Last Hope

The ride home was silent; Ryan changed the radio station to CD player and dubstep blasted through the speakers. I clutched the wheel tighter and stifled a yawn.

“Drop me off at my house so I can pack and I’ll come around after with my truck, okay?” He looks over at me and I nod my head slowly but refuse to take my eyes off the road.

“Have I done something?” He asks suddenly.

I shake my head and he sighs, rubbing his forehead in frustration as I pull up to his house “We’ll talk about this later” He growls as he hops out of the car and slams the door shut. I watch him enter his house and close it, I sit there for a few more minutes before I reverse out of his drive way and speed of towards home.

“Fuck sakes” I curse. I spend the rest of the drive home in complete silence before pulling into my drive way and parking.

My family had left to go to a safe house down south in a small town but I had been left behind. My uncle and my older cousin, Hailee -who was more like a sister to me- had come down to stay with me because I was only 14. I was happy to hear that they were coming to stay because my house felt big and empty without anyone else around. True I had Ryan but he wasn’t around 24/7 so I got lonely around here. My house had three bedrooms down a short hallway with a bathroom and toilet opposite two of the bedrooms, the third bedroom was beside the bathroom. All rooms were small but they were efficient. When you enter the house the dining room connects the lounge and the kitchen, the lounge was spacious but the kitchen was kind of small. This was my family house, my parents had built it. Next to my house was a unit, my grandmother use to live in it. The unit held two bedrooms, a bathroom and toilet, a kitchen and lounge. Once Ryan moved in we’d live down there but for now I live in the room I’ve always lived in, the small cozy bedroom directly down the hallway.

I passed the unit and climbed the stairs to the deck that leads you to the unit’s double locked door; it had a safety screen in front of the door as well. The house was surrounded by tall thick thorned hedges with poisonous flowers blooming on it. The poison was only harmful to humans and even if someone tried to use a ladder to climb over it, it was impossible to avoid the flowers and even if you were wearing protective clothing you’d be heard loud and clear trying to climb over the hedge. There was also an automatic gate that only opened through a scan of people’s faces so it only opened if your face is in its system. The gate was steel and solid concrete, not to mention how it's as tall as the hedges and sharp steel adorned the top of the gate. I turned to see Hailee; my cousin, hanging out our washing.

“Hey, need any help?” I question.

“Nah, I’m nearly done, I have work soon though” She replies.

“Okay, well I’m going away for a few days or so for a field trip to loot the mall” I state.

“Sounds fun, keep safe though” She replies.

“Of course, want anything?” I ask.

She grins “Of course! I’ll have a list sitting on the table for you to take” She exclaims, I nod my head smiling and head inside, Hailee follows me in moments later to get ready for work.

I enter my bedroom my room and dump my stuff before opening my closet and grabbing my duffle bag. I grab my necessary gear and throw my toiletries in as well as a torch, twin pistols, my M24 SWS, my throwing knives and a good amount of ammo for both my guns.

By the time I finished packing, had a nice long shower and got dressed into my singlet and boxers Hailee had left for work and Ryan had just arrived. He was currently reversing his truck into my big drive way. Once everything was locked up and secure he came in and locked the house. Hailee wouldn’t be home until after we had left so we had the house to ourselves. Good now I could really rip him apart.

“So why are you pissed off at me?” He had barely stepped over the threshold before he was saying that.
“Because you suck at making groups.” I hiss.

“Oh my fucking god, I should have known” His voice drips with sarcasm “Well if you’re really unhappy about the groups you can stay behind.”

I laugh without humor “Haha you’d like that wouldn’t you? You could do what you liked without me being on your back about everything, is that why you stuck me into another group?”

“Don’t be stupid, why are you making a big deal out of nothing?” He stresses.

“It is a big deal to me?!” I scream, I turn around and head to my room but I spin around and glare at him “You made sure that every other couple was put together in the same group!” I retreated to my room and slammed my door shut before collapsing on my bed and curling up into a ball and facing the wall, my back faced the door.

Half an hour later or so the door creaks open “Jordan?” Ryan comes in and murmurs my name but I don’t answer, he walks over and lies down beside me “Look at me” he whispers, pulling me around to face him. My dark hair falls in front of my eyes and he brushes away to see my tear stained face and puffy red eyes

“You’re right, maybe I should just stay behind” I was still angry, no actually I was pissed off but not at Ryan, in fact I was never directly angry at him. I knew it wasn’t his fault, I was mad at myself for being so dependent and weak. Angry that I was scared to be doing something without him, scared I’d lose him.

