Valentine

No one woke me up for my guard shift, which I, for once, was grateful for. After dealing with the Corruptor the night before, I needed the extra four hours of sleep. Camilla was the one who shook me awake at sunrise, already packed and ready to travel.

“Is everyone else ready?” I asked as I packed my blanket and put my boots on. The left heel was somewhat melted from the Immolator, but they were still wearable. Even if they weren’t, they were all I had.

“Almost,” she replied, and slung her own pack over her shoulder. “I told them to meet us out front in twenty.”

“You’re a gem,” I told her, prompting a giggle.

“And here I was thinking you’d make me stay behind.”

“I was considering it,” I admitted, “but I clearly need you by my side. Plus, I want you in the city and safe as soon as possible.”

“Fair,” she shrugged. “Breakfast?”

I graciously took the granola bar she extended toward me and scarfed it down, before standing from the couch and stretching. Today was the beginning of the final leg of our journey, and I needed to be as mentally and physically prepared as possible.

A group of five waited outside when I exited the house, making our final travel party seven; Camilla, me, Miranda, who had decided she’d recovered enough from her burns to go, Todd, her geeky older brother, this fuckboi convenietly named Dave Davidson, and the Twins (don’t ask). Everyone had their travel backpacks, save for the Twins, who carried one duffle bag between them. Big Greg sat on the porch with his pistol, and nodded as I walked by.

“Remember what I told you?” he asked.

“Trust the compass at nine, noon, and after dark,” I recited, “and only use roads as landmarks.”

“Right,” he confirmed. “And when in doubt?”

“Trust the sun.”

Big Greg smiled his goofy crooked grin and pocketed his pistol so he could clap me on the back.

“You’ve got this,” he told me, and I almost believed him. “It’s not as hard as it seems. I just talk big game so you all won’t kick me from the group.”

“Oh, please,” I scoffed. “You’ve been our navigator since day one. I’ve just hung out with an axe this whole time.”

“You were always meant to lead, Valentine.” His voice was more serious now, and I swallowed back the memories of him, my dad, and Uncle Sean all together back in the earlier days of the apocalypse, before we lost so many. They’d sit and do impromptu “stand up” comedy by the fire, always trying to bring some laughter to the group despite whatever happened during the day. My dad always told me what Greg had, that I was a born leader, and all that other good stuff parents say to their kids, but I never had to take him seriously with Sean and Greg at the head of our survivor party. I guess I should have listened.

“Thanks, Greg,” I said sincerely. “I think it’s time we get going. I’ll do my best.”

“And if you do your best, we’ll be in the Standing City in no time.”

I headed down the steps to where the other waited, and then glanced back at Big Greg.

“Tell Uncle Sean bye for us?” I asked. He hadn’t woken up since the night before, and as much as I reassured myself he was okay, deep down I knew nothing was certain nowadays.

“Of course,” he agreed. “Now get out there. Get us home.”

“You heard him!” Camilla told the travel party chipperly. “Time to get this show on the road.”

“You sure you can travel?” I asked Miranda before we set out. “Yesterday you could barely walk.”

“Oh, yeah,” she replied with a dismissive shrug. “I wasn’t hurt that bad, actually. Just really shaken up. I didn’t expect Joey to… Ya know. I’m good.”

I glanced toward her brother, who nodded in confirmation, so I decided to take her word for it. There wasn’t really time to argue anyway.

“All right, then. Let’s get this bread!”

Camilla cheered sarcastically, and we were off. Big Greg had given us what he believed was the straight shot direction to the Standing City, so we had that to work off of in the beginning.

We set off in the opposite direction as we arrived, and before long, we were completely under the cover of the forest. We had reached the Beartooth Mountains a few days beforehand, and were traveling in higher elevation, but we were used to that from our recent trek through Yellowstone. The challenges left were navigating through mountains, avoiding grizzly bears and demons, and trying to survive the weird weather shifts made worse by the unpredictability already present throughout the area. We hadn’t had too much trouble with it lately, which made me think something big was coming, but there wasn’t much we could do in preparation for that. It was all reaction in our apocalypse.

“I heard there was a Corruptor last night,” one of the Twins asked a little ways into our journey. They didn’t speak to more than each other much, except to ask weird questions and talk about demons, so I was surprised to hear from them, but not the topic.

“Uh, yeah,” I replied, glancing back to see them watching me curiously from the back of the group. Their bag swung between them as they walked, but even conjoined, they always kept up. It was part of why I didn’t question them coming along, despite their lack of combat prowess. The two managed to escape everything we encountered bound together, and always found their way back to the group. It was uncanny, but maybe uncanny was the way to go when surviving the end of the world. I mean, my primary weapon was a battle axe, and my secondary was a broken shotgun, so I couldn’t really talk about weird.

“Did you hear it?” the other asked, and I felt the hair on my neck stand up. ‘Valentine…’

“Sort of,” I answered again. No one besides Camilla, Sean, Greg, and Mama officially knew that after I had survived a Corruptor, I could hear them in my head, but others knew to trust me when I said one was near. It wasn’t really something I liked to advertise, as some didn’t take that kind of “connection” to them well. But the Twins seemed to have caught on to more than I liked.

They didn’t ask anymore questions, instead falling back to talk amongst themselves. I never knew what was up with them. I didn’t even know their names, or genders. If you asked, they just responded with, “We’re twins,” and people eventually let it go. They were good at looting, and never real burdens, so that was that.

“They ask the weirdest things,” Camilla muttered from next to me, and I nodded. From my other side, Miranda shivered, despite the warm weather.

