time of real life. He said the whole world is fighting against itself.
When he finished I slapped him.
"That's for cheating on me, you ass."
He groaned and rolled his eyes.
"You had it coming. You were staring at Sawyer."
"At least I didn't cuddle with him throughout the night."
I decided to let it go and just walk it off. I paced around the room sadly.
"Did you even love Drake? Because I did and you didn't seem to.
"Of course I did you're making such a big deal out of small mistake."
Again, I dropped that subject. We talked about random things until it was completely morning. Then, we went back downstairs to the people waking up. These were normal people.
I still couldn't help but think about what Burt did to me. He betrayed me and now my love for him was waning. The worst part is, he cheated on me with Bunny! She wasn't even the pretty one! I would've been much more content if it was Scarlet because I knew that all boys would drool over her. The fact that he was interested in Bunny made me think that maybe he was also interested in her personality which wasn't okay. They did just cuddle, after all, so it didn't really make sense if he just wanted her body.
All the people, about thirty of us total, gathered and opened up a box of food. Apparently, one box had enough for two meals a day if we shared a can each meal. That meant one can a day! How unsatisfying!
Apparently the group wasn't a group though. We were all on the same team but we didn't work together. We would work to get our own food otherwise. We got a free can per two people but the rest wasn't everyone else's problem.
While I was eating I asked someone for a mirror and looked at myself. I had strawberry blonde wavy hair and a few freckles on my cheeks. I had blue eyes and I was still pretty short I think.
We all assembled at the back of the building. We were in England, near London, during a huge world war. Most of the streets weren't safe and were littered with army troops and whatnot but there were safe spots in the town. We all started splitting up and Burt and I headed to a parking lot like when we were zombies.
Gunshots could be heard occasionally and screams the same. It was pretty scary to be here I admit but it wasn't like I had a choice.
When we got to the wrecked parking lot we sat down in a hidden spot and started talking.
Apparently England, North America, Australia, and most of Europe was against Asia and Africa. It was a war for power and politics. Asia was tired of how the rest of the world was treating them, especially China was tired of not getting their money from the United States.
We decided we had to get more food so we snuck around the city slowly. We didn't know our way around the city so we got lost pretty easily but it didn't matter. As long as we were safe that's also that mattered. We approached a messy grocery store and decided to look inside for food. We could find cans of food so we grabbed them and went on our way.
As we passed through the city center we saw a horrible sight. This group, more like a family, were being taken away to be used for war. They were crying and shrieking, sad that they were going to be split apart. Was this really what the world has turned into?
With discomfort, we prowled through the city to the other side, finding an abandoned hotel building. Most of the stuff in it was taken out but we found a small room with a small bed. We opened our cans and ate as much as we wanted. We had quite a few cans so we could eat however much we wanted.
Later that day some sort of riot happened. A stampede of people ran down the street and the soldiers couldn't handle it all. Burt told me that if we were to stay alive from the soldiers searching everything we would have to run out into the stampede also. I agreed to and we ran out of the hotel, leaving behind our food also.
We ran with the stampede and were easily split up.
I made it to a field near the outskirts of the city. There were houses, most were caving in and completely demolished. There were other refugees around me, most were teenagers or young adults. Myriads of the adult population were put to war while only an iota of the younger population was given to the armies.
I ran up to these two teenage twins. They were boys and looked identical. They were medium sized with ginger hair and freckles all over their face.
"Hey, you two, have you seen a tall man with darker hair and a slight beard?"
They thought for a moment and then pointed to the forest.
I sighed and started jogging there. So many people were in the field that I could say it was crowded.
When I got to the entrance of the forest I started being more careful. It was a sharp incline to get to the next flat land. When I carefully slid down the slope I looked around. I smelt blood which wasn't good. My hair blew around a whole lot as the wind picked up.
I swear I probably look so majestic. Where's a photographer when you need em?
I froze when I heard a loud masculine voice behind me. He told me to put my hands in the air and I did so. He sounded barely older than me and when I turned around to see him I was right.
He looked like a recolored version of Burt. He was tall and had the usual short boy hair with a quiff. He had blonde hair though and his stubble was darker. He seemed very nice though and I'm sure he'd let me go when I told him that I had lost my boyfriend.
