What's left of us
—-
"We can't help everyone,
But everyone can help someone."
-Ronald Reagan
—-
I watched as another one of my dreams played out in front of me, not really a dream, but rather a nightmare.
I could have sworn that I was dreaming, but some girls are screaming, and that was all too real.
I wiped my hands over my face in an effort to wake myself up, but rather than wake myself up my hands came away smeared in blood and tiny bits of shattered glass, tainted with my blood.
The memories of the last minute came flooding back to me.
"Your are a piece of shit. And you ain't going to do shit!" I had growled, the man who I did not know turned back to me, towering in presence. He must have weighed at least sixty pounds more than I, just as he stood a good head taller than me.
"How sure are you I won't?" The man had asked.
"Very." I snorted. The next thing I knew the mans fist had connected with the left side of my face, knocking me off balance.
I fought back, only making things worse for myself. A punch here, a kick there. There was little chance that I would ever win this fight, but I was arrogant.
The man threw punch after punch, easily deflecting every effective punch that I threw his way. That was until I kicked him where it really hurts.
I knew it was a cheap shot, I knew that I shouldn't have done it, but I did it anyway, all because I knew this was a fight I couldn't win.
Next thing I know I'm lying on back, a glass bottle having connected with the point of my nose, breaking it upon impact and littering my face with cuts from the shattered glass.
I leaned up off my shoulders looking around, too dizzy to be aware of my surroundings.
I felt my body being dragged across the pavement as someone dragged me from behind, dropping me and pushing my head back down against the ground, hard.
The man came around in front of me. I saw a flash of light, reflecting off something metal, an evil expression within the mans eyes. He was crazy, there was something wrong with him.
I leant up a little trying to leave before my body hit the ground again, this time I didn't have the strength within myself to even move as my body lay on the cold hard ground.
My vision started to fade as blood seeped into view.
I heard screams from nearby, some people shouting for help, others screaming in panic.
Four figures appeared above me, the silhouettes of the only friends I had, I saw the expression on the face of one of them, a face of pity.
The man said something to the others, they all nodded their agreement before they walked off leaving me dying on the ground. Tears were added to the mix that stained my face.
I heard the hum of a vehicles engine, and the simultaneous sounds of multiple footsteps running towards my dying self.
Multiple figures stood over my body another figure stepped forward, the only person that I could make out any features of, a dark skinned girl with equally dark hair handed something to one of the people standing over me. She couldn't have been more than fifteen years in age, but that doesn't matter. The last thing I remember is the girls facial expression, one of sorrow, before something poured over my face and the last bit of consciousness I had was completely exiled from myself.
—-
"Save me."
"From what?"
"Myself."
—-
"You alright big guy?"
"Wish I could say yes, but I really don't know."
"You did the right thing."
"I hope your right, I really hope your right."
—-
A knocking came from the door to the apartment, I let the knocking continue for a bit until I knew that whoever it was wasn't going to stop knocking.
I walked over to the door, thinking about something completely irrelevant for a second before I opened the door.
"Hey there kiddo." Tess said walking through the door.
"I really wish you'd stop calling me that." I groaned.
"Yeah well, you'll get your chance to prove that there is no reason for me to call you that anymore. Now is Joel here?"
"Yeah, he's sleeping through there." I pointed to the adjoining bedroom.
I sat back down on the couch.
"Joel…Joel…Joel." Tess tried and failed to wake the sleeping Texan peacefully.
"Joel wake the fuck up." She ordered.
He shot up in an instant looking around. I was thoroughly amused by the whole thing as I had been in a perfect position to see it all happen. I even saw Joel's facial expression, anger.
"Tess. You don't show up to the usual meeting place this morning and now you show up to my apartment?" Joel growled. "And not only that, but you show up injured?"
Tess sighed. "Look, it's not as bad as it looks alright, we had a drop to make and you wanted to be left alone."
"We. We had a drop to make."
"Yeah well I left you here so your going to have to get over it."
"And what's all this?" Joel said, indicating Tess' injuries.
"On the way back I got jumped by a couple of assholes, but…Robert sent them."
"Goddamn he's smart."
"Not smart enough." Tess smirked. "I know where he's hiding."
"Like hell you do." Joel said.
"Old warehouse, area 5."
"Well what are we waiting for?" Joel asked.
"Can you do now?" Tess asked.
"Oh I can do now." Joel growled.
Both adults headed for the apartment door. "And what about me?"
Both looked back at me.
"You stay here." Joel said, turning to leave again.
"No way. I'm going this time."
Joel turned back again. "Like hell you are boy, you stay here."
"Joel, I reckon we give him a chance." Tess sighed.
"What? Tess you've got to be kidding me."
"No Joel, this is as good a chance as ever."
Joel frowned. "Fine, but you listen to me and Tess, you do what Tess and I tell you. And don't ever wander off on your own."
I smiled. "Fine by me."
