4: AU Kim’s Earth: Joel: Meeting Anna

[k_a_webb]

Joel stared out of the window, trying not to think about his parents. They’d sent him away so he’d be safe, but he’d never believed that the injection was going to affect them in any way, and he’d been so sure that he’d even tried to convince them to let him have it. His arguments hadn’t worked and for the first time he was grateful that they’d listened to someone else. Instead of laying upstairs with rigor mortis he was sitting downstairs trying to work out what he was going to do next.

At first Joel thought the movement outside was his imagination. He hadn’t seen anyone since he left the bunker and, even though he knew that no one under the age of sixteen had been given the injection, he hadn’t really expected to see anyone ever again. When he turned his head to look he saw a girl wearing a hospital gown walking slowly along the pavement, glancing around as though she had no idea where she was. The closer she got to the window the more he could see and that was when he realised she wasn’t wearing any shoes.

The speed she was moving gave Joel a chance to grab his mum’s slippers and a jacket before leaving the house. He was a couple of steps behind her when he stepped onto the pavement, but she must have heard the sound because she turned to look at him.

“Hi,” he said quietly, not wanting to scare her when she already looked terrified and had tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Hi,” she replied, wiping her cheeks with her hands. “Where am I?”

The question wasn’t unexpected, but Joel still took some time to think before he answered. “You’re on London Road, which is about a mile from the hospital.”

She nodded slowly. “Shouldn’t there be more people around?”

“Normally there would be, but the world government created a contraceptive injection and it seems to have killed everyone who had it.” Joel bit his lip. “At least it seems like it in this town.”

“That’s why there weren’t any doctors or nurses at the hospital?”

“I would guess so. Anyone in what was described as an important job, like the hospital staff, would have been given the injection last, but I would have expected it to have the same effect on them as it did everyone else.”

“They were talking about it when I was admitted.” She ran a hand through her hair. “No one knew who I was, so they decided not to give it to me in case I was under sixteen.”

Joel raised an eyebrow. “Do you know who you are?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I just didn’t want to stay in the hospital because it was almost entirely abandoned and I thought I’d be better off out here.” Looking around she sighed. “I think I might have been wrong.”

Holding out the jacket and slippers, Joel said, “I’ll look after you, if you want me to.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Comments

[natalief.livejournal.com]

Aw he is one of the good ones!