"What's your name, ma'am?" He called out to me.
"Rebecca."
"Please come forward."
I walked towards him with my hands up. He seemed to creepily stare at him but I couldn't blame him. I was very pretty in this dream.
"Why are you roaming around these woods. It's not safe."
I thought for a while for how I should answer because I wouldn't want to say the wrong thing.
"I'm looking for my boyfriend. There was a stampede in the city earlier and we got split up."
He stared at me like I was crazy but nodded. The lines on his forehead pointed downward towards his eyebrows and it made him look concerned and tired, but mostly a serious look.
"My name is Ifan. I'm a British soldier even though I'm not a denizen here. I can help you around!" He spoke excitedly.
He probably just wanted a chance with me. He was handsome and all but I'm not into guys with uniforms actually. It makes me nervous around them.
"Alright sure. I want to go deeper into the forest so..." I mumbled and started walking the way I was originally.
It was a narrow path but it was still a paths that I could walk through. It was a dirt path and verdant shrubbery surrounded the path and choked it to a small size. There were trees everywhere. I would say it was more of a thicket than a forest but there wasn't much wiggle room because leaves and branches were growing everywhere.
As we walked along the path for a while he started blabbing to me again.
"Did you live here when the war started?"
"Well I lived near Canterbury at first but then I moved near here since my home was destroyed and all my friends were dead," I replied hastily and harshly.
"What's it like in Canterbury? I heard it's very nice there."
"There's a lot of pretty things there like cathedrals and whatnot," I muttered and looked over.
He could tell I was getting annoyed so he stopped talking.
We made it to this large opening and then there was a stream. It was more of a river but it wasn't that wide.
"What now? I'm sure he came this way."
"Rebecca, we could just walk across the stones!" He chuckled and pointed to a series of large rocks sticking out of the stream.
I thought he was joking. I wasn't going to do that, it looked scary and dangerous! Even listening to the water crash against the rocks made it all seem scary. This was probably the rapids so if I trip and fall I could drown.
"Well, if we must."
We made our way to the beginning of the rocks and planned a route across. There were three rocks close together near the beginning, then a three foot gap, then another two rocks, a two foot gap, then four rocks, a three foot gap, and then the final four rocks. It seemed pretty safe but it still made me worry. I think my biggest fear was dying in my dreams because if I died here I would die in real life.
We made our way across safely and the. Rested at the other side. The forest that was ahead of us seemed spooky but I wasn't afraid. I have been through two scary forest now and the third was probably going to be exactly the same.
"Becky, who exactly is your boyfriend?"
"His name is Burt. He looks somewhat like you but he has darker hair. He's also kind of full of himself and he probably doesn't care about me..."
The soldier laughed and even seemed to snicker a bit.
"Doesn't sound like much of a boyfriend if you ask me," he answered and nudged me a bit.
I laughed along and nodded slowly. He was right. Burt wasn't the best boyfriend and I don't even know if he loves me or not. He did cheat on me after all. But I can't help but feel a very strong connection with him. I guess I would pretend he was my boyfriend since that's all I could do but I ended up just ignoring everything for the time being.
"Hey, are we going too far out? Maybe he didn't come this way..."
"It's a possibility he came this way since another city is nearby. He probably went there for shelter."
I nodded and we continued walking. We came to a fork in the road and he said to go right if he was near the village. The other two ways lead to hiking/biking trails so he probably wouldn't go there. While walking we talked about the war mostly. He explained how being a soldier as horrible. He saw a lot of death and rarely felt like he was actually doing any good. Otherwise, we didn't talk about much.
"Do you have a girlfriend or something?" I asked.
Why did I ask him that? He probably thinks I'm flirting with him now...
He shook his head and I nodded. It became very awkward at that point. I guess I shouldn't have said anything.
When we got to the end of the dirt path I could see skyscrapers and other tall buildings. This wasn't a different city it was still London, just a different street or something like that.
