Evelyn Earth Part 7

The tears stopped almost as quickly as they had started. I sat there blinking away the last traces of my remorse as Owen sat next to me with his head bowed. It was a solemn moment where both of us slipped into the past and faced the things we had tried to brush aside. My head felt clearer and I didn’t have a heaviness in my gut anymore.

                “Are you hungry?” he asked me after a few more moments of silence.

                “I could eat” I grinned at him. He led me back into the container and set up a small dinner. The sun was setting outside and the twinkle of the fairy lights was becoming our only source of light. Looking around at all the things that Owen had amassed I suddenly really wanted to go home. I wanted my pack and I wanted my gun.

                “I’m surprised that out of all of you Marla was the one who got to keep my gun” I said

                “What?” he sounded taken aback, “Oh yeah Marla used to be in the army or something overseas so she’s the only one out of us who knows how to use it.”

                “Did she get to keep my pack as well or do you divvy up the things you steal?” the sudden hostility in my voice surprised even me, but the more I thought about it the angrier I got. “I raided that townhouse before you even got there. I had to jump out of a fucking window to keep the stuff I took, but it seems you people don’t mind stealing from an unconscious girl.” He scowled at me and I glared right back.  

                 “It’s survival of the fittest out here, we both know that, it’s not our fault you went all crazy and tried to run into the black hole. If you hadn’t of done that than maybe you would have got to keep the shit you stole.”

                “There it is again!” I stood up, “Why do you keep calling it a black hole, does it look like a bloody hole to you?” He stood up as well and loomed over me. I could see his hands clenching and the hard set line of his jaw moving under his skin.

                “Clearly you’ve never seen someone get sucked up by it before” the tone of his voice was like ice, frosty and sharp at the same time, “I have, I saw two guys get thrown into one of those things from a building. I saw the way they fell and the way they stopped falling as if they were floating. I also saw the way the black stuff pulled their skin off of their bodies, bit by bit until all that was left was their raw muscle, and then even that was sucked away. I saw bones turn to dust. Now tell me again how ‘black hole’ is such an inappropriate name.” He sat back down with a thud and picked up the can he was eating out of.

                I looked down at my hand and moved my fingers. I believed everything he just said, there’s no way he would lie about something so horrible, but my fingers were still here. I had barely grazed the black liquid, but when I touched it all I could feel was purity and other-worldly serenity. I sat back down slowly and muttered a “sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” He grunted in return and we continued to eat in silence.

 It was pitch black outside by now and I was beginning to wonder where I would sleep. The makeshift bed in Owen’s container looked barely big enough to hold him and I wasn’t relishing the idea of stumbling through the shipping yard trying to find a bed of my own. I needed a torch, with that I could follow the water and get back to my building, to my own bed. Looking up at him though I knew that he wouldn’t let me go, there was still something about his agenda that troubled me. Even if he didn’t wish me any harm, I didn’t feel entirely free to get up and walk away. It had something to do with the others, they hadn’t looked like they were finished with me when Owen dragged me away, they also didn’t try and stop him, which meant that they trusted him to keep an eye on me.

                “Do you have any spare blankets I could use?” I asked, “I’d like to bed down in one of your other containers. No offence”

                “What’s wrong with right here?” he looked up at me intently. It was a serious question and I knew that a joke wouldn’t be a welcome answer.

                “Yeah okay, here’s fine.” I answered warily, “I’ll take the front of the container and you take the back. If I feel you creeping up on me while I sleep I’m out the door.” For a second I thought he might object, but instead he let out a loud booming laugh.

                “Don’t worry once I’m asleep not even the presence of a supermodel could wake me up.” If this were any other situation I would laugh right back and make some witty remark like “oh ouch a back handed compliment, just the thing a girl needs” but all I said in reply was “good.” It was tiring being cynical, but I’d rather be tired than raped. Luckily I was the lightest sleeper in the world, back when I lived with my house mates even the most muffled cough would wake me up hence why I moved out alone.

