The Wounded

He fluttered his lips like a horse and stared out the window. I should have been nicer, but there was little left in me other than to drive and try not to turn around and return to my son. This was hard on Rash too. I swallowed some of my anger and tried to replace it with understanding. It bobbed in my throat like an anchored cork, not quite ready to surface.

*****

The cars were supposed to be quicker than walking, but I wasn’t so sure. Every few kilometers, we had to stop and remove an obstacle or several. I began to get frustrated at our pace and drove over the top of a disintegrating pram. It got caught under the wheels, which meant more time wasted. We needed to drive about six hundred kilometers northwest before we would abandon the cars and trek into the wilderness towards the Woodlands. It should have been a day’s drive, but it had already taken us two hours simply to pass the city limits.

Joseph had all his notes from Salim about the Superiors’ compound sitting in his lap, studying them intensely. No one wanted to talk. There was nothing to do but drive, stop, move obstacle, drive, stop, move obstacle. Each kilometer we gained was like a bead on a guilty thread. The longer it got, the worse we felt.

We finally moved past the city and onto the M53.

I stopped dead, four cars idling behind me. A long horn beep sounded out, bouncing and dashing over the cracked bitumen. But I wasn’t sure where to go.

In front of us was a horror in standstill. Cars spilled over the edges of what was left of the road. Doors were left open, hanging off rusty hinges, falling slowly down to the ground. I looked to my left and saw one machine crouching in the high grass, far away from the others, but not far enough to escape the destruction.

Everything was touched and owned by the fire. Burned out and charcoaled. I gripped the steering wheel and inched forward, following the double yellow line in the center of the road. The road ran like a grey ribbon on the earth, but it was dirty and frayed, cut in at all angles because we were driving through thousands of peoples’ last desperate moments.

The car crept forward. Sometimes I had to move off the road and over to the grass, the stalks grazing the underbelly of the metal beast, making papery noises. I know it was hundreds of years ago, but I swear I could smell the smoke and almost hear the voices. Joseph’s eyes were scraping the horizon instead of looking at papers now. Everyone was pensively staring out their windows as we wound in and out of different families’ horror stories.

After about fifty kilometers, the burnt-out cars started to fall away. There was more space to wind through. A lot of them, very suddenly, seemed to have veered to the left and right like an invisible obstacle stood right in the center, leaving the road itself clear. I shuddered as I pictured the people scattering as planes dropped bombs on them like giant black balloons, their only promise… an end.

I pushed down on the accelerator, putting as much distance between us and that moment in time as I could, feeling the car rumble beneath me like an animal approaching its prey.

*****

Rash broke the silence with, “I need to take a piss, like now!”

And as soon as he said it, the rest of us needed to go as well.

I pulled to the side, the tires grazing the gravelly edge of the road. The other three cars parked behind me.

Rash sprung from the car like he was on fire and sprinted off into the high grass. “Be careful…” I shouted after him, but he was just a flash of black hair hovering above the greenery that grazed my shoulders and rose to Joseph’s chest. I watched him zig and zag until he stopped near a rusted truck. I could only see his face, but he seemed relieved. I turned away, smirking at his ridiculous behavior. Joseph headed into the grass towards where Rash stood. All the men decided that was the place to go. The women, Olga and me, chose a cluster of trees and bushes for privacy. We moved through the grass, instantly enveloped by it. Olga completely disappeared from view. The only way I knew she was there was by the huffing and puffing as she waddled her awkward body like a bulldozer through the shrubs. It made me smile.

When I got back to the car, Joseph was leaning against the door with his arms folded neatly across his chest. “Where’s Rash?” I asked.

Joseph stared down at me with an amused expression and tipped his head east. I followed his gaze, but I couldn’t see much. Joseph grabbed my waist, lifted me onto the hood of the car, and then followed me. I sca

“What the hell is that?” I asked no one in particular.

Gus’s rough voice answered as he shook his head, a slight smile playing on the thin bit of lip I could see between his bristly beard. “Saiga. Good hide, good meat,” he said. I found myself wishing Alexei were here. He would have had something more for me than hide and meat. “But…” His chest vibrated with a small laugh.

“But what?” I asked, standing up on the thin metal for a better view, the hood dimpling under my slight weight.

“Just watch,” he said slyly.

Rash crept closer, holding his hands up, and pointed at the saiga. Then he touched his nose, and laughed. I watched as the animals jolted to alertness, and the horned one’s snout wobbled and flared. Oh Rash, get out of there. But of course, he didn’t. He seemed completely unaware of the male’s show of aggression and continued closer. It was only when the male tilted his head downwards and stamped his foot that Rash seemed to understand something was up. It launched into a gallop with its head down, ready to butt Rash out of the field.

Joseph shook his head, but he was smiling as we watched Rash sprinting through the grass with the odd-looking creature charging towards him. Rash was quick, but not quick enough to escape a horn to his back. I watched as it caught the back of his shirt and split it open, covering the creature’s face. It was enough to stop it as it shook furiously and confusedly, trying to dislodge the fabric from its eyes.

I jumped from the hood and ran towards him. He stumbled out of the grass, his complexion a pale brown, sweat drops dotting his stupid, smiling face.

He slung his arm around my shoulders. I put mine around his waist, pulling him to me. “Damn it, Rash, that was so stupid.”

I patted his back gently, feeling the sweat. Wiping my hand on my pants in disgust, I noticed it was red. I spun him around to look at his back. He was grazed all over. Nothing too deep, but enough to scare me. I wanted it to scare him. He couldn’t behave like that when we reached the Rings. “You’re an idiot,” I snapped.

“Aw, Soar, don’t be like that. It was fu

The other’s laughed, slapping their thighs, and wiping tears from their eyes. Olga bowed her head, but she was giggling. Even she found it fu

I let a smile peek in, but my meaning needed to be clear. “Fu

“Ooh, so serious,” he mocked.

I slapped his back hard and watched as he bent over in pain. I stood over his folded body, my hands on my hips. “Imagine that pain, times a thousand, and you might get close to what you’ll be feeling if they catch you.”