Finally something that I might enjoy.
—-
"Nowhere to run Robert."
The three of us emerged from the alleyway to find a trapped Robert, a locked gate barring his escape.
"Tess, Joel. No hard feelings right?"
"None at all." Tess said, picking a piece of pipe up off the floor.
Robert nodded, a look that told me he knew he was in deep shit. In the blink of an eye, the man made a dash for the opposite end of the alley. He was abruptly stopped when the piece of pipe Tess had picked up collided with the mans kneecap, defiantly shattering the bone.
"Agh, Fuck!" I was being reminded of a dark place in my life.
"Now, where are our guns?" Tess asked.
"I…I can't." Robert gasped.
"Yeah? Well I reckon you can so please do tell us."
"I can't I to-
"No, really, I insist, please tell us."
Robert sighed. "I sold them." Any patience Tess had was gone in an instant.
"You what?" Robert looked down at the ground in front of him. "I sold them." He repeated.
Tess sighed. "Where are they Robert?"
"Look, I can't. I just need more time." The rat pleaded.
"You know, I might have done that if you hadn't tried, and failed, to kill me."
Robert grit his teeth.
"Joel?" Tess asked, Joel nodded and kneeled over the man, holding his arm in a position that Joel could break in the quick turn of his wrist. "Who has our guns." Tess asked.
"The…the Fireflies."
"What. You sold our guns, to the Fireflies?"
"Yes, but…but I owed them you see, I just need…need a little bit more time and-
Joel snapped Roberts arm to make him shut up.
"How are we gonna get them?" Tess asked. Robert was rolling around on the ground clutching his broken arm. "I dunno, maybe we go ask them nicely like you always like to try." Joel growled.
"Maybe." Tess sighed.
"How about, how about we go guns blazing into the Firefly camp. Their weak as it is, we can just finish this." Robert frantically spoke, hoping to win favour in the eyes of his enemies.
Joel and Tess eyed each other.
"That is a stupid fucking idea." Tess spoke as she gunned the man down. Three bullets, all clean through the centre of the skull.
"Well, what do we do now?" I asked as if a man hadn't been shot in front of me. I was well used to it by now.
"I have no clue." Tess said. "Joel you got any?" She asked.
"Very unlikely." He said.
"How about we find a Firefly?" I asked.
"Hmm, well its as good an option as we've got." Tess said. "Lets go find a Firefly."
"You won't have to look very far." A voice from behind said.
Joel was the first to speak up. "There you go. Queen Firefly." He grunted.
The Firefly looked around for a couple of seconds. "Where's Robert?" She asked.
Tess stepped aside, revealing a crippled Robert lying dead in a pool of his own blood.
"Hmm, I needed him alive." The Firefly sighed.
"Yeah? Well we want our guns." Tess said.
The Firefly glanced up at her. "Is this what this is about? Well I can't just give them to you."
"And why not?" Asked Joel.
"Because I paid for them, so that makes them mine." A new plan was forming in the Fireflies head. "If you want them that badly, you can do something for me. Do it properly and you'll get double what Robert sold me."
Tess looked back at Joel. "What's the catch?" The old man asked.
"There ain't one." The Firefly said. "I need a job done and you two can do that for me, you do the job, you can come back and you'll get your reward."
"Speaking of this job, what is it?" I asked, speaking up for the first time.
The Firefly looked at me for the first time, more or less glared at me actually. "Who are you?" She demanded.
"I'm Harry." I said.
The glare I was receiving soon receded and instead, it was replaced with pity. An expression I had become all to familiar with.
"I-I heard that you were shot in the head, weren't supposed to survive, one in a trillion chance of survival the surgeons reckoned. But here you are, living, breathing, and remarkably with no brain damage, considering how the bullet should have pierced the skull." The Firefly stated.
"How do you know this?" I growled.
"I'm the leader of the Fireflies, I know everything, if I didn't we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'd probably be dead and put on display for about a million things, even though all that I seek is to find a better tomorrow in this hell of a place."
"Ok Marlene, can we get going now?" Tess asked.
"Yeah, follow me." She said, walking off ahead.
I stayed where I was for a few seconds, only moving when the sound of soldiers nearing where I was snapped me out of my trance.
—-
'Those who think they know everything, Will learn nothing.'
-Roger McDonald
—-
"Joel, help me with this door."
The door opened with a loud screeching. Marlene fell to the floor, an injury I had not realised she had been carrying until now proving to be too much for the woman.
"Woah there, here, lemme help you-
"Get the fuck away from her!"
—-
A foul darkness clouded my vision. A long corridor filled my vision, metal walls and floors on all sides. A bright light at the end.
I climbed up onto my feet and walked towards the light, the further I walked, the further the light seemed to get away from me, quickly I realised I was in a never ending loop.
