Page 33 of 1000 of You
The coronergave a little laugh. “You noticed that, too? It’s pretty rare to find,considering how the muscles normally relax before going into rigor.”
Mandelgrunted. “Guess they were both happy to be ending it all.”
“Looks thatway,” Sizemore agreed. The man grabbed his briefcase, and the two left thebedroom to allow the ambulance attendants inside, where they would bag, tag,and transport the bodies to the county morgue.
Chapter 18
Alabama, 2011
She becameaware of being flat on the ground, face down, when she awoke. Bright light fromthe ball of fire in the sky toldGovait wasdaylight. Its heat was baking her back and the earth around her to where sheknew she would be in danger if she didn’t find shelter.
Opening hereyes, she tried to get a sense of where she was. There was little to see. Therewere no buildings, and no other people. And the silence… Not even a bird orinsect broke the absolute quiet.
She triedto rise, when hard, unrelenting pain streaked through her. Crying out, shepaused to wait out the burning waves. This time, instead of going at it all atonce, she tested small areas of her body. Her fingers and hands. Her feet andtoes. Her head and neck, she could move. But when she tried to lift her rightleg, another sword of agony sliced through her.
Rather thanattempt to sit up again, she used an arm to roll herself onto her back. It wasthen she noticed the pool of blood underneath her. Blood that seeped from awound around her abdomen. Unable to bend over to examine it, she tentativelyprobed it with her fingers, and discovered a large portion of something jammedat an angle into her. Gritting her teeth, she grasped the object and slowlydrew it out. The pain nearly made her black out.Govascreamed and gasped for breath. After a while, she held the object up to whereshe could see it. It appeared to be the handle off of some implement. A handlethat had been broken in two, its ragged, pointed end impaling her.
Tossing itto the side, she tried again to rise. Although it was difficult, the knife-likeagony no longer stabbed her. Instead, it had been replaced by a dull, pervasivethrobbing.
She knewshe was dying. She suspected she was bleeding inside, more than what could beseen on the outside. It was imperative she findMuambefore she succumbed, or else…
Moaning,she slowly managed to get to her feet. Blood trickled down her thighs, but shecould walk.
She had totake in the total devastation around her. Something had occurred here.Something that completely destroyed everything far as she could see. Unrecognizabledebris littered the landscape. Piles of what appeared to be collapsed houseslay scattered here and there. Even the trees hadn’t escaped the gods’ wrath.Stripped of their leaves and most of their branches, what few remained standingwere no more than bare wood skeletons.Govasawsomething yellow flutter in the faint breeze near a top limb. A shirt.Someone’s shirt waved like a pennant.
She took astep, and more blood gushed from the wound. She clutched it with one hand andforced herself to start walking. Where, she had no idea. In all her past lives,she’d learned to trust the person whose body she inhabited to find her way.
She couldtell she was on some sort of road. Here and there, some of those strange,horseless wagons lay tossed about like children’s toys. Some were on theirroofs, or left on their sides. A few had been crushed by fallen debris. Butnowhere could she see any people. No people, no animals, no other signs oflife.
Where wasMuam?
Shegrimaced as tears rolled onto her cheek. Wiping them away with the back of herfree hand, she noticed the smear of blood and dirt that covered her knuckles.It was impossible to tell how unrecognizable she might be. IfMuamsaw her, would he still know it was her?
She haltedin her steps and scanned the area again. What if he wasn’t able to find her intime? What if she died before…
Oh, Ancient Mother. I renew my faith in you.In my belief in you. You have sent me on this journey, and in all my past livesyou have not failed me. Help me to stay strong until my beloved arrives, sothat we can depart this life together. Give me the strength, Ancient Mother.Sustain me.
Taking a deep breath,Govapressed on.
She wasforced to take slow, small steps. She didn’t have the strength to move any faster.Already, she could tell she was becoming light-headed from the loss of blood,yet the world around her remained desolate and eerily silent.
A cry.
Stopping,Govastrained her ears to listen.
Faintly,just ahead, it came again.
She pressedforward. It sounded like a distressed animal. Or a child. A baby.
Fightingher growing dizziness, she searched for the source of the sobbing, whichsteadily became louder. It led her to the other side of the road where a pileof fallen limbs and other rubble was located. The sound was more discernablehere.
Grabbingsome of the wreckage, she fought to push it aside. Underneath, lying amid aheap of clothing and other things, an infant stared back at her. The baby wascovered in mud, its clothing almost shredded from its tiny body. Seeing her,its tiny face wrinkled and its toothless mouth opened to let out anotherplaintive cry.
“Oh, youpoor thing! Where is your mother?”Govareached downand picked up the baby that couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old, andtucked the infant under her chin. Bouncing it gently, she tried to soothe thechild. She had no way of knowing who the child belonged to, but she knew shecouldn’t leave the baby there in the hope that its parent might find it. Thebaby was hungry. It also needed to be changed. More importantly, it needed tobe examined for any injuries. She could search it for wounds, but for whatpurpose? Even if the child needed help, she couldn’t give it. All she had tooffer was comfort, and pray the both of them would eventually be rescued.
The babysettled in her embrace, curling up against her as it continued to whimper.Holding the infant took both hands, meaning she was no longer able to stop thesteady trickle of blood running down her legs and soaking her clothes.
Returningto the road, she continued going in the direction she’d been moving, andconcentrated on placing one foot forward at a time. Any little distance, nomatter how slight, was an achievement. She also kept her head bowed over thetiny baby to keep the hot sun from burning its delicate skin any more than italready had.
