Chapter 2- July 5
Tairesu awoke with the immediate feeling of displacement. He opened his eyes only to see tall stalks waving in the breeze above his head. He wasn't fully awake yet, but Tairesu was pretty sure there wasn't corn growing in the house he had been sleeping in for the last few days. It was then Tairesu realized that a certain familiar presence was nowhere to be seen. "Cio?" he called out uncertainly, his guard up for any kind of attack. "And here I figure I'd be able to relax once most of the planet was killed off." He muttered softly, then began trekking through the corn, not really sure where he was going. "Is anybody out here?" he shouted a few more times, but he was met wit no immediate response. After knocking aside a few more stalks, Tairesu sat back down, trying to decide what to do next.
Then he noticed it: someone was playing a guitar nearby. He wasn't familiar with the sound, but it sounded a lot like the spiritual that he heard coming out of the church house on Sunday mornings from his previous house, if the wind was blowing right. Deciding it was coming from his left, he began pushing in that direction, hoping that perhaps they had seen Cio around.
Finally, Tairesu pushed through the last row of corn. He found himself in front of what could only be described as a shack. It had a porch jutting out of the front like the lower jaw of a stubborn old-timer, and by all accounts seemed abandoned. Tairesu glanced around for a few moments, then deciding that Cio wasn't there, he turned and began to walk away.
"Hold on a mite bit, child. Come here closer so I can get a good look at you." Tairesu whirled around to see a woman who seemed older than the porch she was sitting on. The old woman laughed softly. "You're close, child, but I do believe this ol' shanty beats me by about three years." Tairesu's first thought was that he was sure that he had only thought that; his second was slight annoyance at being called child. "You look just like a dreamt you to be," the woman continued. "That other child was pining away alone. It's good you two found each other."
Tairesu's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Are you talking about Cio? Where is she? And who the hell are you?" The woman's smile didn't even quiver under Tairesu's glare. "You lived hard, my boy. Harder than I'll ever brag at. But you have to trust sometimes. As for who I am, my name's Abagail Freemantle, but most just call me Mother Abagail. I sense we'll never meet on this side of heaven, but I do hope to see you sometime. I'll be at this old shack as long as I can. You know where to find me."
Tairesu sat up on the futon he'd put together the night before with an odd feeling about him. "Well, that was an odd dream." Glancing to the left, he saw that Cio was still sleeping. He sighed softly, with the realization that he hadn't felt so calm in years. There was also a need to move on tugging at him softly, but at that moment hunger had a greater pull. Stretching a bit, he rolled his blankets up against a wall and headed downstairs, trying to remember what else he had in the fridge. "I wonder how Cio takes her eggs?"
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"So Cio, what do you think we should do?" Cio looked at him somewhat oddly. "Why do you ask that?" Tairesu shrugged. "Well, before I found you, I was planning to head out. I've been looking at some cars at the dealership."
"Hold on a second. How old are you?" Tairesu smiled slightly. "What, afraid I'll be pulled over as an underage driver? I think that's a very low priority amongst any surviving cops, Cio." Cio laughed once she considered this. "Even if the were, I am sixteen. I would have been taking my driving test this month if it weren't for the plague." Cio looked surprised to hear that. 'But I thought you were closer to my age. I'm almost as tall as you and I'm only eleven." Tairesu scowled softly. "So I'm a bit short for my age. My dad was Asian, so it might be from him."
"I'm sorry. So, where are we getting it? My parents have a Honda, so I guess we could use that."
"I was thinking more along the lines of a four wheel drive. I figure from looking around here, the road will be blocked up from a lot of the people who tried to run away and died on the street, and we'd have to go off-road to get around them." "That makes sense, but I don't know where we could get some." Tairesu smiled a bit grimly. "No intention to disrespect the dead, but I don't think the manager will mind if we take one from the car lot. No one else is using them. I was looking at a Chevy before we met. I've got it gassed up and ready to go."
"I've only got one more question. Where exactly are we planning on going, anyway?" Tairesu paused for a moment, then answered, "Call it crazy, but I'm leaning towards Nebraska."
Cio blinked. "Why would that be crazy?"
Tairesu sighed softly. "Well, I had this really weird dream last night. There was this old black woman sitting on the porch of an older shack."
".you're talking about Mother Abagail, aren't you?" Tairesu whirled on her immediately. "How'd you know?" Cio hesitated, reaching behind her back and clasping her left arm in her right hand. "Come on Cio," Tairesu coaxed. "If you didn't think that I was nuts, I could at least give you the same courtesy." Nodding, Cio continued. "Well, I've had dreams about Mother Abagail for a while now. Before we met, see always said I find a companion to travel to Nebraska with. I think she was talking about you."
Tairesu didn't know how to respond to that. He had never believed n the paranormal or supernatural, but what he was hearing definitely seemed to run along those lines. "I don't really have any kind of answer for that, Cio." He admitted, "but I guess the best thing we could do right now is follow our instincts. I've been doing it most of my life, so I guess I shouldn't stop now. So, what do you say we do?"
