DAY 5 : ANYA
In one of my nutrition classes, we learned that the human body can survive up to three days without water and three weeks without food. Gandhi went 21 days on water alone once. But I bet Gandhi wasn’t trekking across three towns in the middle of a Pennsylvania winter when he did it. Freezing rains and sleet and snow had been pouring from the sky for three days now. I lost connection with all of my toes yesterday evening, and I awoke this morning without feeling in my fingers.
After a full day of hiking through the torrential downpour of watery snow, I had to find shelter. I had wandered into the mouth of a subway system, and that night I slept like the homeless, curled upon a bench seat in an abandoned subway car.
The next morning, after peeking out into the street to find that it was still steadily drizzling frozen slush onto the earth, I elected to stay in my subway car. It was a whole day’s travel lost, but my scarves and jacket were still damp from the previous night. If I continued this way, pneumonia was gonna kill me faster than the Farmer’s Flu.
It was worse without food. I made it longer than I expected on the provisions that Kathryn and I had packed, which went much farther when only one of us was eating it. I was onto my last slice of bread and apple when I entered the subway. Two days later, there I was, huddled in a subway car, doubled over in crippling hunger pains that beat the heck out of me. It was a powerful reminder that I was not in fact Gandhi.
And when I heard voices echoing through the subway system, I couldn’t tell if it was starving delirium or actual human beings. But as the voices drew closer, I decided to hide just in case I had yet to go totally insane.
Already my head spun with possibilities as I half stumbled, half fell out of the subway car towards a built up pile of discarded trash.
I dare some looter to try to mug me. I’m down but I’m not out, I thought.
I knew the chances of them being friendly were slim to none. People traveled in packs these days, and not all of them were friendly groups just heading towards a hospital. I’d watched from a distance as some of them robbed and murdered as they saw fit. Or worse…
The voices were getting closer. My hand clutched the switch blade in my pocket and I thumbed its switch. Whoever it was, I knew I didn’t stand a chance in my feeble state. I could barely lift my head let alone the switch blade, but it didn’t matter. I mentally prepared myself. I wasn’t going down without a fight.
But I wasn’t going to make the first move. Maybe if I lied here quietly and waited for them to pass, then I could sneak by. They couldn’t have known I was here. Maybe that could do it.
By then they were practically on top of me. I became as small as possible as I laid in the filth that was my cover. Soon they’ll pass and I can…
It was that precise moment that my stomach growled the most depraved, earth-shattering growl. It could be heard by anyone in a ten block radius.
“Who’s there?” a familiar shout came from ahead of me. It was a man’s voice, older, and frightened.
I sprung up, switch blade in hand. There were two of them; a man and a little girl. But before I could register them I jumped at the man. I was too slow and malnourished. He grabbed my wrist and yanked it behind me, turning me in the process. The little girl screamed.
Ominous black shadows began to crowd my vision, creeping in around my peripherals and threatening to swallow me in fatigued darkness.
“…Anya?” the familiar voice spoke again, and on some level I knew it was the man speaking. The man immediately dropped my arm and I stumbled but did not fall.
“Anya, it’s Professor Russ Weiss,” he stood in front of me and tried to gage my reactions, which were slow at best.
“Professor Weiss? From Philosophy 101?” I said, finally making the connection. He smiled, happy to see me gaining some understanding. We discussed what we’d been through so far, and I was excited to hear he was also headed to Linvalley. When I explained my food situation, he was more than generous.
“I didn’t recognize you with all that beard,” I laughed a little, in better spirits now that I had nutrients in my system. Professor Weiss grinned a little and rubbed his inch and a half of scruff.
“Yeah I suppose you’ve got a point,” he turned from me to the kid, who had done nothing but cower from me. “Maddy hun, come here. Come make a new friend.” The little girl crept closer to her father, keeping a wary eye on me. I tried to smile sweetly at her, but my muscles felt strange being pulled in that direction. I said hello, but she remained silent.
“Anya is our friend,” Professor Weiss told her, but Maddy was having none of it. Sighing, he turned to me.
“She doesn’t take well to strangers. Really the only thing she understands is Alice in Wonderland. Until now, it feels like we’ve been walking in circles. To be honest, I’ve never been to Linvalley, I don’t know how to get there. I just heard about it on the radio.”
“Well Prof, you can call me the white rabbit,” I pulled my backpack tighter around my shoulders and stood up. “Cause I know the way.”
Veronica Mattaboni is a third-year student majoring in English writing with a minor in creative writing. She can be reached at VM785925@wcupa.edu. Alecc Costanzi is a third-year student majoring in English writing with a minor in creative writing. He can be reached at AC688759@wcupa.edu.