Who's Cassie?

           A dog barking in the distance stirred me from my sleep. I tossed over to my other side groggily, not really caring about what time it was. The barking continued, making me groan with annoyance. Rolling back over, I opened one eye to glare at the clock on my nightstand. The time read four AM. Sitting up whilst rubbing my eyes, I thought to myself, why the hell was a dog barking excessively at four in the fricken morning? A soft knock sounded on my bedroom door.

           “Nikolai, are you awake?”

I couldn’t help but smile slightly at hearing my little sister’s voice. Her voice always had a way of calming me, no matter what I was going through.

           “Yeah, I’m up. Come on in sweetheart.”

The bedroom door opened, shut and then within seconds Cassie had snuggled up to my side. We were a few years apart in age, but we have always been close. I was her rock and protector in times when she was scared or in need of comfort. To me she was someone I could always rely on to tell me the truth even if I wasn’t ready to hear it, and she protected me too. Even though she’s only five feet and four inches tall, don’t underestimate her. Especially when she looks at you, those blue eyes of hers, like waves in the ocean, could sway even the gnarliest of men. We lost both of our parents early in our years of life, so we have been living under the care of our aunt Tessa. Soon, the pain of our mom AND dad being gone had faded away. Even though Cassie and I missed them terribly and we thought of them often, we knew in our hearts that they were in a better place than this shitty world.

           Cassie let out a quiet but big yawn as I wrapped my arm around her and began stroking her beautiful brown hair to help soothe her back to sleep. Her nightmares had weened, but sometimes they would sprout up, and I’m sure that the random freaking dog outside didn’t help in this matter. Even though that damn dog had woken up my mind from rest, my body felt completely relaxed and content to lay still while Cassie fell back asleep. Almost an hour had passed when a huge explosion suddenly lit up my bedroom. It came from somewhere down the street, but I couldn’t place exactly where. The walls of the house rattled as I slid out of my bed and walked over to the window. Glowing embers rained down around our neighborhood and people were running through the streets screaming. I ran back over to the bed and woke Cassie up by gently shaking her shoulder.

           “Cassie, sweetheart. We’ve got to go. C’mon.”

           She stirred but couldn’t fully wake up at the moment, so I reached my arms underneath her and picked her up. As we reached the landing to the stairs I called out for our aunt. She was instantly at the entrance of her bedroom door, wrapping a shawl around her shoulders. As we stepped outside thick smoke filled our lungs, causing us to gasp at the sudden changing of air. I looked around as people scrambled in the streets around us, and I started to gauge a path. The moment I was able to sort of make a clear path through the frenzied crowd I motioned to Tessa as I headed in that direction in a brisk pace.

Not long after we were walking, a huge bright light shined down on us, lighting up the whole intersection that we were in. A few other people stopped to look up at the light, but in that short moment of pause, another explosion shattered a building up the street. Glass shards rained Some bumped into us, so I set Cassie down on her feet and took her hand in mine. I felt like having her run with us instead of me carrying her would help mitigate the risk of someone pushing me and causing me to fall on top of her. The streets soon were filled with so many people that we were forced to slow our pace and use our elbows to push through the crowd. In a moment’s notice though, someone large had pushed right between mine and my sister’s hand, causing us to split apart. Someone else then placed their hands on my back and shoved me so hard into my aunt that we both fell. I stood up, lending my hand out to Tessa as she groaned. I looked over to where I last saw Cassie, but in her spot, there was a single earring. I walked over and kneeled to scoop it up in my hand. Upon inspecting it more closely, I realized it was indeed my sister’s. Panic flooded my entire being. I spun around, trying to see over the hoard of people, but I couldn’t see my sister. I briskly walked up to a man who looked like the one that came between us, and so I nodded my head towards him, my eyebrows pulling together as I shouted.

           “Hey! You split my sister and I apart! I know the world has gone mad here, but what gives!? Where’s Cassie!?”

