“I’m sorry, Cherie,” I say as I nod and place an arm around her. “This is what we have now. I promise though, we’ll find a place and we’ll get things for it that you like—it’ll feel like home, it will just be different.”
Cherie wraps her arm around me and holds onto me tightly. “Just be different…”
Part 2: Exile
10. The Trip
As we stop for lunch I watch as hundreds of small solar panels rotate to face the sun from twin black stripes along hood of the car. I’m glad that we aren’t reliant on gas… with us still close to Chicago a trip to gas station would be a risky undertaking.
I munch on a granola bar and some beef jerky with Cherie as we sit in the car. The high grass around us acts as a shield—although I still have not seen a single car on the road. Birds soar overhead and land alongside the road. Cherie delights in watching the sparrows hop around before taking flight once more.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course,” I answer as I crumple up the metallic wrapper and place it in a small waste bin on my driver’s side door.
“Why are people afraid of the ones that are different?”
“Hasn’t anyone told you?” I ask, as I look away uncomfortably out the window.
“I don’t know…” Cherie says as she shrugs her shoulders and places a hand upon my shoulder to get my attention. “I feel like sometimes I don’t remember things right. Today though, I feel a little clearer.”
“It was the pill,” I say as I nod. I didn’t know that the effects would release their hold so quickly. I suppose that was one of the reasons that Katharine said that I might have to force Cherie to start taking her pill once more. Perhaps a day off of it provides enough clarity to realize that it is doing something to your head… something that you don’t like.
“Are you going to tell me?” Cherie asks as she squeezes my shoulder gently. “I want you to tell me things—I know that when you were my Sitter you couldn’t. You’re not my Sitter though so you can tell me things.”
I nod as I pause and attempt to come up with the right answer. I am done with going along with lies, or coming up with inaccuracies. The only way that I can really make things right with her is to be honest from this point on, even if it doesn’t feel right. “Well… The day that a lot of people turned… different…”
“V-Day,” Cherie adds.
“That’s right,” I say as I turn to face her. I find it much easier to do so when I am delivering the truth. “Not everyone ended up different in the same way. Some people, they can’t remember their past.”
“I remember pieces sometimes…” Cherie says as she looks saddened for a moment. “Sorry, go on.”
“Other people went into a state where they just sit there and stare off blankly all the time, and they don’t do anything—they don’t feed themselves or anything. Others can’t control their actions at times and become a danger to themselves or others, and there is this one other group that is very destructive—so they have to be kept in places that they can be taken care of so they don’t hurt themselves. A lot of them, that first few months, hurt themselves and hurt others. It was really bad. Well… not too long after all these groups appeared, some of them… at random times started becoming very angry, and violent. So angry that they became very dangerous and strong, that they do not even know what they are doing—and they don’t feel pain so they continue just attacking people. They turn that way and they could be your best friend, and they wouldn’t remember you. They would only want to kill you.”
“Which one of those am I?”
“You’re in a different group. They call people like you Mirrors. You are the most like everyone else—just sometimes you get stuck in the loops and mimic actions. Sometimes you have anxiety problems. You’re actually part of a rare group.”
“I can be like the angry people though… the ones that get so angry that they can’t calm down. That is why people were always afraid of me, right?”
“It’s a small possibility, the pill actually made it worse… but, yeah that was why people were often afraid.” I say as I wipe away a single tear that escapes her eyes with my fingertips.
“I can still be like that though… one day?” Cherie asks with a very worried tone in her voice.
“You could,” I answer honestly.
“How can you be with me?” She asks quietly as she looks down to the ground sadly. “I don’t ever want to forget who you are… I don’t ever want to hurt you.”
“I would rather be with you, and face the possibility of that happening, than not have you in my life at all,” I say as I place my arms around her.
“I don’t feel very good,” Cherie whispers as she exits the car and begins to throw up.
I quickly get out and place a hand on her back. I brush her hair away from her face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah…” She manages after a few short coughs.
I hand her a bottle of water and she drinks almost the entire thing at once. I take her suitcase from the backseat and place it in the trunk of the car. I open up the back door and help her climb in.
“I want to stay up with you…” She says groggily.
“You haven’t been sleeping well,” I say as I help her in. She curls up into a ball and I get the emergency blanket from the glove box and cover her up. “You get some rest.”
“You get some rest…” she murmurs.
I climb back into the driver’s seat and glance behind me. She is fast asleep. I take a look at the map on my left and put the car back into drive. The tiny solar panels lower against the hood appearing as two black stripes against the speckled red paint. As I begin to navigate the old road, I speak to the car.
“Dashboard, news… low volume…”
“Local or national?” the female voice asks.
“Local first…”
“A small translucent image appears near the map, a man is standing outside of my apartment. It seems I’m still news… Ethan Chase is considered to be somewhere in the city, the public is advised to report him and contact the police—do not attempt to engage him in any way as his considered to be armed and extremely dangerous. A cache of bullets and a weapon was found at the Aggro’s residence. The Unstable that he is currently with is also considered extremely dangerous as she is reported to be off of her Calm due to neglect on the former Sitter’s part. It is believed that he will attempt to return. A C-Shapes Field Office representative named Katharine Young encourages him to return to the apartment unarmed so that they may work out a peaceful ending to this already tragic situation…”
“National…” I whisper, having heard enough.
“Today the President called out for an end to the riots in Los Angeles, stating that we just need to be patient as a cure is less than a year away, that we need to put aside our differences and realize that mistakes can be made. Currently it is rumored that numerous Aggros are on the loose and both the police and Hunters are too busy fending off attacks from angry armed citizens to engage and put down the Aggro threat. The President threatens that if the conflict cannot be reached peacefully that in due time military action will be enacted.”
“In Belize, the government is demanding that the next round of medication and the cure be provided for free or else they will allow their militia to start executing Unstables until their demands are met…”
“That’s enough…” I say as I shake my head. The world is going to hell and I’m somehow supposed to help. I can barely take care of myself and Cherie.
“Music…?”
“What mood?” The female asks.