Trekking to Kirra

“Gonnnng!”

“Gonnnng!”

The warning church bells rang loud in the distance. Milla woke to see her camp mates scrambling around in the fire light to pack everything at their tent sites. How many times did the bells ring already? The sound of boots scuffing against the dry red clay of the ground rustled in her ears. She felt drowsy from the lack of a good rest, but she jumped to her feet and immediately began breaking down her tent. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt safe enough to fully rest. Her memory of the last 7 months felt both like a blur and like a fresh wound. She often got lost in her own thoughts and memories of a time before the “Awakening”.

“Gonnnng!”

The sound of the church bells startled Milla back to attention. She jumped, causing one of the tent poles to flee from her grasp, snagging the heart shaped locket from her neck along with it. Milla watched as the locket, still hanging from the now broken chain, bounced along the dry Earth, producing the tiniest dust cloud around it as it popped open. There, covered in the fine dust of the red clay, was an image of Milla’s sister tucked into the frame of the small silver locket.

“Oy! Milla! You alright? Let’s get moving!”, Teo, one of the other campers, shouted. He had been her only friend throughout this outbreak. The other campers were protective out of necessity for survival, but Teo allowed Milla to be soft when she needed to be. She snatched her locket from the ground and dropped it into the breast pocket of her military jacket, making sure to snap the button closed and feeling for the lump it created between the layers of fabric; just for good measure. She had already lost her sister. She couldn’t bare the thought of losing the only piece of Kirra she had left.

Milla strapped her tent carrying bag to the top of her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. The weight from the bag jostled her forward a bit. She was a small girl. That was often brought to her attention by the other campers. They made comments about her size and how impossible they found it that she had survived this long. Sometimes, even she wasn’t sure how she had made it this far, but she knew she couldn’t have done it without Teo.

“Gonnnng!”

Teo stepped up beside Milla just as she was thinking about him, almost as if he had approached her on cue. She turned to look at him, noticing the way his amber colored eyes sparkled brightly in the light from the fire. “Another day. Here we go, right?”, she asked hypothetically. Teo gave her shoulder a little squeeze as he nodded with a slight smirk.

“Here we go”, he said, and threw a bucket of water onto the fire in front of them simultaneously with the other campers who were putting out their own fires.

“Gonnnng!”, the church bell rang once more, alerting the campers that it was time to move. It was always 5 rings. Milla wondered who was in control of the bells and how they had stayed safe enough to keep watch all this time.

The campers fell completely silent and stood there waiting for their leader, Pierce, to signal them in a direction. He gestured for the campers to follow behind him. The scurrying and scuffing of boots from earlier were now replaced with gentle footsteps across the forest ground. Teo reached for Milla’s hand, pulling her from her thoughts.

They fell in line with the other campers matching their soft footsteps. The camp always moved together, and always at night. They slept, hunted, ate, took care of everything during the day because they needed to be on the move at night. The “Awake Ones” rested when the sun was up and hunted the survivors at night. The assumption was that when the change (the Awakening) occurred, something shifted in their once human brains and turned them completely nocturnal. The campers couldn’t risk being off guard when the Awake Ones were active.

The loud “whoosh” of flapping wings sounded from somewhere distant- somewhere far above them. Pierce let out a quick, high pitched whistle, signaling the campers to pause. For some reason, he was the only one among them who could sense which direction the Awake Ones were coming from, and they were seemingly also always moving their resting place.

The sound of wings was heard once more, from somewhere even farther away than before. Milla thought they must be hunting someone else if they were distancing. She was convinced that other campers, other survivors, were out there. They must be… And she could sense that Kirra was with them.

Pierce let out a slower, lower pitched whistle signaling everyone to follow him once more. They were able to progress on for hours without any trouble. Location moves always felt as though they lasted forever, no matter if something happened or not. Staying alert and on guard for that amount of time was exhausting. That’s why Milla always crashed once camp was set up for the day, and often didn’t even wake for mealtime- one of the main reasons her fellow campers questioned her ability to survive and made jokes about her petiteness.

Suddenly, the “whoosh” of flapping wings was directly above, loud, and stirring wind all around them. Milla held back a scream as a camper only three people away from her in line was abruptly snatched up by the talons of one of the Awake Ones. Their bodies barely resembled their original human form anymore.

“LINK UP!”, Pierce shouted from the front of the line, his voice breaking from the volume of his projection.

