Chapter 4: Aaron and Jenny

Name: Aaron Sable

Age: 19

Appearance: 5'3", yellow-blond hair, brown eyes, boying face.

Aaron is a straightforeward, no-nonsense mannered young man who has been living in a fallout shelter with his former girlfriends younger sister Jenny.

Name: Jenny Gabbler

Age: 14

Appearance: 5'1", shoulder-length straight black hair, hazel eyes.

The group was very quiet that night. Aaron had a small metal table in the center of the room where he now sat, along with Eric, James, Matt and the young girl. The others were scattered throughout the little room, just listening to the slow conversation and thinking mostly about Curly.

"So…how long have you been down here?" James was asking Aaron. It had already been explained that the 'cave' was in fact an old cellar dug near the late 1800's, and then it was converted into a fallout shelter some time later before finally becoming a storage room. Like the table, most everything else was made of metal except for a few things that had been roughly made from wood. A prime example of this was the wooden spit in the corner from which hung two dead rabbits.

"About as long as the dragon's have been around. There's a tunnel through that door that used to lead to Jenny's old house, 'course it's not there anymore. I didn't even know this was here until…that day I came to her house."

The young girl sitting next to him, Jenny, slipped one of her thin arms around his and leaned her raven head against his forearm.

"I was actually looking for her sister, my girlfriend. The cops were trying to evacuate people and everyone was acting crazy. Katie was supposed to be home from school, but she wasn't there. Neither were her parents. Jenny was there alone until I showed up, and when the first dragon came we got down here before the house was knocked down on our heads."

"Man, I'm sorry." Gerald said.

"Did you ever find out what happened to her? Your girlfriend?"

"Katie? No. I looked for her a couple times, but the school was gone." What Aaron didn't say was there he'd made a sign and put it in the ground outside the remains of the house for Katie to see, should she ever find her way back to the house. If she was alive. Aaron felt no need to share that with them, though.

"Hey, how about you two come with us!" Misha suggested.

"Come with you?" Aaron asked.

"Well, we're not exactly sure where we're going yet," Eric said, "but that's not a bad idea, Misha."

Aaron seemed to consider for a moment. "I don't know…"

The one light bulb that was turned on flickered slightly, and Aaron made a motion to Jenny. She didn't seemed very pleased, but rose from her seat and hurried into the other room. Aaron turned back to the others.

"It sound's like a great idea and all, but…I don't feel good about taking Jenny out there. It's too big of a risk with her handicap and all." He was quiet, almost hesitant as he spoke, and the others nodded their understanding. "Maybe…if you found a safe enough place to live…could you stop by here again on your way back to the city?"

James smiled. "Of course we can."

"So…how have you kept this place lit and warm and stuff?" Eric asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well, it's a cave, so it doesn't need a lot of heating or cooling or anything like that. We have a bicycle-powered generator in the other room, and we just take turns. That's where Jenny went just now. It's just us two and we rarely use more than one light at once, so it's not too hard."

While they continued to talk about this, Gerald managed to slip away and take a seat next to Arnold on the floor.

"Hey Arnold, you ok?"

Arnold didn't say anything at first. He hadn't really said anything at all since returning.

"No…no, I'm not ok."

If Gerald had been caught off guard by the blunt reply, he didn't show it. Instead he waited patiently with eyes full of sympathy for Arnold to continue.

"We shouldn't have come back without him."

"You had no choice, man. You never would have found him with that dragon on your tail."

"We could have called out or something. It knew where we were, making noise wouldn't have mattered-"

"Arnold-"
"We could have found him. If we'd have just stayed out a little longer-"

"You'd be dead, Arnold."

The finality of Gerald's tone was what grabbed Arnold's attention. Of course, he knew that Gerald probably spoke the truth, but it still didn't sway his guilt.

We waited for two days in this bomb shelter before going back out to look for Curly, hoping that enough time had passed for the dragon to either not be nearby or have forgotten about us altogether.

Thankfully, we've had no further trouble in that respect. However, we haven't been able to find Curly yet, and the others are beginning to lose hope. We've decided to search for two more days before moving on.

Arnold winced and held his breath, halting mid-step among the trees. He was alone in this part of the woods near the road, and thankful for it.

Ever since that incident when they'd been digging graves back in the city, he'd been having bouts of excruciating pain in his leg. He found that he could hide it well though. When many times he would rather limp than walk to relieve the pain, he fought against it and stood upright. In an almost morbid way, he felt that the pain made him stronger, and so he never hesitated to beat it back and show it who was boss.

Of course none of this had prevented him from "borrowing" some pain-killers from the hospital back at the tunnels, which he had yet to use. He planned to save them until it was absolutely necessary, keeping them in his pocket like a secret weapon and daring the pain to get that bad. He felt guilty about stealing them, though. Guilty because he hadn't just asked and because supplies had been running low, and guilty because he hadn't said anything to Dr. Brandon about his leg.

That rebellious little voice in his head reminded Arnold that Brandon hadn't asked, so technically he wasn't lying by not telling him. Arnold knew better though. He knew the doctor loved him like a son and would probably be hurt that Arnold hadn't told him. But he also knew that if Brandon had been able to see just how bad the pain was, Arnold would never have been allowed on this mission.

Arnold shook his head clear and pressed on. He could see the sun beginning to make its downward slide toward the west and knew he only had a few more hours left to search.

It never crossed his mind that Curly might not be out there; never crossed his mind that he might not be there at all.

Arnold stood at the tree line and scanned the wide open space that held the road. He'd walked quite a distance from the shelter and could see the abandoned truck up ahead, resting just as they'd left it four days ago. Arnold sighed quietly to himself and continued his trek through the woods, feeling his hope dying a little more with every painful step.