The Woodlands

When we arrived, Apella and Alexei had already built a fire. Apella had her face buried in her hands. She was crying silently.

“I don’t understand. They should be here,” she said, unaware we were standing right there, listening.

“We are here,” Joseph bellowed. He looked scary, crusted blood streaks across his face, blond hair matted. His shirt was torn to shreds and his arms were scratched.

Apella jumped. I got the feeling she wasn’t talking about us. “Goodness! What happened to you two?” she exclaimed, quickly following it up with, “Where’s Hessa? Is he all right?”

“He’s fine,” I said. Apella got out her pack and searched around for a suture kit.

“Wow! You’ve got your own doctor! Lucky,” Careen said excitedly. She was weird. She said it like, ‘Wow! You got the last piece of cake! Lucky.’ She seemed to get excited about the wrong things.

I introduced Careen to Apella and Alexei, explaining how she had saved us from the creature. Careen then dumped the remnants of the ugly cat by the fire. Apella left my face half-stitched up and turned to Careen, clasping both hands around the surprised girl’s own dirty ones saying, “Are you one of them?” Apella’s eyes were desperately hopeful. Careen looked at her, not confused exactly; her eyes were wide and mirroring Apella’s excitement like she couldn’t form her own reaction.

Joseph spoke before I could, “What are you on about, Apella? She’s one of us; she came from the facility.” Apella’s mouth snapped shut but it was too late for her to cover herself with more lies. I’ve never seen Joseph so angry before, he held his face close to hers, his eyes intense as she leaned backwards in fear. We’d all had enough of them lying. Alexei went to assist, but Deshi held him back.

“I, I…” she stuttered, “I’m sorry. There were rumors that there were people here. Survivors from before the Woodlands were built. I was hoping we would find them and get some help.”

Joseph released her from his gaze. “I didn’t think you were that naive, Apella. There’s no one here. There hasn’t been anyone here for hundreds of years.” He waved her off dismissively. She returned to stitching me up shakily and then Joseph reluctantly let her see to his wounds.

“What have you got there?” Alexei inquired, pointing at the pile of meat and fur. He used a stick to lift the hide, its hollowed-out face looking even scarier now than when it was alive. Its over-sized, pointed ears, no longer sitting upright, curled down over its forehead, looking like the top of them had been lightly dipped in black ink. Inspecting the pattern of the fur, he typed things into his reader. “A lynx, strong, cat-like animal, jumps down on its prey from above. Hunts alone.” I didn’t need a reader to tell me that.

Careen found a large, flat stone and placed it at the edge of the fire. She watched it closely as it heated up, touching it lightly every now and then. She then threw the cut-up meat on the stone. It sizzled, browning nicely and smelling good, but when she offered it to me, I couldn’t eat it. The vision of her stabbing and disemboweling the foul cat was too fresh in my memory. She shrugged and moved on to the others. They all tried a piece. Joseph gri

After di

“Yep, I’m from Iroko. I was one of the only American descendants in that town,” she said proudly, bobbing her head up and down. I didn’t understand her pride. In Pau, no one talked about their origins. She walked over to Apella and ran her fingers through the woman’s straight blond hair. Apella recoiled. “Hmm, I like your hair. I wish mine would sit like that.” I glared at her, her stupid hair looked perfect.

She stared at her fingers for a while and then started babbling again. I found her very hard to follow. She was like a puppet, animated and jerky. Her mouth moved too fast for her brain to catch up. Joseph indulged her, watching her, nodding his head like he understood her broken-word vomit. I only managed to pick out a few details. She was from Iroko and she had been in Classes for about a year when she was taken. She was going to be a Guardian.

Finally, late into the night, Deshi fed Hessa and put himself and the baby to bed. Careen cooed and fussed over the child and I prickled without meaning to. We offered her a sleeping bag but she said she was comfortable to lie by the fire. I wanted her covered up. Her body was everything I had been, and missed so much.

I made a pathetic show of climbing in with Joseph and snuggling extra close to his warm body. Unaware, he happily held me close as he drifted off. I couldn’t sleep. My heavy eyes held open by imaginary matchsticks, a new person with disturbing talents making me uneasy.

I looked past the firelight; sure I could see yellow eyes floating in the distance. I propped myself up, peering into the darkness.

“It’s ok,” Careen said. “They won’t come any closer to the fire, especially not with this many people here.”

“What are they?” I asked

“Not sure, but there are a lot of them around the city,” she replied, sitting back on her knees, bouncing up and down. “It’s feels good not to be alone anymore,” she admitted, showing a vulnerability unseen before now. “The forest, it’s noisy and quiet at the same time, you know?” she said, covering her ears. I had to remind myself that she was just like me, but without Joseph, without anyone at all.

“You should try and get some rest. You’re safe now,” I said, trying to sound comforting.

I knew I wouldn’t sleep very well. I felt less safe here than in the forest. I had fleeting dreams of yellow-eyed monsters chasing me, cornering me against a wall of stone, laughing and hissing, claws and fangs bared.

I woke up to Hessa’s ‘knitting needles in my ears’ scream. I dragged myself out of my bag, eyes half shut, and started preparing his bottle. Joseph was still dozing. I let him sleep. I walked to Deshi’s rake-like form, but the baby was not there. Panic hit me, like a claw turning my heart sideways. The crying was coming from outside the circle of sleeping bodies. I kicked Deshi. He jumped up fast when he realized Hessa was missing.

“Where is he?” Deshi said, his normally smooth voice cracking around the edges. We followed the crying, sweeping our heads back and forth along the ground until we came upon a pair of long legs, attached to Careen, standing with her back to us, rocking on her heels, hushing the baby in her arms.

“What are you doing?” I asked accusingly.

She looked up from Hessa, eyes reproachful. “What? I just thought I would let you get some rest,” she said as she handed Hessa to me.

“You can’t just walk off with him like that without asking. You scared us to death!” I placed the teat of the bottle in Hessa’s mouth, watching him eagerly drink the grey liquid, his u

“I don’t see what the problem is,” she snapped suddenly, clapping her hands on her toned thighs. “You know, he doesn’t look much like you,” she added, reaching out to touch his springy, black curls.

I pulled away. “That’s because I’m not his mother,” I said, handing Hessa to Deshi and standing side on to display my swollen middle.

“Oh, where is she?” Careen asked i

“She’s dead,” I replied, wishing I didn’t have to talk about it, feeling my heart tear a little at the memory of Clara.