Chapter Two

10.03.2020

Hinckly

“Barry!” A thunderous voice cracked the silence, Barry shuddered he recognised that voice.

“I'm awake” he replied his voice a little croaky from the rough night's sleep.

He led there a few moments his head rested on a square object under a thin sheet-like blanket they called covers, people always wanted to work for the organisation he was working for. The great Mr Smith the legend himself, the one who funded and founded the cure for cancer. Mr Smith was a unique individual, a monstrous 6 foot 10, his jet black hair slicked back, dark eyes that were almost black and scruffy beard.

He was wearing his usual attire, dark navy suit white buttoned shirt and a purple tie. staring into the room through the double-sided window that surrounded the ‘jail’ Barry was trapped in. Barry slid his feet towards his chest and hung them lifelessly over the edge of the bed and proceeded to sit upright. everything was a struggle and these wake-up calls is something you never get used to.

After a few moments, Barry was up and ready to leave his cell, the automatic door whooshed open and allowed Barry into the pitch white corridors to start his day. Barry always did hate those corridors, they drained the energy out of him. no windows so you couldn't tell the time of day nor what the season was completely isolated.

He headed down the thin walkway to another automatic door labelled ‘Operation X’ then disappeared from line of sight as the door closed behind him.

02.11.2040

Barry woke up first, the sunrise beaming through the broken half hinged window of the cabin they had taken refuge in the night before. The freak snowstorm from the previous day seemed to have ended and left a mountain of snow layered deep on the floor weighing heavily down upon everything. Barry made his way downstairs and back out the front door to the outhouse to get some more wood for the fire. Once back inside he started piling the items into the fireplace and lit it with one of his many matches. The fire crackled and hummed nicely and let out a lovely gust of heat that filled the living area.

Barry went into the kitchen on the hunt for some eating utensils of some sort, he had found a wooden chopping board and some plastic forks in the cupboard, he took them back into the living area and placed them on the old looking table. He reached into his bag and pulled out a brown paper bag, quite a big looking bag it seemed to have been sealed shut. He opened the ration bag and pulled out some cheese and some crackers and laid them out on the chopping board.

Fizz had started to stir. The heat of the fire must have woken her from her slumber, Barry looked to the living room door and as if by magic there she was, pink hair floating everywhere, eyes wrinkled with crows feet, a yawn so big you could make out her wisdom teeth.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” Barry teased with a smirk on his face, Fizz met his gaze and proceeded to grunt at his comment. “I took the liberty to make us breakfast, come and join me.”

“I’d rather poke my eyes out with one of those plastic forks…” she mumbled and gripped her arm that was now oozing painfully with yellow puss.

“You should really let me take a look at that arm of yours,” Barry suggested quite firmly, slightly raising his eye level to meet Fizz's.

“Why? So you can poke it and hurt me? Just find a saw and take the damn thing off…” someone was in a mood this morning, it seemed.

Barry knew this one would not be easy to negotiate with.

“I won't hurt you Fizz, I just want to help you I promise,” Barry said calmly, his voice soothing the atmosphere like an expensive scented candle that just sucked all the tension right out.

Fizz sighed. A shrug pulled her shoulders up tightly. “Fine, whatever. Do as you must, just... Don't hurt me.”

Upon closer inspection, Barry could see that the arm was broken, halfway between her elbow and wrist. It looked a lot worse than what it was the cuts were yellowing and scabbing a little this definitely happened some time ago. The wounds weren't deep but lack of medical treatment made it appear quite severe. Barry left Fizz in the front room and went outside to a tree he could reach grabbed a couple of branches and ripped them off their host. He headed back inside to Fizz, reached into his bag and pulled out a little clear plastic bottle labelled ‘emergency’. He undid the cap and looked at Fizz

“This may sting a little. It will only hurt for a few seconds, I promise.”

Fizz looked away as Barry poured the black coloured liquid over the open wound. She winced at the pain but like Barry said the pain was over and done within minutes. he grabbed the branches he had ripped off the tree and cleaned them with a penknife he revealed from a zip pocket in his rucksack. He had removed all of the outer layers of the bark and left a rough looking wood before he placed them against Fizz's arm and marked the size needed using the knife, then proceeded to snap them roughly and placed them side by side on her arm.

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“Just hold these here for me please,” He asked Fizz

He headed out of the room and returned with a bit of cloth that looked jagged and torn away from the sheets they had used the night before and proceeded to wrap it tightly against the sticks.

“It should be a little better in a few days,” Barry said gently tying the ends of the cotton together.

Fizz could hardly believe her eyes. She stood there frozen like a deer in headlights, just completely overwhelmed by Barry's actions. Two complete strangers and he's treating her like she's worth a million pounds. She tried everything to hide the water starting to brim her eyes.

