Trouble

Snap! Another bit of the branch they sat on fell to the ground. They straddled the branch facing each other like gymnasts on a high beam. The branch landed amidst the Poisoned Ones that crawled their way around the base of the tree. They were too weak to climb. But one droplet of their drool upon contact would start to swirl around inside the body of the prey. Instantly beginning a terrible cycle of a Poisoned One. Poisoned and never human again. Doomed to seek out humans to survive.

Terra counted five Poisoned Ones around the tree on the ground. Her husband Jasper looked at her as they sat on the branch. The branch bent more. It couldn’t take their weight.

It was either him or me.

She started to cry and he touched her face gently. She touched his hand with her hand. “Sorry!”

“No love, don't cry.”

It will be the death of me otherwise. And I’m pregnant.

Her whole body tensed as she knew what she must do. She then struck her husband's balls with her fist and as he doubled over, she upper cut his face. His nose bloodied. She hit him again and again with her vital force flowing beyond usual strength. Then she pushed him.

He never would hurt me.

That’s what she loved about him. He was just so gentle with her. They had been together since before it all started. Tears streamed down her face as the Poisoned Ones took her husband’s body in their mouths. Their mutated teeth sharp as razors. Able to gnash their way through bone and muscle. She vomited. It was early on in the pregnancy and she was feeling dizzy. She clutched onto the branch that remained and...just looked at her microchip touch zone. It was a glowing circle on her left hand. Why didn’t she think of it before? Regret filled her eyes with fresh tears. She reminded herself that there was a very thin possibility that the portal would still work. She tapped it once. Terra had almost lost all sense of her humanity. Not her hope.

A flash of violet light and she was gone. It actually worked! She landed on her feet like a cat with nine lives, minus one for the life that she had taken. Safe in the underground again. Where she would remain and birth her baby. She hoped that it wasn’t twins or more. Terra stood and her legs shook violently. She gave in and fell softly on the bed. Her hands shaking, everywhere still shaking. Unlike an orgasmic shudder. Quite the opposite. She was wrecked. Emotionally numb, but physically a wreckage. They had only wanted a bit of fresh air. Surprisingly, it was the freshest air since the Troubles began. No cars, no buses, no trains, no factories, nothing going twenty-four seven. Nothing. The portal was powered by the sun. It could have been the last of the energy for it, she didn’t know. There was no way to check it. She had to think of her next moves. She couldn’t think. All she saw was her husband in pain and then ripped apart. She couldn’t believe that she had done that. She couldn’t take it back and just had to try to think about what she needed for herself.

There were rows of vegetables in the next chamber. Beyond that there were plants growing legumes, marijuana, and a rice pool. The water came from the waterfall that was already there. It was pure according to her tests on it yesterday. Tested it again. Pure. She filled a bowl with the water and washed herself. A little red then pink from her husband’s bloodied face as she cupped her hands in the water. Would she ever stop crying? She understood the waterfall. There was nothing that could stop it. Once that eternal cycle of liquid flowed. Or at least it seemed eternal. But then that was something that would have bothered her a few years ago. It took her away to another world, if even for a moment. Did she know what was around her now though? She should watch and be guarded. Walk. She stiffened as if encased in ice. Where did her feelings go? She used to have feelings. All the time, or just about. She would be in a lot of trouble if it wasn’t the Trouble. Every day is a different day now. Even though she couldn’t think.

Her husband was dead. Nevermind all that nonsense in my head about the portal. I have to keep on and survive. When she was out there, birds squeaked from the trees. The earth appeared to be more grown over. Tangles of vines eloped. The future world that the environmentalists wanted was finally starting to appear as such. Only there must be more humans than myself.

Do not eat with your corset on. She recalled the party just before it happened. Felt the lightness of the night, eyes looking into her eyes. Death surrounded her soon after that. She could taste the death like wet ash. She couldn’t escape that either. A moment of that life that was lived before. No rushing off worktasks to the boss. I am the boss of my life now. Every wrong action that I do is within my power. But not to be so powerful that I forget myself, because I could be the ruler of this earth now! Her rulership, however, was dulled by the thought of food and how she could only eat from the small underground farm and supplies that were stockpiled after a few risky raids of the supermarket. What was salvageable. Most of it really with all of the preservatives and salt. Shame about the trapped feeling in her chest. And how she could not breathe the air as she was just before doing. Where’s my body? There is another body in me. I am the holder of it. She knew from the pregnancy test that she got in the raid. And some other signs. No moon cycle, nausea, even vomiting, although that last time was... from looking at him.