Evelyn Earth Part 9

I stopped. For a moment I thought the sound had come from the darkness, but then I heard it again.

“Evelyn!” it was more urgent this time, less loud. Confused I turned my head and looked down to my right, nothing. Spinning around in a circle I searched with my eyes, but couldn’t see anyone. I looked back into the liquid darkness and realised that the reverie that had engulfed me not two seconds ago was gone. The swirling mass looked sinister and somehow…mean.

“Evie” the sound came out in short breathes. I turned back around and there he was. He was standing on the top of the escalator with his hands on his hips with his chest heaving.

“Owen?” I choked out. A heavy pulsing had begun in the back of my head. All of a sudden the world seemed to shrink down to just us, me, Owen and the darkness.

 He stepped forward slowly and reached out his hand. As I grasped it I looked back into the shadows and saw a face. It swirled in and out of focus so much so that I couldn’t make out its exact features.

“Let’s get down from here” he whispered close to my ear, “Just hold on to my hand and follow me.” As I shuffled forward my eyes stayed glued to the drifting face. Just as we were about to step off the crumbled escalator it came sharply into focus. It was me. I screamed and so did my ebony reflection as it came rushing towards me.

The next thing I knew Owen was hauling me through the wreckage of the shopping centre. I was slung over his shoulder once again and I slapped him on the back so that he could let me down.

“I’m awake!” I pleaded, “Just put me down.”

“Hold on a bit longer, until I get is out of here.”

“I can walk, just put me down!”

“Why? So that you can run off and try another suicide attempt?” He sounded mad, but of course that’s what he would be thinking. He’s seen people die within the black cloud, why would a stupid girl fare any differently. As I dangled there though, I just couldn’t imagine my life ending within the liquid. It scared the life out of me that was for sure, but I didn’t think it would take my life away from me. I kept that to myself though. I didn’t want to look any crazier in front of Owen.

He stumbled over the last obstacle before clearing Harbour Town and suddenly he didn’t seem as strong as he did five minutes ago. I felt his shoulders sag underneath me and I tried one more time to plead for my release, more for his sake than mine. He relented and dropped me down onto the ground. I landed on my feet, but they weren’t at their most stable and gave way under me. Owen’s reflexes weren’t quick enough this time and we both ended up in a heap in the middle of the road. As we disentangled ourselves I found myself staring up at my building, my home. We had come out on the corner of Pearl River Road.

“This time you’re following me” I said to him before pulling myself up.

 “I’ll follow you anywhere as long as it’s not into the black hole” I looked back at him to make sure he really just said what I think he did, but there was no intense stare, no serious face, he wasn’t even looking at me. I watched as he finished dusting himself off and then set out for home. I was expecting some questions, probing questions, any type of questions about how I knew where I was going within this ruined shell of a building, but he stayed silent throughout the whole trek. The only complaint he made was about the small crawl space he had to squeeze through before dropping down onto my trusty mattress.

It was gloomy inside so I quickly moved to slide my balcony barricade off to one side. As the sunlight from outside illuminated my lounge room I could see Owen looking around with a wary expression.

“So I guess you weren’t being completely honest with me when you said you were squatting in a broken down apartment”

“The apartment part was true…” I trailed off. He stopped in front of some photo frames I had hanging on the wall and looked them all over intensely.

“Not just an apartment, you lived here?” He turned to me and I couldn’t help but feel guilty. The look on his face was accusing and sad at the same time.

“You had your home safe and sound this whole time while I thought my shipping container was decked out. You even have your own maze to get into this place.”

“I got lucky” I answered. There wasn’t much else I could say. I was talking to a guy who had travelled hours by foot to a place that wasn’t what he expected, losing his brother in the process and gaining a sketchy band of survivors in a shipping yard.

“At least your container has more supplies than my home. In a few days this whole place would be useless”

“At least that explains your need to raid Costco” he said quietly, “It must have been hard to get all of your supplies up here, with Maya was it? Why would anyone want to leave such a safe haven?” The guilt within me came rushing up my throat. I almost gagged on the words that came out of my mouth.

“She didn’t want to be here with me. She wanted to take her chances on her own.” It was more of a truth than a lie, but it still made me feel shit inside. He nodded and moved around the mattress to explore the rest of the place. I followed him into my room where he sprawled out on my bed with a sigh.

“Oh my god. A real bed” he laughed, “come lie down next to me” he patted the mattress. I sank down into the feather doona and closed my eyes.

“So I think it’s time you told me what that was all about” I kept my eyes closed. I didn’t know how to answer him.

“I wasn’t trying to kill myself” I answered. It was a start.

“Okay…what were you trying to do then? You know that’s the second time in as many days that I’ve had to bodily remove you from that thing”

“I can’t explain it…it calls out to me” I turned my head and our eyes met, yellow to dark brown, “I’m constantly thinking about it, it’s doing something to me.” His eyes moved down the length of my body until they came to my hand. He took it in his and raised it up above our heads. The veins had spread almost up to my elbow and it frightened me just to look at it.

“I can’t argue with that” he replied, “It’s definitely doing something to you.” He looked back at me as he lowered my hand, but he didn’t let go of it.

“I try not to think about this” he started, “but where have all the people gone?” I moved my head from side to side.

“I think about that all the time. There were thousands of us, just here in this area. Now all I see are a few scavenger groups, all of them male. Marla and Toya were the first females I had seen since Maya left.”

“You’re the first girl I’ve seen since everything went down” his voice was barely a whisper and his eyes…

“Do you think we missed something? Like some mass rescue or an organised evacuation?” I asked. The mood was quickly shifting and I wanted to stay on topic.

“Me and Oliver were right there, from the suburbs to the centre of the city. There were no rescues. As we moved closer to the coast fewer and fewer people crossed our path. We just thought that everyone was hiding, you know, bunkering down.”

“I looked for Maya” I said, “right after she left, I ran outside and I looked for her, but she was gone.” He gripped my hand tighter.

“There are too many things we can’t explain Evie. We just have to keep on surviving. See what happens.”

That night we ate canned corn on my Ikea kitchen island and decided to stay here until the rest of the supplies ran out. Owen wanted to make sure my hand didn’t get any worse and besides I had first aid supplies and a proper bed in case I had another fit.

I watched the clock as the time moved closer and closer to ten. We had to go to sleep and I was dreading it for more than one reason. First of all I had to share my bed with Owen. The last time a guy had slept in that bed was after a drunken night out and a dirty one night stand. Second of all I was sharing a bed with Owen. Thirdly Owen would be in my bed while I was in danger of having another epileptic-like fit. Joy.