We started talking about plans on how to find Burt. I didn't expect Ifan to be so helpful and casual about finding my boyfriend but I guess hes just a good person. We made it to the edge of the city and decided to split up. We would meet up at the city center in the evening to see if we could find Burt.
I went to the left side of the city. There were signs talking about a city called Waterloo but I'm not exactly sure if that's where I was. Honestly, I didn't know the area around London well at all so I'm not even sure we were on the right track of where to go. That added to the problem that I wouldn't be able to find the city center.
Then, I saw it. There was a huge bridge and it was beautiful. Burt would definitely go there if he was smart.
As I approached the bridge I can remember the feeling of the British rain drizzle upon me. The weather was gorgeous. It was only slightly cloudy so I knew there would be a rainbow. Plus, it was still warm. I even ended up skipping along my way. When I got to the bridge I looked around to see nobody. I think this street was completely abandoned. There was not even any cars there. I slowly walked to the bridge and noticed something. There were a dew dead bodies scattered across it but some were moving.
I ran to the closest moving body. It was a young girl who was shot in the shoulder. She was long gone though and had a huge infection in her wound which turned it green and purple. I gave up on her and ran to the next person, a female young adult. She seemed to be shot in the left hand and nothing was really that wrong with her. She wasn't infected or anything like that.
"Ma'am are you okay? Can you hear me?!" I ask loudly.
The woman squirmed. I recall her being In the stampede so I'm not surprised she's here.
She had very long black hair that was wavy in a very natural looking away. Her olive skin made her seem Indian but she could well have been a citizen to England.
"My hand..."
I nodded and helped her up. I was careful not to touch her hand in any way because I knew it would sting. I sighed and studied the wound. I vaguely remember being a doctor in the first dream and I knew I needed things I don't have to heal this poor girl.
"What as your name?" I asked and tried to keep her on her feet.
"Anoshinie..."
I nodded and walked her across the bridge to where I started. I sat her down on a public bench that wasn't destroyed and thought.
"If only I had alcohol and cloth!" I groaned.
I wanted to help her but supplies were extremely limited. What was I suppose to do?
I ripped off a piece of my fabric jacket and wrapped it around her hand. Her hand still oozed some blood so this would soak it up.
"You'll be fine, just take it easy, Anoshinie. I'll find something to heal you later but we gotta move. Can you walk?" I asked.
The girl nodded and stood up slowly. I started walking quickly with her across the bridge once more and we made it across. Day time turned into a transition and we had to speed up searching. I explained that I s looking for Burt.
We didn't end up finding him. We started walking back to the city center, across the bridge. We had to wait for Ifan to come back but when he did he came back with Burt limping our way. I ran to Burt and grabbed him, hugging him like crazy.
"I found him on the ground in an alley way. He says that some Russian soldier chased him there."
Burt nodded feebly.
I just hugged him tighter.
"Who's the babe?"
Ifan winked at the girl I helped.
"Her name's Anoshinie. I found her on the bridge. Her hand's been shot and it must hurt her a lot," I explained quickly.
Ifan quickly rushed up to her and helped her out. I'm glad we're all here together.
"we should all find a place to rest. We're all tired and need some rest," I suggested.
We all agreed.
The rain subsided and the city fell silent. Whispers of life scurried around occasionally but there were no people. No soldiers,victims, or anyone at all.
There was no place to rest or anything. There was one building that we found with a lot of rubble inside but we decided it was good enough. We stayed inside, cleaning wounds and talking.
It was actually pretty sad. Anoshinie had a few little sisters and a little brother. her parents were taken away to serve in the army right away and then the army tried to recruit her. When she tried running away they killed most of her siblings and was split up from the rest.
"I'm sorry..." Ifan mumbled and hugged her.
They were cute together and at least he wouldn't have to hit on me anymore.
When we were about ready to leave a few soldiers barged into the building and grabbed us all. I screamed, trying to escape them, but they had taken us already.
I can't remember much of what happened next. They took us to a truck with a lot of other people inside already and they drove us for a long time. It was really hot inside the truck.
We arrived at some sort of camp when the truck stopped. We were all worried. Ifan wasn't in the truck so we couldn't ask him where this was.
