Her fingers finally find mine and I pull her up. She wobbles on her uneasy legs and I catch her around the small of her back. Even dirty and hopeless, Catalina is warm and uplifting. Touching her invigorates me. Gazing into her eyes fuels my fire.
Somewhere nearby, a brick crashes down from a crumbling building. Catalina flinches and I pull her in tighter, whipping us both around to face the potential danger.
No one’s there.
But I know we’re not alone. I saw those footprints that followed Catalina’s into the woods. I can only hope that they got lost in the forest, but I’m not about to take any chances.
Where are you, alligator boots?
20
Catalina
My heart is so heavy that I almost feel bad about making Angel carry my dead weight. He whisks me away from the rubble of my old home, of my poor friend...
Marcela.
Big globs of tears fill up my eyes again, blurring my vision. Luckily, I don’t need to see. Angel’s leading the way. His big sturdy grip is locked tightly around my limp wrist. My feet are practically skipping off the earth as he drags me from the smoldering ruins of the place that I once called home.
It’s all gone. Everything. Everybody. Gone.
I’m alone.
“Did you see who shot at you?” Angel asks, when we reach the last street before the bridge. He scans the area, looking for any threats.
“No,” I whisper, hardly able to get my mind off of all the death and destruction. Faceless corpses litter the pavement. I don’t have the guts to look down at them again.
“Someone followed you into the woods,” Angel says, leaning against the charred remains of the post office.
; I’m numb, but not numb enough to fight off the fear that follows from Angel’s words. “Who?” I ask, suddenly very alert.
When I’d rushed through my forest shortcut into town and seen the devastation that awaited me, my mind had gone completely blank. How long had I been aimlessly wandering around for before I spotted Marcela? How long until Angel found me?
The roar of the gunshots never returned and the eerie silence that overtook the newly created ghost town wasn’t disturbed once while I glided through it, not even by me. I hardly felt alive. These are my people, lying dead in the streets, why am I not dead right along with them?
“Put this on,” a heavy vest slips over my arms and I’m nearly dropped to the ground.
Angel catches me. “Are you alright?’ he asks, the green of his eyes digging deep into my soul. He studies me relentlessly; I can’t help but blink back to the here and now.
“Yes,” I lie. I want to be strong, but right now, I don’t feel like I can do anything for myself. So, I’ll have to be strong for Angel. Why? Because that’s what he’s asking of me.
“Good, because we’re going to make a run for my car,” he says tightening the straps of the heavy vest around my torso.
I furrow my brows in confusion. My legs are weak and trembling. How long was I sitting by Marcela for? “Do you think they’re still here?” I ask, looking around the silent den of destruction. Nothing moves. Everything is dead.
I should be dead, too...
“Maybe, maybe not. We’re not taking any chances. My car’s just on the crest of that hill, on the other side of the bridge.” Angel points off in the distance and then grabs me by my shoulders. “Ready?”
As if I have a choice. My head nods, entirely on its own.
Angel’s big gruff fingers fall from my shoulders. He takes my left hand in his. The warmth that spreads up from his touch seems to snap me awake, because when we start running, I can actually feel my legs moving underneath me now.
The numbness fades...
And the full heartache of what I just witnessed nearly crumples me in two. My newly re-found legs falter, but Angel doesn’t let me fall. His strong hard grip tugs me from my nightmare. I just concentrate on him. The past is behind us, the future is forward. There’s no looking back; I can’t look back, it’s too painful.