Aftermath

5

      Waking up was a lot easier than it had been in a long time. Surprisingly, I had slept through the night. Normally I was so paranoid that something would happen or someone would find us that I wouldn't let myself sleep for very long. I usually passed out from exhaustion while I tried to stay awake and alert.

     For once it was nice to wake up warm and comfortable. My calm didn't last long when I went to lay my arm next to me and felt another warm body next to mine. And it was far too big to be Em's. I tried to sit up quickly to get away from whoever was next to me, but then an unbearable pain ripped through my side cause a yelp to fly past my lips. The body stirred next to me. I looked over at him and then remembered everything from last night. Including his name. Noah slowly woke up and seemed to be as startled as I was when he opened his eyes and saw me lying next to him.

     I must have looked like I was in pain because as soon as everything registered he sat up with a worried look. "What did you do?" He demanded pulling  my shirt up enough to see the wound.

     "I was startled." I hissed. He placed his hand on my side to examine his stitches, but I quickly swatted it away.

      "Don't do that. I'm just checking to make sure you things aren't worse than they already were."

     "I'm fine." I barked at him. Maybe that wasn't the best way to react because he looked angry after I had said it.

     "Fine. If you want to die from blood loss or an infection then be my guest." He growled at me before climbing over me and  out of the bed. He stormed over to the door where his machete lay and scooped it up. By the time he had turned around to look back at me I had somehow sat myself up and was already looking at him. "I'm leaving and I won't be back for a while. You are welcome to stay  here a little while longer, but I do not want you here when I get back."

     I had no wish to stay with this unpredictable man, but it still hurt that he was kicking us out into the dangerous world again, but I knew we needed to move on anyway. Just because we had stopped moving doesn't mean that the weather had and we still had a long way to travel before we would be safe from the life threatening cold. If we could get there that is. I hadn't even tried to stand yet and I already knew the injury on my side was going to slow me down considerably. And it's not like Em could move very fast either.

     I pulled myself from my thoughts when I noticed the man, Noah, was still looking at me intensely, waiting for  an answer. Although Em beat me to it. She poked her head around the back of chair where she had been sitting playing with a toy doll we had found for her. "You don't want us to stay anymore?" She pouted at him hut filling her voice. Like before his facial expression softened when he talked to her, but he stayed firm.

     "I can't have people staying with me that I can't trust and that can't trust me."

     "Don't worry. We'll be gone before you return." I assured him. He gave me a quick nod before leaving. As soon as the door shut behind him Em then turned to me.

     "Why can't we stay here?"

     "Because he doesn't want us here anymore."

     "But why? He helped you and he helped me from the bad dreams." She explained and that left me confused. Em had nightmares almost every night about the monsters. The ones who killed her parents while she was hidden in a closet. She would always end up crying and screaming in her sleep unable to wake herself up from the horrible memories. I normally never sleep so I can wake her from them and calm her down again reminding her that she is safe with me, but I didn't wake up last night. I wasn't there to help her.

     "When did he help you with your nightmares, Em?"

     "Last night. He woke me up and cuddled me. He even told me stories." She added excitedly.

     "Why didn't you wake me?" I asked feeling slightly hurt. I just didn't want to share the one good person left in the world with anyone.

     "Noah said to let you sleep so you could get better."

     This man was all over the place. He always seemed angry, but he did help me whether I wanted to admit that I needed help or not. He also took care of Em when I couldn't. If he hadn't promptly kicked us out I might have grown to trust him, but he was like every other human that was left. Selfish.

     "Em, we have to pack up now. Remember we have to keep traveling until we find some place warm." I reminded her and she nodded reluctantly clutching her doll closer.

     It didn't take long before we had everything back in my bag and we were climbing out of the old subway. It's was early morning which I was thankful for. The Changed stayed hidden during the early parts of the day.

     We walked for hours with no problems. My side was burning, but I ignored it as best I could. I had tried picking up Em when she got tired, but my side couldn't take it and I had to put her back down. Normally I would have wanted to travel father then we had but neither Em nor I were going to be able to make it much longer. We came into a small town with lots of abandoned buildings and houses. I knew that we would have to stop and find some place to rest here, but there was also a good chance that The Changed were hiding somewhere around here too. There was never a time you were truly safe anymore.