The campers immediately joined hands and dropped as low to the ground as they could. They learned months ago that there is strength in numbers. The Awake Ones struggled too much to grab them when they were joined together and huddled near the ground. Milla clutched tightly to Teo’s hand on her right and felt the person to her left shaking violently in their grasp. She kept her head down as low as she could between her own knees until the sound of wings faded into the distance once more.

They all stood slowly. The person to Milla’s left quickly dropped her hand and moved through the group before she could catch a glimpse of them. Teo held her hand for a moment longer as they began to move forward through the forest again. She knew it was for her sake. Teo understood that Milla needed to be grounded after an attack to avoid a total emotional breakdown. No one discussed the person that had gotten snatched. No one mentioned what just happened to them. They had lost so many people along the journey. Now they just moved on and kept walking forward. The silence always triggered Milla, but she knew they just needed to survive. She understood. They would mourn the lost in due time.

At some point during their trek, Teo finally released Milla’s hand, but never moved very far from her. They had walked so far. Milla couldn’t recall the last time she saw anything that reminded her of a time of civilization. No buildings, or abandoned cars… Nothing. It had only been trees and hills for miles.

“We must be close to the peak of the mountain by now”, Milla whispered to Teo.

He glanced back at her and nodded in agreement.

They had been walking from the heart of the city in search of the mountain peak since the campers found each other. There was talk of a safe space, a place for survivors. Milla hoped it was real. She hoped her sister was there; alive, safe.

They reached a clearing where they could see the beginning of dawn peaking through the scattered trees. Pierce turned to face everyone from his position at the front of the line.

“I believe we are almost there, people! I know you’re tired, but I believe we can push on just a bit farther. Our next resting place will be the safe land!”, he paused, glancing around to make eye contact with some of the campers. “Are we in agreement?”

A wave of mumbles and nods hushed through the group.

“Very well”, Pierce spoke, then let out a whistle signaling everyone to follow him again.

Teo walked in front of Milla, reaching back to grab her hand. She returned the gesture, intertwining her fingers in his. They walked the remainder of the trip hand in hand, until they made their way over one, final hill, to be met with a wall.

“It is real”, Milla gasped.

A collection of “Oh my” and “Wow” or exclamations of the sort were released among the campers as they all caught up with each other, reaching the wall. A single door was placed off to the side among the bricks and concrete of the enormous structure. Pierce was the first to approach, knocking with strength three times. Teo squeezed Milla’s hand tightly.

A small window at eye height was abruptly opened and Milla could see a pair of goggles on the other side. She couldn’t make out the wearer’s face.

“Hello, fellow survivors,” Pierce spoke. “We heard of a safe place, and we are seeking refuge with you here. We have traveled long and endured much to be here. Will you allow us to join you?”

The person on the other side lifted their goggles from their head and stepped closer to the window, glancing around at the campers as they eagerly awaited an invitation. Milla held the gaze from the green eyes behind the door and felt her own begin to swell with tears. A sense of familiarity washed over her. She recognized those eyes…

The person on the other side jumped back, as if startled. The sound of multiple locks being fervently unlatched echoed from the door throughout the crowd of campers, followed by the heavy door being thrust open towards the inside. Milla felt a pit in her stomach as the eyes from behind the door emerged from around it, now visibly attached to a petite girl with long, dark hair.

“Milla?”, the girl spoke softly as she took a small step forward.

“Kirra?!”, Milla exclaimed. “Oh my God, I knew you were alive!”

Milla released her grasp from Teo’s hand and propelled her body forward just as Kirra ran towards her. The two met with force in an embrace and collapsed to the ground; both exploding into a fit of tears. They leaned back from each other. Milla embraced both sides of Kirra’s face with her hands. Tears continued to pour from both of their eyes. Milla glanced down, her attention being caught by an identical silver heart shaped locket draped around Kirra’s neck.

“You still have yours, too”, Milla said as she reached for her pocket to pull her own locket out.

Kirra moved her hands towards her neck and popped her locket open, revealing a small image of Milla tucked into its dainty frame. “I knew you would find me. It’s the only thought that kept me going.”

Milla opened her locket and held it up beside Kirra’s. “I know the feeling”, she whispered. She looked back up to Kirra’s green eyes, mirroring her own, and began to sob once more.

The campers walked around them to step through the doorway, to the other side of the wall, to the safe place they had finally reached. Teo hesitated and reached down to touch both Kirra and Milla’s shoulders, bringing attention back to their surroundings. “Let’s get inside”, he said softly. Milla nodded and stood as she reached for Kirra’s hand. Teo reached down to weave his fingers in Milla’s other hand, and the three of them stepped through the doorway together, locking the new world away from them.