Hope II

2020 Part III

Distorted sounds and funny voices, messed up vision and an aching chest. Before I even opened my eyes I knew I wasn't going to wake up in my bed.  

Dark light grew darker, the sounds became sharper and sharper. The cries of a woman shouting the name 'George!' met my ear drums as I replenished my vision, looking dead straight at the body of my fellow soldier alongside me, his eyes staring into the distance and his jaw hanging low. I looked at what was forbidding me from movement, the seatbelt settled tightly around my waist, foreboding any gestures until I slowly unbuckled my knife from the chest pocket of my bullet proof vest jacket, gripping the small pocket knife and quickly slicing the fabric of the seatbelt, crashing me onto the floor of the jeep, which was actually the roof, the vehicle overturned. 

My head hit the ground hard and the knife fell from my grasp. It was then that I looked around the jeep to see all our weapons taken, every last one of them, even the pistols in our holsters... even the god damn holsters. My entire unit were wiped clean of weapons, all but the pocketknife I picked up again off the ground below the hanging corpse of a dead soldier. 

I looked up to him and I grabbed my knife, pushing his leg slightly to see if there was any chance he was still alive.  

My vision swayed the light coming from the fires through the open doorway, where the jeep door once was are now just the hinges, and so I pushed myself out of the overturned jeep and onto the gritty pavement of the road, slowly getting to my feet to see the apocalyptic horror before my eyes. 

The first sight I looked to was the burning suburban area where Jerry lived, homes torn apart, scavenged and stolen before being burned by bandits. A car had crashed straight into a home, now in flames as the corpses inside began to rot.

Some homes were left untouched, as though they were completely avoided... they had enough with the dozen other homes in the area. The pavement was torn in skid marks and bags of abandoned luggage. My eyes panned across the deathly horror's before passing the estate and gazing over the horizon towards the city of Chicago, the roads full to the brim of cars honking horns, a string of traffic trying to get out of the city. The highway was visible from here, the entire road full of bright red lights, the entire highway blocked up, there would be no getting out of there with a car.  

There were people running the streets with bags of luggage on their backs, running to wherever the road takes them, one woman still shouting the name "George! George!" as she walked closer and closer to the jeep.

In an instant I was blown off my feet and the woman shot like a bullet through the air following the thundering explosion of the jeep, spontaneously it had combust into a ball of flames, incinerating everything and everyone inside... my friends burned to ash inside the flaming jeep, a rising flame ascending to the sky above.

It was a struggle to get back to my feet with an aching headache and a scarred face. The woman lay dead on the ground, her body covered in blood and fire. I took one step before I was thrown off balance by a sudden vibration beneath my feet, the ground began to shake and suddenly three jets zoomed past at lightning speed straight towards the city of Chicago. No sooner had I turned to look at the jets before they had dropped napalm bombs on the city, incinerating everyone and everything inside, the entire city began to fall into the flames of its desolation...

The sounds of fire surrounded me, my senses saw nothing but a dark, dour reality. Here I stand in the middle of the road, the city of Chicago burning before me... the whole damn world is coming to an end. 

Burning homes and blown up cars, bandits and thieves running the streets invading properties and taking all they can. A crumbling sound hit me from behind, quickly I turned to face the burning city again to witness the largest skyscraper in Illinois collapsing to the ground, to join the destruction of fallen buildings and burnt out roads in my home city. Destroyed. 

Everything seems to have gone. Jerry is more than likely dead, my home destroyed and nothing but death surrounds me. 

I gazed up the street to the direction of the traffic... and my heart nearly stopped beating... Jerry. Standing at the open door of a black jeep just metres away, almost across the road from me. 

'JER!-' that was all I got out before a family car swerved out in front of me and pounded hard against my body. My entire body fell numb when it hit the ground, sound and vision distorted again... but I could make out the sounds of doors opening and people running. 

'My god' one said 'Are you alright?' she gazed over me, though I could barely make her out. Blonde hair maybe? I could barely even see. 

I tried hard to speak, to get out one word and point my finger 'Jeep' I coughed 'Black jeep' I raised my finger painfully and pointed to the jeep which I hoped was still there. I tried hard to find her eyes, and eventually I did. A pretty woman of young age, I gave her a one word order.  

'Follow'

*** 

'That name sounds familiar' I interrupted, halting Mark's story and gripping the hooked attention of all around us. He had just told us of how he woke up the following morning in the back of a jeep and first met the people who saved him. The people who could have just drove off after they hit him, yet instead they came back and helped him. The part about me getting into a black jeep I cannot remember. The only distinct memory I have of that day was the crash and the destruction of Chicago... I can't remember anything else from that day, though I am almost certain I went for the train station... I cannot recall getting into a car with someone, yet for whatever reason that name rings a bell, something about it seems oddly familiar. 

'John Coffey' Mark repeated, and I nodded 'I remember him saying that you were with him, but you left' Mark said, amazingly he remembered every little detail of his journey in the early days, vaguely he can recall the conversations he had, key events that happened to him. 

'I'm almost certain I would have told them to turn around and go back and look for you... but by the time I woke up we were already far from the city. There was no going back' 

'Were you with them long?' I asked 'The group who saved you, this John man, were you with them long?' I asked, still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together as to why the name is so familiar. 

'Yes' Mark nodded 'Some of them are downstairs as we speak' when he said that I realised that the people he met that day were the ones he has been with for the last twenty years, broadening his group by picking up survivors to join them on their quest to safety. 

'But not John... he had to leave us not long after we took control of the supermarket' 

My mind was still in the process of thinking back, trying hard to recall who he was and why his name is remarkably familiar. Based on Mark's story, I got into a jeep with John Coffey... and then I left. From what I can remember I went for the train station, but it was violently crowded and so I stuck to the road. That's how I eventually met the people who would eventually give birth to Ash. Now that is one memory I can distinctly remember. Patrick and Ella, two strangers who I survived with for years, right up to the point when we found the village... but John Coffey... I can't remember him, maybe it's just a random name that somehow triggered a bell. He survived with Mark and his group, and when they finally found safety in the supermarket, he left.  

'Jerry' Mark said, speaking my name 'You ok?' he asked. 

I had not realised that my body was basically an empty capsule, I was so deep in thought that the entire world seemed to have blanked out around me. He survives to find safety, he finds it and he leaves... why would he leave?... unless he was never looking for safety. 

Suddenly it hit me, a blank memory began to refill inside my head. I instantly perked up my body when it all became clear. The shadow that blocked out the memory began to fade and the picture painted itself. I knew the word Vertuga sounded familiar. I just didn't know where I had heard it before... Now I remember.