                If he so much as moved I would be gone, out the door like a leaf on the wind. Why wait when you could slip away as soon as he starts snoring? Why indeed.

                As I lay down on the hard ground and struggled to make the wadded up towel beneath my head more pillow-like I wondered why I hadn’t just run away. I had ample opportunity, sure Owen would probably chase me, but he was big and I was small and some of the gaps between the shipping containers could only permit so much width. I sighed. I knew exactly why. Ever since Maya had left me alone I had felt, well…alone. Speaking with Owen changed things, I knew that if I did run back to my hole in the wall apartment, back to my rooftop perch that I would feel even lonelier. Thinking the whole world was one big scavenger pack was one thing, but knowing there was a nice guy who was willing to tell you about himself and hear what you had to say was different.

                I closed my eyes and resolved to be a little less cynical. Tomorrow would be another day and I would see what that day brought, Marla and stolen gun and all.

                It was damp. She twisted and turned and the soft mud eased over her skin. She stood over an ocean. A jutting cliff crumbled below her, but she didn’t mind. Its remnants would settle on the seabed. Everything returned to the Earth. Foreign clouds billowed out of a stone tower. One here one there…thousands as far as the eye could see. It choked her and she coughed and coughed until blood came spilling out of her body. It soaked into the dry ground making slick mud. When the rains fell heavy with pollution, when their touch scorched her skin blood would be the answer. Blood would nourish everything.

                She was a momentous fiery movement. She churned and spat fire. She buffeted the winds, but it was not enough. They built shelters and bunkers, they used her own skin to conceal themselves from her wrath. After a long time the hatred inside her grew too much. She let out bursts of darkness that spewed forth from the ground. It was broiling and smooth. It consumed the hated things, but it would also bring forth life. The only weapon that man had known, which had stood against him since the dawn of time, was man itself. Supremacy came to the strongest man so she sent out her strength within the darkness. It was laced with hatred and filled with her desires. It would seduce the ones who could carry out her vengeance. The ones…

                Someone was screaming. It took me a few moments to realise it was me. I slapped my hands over my mouth and my body shook. One convulsion after the other rocked me back and forth. I could feel Owen’s hands on my shoulders, on my back. My eyes rolled in the back of my head and everything went black.

               

The smell of fire tickled my nose. I wanted to rub it, to make the itching go away, but when I tried to lift my hand up to my face I found resistance. Opening my eyes I only saw darkness. I struggled to lift up my arm and panic seized me, had something happened to me? Was I paralysed? Blind? I let out a strangled wail and suddenly my vision was flooded with light.

“It’s okay it’s okay, it’s just me” Owen’s voice filled my head.

“Wha…” I trailed off, my mouth felt like a cotton ball.

“I’m sorry I had to tie you down” he knelt down next to me and as my eyes adjusted to the light I could see that I had been swaddled, like a giant baby.

“You woke up in the middle of the night screaming” he spoke as his hands worked to untie the rope that was binding me, “I tried to calm you down, but you started having some kind of seizure. Even after you passed out your arms and legs would lash out and I didn’t want you hurting yourself so…” He tossed the last rope aside and helped me sit up. My whole head spun and Owen’s face swam before my eyes. I clutched at my temples and groaned.

                “I’ve never had a seizure before”

                “Really?”

                “I swear” I looked up at him and suddenly he grabbed my hand.

                “What’s wrong with your arm!” he sounded scared.

                “Nothing, what? It feels fine…” I looked down and my breath caught in my throat. The thin veins running up the back of my hand were black. They snaked their way up over my wrist and as I turned my hand over all I could see was a mass of black lines that crept half way up my forearm. I touched them with the tips of my fingers and pressed down on my wrist. My blood was still pumping, I could feel the feint boom, boom, boom of my heart, it was just black. I looked up at Owen and his eyes reflected mine, and they were both frightened.