Cio looked out the window, off towards the horizon. "I say we get to Nebraska two days ago."
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Two hours later, the two of them were driving along the highway in a Chevy Blazer, Tairesu proving to be a rather admirable driver after all, baring the circumstances. The Blazer's four-wheel drive combined with its V- 8 handle their detours round the accidents Tairesu predicted with relative ease. From what the boy could tell from his occasional glances over to his passenger, Cio was obviously enjoying the ride. At the moment, she was leaning out of the window, her hair being whipped about by the wind of their traveling. "You know, your hair will get pretty knotted up doing that." he commented. Cio blinked in realization, then pulled her head back into the car. She immediately began digging through the bags they had put in the back of the truck, looking for a comb. "I guess you're right. It's just that I'm excited. I've never been out of Ohio in my life. So, where are we stopping tonight?"
"Well, I'm hoping that we'll make it to Toledo's outskirts before sunset, then we'll hit Route 80 and take that to Nebraska. After that, we'll just have to wing it."
"How long to you think it will take for us to get there?"
"It depends. We'll have to sty away from the cities, because that's where traffic will have been the worst, so we won't be going there directly. I hope you don't mind back roads too much. I'm estimating about eighteen to twenty hours driving time overall, so if we go six hours driving a day, three or four days. That's optimistically."
"Optimistically?"
"Well, we might get held up somewhere, the truck could break down and we'd have to find a new one, all sorts of things could happen."
"Oh, you mean in a good light."
It was then that it clicked; Cio had been asking what optimistically meant. "Sorry. I keep forgetting you're eleven."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Don't worry about it." For now, let's just stay focused on getting to Nebraska. I get the feeling that we'll have enough troubles on the way without starting some between us."
Cio nodded in agreement, then yawned softly. "I always get tired while in the car. Do you mind if I go to sleep?" Tairesu shook his head. "Nah. There shouldn't be any problems, but I'll wake you up if something comes up." "Ok." Cio yawned, curling up the best she could while buckled into the seat. "Good night, Tai-ru."
Tairesu stiffened. The last person to have called him that was.he shook his head quickly to clear the memories and refocused on the road ahead of him. He couldn't bring himself to loosen his grip on the steering wheel, however. He idly looked up at the sky, watching as an eagle circled around in the endless blue. He thought of the times when he was feeling at his worst, and he would go to the roofs of buildings and watch similar birds soar by, or the stars appear at twilight. "When do you suppose everything will be right again?" he inquired of the eagle as it glided out of his line of sight.
The eagle didn't have any answers.
Tairesu awoke with the immediate feeling of displacement. He opened his eyes only to see tall stalks waving in the breeze above his head. He wasn't fully awake yet, but Tairesu was pretty sure there wasn't corn growing in the house he had been sleeping in for the last few days. It was then Tairesu realized that a certain familiar presence was nowhere to be seen. "Cio?" he called out uncertainly, his guard up for any kind of attack. "And here I figure I'd be able to relax once most of the planet was killed off." He muttered softly, then began trekking through the corn, not really sure where he was going. "Is anybody out here?" he shouted a few more times, but he was met wit no immediate response. After knocking aside a few more stalks, Tairesu sat back down, trying to decide what to do next.
Then he noticed it: someone was playing a guitar nearby. He wasn't familiar with the sound, but it sounded a lot like the spiritual that he heard coming out of the church house on Sunday mornings from his previous house, if the wind was blowing right. Deciding it was coming from his left, he began pushing in that direction, hoping that perhaps they had seen Cio around.
Finally, Tairesu pushed through the last row of corn. He found himself in front of what could only be described as a shack. It had a porch jutting out of the front like the lower jaw of a stubborn old-timer, and by all accounts seemed abandoned. Tairesu glanced around for a few moments, then deciding that Cio wasn't there, he turned and began to walk away.
"Hold on a mite bit, child. Come here closer so I can get a good look at you." Tairesu whirled around to see a woman who seemed older than the porch she was sitting on. The old woman laughed softly. "You're close, child, but I do believe this ol' shanty beats me by about three years." Tairesu's first thought was that he was sure that he had only thought that; his second was slight annoyance at being called child. "You look just like a dreamt you to be," the woman continued. "That other child was pining away alone. It's good you two found each other."
Tairesu's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Are you talking about Cio? Where is she? And who the hell are you?" The woman's smile didn't even quiver under Tairesu's glare. "You lived hard, my boy. Harder than I'll ever brag at. But you have to trust sometimes. As for who I am, my name's Abagail Freemantle, but most just call me Mother Abagail. I sense we'll never meet on this side of heaven, but I do hope to see you sometime. I'll be at this old shack as long as I can. You know where to find me."
Tairesu sat up on the futon he'd put together the night before with an odd feeling about him. "Well, that was an odd dream." Glancing to the left, he saw that Cio was still sleeping. He sighed softly, with the realization that he hadn't felt so calm in years. There was also a need to move on tugging at him softly, but at that moment hunger had a greater pull. Stretching a bit, he rolled his blankets up against a wall and headed downstairs, trying to remember what else he had in the fridge. "I wonder how Cio takes her eggs?"
