The Journey by Tyler White (red queen ebook txt) 📕

complaining, Cassie. It won’t do you any good,” Henry had said, his face was covered in sweat and his lips were very chapped. He constantly moved his hair from his forehead from the sweat plastering his hair down. Behind us was a young couple bragging about how better they were at golf than a couple by the name of George and Gwen Harper. I tried to ignore them but they were so loud, I bet China could hear them. Luckily they sat down together on a rusty bench, laughing and talking about Gwen’s stuttering problem.
I checked the neighborhood sign and saw that we were already in Treeville Sight which was miles down from Huck Finn Road which was where we lived. Treeville Sight was a wreck too. Buildings were crashed to the ground and steet lamps were being knocked down. I couldn’t tell why the couple was laughing when the world was crumbling to pieces.
A small dog ambled towards us, his long pink tongue flopped around out of his mouth and his paws hit the earth in silence. His fur was silvery gray and fluffy and he had one blue eye one green. I could tell he was a mutt. He lapped at a puddle of murky water and came over to Henry and I for us to stoke him. “Can we keep him, Henry?” I asked weakly, he smiled and kept rubbing the dog’s tummy.
“Maybe.”

Chapter 2
The dog trailed behind us for the long way, then out of the daylight a tall chubby man walked out with a long stick in his left hand. He rubbed it softly and then turned to us and saw the dog. He frowned more and came towards us.
Henry grabbed my hand as we stood there in shock, the man waited for us to speak. “Why are you two kids goin’ aroun’ stealin’ peoples dogs?!” He pulled out a cigar from his torn up jean pocket and lit it with his blue lighter in his back pocket.
He smelled of grime and rust and his face was full of gunk and mud. He looked related to a pig. “My name is Mr. Rogers and I’m livin’ across the street and that my dog you kids have,” We looked without words. My mind was blank and I held onto the dogs collar, knowing this man was bad.
Mr.Rogers hair was black from grime and it stuck up like spikes. His bulging brown eyes pierced right through me and his evil grin scared me. He yanked the dogs collar from my grip and spat in Henry’s face, “Don’t spit on my brother!” I yelled slapping his face.
He turned to look at me and let go of the dog who came rushing behind Henry, his tail in between his legs. Poor dog. Mr. Rogers grabbed my arm and strangled me to the ground. I felt the air leaving my lungs and I begged to breath. I tried to call Henry’s name but all was a blur and my throat was jammed.
Henry pulled the man off me and kept punching his face. Henry fell to the ground while the man puched Henry’s face with his yucky fist. I reached and tugged on the man’s black hair. He pushed my face away and gave me a chance to run away with the dog while Henry soon would follow.
I grabbed the dog’s collar and looked back at Henry who was bleeding. The blood dripping from his lip and a giant purple bruise covering his right eye. Henry nodded for me to go and I went, giving him a forgiving glance.
I hid behind a giant oak tree and panted, my breath was scarce. I decided to name the dog Spike from his owners hair. Spike seemed to fit him well. He smiled and licked my hand as if thanking me. I scratched behind his ears and hugged him, thanking him for coming to us.
After several minutes Henry found us and came towards us. He was in very bad shape, his face stained with blood. I squeezed him tightly and stared at his messed up face. “I’m fine, Cassie, really.” He winked and walked with me for a long time.
Spike still walked along, his loud panting was annoying but he was a dog and I couldn’t blame him for that. “Henry, we need to take a break, plus it’s getting dark and we need a dry place to rest so if it rains, we’ll be covered.” We walked around and found no shelter to rest in. Then Henry spotted a mass of rock like a cave and we settled there.
We found an old plastic bowl in the dumpster and decided to use that as Spike’s water and food bowl. We poured fresh cold water for Spike and watched him drink the whole thing.
Henry ate a sandwhich but I had lost my appetite looking at Henry’s bloody face. We gave Spike a ham sandwhich and watched him eat since no excitement was happening. We layed out our pillows and sleeping bags and layed down. When my head hit the pillow, I fell into a deep sleep.

. . .
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and tried to introduce my eyes to the bright ray of sunlight coming through. Spike was cuddled up against Henry, his nose reaching Henry’s chin. I smiled and tapped Henry on his shoulder. His green eyes slighlty opened.
I grabbed a sandwhich and walked out of the cave, I found a bench and sat down, watching the birds fly. “Wake up!” I told Henry as I started packing up the sleeping bags and food. Spike needed water and food so I pulled his bowl out and fed him.
I felt the hard breeze blow my straight blond hair in front of my face. It stung my eyes and made my lips more chapped than normal. I looked beyond Treevill Sight and saw some buildings flop down. The windows crashed and glass fell to the ground and scattered everywhere.
Spike started leading the way once Henry awoke. After miles and miles, we found a crack in the earth. It divided two lands apart. One half was destruction and the other was beautiful. The cool side was full of flowers and colorful trees. Butterflies circled the area and rocks weren’t jagged.
Henry and I almost fainted when we remembered the sight of earth when it wasn’t bad. The flowers circling us and the trees blowing in the soft breeze. I remembered seeing mom’s face next to mine. Her perfectly soft brown hair all over my face and her blazing indigo eyes facing mine. Then all was a blur and the memory faded. One question ran through my mind, how were we supposed to cross the big gap in the earth? There were no bridges or ziplines so we had no possible way to cross without jumping.
If only we had long rope! Henry looked frightened, his eyes were blank and his face turned whiter. His mouth was agape only for a minute, then he reached into his backpack and pulled out a musty long rope with a metal spikey object attached to the end.
“Henry…You don’t expect us to go across with that, do you?” He merely smiled and flung the rope across the gap. Was he really serious??? I noticed another meatal object at the other end, he slowly attached it to a tree stump and grabbed the rope with his bare hands. He started to fling himself forward and go across like the monkey bars on the small playground.
I was sweating, it dripped down all over me. I tried to calm down but watching Henry almost kill himself made me want to scream. I then felt releived when he landed on the other side, “COME ON, CASSIE, YOUR TURN!” he screamed as he cupped his hands around his mouth.
I would have to carry Spike in my backpack so he could cut across with me. I tucked him inside and let him lick my face like Manny used to. Manny was our old mutt who usually stayed by dad’s side. I let out a big breath and inhaled carefully, I gripped the rope as hard as I could and jumped off the edge, clamping my fingers together.
I felt as if the wind was pulling me down. My strength was running out and I needed to hurry. I moved very slowly and listened to the birds squaking at me. “Come on!” Henry yelled, rolling his eyes in exhaustment. My heart was hammering in my chest and I could hear the blood pounding in my ears.
I was at the middle and I wanted Henry to help me. Then I heard a clang and I looked forward instead of down, hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was. I saw the metal starting to fall and I held on tighter. It fell and I heard Henry scream. I screamed to and felt my heart hammering even harder.
I struggled to breath as I fell backwards. Spike was yelping and I turned my body because if I wouldn’t, Spike would hit his back on the rock wall very hard. When I finally landed, I stuck my feet out to protect my stomach. I layed my side on the wall and started rubbing behind Spike’s ears.