Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Twenty-One: Karmen

She was cold. She opened her eyes and sat up. What was that sound? Something had woken her, but it was distant and booming. She struggled to orient herself, but it was so dark in here. Were the others still asleep?

She listened, but heard no breathing or movement in the room with her. Where had they gone?

She shivered.

She didn't like this feeling of being alone in the dark. She missed light and the subtle humming sound of electricity.

Crash must have still been out of it. How long would he be sleeping? And what would they do if he never woke up?

She heard the door to the apartment open, followed by the low rumble of voices down the hall. Parrish and Noah must have been on the roof for most of the night. She needed to go see what had happened, but she couldn't maneuver in the darkness. She had a flashlight in her backpack. She just had to find it.

She climbed out of her sleeping bag and crawled across the floor to where she thought she remembered leaving it last night before she went to bed.

She moved slowly, putting her hand down carefully as she crawled. She was convinced she would put her hand down and feel someone's dead leg or something.

Finally, though, her hand landed on something.

Not a leg. Thank God.

Her tennis shoes. Or someone's anyway.

She felt around the shoes and found a backpack. She unzipped it, moving by feel alone, getting her first real dose of what it would be like to be blind. She'd never been in such pure darkness in her life.

She'd pulled almost everything out of the bag before she realized it wasn't even her bag she was rummaging through. Crap.

What even was this?

A blanket? A dress? She felt her way around some long piece of fabric. It was strange and heavy, unlike any material she'd ever touched. Silky in some ways, but not quite as soft and smooth as silk. It was more like a silky chain, but that made absolutely no sense.

She decided she would make a terrible blind person. She couldn't even trust her hands to tell her what she was holding.

She shoved the fabric back inside the bag and moved along the floor until she found another backpack.

She unzipped it and sighed in relief, pulling her flashlight from the bag and switching it on, so grateful for the light.

Karmen shone the light on the fabric she'd been touching inside the other bag and her eyes widened. Wow. It was gorgeous. The material glittered in the light, as if diamonds had been woven into its fabric.

She looked around for a place to prop the flashlight up so she could get a better look.

Whatever it was, it was long. She stood and held it up so the fabric draped across the floor. Was it a cloak? Who wore cloaks anymore? It looked like a costume from some fancy play or masquerade ball.

She looked down at the bag she'd pulled it from, glancing guiltily toward the abandoned sleeping bags.

She hadn't meant to go rifling through the new girl's bag, but damn. This was one serious piece of clothing.

Karmen couldn't help but wonder why in the world anyone who knew they could only carry one single bag full of possessions with them into the apocalypse would choose something so bulky and extravagant.

She shook her head and carefully stuffed the cloak back into the girl's bag, zipping it closed as best she could.

This chick was weird. She didn't really seem to fit into their group.