He simply shrugged, further fueling the flames that were starting to rise within my being. How could you not remember literally shoving past two people so hard that you force their hands apart? I tried to regain my surroundings as my vision began to blur, the thought of my sister missing terrified me. But in that moment of weakness someone once again pushed me down to the cold, rain-soaked ground. The next thing I knew, Cassie’s figure kneeled down to me, her warm soft hands grasping onto my arms. As she called out my name, Cassie screamed as the strange man broke us apart. My vision soon went dark, and the world around me went still and deafly quiet.

When I came to, I was in a place that was unrecognizable. As I tried to recall what had happened that could have caused me to black out, a woman walked up to me. My body tensed involuntarily as her hand reached out towards me. The woman sensed my hesitation, so she brought her hand back to her side and then took a seat at the edge of the cot.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe. Your aunt told us your name when we found you lying in the streets unconscious. I’m relieved to see you’re awake.”

My mind felt blurry, but I was able to mumble out the one thing that was on my mind.

“C-Cassie…”

The kind woman’s eyebrows furrowed with genuine concern.

“Who’s Cassie?”

My eyes rolled back as a sharp pain surged through my body. Before my world went dark again, my hands feeling numb and my ribs feeling like they were on fire, I spoke my sister’s name once more.

“M-my sister, Cassie.”

Feeling a weight press down upon my chest as my dreams faded and my mind began to wake up, I sat upright in the cot with a start. Sweat beaded down my temples and my breathing was labored. Holy hell…what a dream… A soft breeze blew through the curtains that billowed around the cot, but despite this room’s calm intentions I felt uneasy and on edge as if I’d just blown through three red bulls and my body was wired from it. The same woman from before stepped into my view but she didn’t speak to me. She just simply walked over to the IV station, tapped on the drip to make sure it was still running, then she glanced over at me.

“Your vitals seem a lot better, though we still need to tend to your wound.”

Not caring about what she just said I sat up, gritting my teeth as the blood rush made my head spin and pound like a drum.

“Where’s my sister?”

The woman frowned.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know. I’m afraid your aunt Tessa had only mentioned that you two were the only ones that we needed to save from those things out there. T-there was no one else with you guys when we found you lying in the road.”

Although the woman continued to sound genuine and I could hear the clear confusion in her voice, a sick feeling unsettled my stomach. I tried to think clearly as I shook my head, as if that would help me in this situation.

“My sister, Cassie. She was with us…we...we were separated by this big ass man-thing. Next thing I knew I-…She was gone.”

The gentle woman placed her hand on my shoulder closest to her then, making me sit back down. I almost didn’t care though, despite how much my body ached from the sudden movement. I didn’t care what happened or how I even got injured in the first place. All I could think about was finding Cassie, and hoping that she was safe, wherever she could be. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed while wrapping one arm over my abdomen, and that’s when the throbbing pain really hit me. My eyebrows furrowed as I looked down at my abdomen. Sure enough, on my right-hand side a blood stain was showing through the bandage that was placed there.

“What the hell?”

I couldn’t help but look up at the woman with a pained expression. She inhaled slowly, biting her bottom lip.

“What happened to me? How long have I been out for?”

“I’m afraid you have been out for three days, Nikolai. Whomever separated you and your sister seemed to have stabbed you in the process. That’s the only logic I can think of as to how you got your wound, because upon us finding you and your aunt, you were already lying down and Tessa had claimed that you’d been injured.”

Not wanting to stay in bed any longer with the frustration of being limited to be actively out looking for Cassie, I gritted my teeth as I stood up, grimacing at the throbbing pain in my ribcage. Stepping out of the room a dimly lit hallway greeted me. A room that was maybe only five feet away on the opposite side of the hall from me, was lit up and I could hear the faint sound of multiple people talking. Upon stepping into the doorway, the room looked to be like some sort of galley set up. I scanned the room for Tessa. I needed to know what was going on and why that random nurse lady said that my aunt hadn’t mentioned my sister being with us at all. Something wasn’t adding up, and I wanted to know why. Although the room was bustling with conversations, there was no laughter from a single person. My eyes soon fell on my aunt, as I honed in on her voice over the rest. As I briskly walked over to her, her eyes flittered up to meet mine and she stopped what she was saying to the man sitting across from her, her shoulders tensing. Whomever the man was she was talking with looked over his shoulder, confused as to why Tessa stopped mid-conversation. I walked up to my aunt, standing in front of her at the table.

