Camp Charlie

29 |Saviour|

They say I am peculiar, 
But I'm only waiting for a saviour.

***

"Sarah!" exclaimed Hannah with utter disbelief evident on her face. She slowly extended her fingers towards the person seated in the car.

Am I dead? she thought.

The fear of realising that the person was not real, lurked in the back of her mind. But she wanted to know. The blurred lines between reality and mirage had made it difficult for her to rely on her senses. Her fingertips gently brushed the face of the other woman, fearing that harsh contact would make her disappear, just like a soap bubble. But she stayed. It was not a mirage, but reality. Sarah was alive.

"It's me, Hannah." Sarah broke into a smile as she addressed her friend.

Hannah wrapped her arms around Sarah and broke into tears. But for the first time in several days, they were tears of happiness. Both of them hugged each other tightly, not minding the car door between them and cried their hearts out. They were too scared to let go of each other. The fact that both of them had survived seemed too surreal. Embraced by the first rays of the sun, they let go after what seemed like an eternity.

"I thought you were dead," said Hannah between her consistent sobs.

"So did I," answered Sarah grimly. Then she continued, "We have to get out of here. He'll wake up any minute."

"In my opinion, he's dead."

Both of them looked around, trying to find him. To their surprise, there was no one else around. Fear gripped Hannah as Sarah said,

"He won't go down without a fight." Hannah nodded in agreement. As she was about to sit in the passenger seat, Sarah pleaded, "Can you drive?" Without saying anything, the girls exchanged their places. When she walked out of the driver's seat to take her place on the passenger seat, Sarah limped as she walked, and this didn't go unnoticed.

With both of them seated in the car, Hannah revved up the engine and drove past the dreadful place called Camp Charlie.

"What happened to your leg?" she questioned while glancing at her companion who's facial expressions revealed the extent of pain she had endured.

"It's a long story."

"I'm all ears." While her eyes stayed at the road, Hannah sometimes glanced at her friend who prepared herself mentally for narrating the happenings of the past few days. She was in bad condition. Thick, brown mud covered her lower body and hands. Of the part of her skin which was still visible, blood and scratches covered it. Her badly bruised face and a wounded forehead stood out the most. Her matted hair looked messy. Not once in her life had she imagined seeing Sarah like this. Everything was so bizarre.

I found Ethan at the hills inside one of the caves. He was in so much pain. That's when he came. Charlie. It was just crazy. The way he spoke, the way he looked. Like he was a different person altogether. He had killed all of our friends and wasn't planning to stop. We tried to run, but Ethan was weak. The wound on the back of his head had resulted in tremendous blood loss. He wanted me to run, that idiot.

Sarah smiled as she remembered his face. At that moment, she had decided that if she wanted to live, then it had to be with Ethan. Her heart had made the right choice by loving him.

I couldn't leave him. That bastard Charlie, managed to corner us. He stood there just like a monster with a knife in his hand and behind us, stretched a gorge. Somewhere in our hearts, we were aware of the fact that we couldn't make it out alive. He tried to stab me, but Ethan took those wounds meant for me.