Whimper

The two travel a long, long time more.

The boy's feet are cut and bleeding as the two find their way outside the city. He staggers on the way. His face screws up in pain. He falls often and cries out. He pounds the cement with his fists until they bleed. The girl sits and waits until he is done, and then offers her hand. Weeping, he grabs onto it and she moves on. His legs still wobble and give out on him, and he screams in exasperation and agony, but the girl does not leave him. He tries to hit her and shrieks in his language, but she avoids his blows and forces him to keep moving. She sits and waits when he collapses and cries. She does not offer any food. The boy's knees are skinned and bleeding through his pants. Eventually, the boy falls for the last time and stays down. He tries to crawl, but his limbs do not support him, and he slumps into the tar and sobs.

"We need to keep going," the girl says. She points to the horizon, and at the slowly sinking sun. "Do you understand?"

"Iie. Iie!" the boy wails. "Iie!"

"My people are going to leave without me if I'm late. I'm not going to be late. I'm going to get you out of here. I know you don't understand, but you have to trust me." She pauses. "If you don't keep moving, the oni will get you."

The boy slurs something incomprehensible. Tears send streaks through the dirt on his face.

"Oni. Do you hear me? The oni will come and kill you."

The boy only shakes his head and sobs. He screws his eyes shut and winds his shaking fingers through his hair. The girl watches him indifferently. But then her eyebrows turn down.

"You've survived the pathogen and are going to give up now? That's inconceivable," she says. Her voice is bitter in her mask. "However, I'm not going let you lay here and die." She grips his shoulder and shoves him. "Move! Get up! We're late. Late, you hear me?"

The boy tries to pry her hands off of him. His arms tremble violently and he cries out something unknown. His movements are weak though, and the girl is unfazed by his struggles. Eventually he stops and sobs heavily. The girl's expression changes.

"Fine," she eventually states. "Stay here and die. If you really want to live, then keep moving."

Then, the girl rises and leaves the boy laying there.

The boy sobs and cries to himself for a long time. The girl vanishes into the maze of the fallen city and does not reappear. The sky is a pale, misty blue. The boy clenches his bloodied hands together and lets out a strangled scream. The shrill cry echoes throughout the street.

"Boku wa koko de shinimasu," he weeps. "Koko de shinimasu..."

But after a moment, he forces himself to his hands and knees.

"Anata!" he shouts. His voice is heavy and trembles. "Modotte kudasai!"

There is no reply. A wind brushes through his hair.

"ANATA!" His shriek splits. "MODOTTE KUDASAI!"

But he doesn't wait this time. With quivering legs and arms and with a wild cry, he forces himself up and staggers forward. His legs nearly give way. His breathing is harsh. But he moves onward. With shaking steps, he walks onward.

"Anata... Chotto matte... Chotto matte-"

Then, like it was cut from underneath him, his knee snaps under him and he plummets. He shrieks and his hands slam against the pavement. His whole body is trembling. "Iie! Iie!" he screams. "Ikemasen!"

"Hey!"

The boy jerks his head up. The masked girl stares down at him from her perch on top of a rusty mailbox.

"Anata..." the boy whispers. Tears well up in his eyes.

She leaps from her post and crouches near him. "You alright? Can you still stand-?"

The boy sags into the ground and begins to weep. The girl's expression turns intense, but something else sparks in her eyes. "You need to get up," she says. "I know you can now. Come on, okay? Come on. You're strong."

The boy shakes his head and shivers. He tries to pull himself upward, but fails. His body gives away from him and his thin arms shake. His sharp shoulder-blades protrude from the back of his robe. "Ikemasen..." he wheezes.

"Alright. Come on, sit up, okay? Let's get you up."

She slips a hand under his torso and pulls him upward. He struggles against her and cries out, but he falters. The girl gets to her feet, grasps him firmly under his arms, and tugs him up. He slurs unintelligible things and his knees knock together. He isn't crying anymore. His eyes are glassy and his face is blank. His chest heaves with an occasional hiccup.

The girl braces the boy against her. "Can you hold yourself up for a moment? I'll give you the sandwich. Sandwich. Sandoichi."

The boy briefly mutters something incomprehensible about a "sandoichi."

The girl removes herself from the boy and lets him stand on his own. She moves herself in front of him, turns her back to him, and crouches slightly. "Jump on," she says. "I will carry you." She motions to her back.

The boy looks fearfully at her. His eyes are wide and his mouth quivers. The girl looks back, repeats herself, and gestures. The boy appears dazed.

"I'll carry you," the girl says again. "Do you understand? This is the last time I'm going to say it-"

Then he falls. The boy just collapses against her. With a gasp, the girl grasps onto him from behind her and ducks underneath him. The boy sags against her back, limp and weak. The girl shifts her weight and pulls him over her. She loops her arms under his knees and hikes him into a piggy-back position. The boy sniffles and his head lolls against her shoulder. He is taller than her by a few inches, but she does not tremble under his weight.

"You okay?" she asks. "Ah, never mind. You don't even know what I'm saying."

The boy says nothing and breathes deeply.

"All right. It's good you're half-starved. I think I'll be able to carry you all the way to the checkpoint. Just don't fall off and I'll just keep moving." And with that, the girl trudges her way out of the city.

---

The girl carries the boy until they enter a wooded area. The sun has sunk low over the horizon and the light is fading fast. The boy has been silent the entire way there. He does not cry or sniff.

"You okay?" the girl asks. She shifts her shoulder against his cheek.

The boy snorts, but otherwise does not move. His body is still limp on her back.

She adjusts his weight and the boy closes his eyes. The girl's breathing is slightly labored. "Look, we're not exactly where I want to be to stop, but we're close enough. I'm going to let you down now." She treks toward a rotten log and backs into it. The boy's eyes snap open as she slowly slides him off her back, and he bumps into the green moss on the mushy wood and inhales sharply. The girl pushes her spine erect and cracks the vertebrae.

"Arigatou gozaimashita," the boy whispers.

The girl does not answer. She wipes the sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand and glances at the sky. There are loud cicadas trilling in the distance.

"We're going to sleep here," she tells the boy. She presses her hands together and moves them by her head, miming sleep, and then she points to the earth. "It's a warm night. We will be fine."

"Sou desuka," is the boy's only reply. There are creases under his eyes and his expression droops. He slips off the log and sinks to the earth. "Oni ga..." But he trails off.

The girl reaches into her satchel and retrieves the sandwich. She tosses it at the boy, but he doesn't look at it. He closes his eyes and sighs heavily. He's laying his head onto the soft earth and then tucks his frail arm underneath his ear. "You're exhausted," the girl murmurs.

The boy does not respond. He begins to snore softly.

"I guess it's time for me to sleep too," the girl says under her breath. She goes over and places the sandwich back into her bag, and then lies down onto the earth a few feet away from the boy. His face is peaceful. Something crosses the girl's expression, though, and she sits back up. With a sudden fervor, she rummages through her satchel and plucks out a roll of white bandage tape.

Then as the boy sleeps, she wraps his wounds. Until his feet, hands, and knees are covered and bandaged, her intensity fades. She hides the bandage roll back into her satchel and lays down afterward, expelling her breath. With that long exhale, the tension in her muscles lessens and she sinks into the earth with a relaxed body. It is like the tension was never there.

Then, she shuts her eyes, and her countenance softens until it is clear she has finally fallen asleep.