Music tip:
The Paper Kites – Willow Tree March
youtube:
watch?v=3JARp8lB25g


State of Emergency

Chapter 6:
Day 9 - Realizing


"Mitch, why do we have to go?"

Jo whined and rubbed her eyes, while she sat on the cot and waited for Mitch to finish packing. He just put an extra pair of blankets in his large backpack over some food, before he glanced up at the tired girl. "I already told you, we have a way to get home, darling."

"But Mitch, I'm so tired!"

With pouty lips she crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked like she was about to throw a tantrum, but Mitch chuckled and replied, "How about I'll carry you a bit, until you're a bit more rested?"

Happily she raised her arms in his direction and quickly he put the bag on his back to pull her up. With a content Jo in his arms he smiled and then asked her, while she put her head on his shoulder, "Comfortable?"

She simply nodded and closed her eyes, as Jerome entered the tent. He took a deep breath, but held himself back, when he spotted the nearly sleeping child in the arms of his best friend. A warm expression spread in his eyes and he sighed, before he asked Mitch, "Are you ready? We're waiting for you."

Mitch nodded and tried to ignore the fluttering feeling in his stomach due to Jerome's dazzling smile, as he began to follow him out of the camp. During the night Sam had discovered a fitting hole in the fence – or he had made it himself – so that they could get away from the refugee camp without being seen by the soldiers. According to the military it was safest to stay in the camp, so they wouldn't let them out no matter how many planes would fly from London back to their homes. They were too close-minded and tried to go according to plan as much as possible, because letting go of their regulations meant accepting the fact that they had absolutely no control over the current situation, which they were neither able nor willing to do at the moment.

"There you are. Have you got everything you need?" Sam asked and kept his voice down to not wake Jo up, when Jerome and Mitch finally stopped in the middle of their little group. When Mitch answered in the affirmative, Sam turned around and counted the group, before he began to lead the way towards Birmingham. It only took them ten minutes to reach a road which they could follow, but just as Mitch had began to listen to Terry's and Jerome's quiet conversation, Sam called for him.

The rest of the group ignored him, as he tried to press forward carefully to ask about what was bothering their unofficial leader. "What can I do for you?"

"You can stay here with me at the front of the group. With Jo you can't be as fast as we are obviously, so I'd like to keep an eye on you so that we can adapt to your speed," Sam explained and kept his eyes on the road. In his left hand he held a map of the surrounding area and curiously Mitch leaned forward to look at it. "How long do we have to walk, until we reach Birmingham?" he asked with a low voice and Sam unraveled the map a bit to show him the way they were supposed to walk.

"By car it would take us one to two hours, so by foot it'll take us approximately 6 hours I guess. I hope we will find some kind of transportation on the way, but I don't want to check these little towns, which are a bit off of our route. If we don't find a car or something similar there, we would have to go even further," Sam told him patiently and put the map away again.

Mitch hesitated shortly, but the moment was too much of an opportunity to just let it go and he was too curious to not confront Sam with his ominous past or what else his secrecy actually was about.

Also he wanted to use every chance of distracting his mind from the usual thoughts.

Depressing, sad, overwhelming, no room to breathe.

"Sam… do you mind telling me something about you?"

Six hours were a long time and before Jo would wake up and keep him busy, Mitch needed a topic to think about. Sam studied him for a while and Mitch already anticipated him to deny his request, when he suddenly sighed and then nodded. "Alright, but only if you're willing to answer the question as well. Deal?"

"Deal!"

"Well then, ask away."

"What is your job?" was the first question that entered his mind and curiously he studied the taller man, who slightly grinned and then nodded. "Of course you ask that first. Right now I don't have one, but I've been in the military for some years."

So Terry had been right after all – at least a little bit. Mitch wasn't surprised about the reveal, because Sam was fitting into the military perfectly. His behavior, his clear mind no matter how shocking the situation was, the habit to be a leader…

Just their first encounter after the plane crash didn't seem to fit in, but Mitch didn't question his behavior any further. It was a situation no one was accustomed to.

"So did you know those soldiers? Are they friends of yours?"

Sam laughed and shook his head, before he replied, "No, otherwise we wouldn't be sneaking away early in the morning and we would have a car for sure. Nonetheless it was helpful to get the needed information. So what about you? Still going to school?" Sam obviously wanted to get away from the topic of him being in the military and regarding the things he maybe had to witness, Mitch wasn't keen on questioning him any further about it anyway.

"No, I'm making videos for YouTube," he answered casually and had to grin, as he saw the skeptical face of Sam. "And I'm actually making money with it, of course." Sam still seemed to be not convinced, so he added again, "I'm having a huge house with a pool in Florida and bought it from my own money, so yes, this is my job. Playing video games, having fun and recording the stuff."

"…how old are you again?"

"Just turned 21."

"Damn, I have definitely done something wrong in my life, that's for sure."