“They wouldn’t stop talking about the Immolator either,” she said. “Eventually I had to just tell them to fuck off.”

“Jeez,” I groaned, and then another thought struck me. “I wonder where everyone will go once we get to the city. Like, will we stick together, or split up into jobs and school and stuff?”

“I imagine those of us who like each other will be able to stick together,” Miranda shrugged, and glanced back toward her brother. “Or families. You know, like life before?”

“Will that mean I have to go back to high school?” Camilla asked with a deep frown, and Miranda and I laughed.

“It wasn’t so bad!” Miranda insisted, but I shook my head.

“High school was the worst,” I said, causing a look of horror from Camilla. “No really, I was such the weird kid. Both in orchestra and on the trap shooting team, but I never fit in either well, or anywhere in between. I’m glad it’s over.”

“Now’s not much different, eh?” Dave quipped from behind us, and I flipped him off without looking back. Dave thought the apocalypse was the perfect time to unleash his inner casanova because “the world is ending, so let’s have some fun, baby,” and was still knocked off his game by my good ex and I rejecting his threesome proposal.

“At least I had robotics?” Camilla asked hopefully, ignoring him completely like the absolute gem she was, and I nodded.

“See, you’ll be fine. Optimism goes a long way.”

The conversation ceased for a while after that. We reached a particularly uphill section of our journey, and the extra strain mixed with our tight timeline had everyone shutting up. I’d always adored the mountains, and somehow that managed not to change even with seemingly endless hike through them to reach our destination. The mountains were confusing, dangerous, beautiful places, and I adored everything about them. Every way you looked, there was something new to see, and even places you’d passed through before seemed to shift and change with different elevations and lighting. At any time, a rock could slip and cause disaster, or a bear or mountain lion could appear from the shadows and tear you limb from limb, but there was something poetic in always being one shade of uncertainty from death.

Maybe that’s why I’d survived for this long.

We stopped on a particularly high spot between mountains at noon to share a can of green beans and check our directions. The view into the next valley was gorgeous, and we even saw a lone wolf crossing through it. One the far side of the valley, I could see the road, which meant we weren’t too far from where we were going. I hoped to find the hiking trail Greg had mentioned leading to Granite Peak, as the radio broadcasts advertising the Standing City mentioned you could find markers leading you starting there.

It would also help cut down time where I had to navigate with my next to nothing experience.

A soft mew came from some brush near us, and I looked up in surprise.

“Sassy!” I cheered, and a tiny black cat emerged. Sassy was a cat we’d found years ago, at the beginning of the apocalypse. She was the sweetest ball of fur to walk the planet, but would disappear for days, sometimes weeks on end. And then, like that day, she would show up out of nowhere and act as if she’d never left.

“Oh my gosh!” Camilla gushed, scooping up the cat and pressing her face into her fur. “I always think she’s gone forever.”

“I can’t believe she’s alive,” Miranda said, and reached over to scratch the purring feline on the back of the head. The remainder of our rest stop was spent fawning over the mysterious Sassy, while I mentally mapped out our course for the rest of the day. I hoped I wasn’t being too ambitious in how far I planned to get, but even with the joy of Sassy showing up and the ease of the trip so far, in the back of my mind all I could think of was Uncle Sean lying unconscious when I went to tell him goodbye.

We packed back up after our sad “lunch,” my sister adding Sassy to an open flap in her backpack in an attempt to not lose the tiny cat so soon after she found us again, and we were back on our way. Todd started a game of “I spy” which ended up just being a joke to see how many trees we could make each other guess, but it passed the time. Before I knew it, the sun was drifting down over the top of the mountains, casting shadows over the landscape.

“Okay before Camilla’s turn, I think we should plan when to stop,” I said to the group.

“We’re not really in the best stopping place, are we?” Miranda asked, motioning around us. We had found a different trail that took us in a switchback down a mountain, and were about a third of the way down.

“Yeah, I don’t really want to set up camp on the side of a mountain,” I agreed. Before I could say anything else, I felt a sudden chill run up my spine, and glanced back at the group. “Anyone else notice that?”

“Feels like a flash winter,” Todd said, confirming my suspicions. I felt my heart sink a little.

“Well, we don’t want to be this high up if the winds come in strong,” I thought aloud. “Let’s try to book it to the base of the mountain and set up a camp. Unfortunately, it seems like we’ll be using tents tonight.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Dave said, as if his seal of approval mattered. “Wanna share a tent?”

I shot him a look that most definitely said “no way in hell,” and led the group forward down the switchback trail.

“Looks like Karen was right,” I quipped as another cold breeze cut through my clothes.

“A little late, though,” Camilla added.

“I mean, I could say winter is coming at any time of the year, and eventually I would be right.” I pulled my insulated hoodie from my backpack as we walked and yanked it over my head. The flash storms didn’t usually last more than a few hours, but they sometimes arrived in minutes.

“Was it Camilla’s turn?” Miranda asked, directing our attention back to the game to distract us from the cold.

“Oh, right!” my sister remembered. “In that case… I spy something brown. Wait, it’s a mule deer!”

“You’re supposed to let us guess,” Dave jabbed, but we all paused to watch the confused mammal cross the path in front of us. It watched us cautiously as it walked out from a patch of trees and headed toward another down the path from us, and then, just like that, it vanished back into the shadows.

“That was cool, but a waste of turn,” Camilla sighed, and the rest of us laughed.

“Hey, it was cool!” I defended, before motioning to the back of the group. “Twins?”

The twins hummed in thought, and were quiet for a long moment. When I glanced back, one of them smiled.

“We spy… a demon.”