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.  

Evelyn Earth Part 6

He had sandy peppered coloured hair and almost translucent blue eyes, but there was a certain wariness in them that made me uneasy.

                “Yes” I replied even though I knew he didn’t need my affirmation. All of a sudden I felt like a wayward school girl being chastised in front of a principal.

                “You led our boys a merry chase” he said and I quickly glanced in the direction of yellow eyes.

                “I’ve been told I like to run around”

                “Hmm, it’s not every day that they come across young girls like yourself…” he trailed off. It was an odd thing to say and I found myself eyeing the man with even more wariness. Did they wish that more young girls would cross their path, for what purpose? I thought maybe yellow eyes noticed my shift in mood because he stepped out in front of the older man and offered me his hand.

                “My name is Owen” he said in a stronger more authoritative voice than the one I had heard earlier, “What Old Mal is trying to say is that it’s dangerous out there for girls. You’re lucky we found you before any of those mobs did. You’re safe here.” He smiled a full toothed grin.

                Looking at the other two women I couldn’t judge if they were included in the ‘safe’ category since they weren’t girls.

                “Do you keep all the girls locked away in shipping containers then?” I asked sarcastically. Neither Owen nor Old Mal took that very well, but before they could get in a retort one of the women stepped forward and pulled my gun out from one of her pants pockets. They were ugly beige slacks with deep draped pockets, but one thing they did do well was conceal a weapon.

               

Evelyn Earth Part 5

Just as I was about to step forward I felt a hand on my back. It grabbed a fist full of my shirt and yanked me backwards. I was disorientated as the ground swung up to meet me. We landed with a thud narrowly missing a jagged piece of concrete. As I lay there looking up at the mass of swirling darkness I knew that I should probably roll away from the man who was half under me and struggling to get up. I knew that I should probably make another run for it, but I couldn’t move. The enormity of the substance before me dwarfed everything else.

                “Are you insane” grumbled the man. His voice was right next to my ear, but all I could hear were echoes of the melody that had come from the darkness. I wanted to find out what it meant. I struggled onto my knees and tried to crawl forward, but strong hands encircled my waist and lifted me up off the ground. I was flung over a broad shoulder and for a moment the darkness was behind me, gone from my line of vision and I panicked. I needed to know what the voices meant. I began to struggle but the man tightened his hold around me and turned to walk away. As his back turned to the liquid fire my face was once again in front of it. With the last ounce of my strength I lunged forward and my fingertips grazed the roiling mass.

                All at once it felt like an electric shock and a silken caress. My eyes rolled into the back of my head as the tingling sensation ran up my arm and settled somewhere deep within my heart. It felt like a second heartbeat, an echo of my own. Buh boom buh buh buh boom. It dragged me inside myself and my eyelids slowly closed until the darkness was all around me.

Evelyn Earth Part 4

 Right now though I needed to put all those thoughts behind me, I needed to focus. I gathered up all the gear I would need; the camping back pack, the LED torch, the iron bar and the gun. Jumping up onto my kitchen island I flung the bag through the hole and carefully aimed for the edge of the wooden beam. It was an awkward jump, but I made it on the first go. Thinking about the first few times I had tried to do that without the mattress underneath made me laugh.

                Outside it was quiet. I could hear the distant lap of water against the concrete walls. The crevice I had barely squeezed through led me out onto the far left side of the building, right where I wanted to be. The townhouses were directly in front of me and I slowly made my way towards them. I wanted my footsteps to match the natural quiet of the area. It wouldn’t be right to run, to hear the slap of my feat disturb the eerie serenity. I knew that the sound of my movements would alert anyone in the area faster than anything else. I had walls on either side of me and prying eyes would have needed to be really close to catch a glimpse of my slight frame.