“I do, though.”
“No you don’t.”
Part of me wanted to know and part of me didn’t. What if it was too gruesome for me to handle? What would I say to her family? I already had to tell them that their daughter didn’t just disappear, I had to tell them that she had been murdered. “Just tell me, Owen.” Better that I found out sooner rather than later.
Owen opened his mouth to answer me and a light started flickering behind us. I looked at him, puzzled. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“I have to go.”
“No,” I pleaded. “Please don’t go.”
“I’m sorry.” He started the lift and it began going down.
“Owen, please,” I begged. “You don’t have to go with him. You can stay here with me.”
“No,” he said. “I can’t.”
The lift came to a halt, looming right above the floor in the mess hall. “Can you at least tell me what happened to Monica? How do you know that she was killed by a decayed one?” Owen set me down on the floor and the lift started going back in to the ceiling. “Owen, tell me!” I shouted, not caring if I woke up the entire colony.
Just before the lift went up and cut off Owen’s head from my view he said, “I know that Monica was killed by a decayed one. And I know it for sure because I found her head.”
Chapter 21: All Good Things Eventually Come to an End
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Hours after Owen dropped me off, I lied awake, disturbing images passing in and out of my subconscious mind. First, images of Monica, her brown hair spread out along the loose ashes of the earth’s surface, her face contorted in agony as she begged and pleaded for her life. Then Mr. Baker came into focus as he pounded away the keys on the control panel keyboard, typing things like “Attack!” or “Eat Them!”
Finally, I saw myself, strapped down to a hospital gurney. A surgeon with a scalpel hovered above me, lowering it slowly, inch by inch. I tried to scream but I had no voice and the closer the scalpel came to the top of my head, the more real the thought felt. It was like I was seconds away from receiving a lobotomy without an anesthetic.
Someone was tugging on my arm and I started to panic. I thrashed violently, feeling my palm connect with a person’s cheek. “Ouch,” Frankie whimpered, and then she started wailing. “Mommy! Mommy!”
I bolted upright in my bed and realized I was having a nightmare. Frankie recoiled, sulking over to her bed, and she curled up into a little ball. She sobbed softly and I exhaled slowly.
“Frankie, come here,” I said convincingly.
She whipped her head and snapped, “No!” before tucking it back into her lap.
“Frankie, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I was having a bad dream.”
“You slapped me!” she cried as she rocked back and forth.
“I promise I didn’t mean to.” I twitched my head to the side. “Now, come over here and lie down with me.” I scooted closer to the dirt wall and patted the empty side of my cot.
Frankie hesitated, unfolding herself from her ball as my mother rushed through the door. “What’s going on?” she gasped, winded.
“I was having a nightmare and I accidentally slapped Frankie across the face,” I admitted.
She looked at Frankie solemnly and rushed to her bed side. “Oh, baby, are you okay?” she asked, whispering in a comforting tone.
Frankie dug her balled up fist in her eye and dried her tears. “Yeah,” she murmured.
“I’m sure Georgie didn’t mean to slap you.” My mother glared at me. “Right, Georgie?”
I rolled my eyes. “I already apologized, Mom.”
Her eyes shifted to the end of the bed and zoomed in on something. “What’s that?” she asked as I followed her gaze.
At the end of my bed was a white envelope and my name had been scrawled across the front of it. “I honestly don’t know.” I crawled toward the edge of my bed and picked up the envelope.
“Oh, a love letter,” she teased. “I bet it’s from Colin Martin.”
Just my mother mentioning his name made me want to hurl. Colin Martin was a coward and not only that, he was involved in a conspiracy to commit murder, my murder. I bet my mother wouldn’t think so I highly of him when I told her that. “It’s not from Colin Martin,” I corrected. “It’s from someone else.” I knew very well that it was a letter from Owen.
Considering how rushed he was last night, when he dropped me off, it tickled my heart that he took the time to write me a letter and drop it off. I wondered where he was at that moment, just how far he had traveled or if he wound up stopping somewhere that wasn’t too far away. I knew he couldn’t have ended up anywhere in the west because California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona were gone.
“Well, who’s it from then?” my mother inquired.
I hugged the letter to my chest to keep her from seeing it. “Nobody important.”
Frankie giggled. “I think Georgie has a boyfriend.”
“I do too,” my mother said to Frankie. “But let’s let Georgie worry about her own boy problems, okay.”
Frankie hopped to her feet. “Okay.”
My mother rose from the bed. “Get ready for breakfast girls.” She walked out of the room and Frankie followed her.
I waited until I couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore and then I tore into the letter, pulling the paper free from the envelope.
Then I scanned each word, like I was permanently embedding them in my mind.
Georgina,
I’m sorry our conversation got out of control at some point yesterday. Believe me, that was the last thing I wanted. Mark has given me clear instructions on where I’m supposed to go. Somewhere East. According to him, there is an area close to where Canada used to be that has been untouched by The Great Famine.
I guess he and his family will begin their journey there tomorrow—which is today for you by the time you actually get to read this letter.
I’ve truly enjoyed the little time I spent with you and I will think of you always .And if the place where I’m headed really hasn’t been touched by the asteroid or The Great Famine, I will come back for you, I promise.
Folding up the letter, I shoved it under my bed before any one of my family members had the chance to come in and catch me with it. Then I remained in bed soaking every word in.
A place untouched by The Great Famine. That had to be a distorted story or illusion Mr. Baker had dreamt up. The Great Famine had destroyed the entire world. Even though, I knew Owen was strong, him making the journey alone worried me. Real cannibals. The decayed ones. Both of those creatures would be out there past our little colony.
Thinking back to my time on the new earth, I remembered when I was out there alone, without Colin, and someone or something was toying with me. After my mother educated me on the decayed ones I realized that I’d had my first encounter with one. How did I know? Cannibals didn’t toy with their food. They killed you quickly, eager to ease the hunger pains in their stomach.
