To Kill a Cactus - One of Those Days part 1

Chapter 3

One of Those Days

Have you ever had the feeling that things aren't just going as you planned, you wake up and understand that you've slept in, your cat's missing, you're all out of chocolate, late for school and also walking around naked. That has never happened to me, but I may have woken up to a dream that may have gone that way. I looked around me, confused about my surroundings and completly tangled in my sleepingbag.

Ash was already awake, his nose in a book. It took me a while to focus my vision and understand what he was reading. It was " The Complete History of Misery".

"Sounds like a fun read," I said in a tired morning voice.

"Yeah, somehow reading about how other people have a much harder time than me, makes me feel like I should be happier," he nodded and put a candy wrapper between the pages that he was reading as he closed the book.

"Are you then...happier?" I asked.

There was a long silence before he said anything.

"Honestly, I don't know," he answered, "but it's worth a try."

He looked a bit sad, I noticed that he had a photo of his family beside his pillow. He must have missed him. I felt like I probably didn't make him feel any better either. A sharp pain went through my chest when I thought about my own family, I felt as if I had disappointed them, but I was not ready to tell him anything about it and I tried to block in out of my mind as well. I hoped that perhaps after my mission there would be some redemption for me.

"Shall we get on with our journey?" Ash asked me and brought me back into the present.

"Yeah, we probably should."

We quickly got ready, packed our things and enjoyed the cool morning air before the sun brought hell back onto earth.

Our road went through the forest, this time Ash didn't make us walk just as fast, he seemed to have his thoughts somewhere else and so did I. I enjoyed the silence, for a change I didn't feel awkward, it was natural and it gave me time to process my own thoughts.

Whenever I felt stressed or anxious, I would go to a happy place inside my head, it's calm and safe there. I don't think I could ever tell what it looks like, I feel like part of the charm is the privacy it offers, it's just me and things that make me feel happy. I was happily there while we were walking, I barely noticed what was going on around me.

I can say though, although I couldn't see it at the time, that our surroundings were changing, the trees were sprinkled around more sparingly and the ground was covered with the mixture of sand and ashes. Everything was draned out and dead, we were the only living things within miles.

"May I ask you something?" Ash asked me, breaking the silence.

"Sure," I answered, although I wasn't particularly excited about it.

"Are you infected?"

It wasn't expecting him to ask that.

"My family could never afford that kind of luxury," I answered.

I felt uncomfortable admitting that, but it was the truth.

"Neither could we, but my mother was one of the first testsubjects, she only did it for the money. That's why she looks the way that she does, but she didn't go all insane, she just is as she is, a different version of the last one was used on her. It's a complicated story," his voice got more quiet with every word he said as if it was very difficult for him to get the words out.

I understood how he felt, even the air felt heavy around us. I wish I could've know the right words to make him feel better, I wish there was anything that I would'e done, but the axiety inside my head held me back, I guess it was just one of those days...

...

To be continued