Mitch couldn't suppress the laugh from bubbling up, but thankfully Jo continued to sleep. "It's not as easy as it sounds, people are counting on you to make videos every single day and you need fresh ideas every so often, otherwise they get bored. Not everyone loves you and you need to be thick-skinned, but it's so worth it. Every so often there are conventions and you get to meet all those people who actually watch your videos and enjoy them on a daily basis. It's mind-blowing to see them dressed up like you or with drawings…"

The smile on Mitch's face was infectious and he enjoyed the happiness flowing through his veins for a rare moment. This was what he would return to. His family, his friends and all of his fans, with whom he would be able to move on from this nightmare.

"This actually sounds amazing. So, next question?"

"Where are you from and where do you live?"

"Been born in California and still live there. What about you?"

They talked for about half an hour and Mitch enjoyed a chatty Sam, who wasn't as unapproachable as before. Jo had woken up some time later and walked on her own, but after the second stop at around 9 a.m. she asked Mitch with tears in her eyes to take her back into his arms. The way was too long for her and even Mitch began to feel nasty blisters on his feet and his legs didn't want to move a single step forward, so they took another stop to rest a bit.

And then, hours later, they finally spotted Birmingham in the distance.

"Mitch, look! Are we finally there?"

Jo was walking on her own again and jumped up and down joyfully as if the past hours didn't exist. She was about to run off, when Mitch caught her hand and held it tightly in his own. "Yes, this is it, but stay with us, we don't know where to go yet."

"Will we stay in a camp again?" she asked less enthusiastic and clung to Mitch's hand, when Jerome appeared by her other side and put his hand onto her blond hair. "No, we will try to find cars, so we can drive the rest of the way to London. Otherwise we'll stay in a hotel or something like that," he tried to calm her down and Mitch refrained himself from telling Jerome that they probably had no money to pay for it, or at least not enough, because it seemed to work and Jo smiled up happily at the American.

Her mood immediately raised the spirits of the group and even Sam had a confident expression on his face – until they reached the city limits.

Quietly they stopped and stared at the sight in front of them.

The streets were completely vacated. Not a single person was outside, even though it must have been around 1 p.m., no playing kids, no driving cars. For a moment everyone was silent and tried to listen for some sounds, but it was Sam who interrupted the eerie silence with a low voice, "Come on, let's keep going. Stay together, we don't know what's going on here, but look out for a car."

As they slowly moved on, Jo clutched Mitch's hand tightly in her own and looked around with frightened eyes. "It's alright, you don't have to be afraid, we're here to keep you safe," he tried to calm her down, but this time it didn't help. "Where are all the people, Mitch?"

"They have probably been already brought to safety by the military, dear. You remember how I've told you that I was in Manchester before coming to the camp? They did the same with us and got us out of harm's way," Terry calmly replied and managed to quiet her down effectively. Mitch threw a thankful glance in her direction and then continued to follow Sam, who chose another street to get into the town center.

Terry's explanation sounded logical, but Mitch still was shocked about the circumstances they had arrived to. Not a single person. The town was deserted. Of course he had talked to the other refugees in the camp and had heard about whole cities being evacuated, but it was the first time for him to see it with his own eyes.

He felt a shiver running down his spine, as he was reminded of one of those ghost towns. Immediately he walked a little faster.

"Mitch, if the people are okay, then why are the windows smashed here?" Jo asked timidly after a few minutes and tried to press herself even further into his side. With a sigh Mitch looked around at the various little shops – a sign that they were close to midtown. Nearly all of the windows were destroyed and from what Mitch could spot a lot of the shop fittings and goods had been taken.

"They broke in to steal the things that were sold in the shops," he finally replied and wasn't able to keep the bitter tone out of his voice. People should concentrate on helping others and getting to safety, not robbing each other when there was a good opportunity.

"M- Mommy told me it's bad to steal. Why did they do it then?"

Jo's voice was shaking, but Mitch didn't reply. Instead he suddenly stopped and stared at a certain shop with a fixed gaze and an idea in his mind. "Mitch?" Jerome.

It was worth a try, wasn't it? He could at least partly satisfy the nerve-wracking curiosity and now that he wasn't able to get some information via his parents due to his energy-less phone, it could help him to get an impression of what was going on here and in the rest of the world.

"I'm back in a second, just give me a moment."

Sam was nearly throwing a fit but stopped, when he realized what Mitch was up to.

Carefully he climbed through one of the broken windows of a shop for cigarettes, small things and newspapers. Most of the valuable goods were already gone, but what he looked for lay scattered on the floor. Slowly Mitch went on his knees and studied every single one of the newspapers, until he found the most recent one. Just as he was about the leave the shop again to return to Jo, Jerome and the others waiting for him, one of the older males of their group shouted from a nearby backstreet,

"I've found it! A working car!"