Saturday, February 7, 2015

Chapter 22: Always Be Together

I pulled my gun out of the waistband of my jeans as I fell off the ladder, trying to break my fall as best as I could. I hid behind the table that had some heroin on it and shot twice at the bartender, who shot at me again, but the bullets hit the wall behind me. As he hid behind the bed, I picked up the bottle of antiseptic that was in front of me and held it. The next time I saw the bartender poke his head up, I threw the bottle at his head, and it him on his temple. I heard him hit the floor with a thud.


I ran over to him and kicked his gun, causing it to slide under the couch that was across the room from the bed. Then I took the shackles, handcuffed him to the bed, and quickly ascended the ladder. As I looked up, I saw Gerard's face fill with relief. He must have been terrified when I fell off the ladder, probably thinking the worst after everything he's been through.


"Francis, you're shot."

"It's ok, it's just a flesh wound, let's go. He won't be unconscious forever."


I pondered where to go, and didn't want to say anything out loud because I was uncertain of how loyal the strippers in the brothel were to the bartender. Luckily the strippers who were there were distracted by the customers, and didn't really listen to our conversation. I didn't want any of them reporting our location, so I just looked at Gerard, making sure he was ready to go and then I led him to the building next door. There was a cross hanging on the wall, which in these times, was a comforting symbol. I knocked, and a woman who was modestly dressed with a bandanna around her head came out.


"We need a place to tend to this woman, can we stay at your church?"

"You can stay here, but this is not a church, it is an orphanage."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you."


"It is all right. Oh my goodness, is that woman okay? Is she alive?"

"Yes, she's just sleeping, we rescued her from the brothel."



Dmitry and I had been playing hide and seek on the orphanage grounds when two men carrying a woman knocked on the door and then disappeared into the doorway. We looked at each other with surprise, as we ended our game, hiding behind a concrete pillar, while we pondered what was happening inside.


"Do you think that woman was dead? She had blood on her."

"I hope not. I don't like it when people die."

"That guy had blood on him too. I hope he doesn't die either."

"We should go check and see if they're okay."


"No, Bash, I'm scared. What if they're bad men and they hurt us? What if the reason the woman has blood on her is because of those men? That guy with blood, he must have been fighting and usually only bad people fight. We're only kids. What if they hurt Miss Deshi?"

"Then we have to protect her! Miss Deshi is like our mama, we can't let her be hurt!"

I got up off the ground, suddenly filled with panic over what Dmitry said. Miss Deshi was the only grownup I knew, and she was the only one who took care of me, I couldn't let her be hurt. I was a little scared, but I felt better when I heard Dmitry's footsteps behind me. I was glad he had decided to help me and not hide.



The woman went upstairs, and motioned for us to follow her. There were some beds along the wall, and Gerard placed Iliana on top of one of them. The woman, who told us her name was Miss Deshi, brought over a tshirt and some sweat pants for Iliana to wear, and Gerard dressed her.  Miss Deshi also brought me a new shirt since mine had blood soaked in it. Gerard looked at my wound and became concerned when he found out the orphanage had no alcohol to sanitize it. Of course, it made complete sense for the orphanage not to have alcohol, because the children couldn't drink, and Miss Deshi chose not to drink, so she said she would try to find something else that would suffice. She had some rubbing alcohol for taking care of the children's wounds, and Gerard used that instead.


"You seem to be lucky, just like I was, the bullet just grazed you. Why did you fall off the ladder?"

"I half fell, half jumped off when I heard the gunshot. I needed to be off the ladder before he could shoot again and actually hit me, and I didn't think I could get all the way up without that happening. Sorry I scared you."

"I'm really glad you're okay, I was so scared you were-"

"I know. Everything's all right now. Am I fixed, Doctor?"

"Yeah, just about."


Gerard finished securing my bandage and I put on the shirt Miss Deshi had given me. I told him I was going to go get the truck and bring it over so we could go back to his house. He wanted to go with me because he was afraid I'd get caught by the military enforcing curfew, but I assured him I would be fine. I had about thirty minutes before 11pm, and I was sure I would be back in time.



Hiding by the side of the stairs, Dmitry and I had been watching the men after we had followed them and Miss Deshi. Dmitry seemed less scared now that we had seen one of the men put clothes on the woman and then one man helped the other man clean up the blood on his side.


"See, Dmitry? They're not bad, I don't think bad men would care that the woman was cold."

"I've never seen a naked girl before. Do you think DeeDee looks like that when she's naked?"

"Ew, Dmitry. That's gross. I don't want to think of DeeDee like that. Besides, that woman is a grown up."


"What is wrong with her arms? She has holes in them that are red."

"I don't know. Maybe someone poked her when they were hurting her."

