Fairy Dust

*Mikey's POV*

There, dead on a rock was a boy with one barefoot was in the icy water. His eyes were open but glazed over and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He had died not long ago; I wish we found him sooner.

"Who's that?" Bob whispered picking up on our tension.

"Max." I said, "A really good friend of ours.

We have had 3 deaths so far: Dad, Danger and now Max. Seeing his lifeless body on that rock was dreadful, I can imagine what Andrea is going through. The question is, where is she? Is she dead too? I think she went over the falls with us.

Bob and Ray chatted quietly in the back while we crossed stepping-stones to get to the other side of the river. Gerard, Frank and I silently traveled in the front. We were fazed by this gruesome discovery, Ray didn't know Max well enough to be affected and Bob never even met him, we had no map, it had been destroyed. We only had a compass and a watch to get us to California and find Adelaide. The sky was overcast with a promise for snow. Our boots crunched in the deep snow.

"How much longer?" Frank asked.

"Until what?" I fired back, "Until we die too?" I was cranky from exhaustion. We had been trekking for over two hours and in the last 10 minutes, been dragging our feet. Bob and Ray stopped their conversation to listen to the fight.

"Calm down Mikes, let's have a rest." Gerard said calmly. I hated the fact he could keep his cool in these circumstances. We were just outside of Trenton; we read a sign not long ago. We still had another state to cross before being free. My lips were chapped and began to crack and bleed. I sucked my bottom lip, draining any blood like a vampire. So we stopped and lat on a fallen log that was draped over with snow. January 2nd, 2008 and this is what we were doing? Bob pulled some cookies out of the pack the Hearn's gave us. Each of us ate slowly, savouring the sweet taste.

"What are we going to do when we get to California?" Ray asked. There it was out in the open, the dreaded question to which none of us knew the answer too. Where would we live? How would we survive with no shelter, money or food? It was unplanned, just like the war. We were going with the flow of things just trying to live. We were a bunch of teenagers not even of legal drinking age, who were so close to freedom me could taste it, but maybe it was just the cookies.

"Find Adelaide..." Gerard tried to answer but it was all he could say. He couldn’t say; and sleep in boxes and eat in a homeless shelter. It would shatter our hope. "Mikey! Quit spacing out, you're creeping me out..." I came back to earth.

"Sorry." I mumbled. I stop spacing out like this, how could I recall recent events to write about in a book later on that would sell all over the world making us famous and making people aware of our pain and suffering.

We rested for about 15 minutes then carried on. Pennsylvania wasn't too far now but was as just as destroyed and crawling with troops as Jersey, maybe worse.

"Maybe we should avoid the big city, stay in the forests." the other men agreed as we kept going.

Maybe it's just me or is Frank and Gerard inactive in the love section. Sure we all slept together last night but there are no I love you comments. I don’t know what it is but I want to find out, it will take my mind off Danger, God rest his soul. I attacked Gerard when Frank slipped back to talk to Bob and Ray.

"Sooo... Gee... how are things?" he raised one eyebrows at me.

"Okay Mikey, what do you want?" my brother knew me too well.

"How are things between you and Frank?" he rolled his eyes.

"As good as a war relationship goes, slow but passionate." yeah, if your lover doesn’t die.

"Have you two... you know, done anything?" he gave me a warning look.

"No Mikey." I decided to drop the topic and start a new one.

"Think moms okay?" we hadn't spoken about her since we were still in Jersey city. I never mentioned this before but before the war, Gerard had problems getting along with our parents. He dragged me into the fights and soon we almost stopped talking all together. Only, Gerard was a lazy ass and didn’t really want to move out, we kept our moment on Christmas though, pretend everything’s okay.

"Honestly Mikes, I don’t know." he didn’t really seen to care much. Had the fights did that much that he didn’t care dad was dead and mom could be a slave? He gave me a one armed, brotherly hug. He was the best brother you could ask for and I loved him as much as brothers were allowed to love each other without getting sexual. "Mikey, your spacing out again..."

"Oh sorry, I was just thinking..."

"What about?" I wondered if I should tell him... NAH!

"Icky things Gerard, very icky things you wouldn’t want to hear about." he wrinkled his nose and laughed.

"Were both gay, well I'm bi but oh well? What could be so icky?" It was good to see him happy again, even if it was only for a short time. The fire was burning brightly in his eyes as I thought up an icky thing.