Name: I’d Climb Every Mountain, I’d Swim Every Ocean
Rating: K11
Genre: romance, dystopian
Beta reader: Lyra - however, all the mistakes are my own :)
A/N: Ääääk englanninkielinen teksti! Saa korjailla vääryyksiä jos mieli tekee, en loukkaannu ;D Osallistuu "And Nellie's Your Aunt!" - Enkkuhaaste 2:een sekä Originaali10:een. Tää on vähänniinkuin songficci paitsi ettei ole ficci, ja ideana on, että tekstin lopussa olevat lyriikat voi halutessaan lukea ikään kuin tekstin jatkumona.
I’d Climb Every Mountain, I’d Swim Every Ocean
The weeds have taken over, and I nod in approval as I approach the cottage. Of course, I knew you would handle it, I knew it even before I left: if anyone was able to stay alive in this world-like place the Earth has become, it would be you. You knew how to make the house look unoccupied, you knew how to hunt so you wouldn’t starve, you knew how to shoot heads off of those animals that used to be humans.
Knowing all this, I shouldn’t feel this relieved when I see the house and it’s so obvious that no one has died here. On my way home, I quickly learnt to recognise where the corpses were: in the houses that had limbs all over the yards, because They always ripped them apart while fighting over the corpses. Of course, you wouldn’t have died while I was gone. That would be way too normal for you.
Inside, everything looks as untouched as outside. It’s like no one has lived here for months. I smile to myself; you’ve been as thorough as ever.
I make myself at home: throw my backpack at a corner, lift my legs on the dusty dining room table and close my eyes. It can’t take long for you to return, and then I would kiss you breathless and hold you close, and then, for the first time in almost a year, we would sleep together and wake up in the morning next to each other. As I relax, I picture it over and over again, until finally, I fall asleep.
When I wake up, the first thing I notice is the darkness. It makes me act even before I realise what has awaken me. I grab the long knife I always keep on my belt, jump up from the chair and crouch, ready to duck even lower if someone tries to bite my head off.
As I am there on the dining room floor, crouching, I realise there is no threat inside. What has awakened me is the noise coming from outside: at least ten of Them, yelling without words as they always do, and, by the sound of it, walking far away from our home. Slowly, I relax and make a quick round around the house, checking that there really isn’t anyone there. It is empty; even you haven’t returned.
So I wait. It is hard, since I am on the edge all the time, not only because I have to make sure They don’t appear, but also because I am waiting for you to appear. The first morning isn’t the hardest, even though I had been so sure to watch that first sunrise with you. The hardest morning is the seventh, when it finally hits me, after raiding all the possible places to hide water and other supplies, that you haven’t been here for a long time and probably are not coming back.
At that point, there is nothing for me to do but leave. I start to pack again, not even thinking about what I’m doing, as if I was leaving just another abandoned house like I did on my journey back. I find every water bottle and canned food there is left, which isn’t much, and while I’m on that hunt, I also discover a hiding place you have built yourself under the kitchen floor. It’s absolutely fabulous, and I admire your building skills even more than the dried meat I find there. But just as I’m about to climb up from the hiding place, my lantern light hits a note on the floor. I kneel to read it, my heart pounding as I recognize your handwriting.
In case you ever decide to return, I’ve gone east.
I read it three times before I grab it and store it in my pocket, the one with a zipper.
**
This journey is different than the one I took when coming home to you. Then my heart was filled with anticipation and certainty that I’d see you once I got to our home. When I climbed to trees to sleep in order to avoid Them at night, I used to look at the stars and dream of our reunion. But now, as I climb to a spruce since it is the only climbable tree around, my heart is heavy with the feeling of being abandoned. I don’t sleep well, and the next morning, when a pack of Them reach me by the river, I lose my second-best knife to especially evil-looking once-woman, who has brown thick locks that tickle my chin when it tries to strangle me and reach my heart.
I manage to swim away from them, then climb to a narrow tree I’m not sure would hold my weight, and as I sit up there, I think of the note in my pocket. I recognise the tone, and I want to argue back. Of course, I had to leave! It was for the country! My services were needed – after They appeared, no man with military training could justify not volunteering to help!
After a couple of hours, the night falls, and I wait in my tiny tree. Soon, the pack moves under it, as chaotically as ever, and I hold my breath and wait. When they’re gone, I climb back down and dare to sleep on ground in my shaggy sleeping bag. Two packs never wander too close to each other.
Next day isn’t, however, as quiet as I had anticipated. I come across another pack way sooner than I had anticipated, and I must run for my life. And then, finally, I start to think: has it been like this here? Have you been dealing with this all those months? Or, worst of all, have you been bitten and became one of Them?
As I walk forward, I refuse to believe that. You have always been so strong and well-resourced, and most of all, a survivor.
Days go by, and I walk east. I have to be more careful than ever before, because there are so many of Them. A day doesn’t go by without me seeing Them, and I start to really realise what I have left you to, because I finally realise why there are so many of Them. They are escaping – escaping people who fight them, people like I used to be. We had our weapons and troops, we hunted them down – and now they are here, trying to get away. I can finally see that by going away to fulfil what I thought was my duty, I actually sent Them to you.
And now I must find you. To apologise, to explain, to prove myself worthy of you again. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve gone, how long I must walk, or how desperate my mission of finding you is. I never meant to leave you like this, and really, there’s nothing more left for me than prove that you.
There goes my heart beating
'Cause you are the reason
I'm losing my sleep
Please come back now
There goes my mind racing
And you are the reason
That I'm still breathing
I'm hopeless now
I'd climb every mountain
And swim every ocean
Just to be with you
And fix what I've broken
Oh, 'cause I need you to see
That you are the reason
There goes my hand shaking
And you are the reason
My heart keeps bleeding
I need you now
If I could turn back the clock
I'd make sure the light defeated the dark
I'd spend every hour, of every day
Keeping you safe
And I'd climb every mountain
And swim every ocean
Just to be with you
And fix what I've broken
Oh, 'cause I need you to see
That you are the reason, oh
(I don't wanna fight no more)
(I don't wanna hurt no more)
(I don't wanna cry no more)
(Come back, I need you to hold me closer now)
You are the reason, oh
(Just a little closer now)
(Come a little closer now)
(I need you to hold me tonight)
I'd climb every mountain
And swim every ocean
Just to be with you
And fix what I've broken
'Cause I need you to see
That you are the reason