Gone

Before Harold can punch me again, a group of people pull him off of me while Aria steps between us. My face feels numb and my head foggy.

“I knew we should never have let you in! You killed them! Everyone!” Harold yells, his voice raw and bubbling with rage, as he tries to fight his way back to me.

Another man shouts, “Calm down!” The yelling slowly fades as Harold is taken into another room.

I feel Aria tapping my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Nnnnn,” I moan.

“Thank god you’re awake, we don’t want to add a concussion onto all our other problems.”

“Mm-hmm,” I mumble in agreement. I notice some other people standing around us, looking concerned.

A woman who appears to work here says, “I am so sorry about our employee. Let’s get him a seat, ice, and some water.” A bit dazed, I’m led to a seat. The lady sends someone to grab me water and ice.

“You should do this more often, it makes getting water easy,” Aria whispers in my ear.

I laugh, but pain shoots through my right cheek, cutting it short. “Ahh, I’m too sore to laugh.”

Once I’ve sipped water and pressed ice to my cheek, the lady says, “May I ask how you know Harold?”

“I’m his friend—as hard as that is to believe.” As expected, she looks at me with disbelief, but she doesn’t deny what I said.

“I wasn’t aware he had any friends; he’s always so quiet.” She sort of trails off, lost in thought. But then she snaps right back. “What would make him act like that if you’re his friend?”

“That’s personal,” I answer, hoping she won’t pry any deeper.

“It sounded extremely serious based on what he was yelling. I hope you two get it figured out, I don’t want to have this souring our bar.” She pauses, pondering. “Once Harold calms down I’ll let you guys talk.” She stands up and heads to the room that Harold disappeared into.

Aria stares at me intently. “What was that?” she asks.

“You know the faction that was hit by a novacide—the This is Our Town Faction?”

She raises an eyebrow. “Yeahh, we just saw it today.”

“Well, Harold may or may not be from there, and was possibly a friend of mine.” I awkwardly laugh, although I really shouldn’t. Aria stares at me blankly, probably thinking—

“What the hell.” Or maybe not just thinking.

The lady comes back out after ten minutes and takes us back to the room. In the middle is Harold, sitting in a chair, his arms and legs tied up. Tears stain his cheeks, his head hangs low, and his eyes are empty—void of light. It’s as if his soul has already slipped away.

“Isn’t this a little much?” I say.

The lady just smiles and waves her hand back and forth, saying, “Now, now, we want you two playing nice, so we made sure Harold is ready for a nice long conversation. Come tell me when you’re finished.” She exits the room, leaving me and Aria alone with Harold.

He looks so done with the world that I feel bad even talking to him. “Uhhh, so…” I fidget, scratching my head and pacing a little. “So you’re alive.”

“Only me,” he whispers.

“Huh?”

He raises his head. There isn’t a hint of anger in his voice, just despair. “I’m the only one who survived.”

I wanna cry again, but I’ve exhausted all my tears for today. Aria looks at me, concerned. I’m sure my face looks ugly as hell.

Gritting my teeth, I ask, “How?”

“They searched the entire town for you. There were just too many of them, we couldn’t stop them. We tried to fight back, but they killed anyone who retaliated. It was… overwhelming. I saw—” his voice becomes weak, struggling to get out whatever it is.

Kneeling beside Harold, Aria cuts in, “Take your time, I understand what you’re going through.” Harold stares at Aria, his eyes fill with a trust I’ve never seen from him before.

He sobs.

All we can do is wait. His sorrow feels so potent that it enshrouds the room, seizing your every thought. I have no idea how long it takes before he speaks, but still crying, he continues, “I saw Sp—Spencer and Trey d—die right in front of me.” I really did think that I had no more tears left in me, but I join Harold in a chorus of wails.

I feel arms around me, I can only assume it’s Aria returning the favor from earlier.

Eventually, Harold speaks again, “I ran, my fear stronger than my love for the town. Everyone was so confused, they had no idea. I knew what they would do if they didn’t find you. I was lucky that they didn’t see me escape, but others weren’t so lucky. When they decided that you weren’t there, they used a novacide.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” is all I can manage to say.

Harold’s voice snaps from sadness to fury. “I don’t want sorry! I want them back! I knew it, I knew we shouldn’t have let you in!”

I stammer out apologies—it feels like all I can do.

“Shut up!” He shakes uncontrollably, anger taking over him and bringing a fire back to his eyes. He tries to escape the chair, but all he can do is scream. “I swear I’ll kill you! I swear!”

