The Storm by Virginia Bergin

Author:Virginia Bergin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Survival Stories, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9781492606581
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published: 2015-10-06T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The kid pokes me awake. I’m not great in the mornings anyway, but…

I know it’s late; the door to the ambulance is open and the heat of a sunny day is cooking up the greenery outside. The scent of warmed forest wafts in, of trees and leaves and moss that are thinking quietly about winter, and must have had their most peaceful, people-free summer for thousands of years, I guess—up until last night, when an ambulance came crashing through. I don’t suppose the SOUND OF A HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD bothers them too much—BUT IT BOTHERS ME.

HOW DID I SLEEP THROUGH THAT?!

I’m up on my feet, peering out of the ambulance door—can’t see the helicopter for the trees, but that’s fine. I can’t see it, so it can’t see us. I don’t know whether it is anything to do with us, but I do know WE HAVE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE.

I’d go nuts at the kid for not waking me sooner, but…I can’t. A couple more creamers have been drunk. The rest of the tiny pile? She hasn’t touched it.

“It’s OK,” I tell her. “It’s OK. You drink that stuff. It’s yours. You drink it.”

I am desperate to glug it. All of it. I look at one of the little tubes full of clear liquid—sucrose solution. Takes a nanosecond to swig it down.

Really…could life be any more horrible?

“Just drink up, huh?” I say, as I go to try to restart the ambulance.

It’s pointless. We are out of gas. It makes nasty noises.

Nice day for a walk.

I return to the back of the ambulance and grab the map.

“C’mon,” I tell the kid. “We gotta walk.”

She hesitates for a second. She’s right. I’m in a biosuit, aren’t I? She’s in a hospital gown.

I rummage. I find scissors and…great big super-tough bags.

I can’t fool myself; they’re body bags.

Well—great. They’re strong, and there’s tape too, also pretty strong stuff, and so I can make her some body-bag shoes and a nice, snug suit.

“All done,” I tell her when I’ve taped that plastic suit tight around her, complete with hood.

“C’mon,” I say, stepping down from the ambulance.

I offer my hand.

She takes it.

What do either of us feel? Not much. A moment of warmth through tape and plastic.

She hops down. Lets go of my hand. I pull on my plasticky-rubbery helmet. I’ve taken enough chances.

We walk out of the forest, me and that kid. I go first. With gloved hands and the scissors from the ambulance, I snip brambles in our path.

It is a slow journey.

We reach the main road. It is quiet…but I know which road this is. It is the road to the army base; any second, they could come.

“We’ve gotta run now,” I shout through the helmet at her. I am so thirsty, the words feel sticky in my mouth. “Can you do that?”

For the first time, the kid nods at me.

And we run; boy, do we run.

The breath of life pants in and out of my lips, of her lips.

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