3.4
Sploooshhhh.
A massive amount of frigid liquid cascaded over Jelani's head, freezing his raw, reddened skin as quickly as it had ignited.
He gasped, finally breathing his first breath of clean air. His lungs shuddered, and his muscles starved. They'd been corrupted and deprived, and he dug his fingernails into the dirt, coughing up saliva as he writhed.
"Yo."
He rolled over, gazing up at his savior behind ash-covered eyelids.
Echo was holding a massive barrel, and as a curious scent reached his nose, he realized that it had been full of beer.
"You idiot," she drawled, examining his blackened body with contempt. "We could have just given up and gone to another store."
Jelani wiped the alcohol and charcoal off his soaking face, but his vocal cords were too seized up to say anything.
"Sorry," Echo said, although her tone didn't sound apologetic. "I didn't think it'd be so flammable.
After gathering as much salvageable cash off the ground as she could, she helped him to his feet and together, they walked down the alley, which ran parallel to the main street.
"You reek," she muttered. "Any idea how we could wash you off?"
Jelani replied with a thumbs-up and took the lead, looking left and right through the alleys that joined perpendicularly to the one they were walking through.
They were in between two long rows of buildings, and every time they passed one of the thin passages that led back out into one of the streets on either side, they were hit with a bright snapshot of the city and a sudden burst of noise.
Finally, Jelani turned down one of these alleys and, as they were about to reenter the lively city, stopped and pointed straight ahead.
"P-agh-"
He cleared his clogged throat.
"Pool."
Echo followed his finger with her eyes and, sure enough, across the busy street, she spotted a public pool.
She sighed through her nose. "I'll go get the barrel."
Echo returned with the barrel and, as naturally as possible, crossed the street to the pool. The pool required a membership, but it was busy enough that nobody noticed, at least not enough to care, as Echo slipped into the women's locker room with the beer barrel in tow.
She hastily found an open shower and, forgetting to close the curtain, started filling the giant wooden container.
"Watcha doin?"
A little girl was standing no more than five feet away in her bathing suit, looking up at Echo with a small, innocent smile.
Echo should have closed the curtain. She should have looked away.
But she couldn't break contact with those pure, sparkling eyes.
The water from the shower head was crashing against her body instead of the barrel's interior, but she didn't notice. In that instant, what she was doing felt so frivolous.
She'd been wasting time. Where was her urgency?
All her idleness dawned on her so suddenly.
Why am I making a plan? she thought. Why am I taking my time?
Every moment of life is precious, so why am I letting it go?
The little girl was gone.
Echo filled the barrel and carried it out of the locker room. She carried it out of the pool, blindly bumping against anyone who happened to be in her way. She crossed the street, caring nothing for the gazes that followed her into the dark alley.
She handed the barrel to Jelani. "We're leaving."
"Hu-"
Jelani broke into a fit of coughs as he gratefully accepted the barrel, whose water he used to wash every inch of himself, including the inside of his throat.
His wounds had already healed, and with the salvation of cool water, his voice returned.
"Why are we leaving?"
"The real question," Echo replied with a voice of steel, "is why are we even here?"
"We're here to get supplies and rest," Jelani said, confused. "Right?"
The look in Echo's eyes was nothing short of murderous intent.
"Woah," Jelani took a step back, holding his hands up in front of him. "What happened?"
Echo ripped her eyes off him and let them fall to the ground as she released a long, heavy exhale.
She turned to her right, and stepped up to the brick wall.
In an instant, her fist was through it. Then again. And again.
While her left arm hung lazily at her side, her right smashed repeatedly into the wall, chipping away a wide hole in the solid clay. The opening continued to widen, and yells from within the building echoed throughout the alley in response.
"Echo."
Jelani walked up behind her.
"Echo!"
When she still failed to cease her attacks on the wall, Jelani reached around her, grabbing her violently swinging arm and pulling it back against her body.
As tightly as he could, because he knew that anything less would be ineffective, he secured her in an embrace, locking both of her arms tightly against her sides.
She breathed heavily through her mouth while people dashed out of the building, clearly set on summoning the military, but Jelani didn't force her to move. Seeing the state she was in, he had a feeling that he shouldn't meddle any more than he'd already done.
Finally, she growled, "Let go."
Jelani let go, and, to his relief, she turned away from the wall.
"We won't leave now," she grumbled in defeat. "We'll just do what we planned."
They climbed up to the pipe and vent covered roof of a building, out of sight of anyone walking the streets.
"I'll go get some stuff," Echo said. "Before everyone knows what I look like."
While Jelani camped out on the rooftop, Echo left with her pockets stuffed full of cash to go shopping.
By the time she returned, she had purchased backpacks, a few camping necessities, a full change of clothes for each of them, and six beef burritos.
While the other looked away, they took turns changing into their brand-new outfits. Echo had purchased a pair of oversized black T-shirts, jean shorts for herself, and, for her own amusement, the baggiest pair of shorts she'd ever seen for Jelani.
Beneath an orange sunset that glowed on the surface of every flat rooftop in the city, the two gratefully sat down across from each other, relishing in the sensation of clean clothing and a well-deserved meal awaiting them.
As they sat cross-legged in their matching black shirts, devouring the first of their burritos, Jelani asked, "Can we go shopping again after this?"
"You don't like the shorts?" Echo asked between bites.
"They go down to my shins," he retorted in a voice muffled by his mouth full of food. "Closer to pants than shorts."
– – – – –
Despite the team of soldiers that was undoubtedly hunting them down, Jelani and Echo had each managed to take long, hot showers, and Jelani had even gotten his hands on a pair of used army pants, a little nicer than the tattered ones he'd had before.
After a long sleep on that Hoodsdale rooftop, they woke late the next morning.
Echo cracked her stiff neck. "I wish we could stay a few more days."
Jelani rolled onto his back, shielding his eyes from the blazing morning sun. "What happened to your urgency from yesterday?"
"I don't know," she replied honestly. "Guess I just freaked out a little."
"Well, we should go today," Jelani insisted, "in case we get delayed somehow."
"But we're unbeatable," Echo declared, taking a deep, refreshing yawn. "There won't be any setbacks."
"Also," Jelani added, ignoring her comment, "didn't you say you'd help me get stronger? You haven't yet, so you should probably set aside some time."
"The past few years have been so stressful, though," she complained. "I just wanna take it easy for a bit."
So, it was decided that they wouldn't leave until the next morning.
They spent some of the day wandering around the city (discreetly, of course), and the rest of it just lying in an abandoned parking lot. Echo somehow fell asleep on the hard, sunbaked concrete, so, to his dismay, Jelani was forced to sit there and keep watch for a full two hours.
Finally, long after the sun had set, the pair clambered up onto a new roof, ready for another full night of sleep.