“Should we eat? Our cheese is going cold.” Barry joked with a crooked smile on his face. They sat opposite each other and in a moment of pure innocence and beauty just ate their breakfast, the silence was deafening and only broken by the occasional crack of the open fire, Barry realised that in order to take shelter here for a couple of days the place would need some work on it. Some minor issues with the wood panels that exposed a hole near the windows and a few other things would need to be in order for them to survive the long cold nights. Barry knew he was running low on supplies, he managed to survive so far on what he had but with him and Fizz to look after they would soon run dry. He would need more food, wood for the panels and fire, some sort of lighting arrangement, clean up the kitchen and living area properly and remove the copious amounts of dead animal and flies that occupied their living space like a bad smell.

Speaking of smells the cabin would need to be aired as well as the rotting smell of carcass still haunted their senses as they breathed in. Barry instructed Fizz to stay and rest her arm while he sourced out some essential resources for them to survive in the cabin for a few extra nights. He headed out the front door and onto the wooden porch of the cabin front which he could finally make out after last nights snow storm.

To the right of him was an outhouse he collected firewood from, to the left of him a wooden shed that looked deserted and mistreated ‘Bingo’ Barry thought to himself. He already had intentions to tear down the shed. Nails, screws, and wood needed to make the establishment safer for the pair of them.

It was not exactly going to be an easy task to collect the pieces of the shed, only armed with a pocket knife of which the blade had become jagged and rusty.

Barry started to work on the shed, stripping the side panels first using nothing but strength and the knife as leverage he managed to remove the first slat. careful to not break any of the nails or wood. They wouldn't need much just enough to fix little issues like the missing windows and rotted panels in some places. ‘I wonder how Fizz is getting on’ Barry thought to himself while removing another line of wood.

The day was a bit warmer compared to yesterday, the layers of snow still there to remind them of the treacherous conditions they walked through yesterday. But hardly any of those fluffy marshmallows like clouds lined the blue sky above them today.

Barry was leaking now, the hard work and strain ached his muscles, he felt the acid burning heavily in his shoulder and arms. Sweat dripping off his forehead almost flooding his eyes, his breathing heavy and exaggerated each one deep and forced.

It felt like an age had passed but he finally had enough wood to make his way back to the cabin to help repair certain aspects of the place. They needed to work on the place as it beat freezing to death during the nights, Fizz's condition wasn't really great for travelling anyhow, she needed time to recover from the fall she had experienced earlier on in her journey.

They would also need to find food and a source of clean water to survive but the main importance and key to people's survival is a shelter. Barry had made it back to the cabin and secured the main entrance and reinforced the door to survive a little better. Fizz had curled up in the front room by the fire and seemed cosy, it looked like she had drifted off and was peacefully away with the fairies. Barry headed through the corridor and upstairs to the main bedroom area where he fixed up the windows and main walls that were rotting away.

The sun was already heading west for the day, most of it preoccupied with reinforcing the cabin structure, it was starting to feel more home-like. Fizz awoke from her little slumber yawned massively, stretched and winced as her arm reminded her that it was hurt, she looked across to the other sofa.

“How long was I out for?” she muttered lethargically rubbing the sleep from her heavy eyes.

“A little while, judging from the sun’s position I’d say it’s after midday”

“So what’s the plan? What shall we do?” she enquired finally meeting Barry’s eyes.

“We should probably find some food” Barry responded with the same calmness that convinced Fizz the first time to trust his intuition.

They headed outside it took Fizz a while to get used to the radiance of the sun emanating its glorious glow down upon them. The pair veered off down the track and into the forest area carefully calculating where to step and how much noise to make. They were hunting for a rabbit or something of that size as it was just them eating they didn’t want to kill something too big and waste it.

Fizz’s demeanor was tense and uptight, the thought of killing another animal to survive seemed to weigh heavily upon her. Not that she was a herbivore or naive in that sense, it seemed more that she never had to do this type of work before. Barry however completely opposite, relaxed calm and seemed focused on the task ahead ready to capture his prey with a moments notice.

Barry came to a sudden stop by a tree engulfed in a bush like substance and crouched down, he signalled to Fizz to do the same. The pair sat there momentarily and just looked straight ahead in between the bushes and the trunk. Fizz finally saw it, an earthy, cinnamon brown deer, it appeared to be a youngling judging from its stature. It looked preoccupied with something on the forest floor sniffing and snorting around the bed of tree leaves that scattered across the floor like jigsaw pieces. Barry’s senses were heightened and ready to spring into action, he was used to this all the training he did when younger allowed him to know what needed to happen.

Barry reached down his right-hand side of his coat to his hip where a concealed blade was waiting, his calf muscles tensed with the preparation to pounce before he could even flinch a massive dog-like creature leapt onto the deer.

The pasty ashen creature had grabbed this deer by the throat and its claws and weight seemed to crush it into the ground taking it completely off guard and killing it almost instantly. The wound in the neck had severed an artery and was spraying blood everywhere, a stream of blood had sprayed in Fizz’s direction and landed on her, the scream she tried to unleash seemed caught, only for her to realise that Barry was covering her mouth and prevented her drawing attention of the animal to their presence.