*************************************************
"So Cio, what do you think we should do?" Cio looked at him somewhat oddly. "Why do you ask that?" Tairesu shrugged. "Well, before I found you, I was planning to head out. I've been looking at some cars at the dealership."
"Hold on a second. How old are you?" Tairesu smiled slightly. "What, afraid I'll be pulled over as an underage driver? I think that's a very low priority amongst any surviving cops, Cio." Cio laughed once she considered this. "Even if the were, I am sixteen. I would have been taking my driving test this month if it weren't for the plague." Cio looked surprised to hear that. 'But I thought you were closer to my age. I'm almost as tall as you and I'm only eleven." Tairesu scowled softly. "So I'm a bit short for my age. My dad was Asian, so it might be from him."
"I'm sorry. So, where are we getting it? My parents have a Honda, so I guess we could use that."
"I was thinking more along the lines of a four wheel drive. I figure from looking around here, the road will be blocked up from a lot of the people who tried to run away and died on the street, and we'd have to go off-road to get around them." "That makes sense, but I don't know where we could get some." Tairesu smiled a bit grimly. "No intention to disrespect the dead, but I don't think the manager will mind if we take one from the car lot. No one else is using them. I was looking at a Chevy before we met. I've got it gassed up and ready to go."
"I've only got one more question. Where exactly are we planning on going, anyway?" Tairesu paused for a moment, then answered, "Call it crazy, but I'm leaning towards Nebraska."
Cio blinked. "Why would that be crazy?"
Tairesu sighed softly. "Well, I had this really weird dream last night. There was this old black woman sitting on the porch of an older shack."
".you're talking about Mother Abagail, aren't you?" Tairesu whirled on her immediately. "How'd you know?" Cio hesitated, reaching behind her back and clasping her left arm in her right hand. "Come on Cio," Tairesu coaxed. "If you didn't think that I was nuts, I could at least give you the same courtesy." Nodding, Cio continued. "Well, I've had dreams about Mother Abagail for a while now. Before we met, see always said I find a companion to travel to Nebraska with. I think she was talking about you."
Tairesu didn't know how to respond to that. He had never believed n the paranormal or supernatural, but what he was hearing definitely seemed to run along those lines. "I don't really have any kind of answer for that, Cio." He admitted, "but I guess the best thing we could do right now is follow our instincts. I've been doing it most of my life, so I guess I shouldn't stop now. So, what do you say we do?"
Cio looked out the window, off towards the horizon. "I say we get to Nebraska two days ago."
******************************************************
Two hours later, the two of them were driving along the highway in a Chevy Blazer, Tairesu proving to be a rather admirable driver after all, baring the circumstances. The Blazer's four-wheel drive combined with its V- 8 handle their detours round the accidents Tairesu predicted with relative ease. From what the boy could tell from his occasional glances over to his passenger, Cio was obviously enjoying the ride. At the moment, she was leaning out of the window, her hair being whipped about by the wind of their traveling. "You know, your hair will get pretty knotted up doing that." he commented. Cio blinked in realization, then pulled her head back into the car. She immediately began digging through the bags they had put in the back of the truck, looking for a comb. "I guess you're right. It's just that I'm excited. I've never been out of Ohio in my life. So, where are we stopping tonight?"
"Well, I'm hoping that we'll make it to Toledo's outskirts before sunset, then we'll hit Route 80 and take that to Nebraska. After that, we'll just have to wing it."
"How long to you think it will take for us to get there?"
"It depends. We'll have to sty away from the cities, because that's where traffic will have been the worst, so we won't be going there directly. I hope you don't mind back roads too much. I'm estimating about eighteen to twenty hours driving time overall, so if we go six hours driving a day, three or four days. That's optimistically."
"Optimistically?"
"Well, we might get held up somewhere, the truck could break down and we'd have to find a new one, all sorts of things could happen."
"Oh, you mean in a good light."
It was then that it clicked; Cio had been asking what optimistically meant. "Sorry. I keep forgetting you're eleven."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Don't worry about it." For now, let's just stay focused on getting to Nebraska. I get the feeling that we'll have enough troubles on the way without starting some between us."
Cio nodded in agreement, then yawned softly. "I always get tired while in the car. Do you mind if I go to sleep?" Tairesu shook his head. "Nah. There shouldn't be any problems, but I'll wake you up if something comes up." "Ok." Cio yawned, curling up the best she could while buckled into the seat. "Good night, Tai-ru."
Tairesu stiffened. The last person to have called him that was.he shook his head quickly to clear the memories and refocused on the road ahead of him. He couldn't bring himself to loosen his grip on the steering wheel, however. He idly looked up at the sky, watching as an eagle circled around in the endless blue. He thought of the times when he was feeling at his worst, and he would go to the roofs of buildings and watch similar birds soar by, or the stars appear at twilight. "When do you suppose everything will be right again?" he inquired of the eagle as it glided out of his line of sight.
The eagle didn't have any answers.