Other soldiers opened the door to the truck and pointed large guns at us. The smelly air of what seemed to be a barn rushed into my nose. The whole situation made me want to barf.
The soldiers gathered us into groups of gender and age.I was in the same group as some other women who looked frightened. We all actually looked similar which I thought was cool.
Then, we were shown to these rooms with bunk beds. It was all happening so fast and I can barely remember any of it. It was all so upsetting. I wanted to forget it.
We were told to get ready for training and very rough days. I didn't understand why they just recruited unexperienced people. It was a waste of time probably. I guess they just needed more manpower but forcing us wasn't going to help anyone.
At about noon (we had clocks in our room) we were told to get dressed in this large changing room. They gave us camouflage clothes that were too big for most of us. It was awkward changing in front of others because I didn't really know what my body looked like really. There were no mirrors.
When we were done changing we went back to our small rooms and waited for further instructions.
"I can't believe this. They just take us from the streets and bring us here? I have no reason to act patriotic towards the Brits anymore," said this one younger dark haired girl.
The girl was a bit taller than me and looked as if she had been crying for a while. She had large bags under her eyes and her cheeks were very pale.
"Same..." We all agreed.
We all introduced ourselves. The taller dark haired girl was Angel, The short girl with dyed blonde hair was Lizzie, and the oldest girl with brown hair and freckles all over was Lilly. I introduced myself and they all nodded happily.
When a soldier came to tell us to go a field for practice we started yelling at him and calling England horrible for capturing its own citizens. The soldier didn't seem fazed and just repeated his command.
We walked outside, following a few soldiers, to a large field. There were many sad looking others already doing their training and it looked like torture.
"Excuse me, why are we being forced by the British government to serve them? That seems a bit rude and it makes me not want to fight for England," someone spoke up.
Everyone agreed, murmurs coming from the whole group. The soldiers tried to calm us down and shut us up but we got very loud eventually and a huge riot broke out. We all attacked the soldiers and flooded the place. Other groups joined in. I started looking for Burt as I destroyed things. He was probably on the other side of the camp and pretty far away.
I found Lizzie, the girl with the blonde hair (which she clearly dyed before the war because the roots really showed). She agreed to help me get across camp and find Burt as long as I helped her find her boyfriend. I agreed and we set off through the now crowded camp. It was difficult to move around so much and so quickly but we made it pretty far. We were fortunate enough not to get shot at which is good.
Again, everything was happening so quickly and I barely remember it anymore. It felt like wind rushed past my hair as I ran a mile. We made it to the boys side of the camp and really started looking. The air smelt like feces, gunpowder, and vomit combined. It was a pretty gross smell and it made it hard for me to think clearly. We found Lizzie's boyfriend first and then she helped me find Burt. We split up immediately afterwards.
"Burt! I'm so happy I found you! This is horrible, we need to leave before they catch us again!" I shout over the crowd.
I saw him nod and we were out in a blink. We ran for it and made it far. We did like the rest and ran out really far into the open where we couldn't be caught.
Then, we made a trip back to London and found a nice place to rest.
What a rough day! Everything happened so quickly!
People started coming to the large building where we staying and we made room. Eventually, there were 20 people in the same room. We all started talking.
"China and Japan are going to invade England."
"No, I heard Russia is!"
"You guys are all wrong, Korea is invading England by bombing it. I was there last month."
All this talk made me very scared and nervous. Burt wasn't helping out much either. He was just listening like I was.
Eventually night fell over all of us and we fell asleep.
I woke up to the sound of gunshots. I was panicking and looked around for Burt. When I found him I hugged him and woke him up.
He told me to calm down and be quiet. We were very close to keeping the place safe except one soldier found us all and found me in particular. He was one of the soldiers that was at the camp when I escaped. He threatened to shoot us all if we didn't cooperate and we all walked outside.
Some people ran away and were shot at, then more people would run, and soon all of us were running. Burt got shot in the stomach but kept running for me.
We made it pretty close to the outside of the city when he told me he had to stop. We found a bench and I laid him down. I took off my jacket and applied slight pressure to his wound so it wouldn't bleed as much. He said he wouldn't make it but I wouldn't allow that. I couldn't let him go. I looked around for some alcohol or even water but I honestly couldn't find anything. I had to go a block away for a bottle of water. When I came back I slowly poured the water over his wound. He had to hold in screams, I could tell.
