Chapter 19
Jesse
The cut on my back is killing me. I could hardly get any rest with the heat.
I could feel my heart beating in my back.
I refuse to let Asmita know how much pain I’m in.
I try not to think about it as we scatter our makeshift camp.
I want to make sure that we leave no trace of our stay.
We dismantle our camp and scatter the branches far enough apart to look natural.
By the time we finish that task, the air has become cooler with the sun setting.
We still have enough light to see our steps in the woods for a while.
I put my backpack on, and it scrapes the cut on my back.
I wince in pain and Asmita eyes me instantly with a worried look.
“I’m fine,” I say, trying to reassure her but the shirt tied around me just isn’t enough to dull the pain.
I shift my bag, trying to find a more comfortable way to carry it, but it’s no use.
I’ll just have to let it rub against the wound.
I try to hide the pain on my face. I wait for Asmita to get her bag on her shoulder and then we set out.
I stare up at the fading light from the sky as we walk.
I’m hoping that we can make it to the island before the sun comes back up.
With each step that we take, I feel like we are getting closer to answers.
It’s hard to describe, but it’s just a feeling that I have deep inside me.
We take it slow at first, walking side by side.
As the light fades from the sky, we go even slower, attempting to make as little noise as possible in the brush.
We’ve gone a while without speaking, and the silence begins to weigh on me.
“Is it my turn to ask you some questions?” I ask her casually as we continue forward. She looks at me in surprise and nods her head yes in response.
I try to keep my manners casual and my voice low. Inside, I feel anything but casual. I’ve thought of these questions for months as I’ve travelled across the country, wanting to ask them as soon as I met her. To finally ask them out loud to her feels like an enormous relief.
“How did you know to go to the Island?” I ask her.
Asmita takes her time stepping over a large branch that has fallen recently. Once she gets over it, she looks at me, stops and takes a breath. “I didn’t at first. I mean, I wasn’t told directly to go there.”
“What does that mean?” I ask her. I sure as hell don’t know.
“I just mean that my parents didn’t tell me directly to go there.
After the disaster and after I found my letter, which was a complete surprise to me by the way, I started thinking about what to do and where to go.
I remembered a recent conversation I had had with my mom, and she mentioned this place out of the blue.
It was odd, and it stuck out to me. I think it was her way of telling me where to go.
” She shrugs her shoulders to convey her bemusement.
“What if we get there and there’s nothing? What will be next?” I ask her in all seriousness. I have no idea what we’ll do next if that’s the case.
She stops walking and looks at me. “You want the truth? I don’t know.
I’m hoping we don’t have to make that decision.
” She starts walking again, and I wonder what she’s thinking about.
Did I stir something inside of her mind?
Is she second-guessing herself? I’ve risked my life coming all this way to get to her.
My parents risked their lives to get me on that train.
Yeah, they may have had a secret agenda, but they may have given their lives for it.
I still don’t know if my parents are okay.
I haven’t been able to get any messages from home.
I haven’t risked trying to send one either.
Maybe it’s the same with my parents. Maybe it’s too dangerous for them to reach out.
It’s not as if they know where I’m at. I’ve been traveling for months.
I never stay in the same place for long and for good reason.
They wouldn’t even know where to send a message.
With my recent brush with the Dome, I’m glad I haven’t sent any messages to them; they could be monitoring everyone’s mail.
Until they came to George’s boarding house and bar, I thought they were just a myth. I didn’t even know for sure that they still existed. “Did you know the Dome guards were still functioning before we saw them in town?”
“No. I haven’t seen any of them until they were at George’s. If I did, I wouldn’t have just walked up to them and said, ‘Oh, hey, what are you doing here? How’s it going on the other side of the continent? What happened that day?’ I don’t think they would take too kindly to that.” She smirks at me.
Sass. I’m getting sassed now. Clearly, her nerves are starting to fray.
Maybe I just rub her the wrong way. Either way, I decide to stop asking her any more questions.
As time goes on, daylight begins to creep up on us.
If we don’t make it before the sun is completely up and out, we will have to find another spot to weather the heat.
I suggest to Asmita that we leave the dense brush and go closer to the main path.
This will allow us to possibly see if anyone is around us and how far we have to the island. It should be getting very close.
We make our way out of the brush and onto what was once the main road.
Like all the other main roads, debris is everywhere.
Cars are parked in random places, and loose articles of clothing and items deemed as junk by scavengers, who have undoubtedly searched this area combing for treasures to trade and sell are scattered everywhere.