“Where. Is. She?”

Her lips parted slightly, as if she had no clue who or what I was talking about. The man stood beside me then, placing his large hand on my shoulder.

“Hey man…”

All instinctive reserve I normally held left me. In an instant, my left hand reached out and gripped his throat, my steps towards him forcing his back to connect with the wall behind him. I let out a low, guttural growl as the whole room fell silent, and all eyes turned to us.

“Don’t ‘hey man’ me. For one, you don’t even know me. For two, you have no idea what I’m going through right now, so don’t act like you can calm me in this messed up situation. I just woke and found out that my sister who was with me THREE days ago is missing. This woman…my aunt whom you’re all chummy with and whom you all have chosen to trust for no apparent reason, claims that there was no third person with us when you found us. Now, if that be true, then why would I be upset that my little sister is missing?”

The man stuttered but could only stare at me in shock. I released my grip from his throat slowly, leaving a reminder for him to not push my buttons again, and turned to face the room. I looked into the eyes of each and every person as they sat like deer caught in headlights at me.

“In days like these where our world has literally fallen apart and no one knows what the hell is going on and people have gone insane over some weird thing that’s spreading out there, you should really be careful of whom you invite inside your walls. What if my injury worsened while under your care and I turned? What then? What if the woman you picked up off the street wasn’t who or what she says she is?”

My eyes averted over to Tessa, then. My eyebrows furrowed as I finished what I had to say.

“Keep that in mind for the next person you want to save.”

With that, I strode through the room of shocked people, leaving them with that piece of advice. Worry, anger, annoyance, pain all lingered inside my being, but I didn’t let that stop me. As I stepped back into the room where my cot was, I grabbed the jacket that was hung over the edge of the cot, then walked down the hallway to find the storage room. In a bunker like this, and with so many people huddling up in one place due to whatever the hell was going on outside, there had to be weapons and other supplies. I found the room with ease, and to my luck, the shelves were stocked with various foods, backpacks, and guns. I picked up the black and green camo bag, filled it up with some food, placed a few magazines of ammo in the front section, then looked at the guns. I scanned over the few rifles, pistols, and shotguns that were strapped to the wall, and picked out my favorite one. A .45 Silver Caliber with black highlights.

“Oh, yeah.”

Just as I slipped the pistol into the leg holster I had strapped around my thigh, I heard someone’s cough behind me. Looking over my shoulder my lips parted as I looked at the kind nurse who’d tended to my wounds. In a gentle voice I spoke with curiosity.

“W-what are you doin’ here?”

She tilted her head slightly, motioning her chin up towards me as she crossed her arms.

“I’m coming with you.”

I couldn’t help but scoff.

“No. It’s too dangerous.” I looked up at the ceiling before looking back at her. “We don’t even know what sort of chaos is going on up there. I appreciate your offer, but it’s too dangerous.”

She walked over to the wall of weapons. After a moment she picked up a rifle, slung it over her shoulder, then picked up a pistol that was similar to mine. She then turned to face me again, a bold smirk on her lips.

“I know how dangerous it is up there. Before this group found you, they had taken me in. I chose to help you not only because I’m trained in that sort of field, but because I can sense a fighting spirit in you. I want to help and besides, someone’s gotta look after you.” She winked.

I let out a heavy sigh as I tilted my head down at an angle slightly, weighing her words. I then licked my lips, bracing myself for what I was going to say to her. I must be crazy…

“Alright, because you clearly know how to handle a weapon and you’re good at mending wounds, you can join me.”

She perked up at that, a full smirk of joy on her face,

“Great! Now let’s go find Cassie.”

My heart soared at hearing those words. Little sister…here we come. Just hang in there.