"What are you two idiots doing?"

A shrill voice broke through Dmitry and I's quiet atmosphere, annoying us, as we were trying not to bother the men who were trying to do their own thing. Of course, it was DeeDee, who had just woken up and was standing at the top of the stairway, probably to get something to eat.


"Quiet, DeeDee. We're hiding."

"Why? I walked right past those guys, they don't care that you're here. They know that other people live here. You guys are so stupid all the time."

"Why did you get up if you were in bed anyway? It's night time."

"Why aren't you in bed?"

"We're waiting for those guys to leave."

DeeDee scoffed and rubbed her stomach.

"I was hungry, Stupid."



As I exited the orphanage, I looked around to see if the military patrols were anywhere near. When the coast was clear, I ran towards the community parking lot. If I could cross the large patch of grass that separated the orphanage from the other part of town, then it would be easy for me to get to the car. My mission was successful, and I got to the car in no time, checking the time on the dash, and it read 10:45. I quickly started the car and drove towards the orphanage, parking the car on the side of the building, so that the brothel was out of sight. I didn't want to take the chance of the bartender seeing us with Iliana. I ran back in, and saw that Gerard had come down to the front door with Iliana. We put her in the back seat of my truck and laid a blanket over her, then drove back to Gerard's house.


When we stepped into his house, both of us breathed a sigh of relief. After everything we'd been through, we were finally successful at our rescue mission. Gerard let me stay in his guest room since it was after curfew and I'd be in trouble if I tried to go anywhere. He gave me some pajamas to wear and then left to go to to bed. The room had a television, and I turned it on as I got ready for bed. I changed into the pajamas, wincing from the dull pain in my side when I took my shirt off.

"New developments are being built upon the mayor's orders in a new part of town. These beautiful new houses are designed to be a great step in rebuilding our society after the chemical attack. The mayor is excited to be making progress, and he had a few words to say at the ribbon cutting today."



Looking at the houses, I scoffed when I saw that they were basically cookie cutter looking things, except for a few different colored trim pieces. It figured that the city government would be cutting corners to make things cheaper by ordering hundreds of the same pieces of material that they could just divide between the houses. I was saddened that they were giving up character with the rebuilding of our society, wasn't that the good part of society that we needed to remember and treasure? We had a chance to start over, those of us who weren't killed in the chemical attack, so why were we building our society into some sort of drone like police state?

Mayor: "I'm proud to announce today that we are opening these brand new houses to the public. They will be on the market for purchase. Just come to City Hall for more information. No chemical attack is going to keep us down! Our society will come back stronger than ever!"



"These residential areas are going to replace those houses which were closest to Ground Zero, while we are decontaminating that area. The mayor has high hopes for these developments to bring up the morale of society."

I sat on the bed, looking at the footage of the houses, unsure whether I should be suspicious of this area or not. With the way they bugged the land line phones, I wouldn't put it past them to do something in those new houses that violated some other form of privacy, like subjecting people to random searches or something. No doubt they would be installing land lines in all those houses, so there was always that. I kind of hated that I was so paranoid and suspicious all the time, but I had seen my fair share of corruption, even in the police department, and I hated that the people trusted to enforce the law were some of the ones who were breaking it. I wasn't sure if the mayor was corrupt at all, but I knew that I wouldn't be surprised if he was.



After the two men and the hurt woman left, Dmitry and I sat on my bed, talking before we went to sleep. I didn't know what to think about what had happened that day, but I was sad for the woman. I wondered why she had gotten hurt so much. Was she a bad woman who was also fighting with people?

"This has been a wierd night, Bash. Where do you think those people went?"

"I don't know, they're grownups so they probably have their own house, unlike us. I wish I was a grownup. Then I could have my own house to go to that's bigger than this place."


"Do you not like Miss Deshi and our home?"

"I do, I just miss my house I lived in with my daddy. Someday I want a house like that for myself. But I have to be a grownup first."

"Would you leave me all alone, Bash?"

Dmitry got a sad look on his face, so I scooted closer to him because I felt bad for making him think I would ever abandon him.


"No, Dmitry. No way. We'll always be friends, and we'll always be together."


In the blink of an eye...
Four lives were changed..
One man gained a friend,
One husband and wife were reunited,
...and one little boy's life was saved.


IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: Blink of an Eye is not over. I just wanted to clarify that since I started the story with a poem, and this chapter has sort of a "closing" poem, that it might give people the wrong idea. I'm dividing the story into segments, so this poem just marks the end of the first segment. The second segment of Blink of an Eye will be back. :) Thanks for reading! I love you all!  ~LateKnightSimmer~

15 comments:

  1. Yayyy! They got her out! Stupid Leo.. >:[ I'm glad Francis bested him and got out alive. It sucks that he got shot though, it's never good when a strong guy like him gets wounded T_T It's a good thing him and Gerard are still sticking together and can be there for each other to help. I imagine it'll be difficult still to keep Iliana safe since Leo is still able to possibly get her back.. >_< He seems like the type of guy who would want revenge and to get his "merchandise" back.
    Aww, Bash and Dmitry.. They're so cute. It's always sad to see kids orphaned, but at least they have each other, like Francis and Gerard. I hope they got adopted, if not together, and if that ever happens, I hope they manage to stay friends and in contact with one another somehow T_T
    I wonder what's going to happen with Iliana, though. She's going to have to go through some pretty harsh detox in order to get better *cries*
    Great update!

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    1. Mm-hmm, stupid Leo indeed. Francis is lucky, his cop background gave him good instincts of how to save himself. Ugh, this is Francis' second time being shot... :/ the first time it was before the apocalypse when he was still a police officer and Gerard was the surgeon who fixed him up. Gerard is always going to be grateful to Francis for helping him get Iliana back, and this is not going to be the end of their friendship by any means. :) Leo is... unpredictable to say the least, and really mean. He will have a choice to make about whether he wants to continue to wreak havoc on Iliana's life or if he wants to just cut his losses. He does have other side projects going on *cough* besides his brothel, so I guess we'll just have to see what he does. Your theory isn't far off from possibility however, since Leo does look at the girls in his brothel as merchandise, and he does like to torture people who he sees that have wronged him.
      Haha, thanks. :D Yes, it is sad T_T to be orphans, but sometimes good things come out of tragedy if you look for it, as you said, they have each other. I don't know how the state of the nation is right now, considering that certain aspects of government, such as child services, are out of commission. Adoption might not be a possibility for Bash and Dmitry, but that's not to say they can't have an okay life with Miss Deshi looking after them.

      Ugh yeah, Iliana... poor girl has been through a ridiculous amount of trauma in the span of a little over a month. She's one of the lucky ones, at least someone was looking for her. Hopefully Gerard doesn't fall apart when she comes to because he hasn't seen her since the second time she was kidnapped, and put on large doses of heroin.

      Thanks for reading and commenting. :)

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  2. Oh wow! So much action, me gusta( I like)! Lol
    I won't lie Leo is pretty attractive despite how much of a horrible person he is.

    Sebastian is so sweet, him and Dmitry better stick together, they're pretty much all that they haver besides DeeDee and she's kind of annoying to them.

    It's good to see that Gerard got his wife back though, kind of... Lol. Who knows how she will react after being on heroin and being subjected to be a sex slave.

    Miss Deshi is so comforting, I don't know why but she just looks comforting in a visual way...It's hard to explain lol.

    As far as the mayor and the houses, it seems like BS to me...He reminds me of George Bush lol. No one can be trusted especially after everything that has happened so far. But then again some people will need places to go...Only time will tell.

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    1. have* haver is not a word..I don't know why the spell-check didn't catch that *rolls eyes*

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    2. Haha, this story is so fun to write because of all the action I have to think of for it. I'm glad you like it. LOL, I think Leo is hot too, I just can't make ugly Sims for my main characters, especially guy Sims, even if they are supposed to be bad guys.

      Yeah, DeeDee is a crazy girl LOL. She does have some issues of her own that neither one of the boys has really cared to ask her about, but she doesn't make it easy when she constantly hides behind her anger. Plus they're all still little kids so they're not really at that age of being interested in girls yet. Sebastian and Dmitry have a strong bond because of how accepting Dmitry was when Sebastian first arrived at the orphanage, and Sebastian meant what he said when he wanted to stay with Dmitry. At the least they'll always be friends because who knows what life will throw at them in a world like this one...

      Yeah, Gerard is relieved Iliana isn't dead, but he knows there's a long road to recovery for her. I'm not sure how he will even react to her when she wakes up because the last time he saw her she hadn't yet been given the multiple doses of heroin and treated horribly down in the "kinky" part of the brothel.

      Haha, well that's good because I made Miss Deshi with her personality in mind that she would be a religious lady who wanted to step in and fill a need that was missing after the apocalypse happened. She wanted to help children who needed a place to stay if they couldn't find their parents. With society falling apart around them, child services isn't exactly first priority, and a lot of the government is in chaos, so much so that they shut down important services to try to get more money to fix Ground Zero and decontaminate it.

      LOL. Good, good. The government in Blink should never be trusted. Hehehe. More will be revealed later but it is true that the mayor and the various other news segments featured throughout the story are just the media blowing smoke up people's asses because they think people will just blindly believe whatever they say. Sadly, the majority well, but luckily there are people like Francis, Everett, (Francis' co worker, and Stanley's friend) and Stanley (the guy who helped Iliana in the Underground) who know that there's something up and actually think for themselves.