He told me to go away. We both knew he was a goner and I couldn't let myself die in these dreams. I told him to meet me Marlow since that's where a human trafficking trip was set up for Ireland.
I left him. I didn't want to but he was dead and I knew it. I ran as fast as I could through the rest of the city and found the group that was in the building with Burt and I. They said they were heading to Marlow also so I asked if I could join along, and they said yes.
I still ran. I was probably crying but I didn't notice and didn't care. It would make sense, since I just lost Burt, but I couldn't feel my cheeks. I was cold now and I could barely feel my hands too. I kept running though and eventually the whole group made it to a stray and empty barn in the fields near London. I had constantly now. The white light made it hard for me to see most of the time but I knew how to manage now. I could hear myself dying more, my heart monitor was going crazy. Maybe I was really dying. We were all stuffed inside the barn, but we still ended up being cold. We had to rest for the injured. Someone ended up with rubbing alcohol! If only I had brought Burt! He's probably dead by now or will be soon. That wound of his was pretty nasty so I bet he'll die either way. I might as well do as he asked and continue on.
I don't think I cried a lot about Burt because I chose not to have feelings at those moments. On the way to Marlow I didn't talk about Burt or even think about him. I kept on going because others helped me and persuaded me. I made a lot of new friends and eventually it was hard not to be happy.
We made it to a small town with small buildings, and especially small purpose. There was some food but only enough for a quick snack for all of us.
I'm mainly friends with these three girls. They were all very nice and sympathetic, but most of all they were funny and made me feel better. They made me forget why I was sad. They made me forget Burt and all these stupid dreams. They made jokes about politics and sensitive subjects but I didn't care. At this point, anything helps.
"Oh my gosh, Becky, what do you think about the guy with the missing finger?"
"What do you think about gay people?"
"What do you think about dying by overeating?"
They acted pretty ridiculous and it was funny but annoying.
"Hey, Rebecca, right? How's it going? I heard you lost someone..."
I nodded slowly but didn't know how much I should share. When I looked over it was a young man, somewhat younger than me, and he seemed smart too.
He looked like one of those really cool nerds that you see around a college campus. He looked like he knew what he was doing.
"A guy I knew died from a bullet wound. It's fine though..." I replied and sighed a bit.
The guy shook his head. He had long dirty blonde hair. He had the type of haircut that made his hair look like it was styled by a bowl being twirled around on his head.
"He means a lot to you, I can tell. Was he your boyfriend or something?" He asked and bit his lip.
He looked really cute and adorable. I just wanted to pinch his cheeks and smile for once. I probably looked ridiculous because I always frowned.
"Yeah, he was my boyfriend. I loved him a lot and he told me to leave him. He would've died either way, so..." I found it hard to speak. My voice cracked multiple times and I probably seemed like a sad mess.
But, when it was evening and we stopped to sleep, I remembered Burt. I loved him so much and I let him die. I knew how my dreams worked by this point and I knew he wasn't coming back anytime soon. He was gone forever and I couldn't bear that. He's been here with my the whole time, so he can't die right? I wish I could believe that. I'm pretty sure I cried myself to sleep that night.
We fell asleep inside a comfortable old church and I prayed that Burt would be accepted to heaven even though I didn't believe God existed. How could he when these dreams are torturing me and tormenting me? I just looked around the church for a while. It was pretty empty. Most of the flowers were dead, windows were smashed, paintings were ruined, and the chairs were extremely chipped. It seemed like someone was so angry at God that they ruined the whole thing.
Before bed time someone came out of the private room and said there was a dead person in there. It wasn't all bad though, the dead guy must've killed himself with a gun because he had a pistol that was only missing one bullet. We would find it very helpful to eventually use it on a guard or two.
I felt sleepy and laid down on those praying benches. I don't really know much about churches so... Anyways, I prayed again and again until I got unbelievably tired. I closed my eyes to fall asleep.
And then I woke up.