Paralyzed and afraid, I stand there sobbing, repeating the same two words over and over. Aria’s body is the only warmth in the world. All the while, Harold screams at me.

The lady from earlier barges through the door. “What is going on in here?!”

Aria puts one of my arms over her shoulder and one of hers around my waist. “Let’s get out of here.” She turns to the lady. “I apologize for the trouble we’ve caused.”

We walk past the lady, too stunned to stop us, and out of the bar. Harold’s yells can still be heard outside.

“Come on, we don’t want to stick around and cause any more problems. I know you’re tired, but we need to go,” Aria says while helping me on my bike.

We leave, biking until we find an abandoned home. I cry off and on the whole time.

Aria helps me inside and lowers me onto a bed. She sits on the ground beside the bed, holding my hand.

“It’s going to be okay.”

I fall asleep in less than a minute.

I wake up to Aria still sitting upright beside the bed. I almost say something, but hear her heavy breathing and realize she’s still sleeping. I get up carefully, making sure not to wake her up. Searching the house, I find some canned goods and running water. As luck would have it, the food isn't spoiled. I also find a bag that I decide to hide the Supernovacide box in.

I go to wake up Aria. Tapping her on the shoulder, her eyes slowly open. “You hungry?” I ask.

“So hungry,” she answers drowsily.

“Fantastic, I made a feast.”

I take her out to the dining room for our “feast,” which is really just pears and soup. Still, it feels like a feast to us; we haven’t eaten in days. Aria’s eyes sparkle—I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this excited. We chow down, enjoying our moment of peace in the eye of the storm.

After our food is finished, we continue biking to the hospital. Later that day we start getting close to where the hospital should be, but what we find is far from what we ever expected—a familiar massive hole surrounded by a large encampment.

“Shit, let’s turn around. This ain’t good,” I say, trying to push every thought in my mind away. It’s just a weird hole, that’s all.

“No, this area is too open. They’ve had to have spotted us by now. We can’t do something so suspicious, let’s act like we’re casually passing by.” Aria must be doing the same.

“What about this bag on my back, what the hell am I supposed to do about that?”

“Hope they don’t think anything of it.” I look at her, bewilderment all over my face. “Or would you rather they drive over here and pick us up?”

“No. I guess not.”

“I know we both know what’s going on here, but we must stay calm.” 

I nod, worried that speaking will make it too real.

As we bike past the camp, a man shouts, “Come over here!”

We bike over, Aria casually asks, “What’s going on?” She has a strained expression, but she’s able to make it come off as curiosity.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says gruffly. Not the most friendly person. “Have you two perchance seen some big old motorcycle looking things driving around?”

I cock my head to the side, feigning confusion. “No? Should I have?”

“I suppose not.” He stares at me for a second, making me feel a bit scared.

I can feel sweat forming on my forehead. “Is something wrong?” I ask.

The man turns to a friend. “Hey, doesn’t this guy remind you of the guy we’re looking for?”

“Brother, any guy his age would look like him,” he responds, walking over. “Just in case though, what’s your name, kid?”

I just spout out the first one I can think of, “Fredrick.”

“It’s not him,” the friend says to the first man.

“But what if he’s lying?”

“Come on, brother. We can’t bug every person who comes this way. We’ve already caused trouble for too many people. The guy is a master of evasion, there’s no way he’d come back here anyways.” Isn’t that something?

“Alright, be on your way,” orders the first guy.

I let out an awkward chuckle. “Thanks,” I say before grabbing Aria to leave.

We bike at a normal pace at first, but as we get further away we pick up our speed until we’re absolutely flying.

I feel like a maniac—we laugh and cry and scream, the wind taking our voices with it.

My adrenaline isn’t infinite, though. I slow down, Aria following my lead, and get off the bike, falling to the ground.

“No. No, no, no. No! Why?!” I scream, pounding my fists against the ground. “What’s the point? Even without the Supernovacide they’ll kill everyone!” The hospital is gone—the organization, Sergio, my home—all gone.

Aria stands beside me, blankly staring at the sky. “I can’t believe it. How did we survive? They’re so ruthless, yet we made it out. How? I don’t get it.” I stop screaming, distracted by her words. I stare at her as she stares at the sky. Beneath her expressionless face I sense a sadness. I had made friends at the hospital, but she lost her second family. She may seem numb, but there’s no way she truly is. I feel like I should say something.

We sleep where we are, not a single word spoken between us the rest of the day. It may be idiotic, but we don’t have the energy to care. Wrapped around each other, fighting off the cold night air, we drift off.