      Thanks for reading and commenting. :D

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  3. Your graphics are stunning. Well worth the wait.

    Jinx

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    1. Awww ^_^ thank you so much. :)
      Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  4. Lol, I laughed so hard when I read this XD

    "I've never seen a naked girl before. Do you think DeeDee looks like that when she's naked?"

    "Ew, Dmitry. That's gross. I don't want to think of DeeDee like that. Besides, that woman is a grown up."

    Sorry to ruin your curiosity, boys, but there's something called "puberty" you have to go through first.
    I loved the chapter, and can't wait for more!

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    1. LMAO, I'm glad I could make you laugh. Haha, I had fun writing from them as children, and capturing their innocence with conversation like that. XD
      Heehee... definitely puberty will come and they'll change their tune.. maybe... DeeDee is pretty annoying.. so they might still not like her. ROFL.
      Thank you for reading and commenting. :)

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  5. YES!!!! That's what I said each time something happened in this chapter. . .except the part where the boys were talking about DeeDee. . .then I was like NO!!!! ;)

    Iliana being saved. . .YES!!!!! Been waiting for that for a while. Glad that husband and wife have been reunited!! I would think it's going to take them time to work through everything. She's been through a lot, he's been through a lot. . .they've changed. Glad she's safe and back with him though.

    Francis kicking Leo's butt. . .YES!!!! Take that you piece of shit!!! (I might have some anger issues. lol) He deserved it.

    Bash and Dmitry. . .YES!!! (I'm sorry, I've had a lot of coffee this morning so I'm excitable). I just love them and I'm so glad that they have each other! But boys, no to DeeDee. . .lol!

    So glad for this chapter!! I've missed this group!!

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    1. Mm-hmm. This chapter was one of the closing chapters in this story, so things are somewhat getting wrapped up in a somewhat happy way.

      Iliana is finally safe, physically anyway. You are absolutely right, they've both been changed from her ordeal, and it will definitely be a long and difficult road for both of them, a lot of healing is necessary.

      LOL, Leo did deserve to get his ass kicked for being such a jerk-face. Francis quite enjoyed putting Leo in his place. Hehe... I had a lot of fun making Leo lose that fight. XD

      Haha, no worries, it's a very fun comment. XD Sebastian and Dmitry are lucky to have found each other despite the shitty circumstances that landed them in the orphanage. LOL, yeah they both are pretty grossed out by DeeDee... she's so mean. >_< Ugh. XD

      I'm excited to write more and continue the journey of these people!
      Thanks for reading and commenting. :)

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  6. ... a boy´s life saved? Hmmm I am definitely looking forward to reading some more about this bit...
    Great read again, LateKnight...

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    1. Oh... that bit meant that Sebastian was rescued out of his house when he was starving. But I suppose, symbolically, since he's still in an orphanage, he's technically not "saved" yet? That's how I'm understanding that you read that part? :D
      Thanks for reading and commenting. :)

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  7. I just love those poems! They encapsulate the story so well and really add an extra layer of significance to every one of their individual stories as they're woven into a single fantastic entity.

    Also WHEW--I'm so glad Francis is alright! You had me fearing the worst after that last chapter. I'm just glad this one was already posted so I didn't have to stay worried for too long, lol. As for those new houses, I agree with Francis that they feel suspicious.

    The end of this first part may mark all these characters finally together in one place, but that doesn't mean that all is resolved. In fact, I'd say far from it! On that note, I'm super excited to see what unfolds next. Given how great this part was, I'm sure the next part won't disappoint!

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    1. Ahh thanks, I am trying my hand at poetry since I always felt in school that poetry was difficult and annoying. I wanted to write poems with the story because maybe then I could find them to be a fun thing to do, and it has helped me, and the story too,.Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to do with the poem, tie their lives together even if some of the characters didn't interact directly with each other.

      LOL, you did get lucky, this chapter was posted way after the one where Francis falls off the ladder, so people had to wait a few months to find out what happened to him. Good... those houses should feel suspicious... heehee I'm excited to write more and introduce more creepy stuff in later parts of the story. XD

      Correct, this part ends happily for them in the sense that new friendships were made and everyone's reunited, but life will continue to give them obstacles, and they've all changed as people from their previous ordeals. The new world order is still taking shape and causing new problems, as well as old problems like they still have to eat those disgusting microwave rations. I have one chapter up for part two, but answering all your comments has made me start thinking about how I want to write some other chapters of this. LOL.

      Thanks so much for reading and for all these lovely comments! :)

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