“You can’t back down from your own idea babe. Sophie, Josh, Baden, Caitlin, Jess and Ivana need you” He states, stroking my hair and my angry dims out until it’s almost non-existent.

“I can’t help them, I’m so weak and pathetic, I’ll just get us all killed within minutes of entering the mall.” I whisper unevenly, biting back more tears.

“Don’t say that, I picked you for a reason, don’t make me regret it.” He gives me a firm kiss on the lips and I sigh before yawning and rubbing my eyes.

“It’s late, I’m going to stay up for a bit and work on a plan for the trip. Go to sleep, you need all the energy you can get.”

I nod my head in misery and pull the blankets over myself as Ryan gets up to leave “I’m sorry”

“It’s fine, night, love you.”

“Love you too” I slur, dozing off into a deep slumber.

I woke to find myself trapped between the wall and Ryan who had his arm securely around my waist; I rolled over and peered over his shoulder to see the silent digital clock sitting on our side table. It read: 6:15am.
I relaxed and closed my eyes listening to Ryan’s soft snoring and calm heartbeat. This may be the last time we were able to be like this and the thought scared me. No, what was I thinking, I can’t be so weak minded and dependent on him. I close my eyes, dozing off again and then being shaking away.

“Seven thirty sharp.” Ryan’s hovering above me and I sit up and stretch.

“Okay” I yawn and get up before making the bed and grabbing my under garments, sky blue and lime green striped v neck long sleeve top and black skinny jeans. I make my way to the bathroom, twenty minutes later I come out towel drying my long dark damp hair.

“Nearly done?” Ryan asks at the door of my bedroom.

“Yeah just give me a bit more time!” I exclaim without looking at him.

I brush my hair out before quickly giving it a blow dry and brushing it out again. I put odd socks on before straightening the legs of my skinny jeans. I grab my black high-top chucks with white skulls on them and I stuff my feet into them and lace them up. I stand up and look into the large mirror and asses myself. If I was going to die, I was going to die looking good. My striped v neck hugged me comfortably and it added colour to my outfit, I grabbed my black puffy winter vest and put it on over my top. Lastly I added my plain black beanie to my head. I added my favourite skull hair pins and brushed my side fringe aside to add a bit of eyeliner and blush

“Done~” I sing in a sing-song voice

“Finally,” Ryan teases, coming into the room and grabbing my duffle bag “It’s ten past eight.”

“Okay, I’m gonna have some wheat-bix then.” I state and I skip to the kitchen as Ryan follows carrying both our duffle bags to his truck and I make breakfast and eat it slowly.

“You feel okay about today?” Ryan asks.

“I guess I have too, don’t I?” I reply with a weak smile.

“You’re gonna do great, you’ll see” He encourages.

I nod and push my bowl at him and he grabs it and finishes it off for me and I go back into the bathroom to brush my teeth ‘I sure hope Ryan’s right…for both our sakes’ I finish five minutes later as Ryan comes into the bathroom and it’s only then as I watch him finish getting ready that I take in what he’s wearing today. Grey skinny jeans which clearly show his muscles hidden underneath them, his black, white and red high top skater shoes. Then I noticed his plain black top with four red strips of different sizes going vertically down the front, I could see that from the mirror.
I took him in… his scars, his face, and his movement as he washed his face with water after brushing his teeth.

“Okay, well what are we waiting for lets go” Ryan scopes me up and throws me over his shoulder and he heads to the truck after grabbing the list of stuff for Hailee and locking the house up so tightly even ants can’t get through. He puts me in the truck first before closing the door and hopping into the driver’s side, I shiver as the winter breeze blows into the truck. I realize my weapons have been loaded in with me and my holster was sitting beside me so I grabbed it and strapped it on as Ryan started the truck and after heading out of the gate we were off to school. Both our duffle bags squished in front of me made it hard to put my feet anywhere so I sat with my right knee up at my chest and the other dangled up against the locked door. I clutched my M24 SWS sniper rifle tightly and swallowed my nerves.

‘Maybe looting the mall was a stupid idea’ I thought, glimpsing at Ryan out of the corner of my eyes
…If only I knew