My pain is unbearable but I don't have the courage to tell anyone. It's pointless anyway, it'll do nothing but make them worried. It's not like they can take me to a hospital, stop the trip, or even drive me back down. It will take too long. Plus, Athena and Zac are already incredibly paler. I let my eyes shut and try to fall asleep.
A few seconds later, Jedrek frantically wakes me up by shaking my shoulder. "Donna? Donna!" he practically yells.
My vision feels misty and I can barely see anything. "Yeah... I'm up. What do you need?" I moan.
"Oh, ok. Sorry. I was just making sure you were okay."
I nod, then fall back asleep. The car rumbles gently and I can feel my head smashing on to the seat and window. It's uncomfortable, but I have to suck it up. The car starts moving... differently. I don't know what’s going on. Except it feels too soft and comfortable to wake up. I finally resign into a deep sleep.
I wake up to the sound of frantic screams in the car, plus the subtle feeling that we’re not moving forwards.
"Jedrek, how do you change into park? We're falling!" Hugo panics.
I peek closer into the front seat and see Athena red and breathing shallowly. In the backseat, Zac does the same.
"Open the window!" Brianna screams.
"That's not how you park!" Hugo screams as the car picks up speed. I brace myself by grabbing on the back of my seat and shielding my head with my elbow.
"Type it into the map!" Jedrek commands, then copies my brace position.
Hugo reaches over Athena and presses a button. "State your command." A calm, out-of-place female voice speaks.
"Shift car into park!" Hugo shrieks, grabbing on to his seat as well.
Everything comes to a halt. I take a deep inhale, only to realize I had been holding my breath. In front of me to the left, Athena's face is nearly overtaken by a light shade of baby blue. Hugo notices and once again reaches over into the driver's seat. This time, he presses the buttons on the left of Athena, and all the windows open.
Athena's eyes practically bulge out of her head and she takes a long, loud, audible breath. Her breathing picks up from extremely fast, gradually slowing.
"Guys... guys..." Brianna squirms, while poking Zac. "Zac isn't breathing," she shivers.
"No... no... yes he is. Right, Zac?" Emma gently nudges him.
"Well, does anybody here know CPR?" Jedrek yells impatiently. We look around but no one seems to.
Athena gets out of her seat into the freezing cold and snow to open the door to Zac's. She holds his limp, thin wrist in her hand and masks her crying for a cough.
With a voice more rigid than ever, she declares, "No.”
She moves over back into her seat without mentioning the cold once. Without speaking another word, she fastens her seatbelt and stomps on the gas. I feel my head jerk backward as we take off up the nearly vertical mountain.
The trip takes a whole day. When we arrive, the air feels shallow and hard to breathe in. Athena parks on the edge of the peak and we all hop off, beginning to walk slow and clunky steps, bulked up in our heavy winter outfits. Zac stays behind in the car.
We stumble upon a large, wooden, apartment-like structure. Athena steps forward to knock on the door, but she stops her knuckle. There awaits a note made of pen on scratch paper, that looks as if it's been ripped right out of a notebook.
"Well? What does it say?" Bree questions.
"It's from my mom..." Athena whispers, caressing the note in her hands.
"Oh, you don't have to read that," I assure. I can't imagine the pain to read from her mom; she didn't even speak of her much after she died.
"It's fine."
It's clearly not fine; her eyes already seem to redden, her eyebrows furrow, and her mouth lies half-open in shock.
She clears her throat. "'My most beloved Athena, I hope you come across this letter. I'm sorry I didn't stop you from joining. You understand, don't you, dearest? I need to stay alive so I can be there for you as I am right now.'"
Athena's eyes fill with tears. I try to tell her it's okay to stop, but she puts a finger up in the air to silence me.
"'Whether in physical presence or not, I am there right now. As I write this letter, I have truthfully no idea what's going to happen in the next few weeks. I hope we can come across this,'" she pauses. "'...Together.'"
Her voice cracks, but she continues to read. "'This shelter shall be useful, so other Mars Experiencers can join you here and... well... live. Everything is very lightweight, which makes me worry you may be receiving this note upon a pile of crumble right now (haha); but it will be useful for people with your lack of muscle. Overall,'" Her lip quivers, but she rolls her head on her neck and continues to read.
"Overall, if I'm not with you right now, know that I miss you very much... and...'" she begins gasping as the tears run down her red face. "I love you, and I know you will do great things. Do great things, Athena. With more love than one could ever describe, Mama."
She collapses to her knees, pressing the note tightly against her chest and wailing. Apollo toddles up to her. He tugs on Athena's jacket. "Why you cryin', Mama?"
Athena, in response, just puts the note aside and cradles Apollo in her arms. We all end up sitting next to her in the soft, fluffy snow.
"I'm so sorry for your loss, Athena," Emma sobs.
None of us have the courage to get up and leave, even though the air begins to get shallow.
"Well, we should probably get to work," Athena finally says with a sad voice and tears gripping to her eyelashes.
"Get to work doing what?" Jedrek questions.
"We need to bury Zac. Under the ground. Right next to the shelter."
"Um... Athena... I love how you're feeling energetic about this project and stuff, but, well... let me put it this way: we can't breathe well here," Bree says.
"Oh, right, I forgot. I'm... I'll... I can just do it myself. I need to drive him up here, though," she says with a pained smile. "Will you guys walk with me to the car? And... like... ride back here with me before driving off?"
"Of course," Hugo answers for all of us. None of us disagree, though.
The air feels awful and dry, like pounding on my lungs. I lean heavily on Jedrek while I walk to the point where he's practically carrying me. As strong as I am, I'm not superwoman. I can't just recover from a car crash. But judging by how much everyone, except Athena, is coughing and wheezing, I know the dryness in my lungs isn't from the accident. I hate to break it to her, but we have to leave. Soon.
Athena makes it a point to have at least one full conversation with everyone while on our way to the car. Now's my turn.
"Hey, Donna," she smiles. The same comforting, girly smile from when I had first met her and she was trying to win us over.
"Hi. I'm gonna miss you. But, you know, we'll be right down the mountain whenever you need us. Plus, we'll visit all the time." I always try to keep my goodbyes short and simple, they hurt too much otherwise.
Weird. Never expected a goodbye with Blondie to hurt.
"You don't have to lie to me. I know it's hard coming up and down a mountain. I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind stopping over for Christmas? It's only in a few weeks."
"I'd love to. But, how did you know I'm Catholic?"
"I noticed the little cross necklace you're always wearing."
"Oh. And... what are you?"
"I'm Agnostic. My mom always taught that science is factual and religion is make-believe."
"Then why would you want me to come up?"
"I think the whole holiday is a nice idea. Plus, I already know everyone in the group celebrates it and I thought it'd be a good excuse to see you all," she shrugs. "Anyway... what's up?"
"Well, everything hurts and I was pronounced dead a few hours ago. Other than that, not much."
She laughs. I don't know if her snickers are to break some of the awkwardness I may have spread or because she genuinely finds my morbid comment funny.
"What about you?"
"Well, other than me receiving a letter from my mom who died a week ago after trying to save me... after poisoning me... not much," she grins.
It's my turn to giggle.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