By chance, after walking for what seemed like weeks towards the light, I lost my way, instead I started walking back towards the darkness I had appeared from, instead in its place was a bright light, brighter than that which shone at the other side of the corridor, I however did not notice I had turned around and this time, I got closer and closer to the light and finally after what seemed like months the light expanded, a bright expanse flowing out in front of me.
A ghostly figure, a spirit stood in front of me.
"You made it?!" He asked stunned.
"I what?" I asked barely understanding my own words as they left my mouth.
"You return from the dead, there was always something about you, always an energy, a fire that could not be put out."
"Wait, what are you talking about?" I asked.
The spirit seemed to not be able to hear me as it continued it's rambling.
"Your future will challenge you, although you will not remember any of this, this conversation with me I will still tell you of what lay ahead."
"Ok?"
"You will cross paths with someone of your equal, someone you will in time care about, protect them with your own life and be willing to do just about anything for them.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Your time is up here. You must go." The spirit said, dispersing into a blinding light.
The light faded to nothing, no sound, no sight, no smell. And then I was back, I felt an aching pain in my head.
I slowly sat up, finding myself on a bed, white blankets and blue cover.
I heard someone gasp and as my eyes slowly adjusted to the surroundings, I saw people standing around, all of them wore a similar expression, one of shock.
"Uh…where am I."
"You-your awake?" A man asked.
"I think so." I said.
"But how…you shouldn't be alive." He whispered to himself.
"What's going on?" I was starting to get scared just by the look of the people's faces. They were all white as if they saw a ghost.
"We…we were about to turn your life support off."
—-
Tess, Joel, Marlene and myself climbed the last few steps towards the hideout that Marlene had brought us too.
"So, what was this job you wanted us to do?" Joel asked, a few steps behind Marlene who was at the front of our group.
"We're almost there, I'll show you." The woman said.
Marlene walked over to a door leading out of the kitchen we had entered, I searched the many shelfs of the room, waiting for us to move on.
I was halfway through searching a cupboard when I heard Marlene ask Joel to help her with the door. I didn't look back as I continued searching the cupboards, only looking up once I heard the door groan and open up, I turned in time to see Marlene collapse to the floor.
"Woah, let me help you there." Joel said, walking forward to help Marlene to her feet, another figure appeared from nowhere before Joel could move any closer to Marlene.
"Get the fuck away from her!" The blur shouted. A blade glistened in the sunlight as it plunged towards Joel's shoulder. Tess was faster then the blur, instead of the knife ending up in Joel's shoulder, Tess's hand wrapped around the wrist of someone on the other side of the door.
"Let go of her." Marlene commanded, Tess complied but pushed the person back all the same.
"Recruiting kind of young aren't you." Joel said.
"Well the same could be said for you." Marlene sighed. "And she's not one of mine."
I followed the others through the door and into the abandoned building, a girl with brownish red hair stood looking out one of the windows, surprisingly she was shorter than myself, although she could well be much younger then myself.
I bumped Joel's shoulder and pointed to the girl. "Found the job." I whispered.
Joel's eyes widened. "Hold on a second, you mean you want us to take her somewhere?" Joel asked.
"It's a simple drop off, you take her to the drop off point, come back, the guns are yours. Double what Robert sold us." Marlene said, giving away no reason as to why we had to transport the girl.
"Where's the drop off?" Tess asked.
"The Capitol building." Marlene stated matter of factly.
"That ain't exactly close." Tess argued.
"But your capable. And so is he." Marlene said, nodding in my direction.
I noticed that the girl was now looking at us, watching what was happening, sure enough she looked no older than fifteen.
"Look, do you want those weapons?" Marlene asked.
"Joel what do you think?" Tess asked.
"Why not, we've come here for our weapons and now we get an improved offer? I'm down for that." He said.
Tess nodded. "Alright, but I want to see those guns first."
Marlene nodded. "Yeah, I'll take you. I get patched up, you can verify the guns. But she's not crossing to that side of town. I want Joel and Harry to watch over her."
"Hang on that ain't the best of-
"Bullshit! I'm not going with th-
"Ellie!"
The girl stopped and glared at Marlene. "How do you know them?" She asked.
"I was close with his brother Tommy, Joel that is."
"And which ones Joel." The girl whispered just loud enough for both of us to hear.
"The older one. Now you must go."
"But Marlene."
"No Ellie. This is what we've been waiting for."
The girl sighed but nodded her head in understanding.
"You see now? I know it's not what I said it would be like but it's as good as its going to get."
"Ok…"
"Good, now go."
Joel walked to the front door of the building, opening it for the girl to leave, and then in turn for myself to leave.
As Ellie left the room, she stopped and took one last look at the woman who had looked after her for the past few weeks, when any normal person would have killed her off instinct.
I left the building and the girl turned around to wait for Joel, as did I. Our eyes met for a few seconds, and it was as if something clicked in my head.
—-
'We can't fix ourselves on our own, but maybe we can fix each other together.'
—-