I motion for Asmita to stay low, and we both crouch down between the abandoned cars.
We have to be cautious and try to remain unseen. This could easily be a trap.
We slowly make our way up the road, weaving between the cars. The ground is mostly even, and our feet walk silently on the pavement. I slow our pace down by taking the lead and whisper instructions to Asmita.
“Start looking in cars for anything we can use over time. Who knows how long we might have to be out here,” I tell her. She nods in response and whispers back to me.
“It’s too quiet out here. It’s unnerving,” she says.
“Yeah, well, hopefully it’s just us out here, and that’s why it’s so quiet.”
The only good thing about being on the road is that after a few minutes of making our way up the path between the cars, a mangled sign up ahead comes into view.
It reads: Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake State Park.
It’s up in the distance, and we can see it now.
Asmita and I look at each other, and I give her my best smile.
She doesn’t return it. She looks deep in thought and scared.
Really scared. The smile drops off my face and we keep walking forward.
The sun is starting to make its way up into the sky, and we begin to make out smaller objects in the light.
We’ve made it to the mangled sign. From far away we couldn’t see any of the smaller warnings written on it.
The sign has seen major damage. It’s bent in places with large grooves, and I’m guessing it’s from rocks since there’s large rocks laying everywhere around the sign.
Spray painted at the bottom in red paint someone has left us a warning: Turn Away. Do Not Enter.
I look at Asmita’s face, and she’s taking in the sign. She looks over at me with the same weary look.
“I wonder how long this has been here. Was it written just for us?” she asks as she looks around.
“I don’t know,” I tell her as I scan the trees and brush on both sides of the road. I can’t see any movement.
Further behind the sign is a barbed wire fence.
It looks much newer than the sign. It seems in good condition, and it’s blocking the actual entrance to the island.
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s at least twelve feet tall, and it’s spanning as far across as my eyes can see.
It’s a mesh fence, and we just couldn’t see it in the dark.
It looks like it even cuts through the woods and brush.
I don’t know why, but it makes the hair on my neck and arms stand straight up.
If we’re going to go for it, I think it has to be now. Anything could happen if we try to make camp out here during the daylight. I’m about to tell her my thoughts when she whispers to me, “I think we should take cover in one of those cars we passed further back and watch for any signs of life.”
I have to physically restrain myself from rolling my eyes and laughing at her.
Is she crazy? I’m not waiting out here for daylight to pass.
I could die in this heat or from this gaping wound on my back or the big question, who knows how many Dome guards are out looking for us right now. I’m moving forward now, not later.
“Are you kidding me? We have to go now. This is the best chance we are going to have. We go in there now, at the beginning of daylight, and we see if anyone is in there. If we stay out here, the Dome Guards could catch up to us anytime,” I say, trying to hold back my agitation.
“I’m just scared, okay! What if I’m wrong? What if we go in there and there’s nothing or worse, we go in there and the Dome is already waiting for us,” she says.
I see real fear in Asmita’s eyes. She’s deeply afraid of what’s behind that fence.
I’m going to have to push her to move forward.
Doesn’t she realize I wouldn’t do anything to directly hurt her?
I would put myself in front of the danger before letting her get hurt.
The next words out of my mouth are going to sound harsh to her, but I have to say them.
“Asmita, you need to muster up all the courage you can find because we are not waiting for it to get dark again. We won’t survive. One of us won’t survive, and it will probably be me, and I need to keep living a little longer to get you inside.”
She just stares at me for a second and then, like a light bulb has gone off in her head, she looks at me and says, “If you came all this way to die, you’re going to have to wait a little while longer.”
I am completely shocked by her words. Apparently, my authoritative tone helped knock some sense into her.
Does that mean she’s coming with me or staying though?
“You understand we need to go right now, right? You get that? This is serious. We have to move, and we’re wasting time standing here arguing about it. ”
She bends down and undoes the ties in her shoes. She re-ties them and stands back up. “Let’s go!” she says and starts walking toward the fence.
It’s like she didn’t even hear the words come out of my mouth.
A little acknowledgement would be nice. I’m only trying to help her stay alive and keep myself alive at the same time.
I hope whatever is inside this fence brings us good news and real answers.
If not, I’m at my wits end. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do about what’s next for Asmita and me.
The first thing is to keep surviving. I need some major stitches in my back to close up this wound or I won’t be doing anything.
I have to keep mopping the sweat off my face.
I feel like I’m burning up from the inside.
This only tells me one thing… it’s infected.