Formost of the time during the breakfast, I just looked at my plate, avoiding J’sgaze, not knowing how to act.
Whenthe meal was finished, Peter, Rick and Frank took the plates and utensils to anearby stream, and Simon and Patrick put on their backpacks and started walkinginto the forest. J crouched down, picking up a few more flasks of water and placingthem in his bag. Then he stood up and looked at me, an undecipherableexpression on his face. He nodded slightly without saying anything and turnedto leave.
Ihad to tell him.
Ihad to tell him now!
“Onyour way…” I started saying and then paused.
Jstopped and turned around to face me.
Ilowered my gaze to the ground and forced my voice to be calmer. “On your way, youwill come to a fork in the path. The left one leads straight uphill and does notseem like the fastest path to take. The right one seems more comfortable atfirst, but it becomes very narrow later on and it will lead you to a narrow pathnext to a cliff.”
Clearlypuzzled, he studied me as I spoke. “Yes?”
“Donot take the right path,” I said, looking up, realizing my green Senthien staremust have been as clear as the Vision I had the night before, “or only one of yourgroup of three will return. Take the left path. It is a bit longer… but youwill come back.” I looked at the ground again, hidingwhatever emotions he might see underneath my eyelashes.
Hesilently looked at me for half a pass, his mind clearly full of questions as myeyes constantly moved between his face and the ground.
“Allright,” he said quietly. “We’ll take the left path.”
Isighed in relief.
“Andthen, you and I need to talk. For real.”
Oh…
Hesmiled at the expression on my face, then turned and left to join the otherswaiting for him a few IPs away.
Itwas a calm day. Frank, Rick, and Peter were discussing various subjects: whetherwe would be able to find a way into the computer facility, what we might findthere, what else we might be able to scavenge in the ruins, and so on.
Icouldn’t talk to any of them. I constantly walked in a large circle aroundthem, too anxious to be still. And the more I walked, the more I thought aboutit, and the stronger one thought became: Ishouldn’t have let him go.
Allof my Visions came to be. They shouldn’t have gone at all. He should havestayed here. He should have stayed with me.
Buthe didn’t.
Ilet him go.
Iclosed my eyes, stopping for a moment to try to calm myself. Then I opened themand continued my walk.
Myfather told me that the Visions are only a possibility of what might come, andthat the future could change if decisions changed.
Ikept repeating this to myself as if it was a mantra.
Ihoped that he was right: that Visions only showed possible paths of the future, but that they could change.
Ihoped J would save himself, knowing what could happen on the wrong path—andthus save me as well.
Itwas one of the most difficult days for me. Every moment crept by as I waitedfor the group to come back. And as ashamed as I was for having the thought, theonly thing I really wanted was for J to come back. Even if something happenedto the others, I needed J to come back. Selfish and mean these thoughts were,but I simply could not change them.
Themoon appeared in the dimming afternoon sky. It was quiet. Everyone was occupiedwith something and no one talked. By now, I thought, everyone was expectingthem to come back. And they didn’t.
Isat on a rock, my palms pressed together between my knees. I sat still, as if apart of the rock itself. I barely breathed. And then I heard the sounds. Ilooked to the right. Voices. Grass and leaves being moved byfootsteps.
They’reback.
Oh, the Moons of Senthia—theyare back!
Weall stood up to greet them. Simon came first, then Patrick. J was the last.They were all in great spirits. Lots of laughter, shouts, andengaged talking. Still grinning about a recent joke, J looked around thecampground until he found me. He smiled to me and mouthed: Alive.
Ihad to smile back.
Jturned to the rest of our group and said, “So, who wants a rabbit?”
“Rabbit?You caught one?”
“Ididn’t. But Patrick did. Two of them,” J said and swung from his shoulder arope with two dangling rabbits.
Theyseemed very large. I checked the available information on my nanoprobes. The databasedescribed the long ears and elongated bodies, but their size seemed unusual.
“Theyare big!” I said.
“Yup.We still call them rabbits because they—” J lifted one up and looked atit.
“—most likely originated from the rabbit,” interrupted Frank.“But time and some intense solar radiation made some changes to its blueprint.”
“Andthey taste like rabbits, too,” said J.
“You mean they mutated?”
“Yup,”said J, who sat down, placed one rabbit on the ground in front of him, andsliced through its skin with a sharp knife. “Like many other species who managed to survive the apocalypse.”
Hestripped the fur off the rabbit, then cut through the belly and opened it up. Severaldark red and off-white baggy organs spilled out. He dipped his hand in therabbit’s insides and removed all the organs from the abdomen cavity with a calmefficiency that told me he had done it many times before. I watched him in a trance,amazed at this true survival drive. Put any Descendant in an environment likethis, without technology, and in a few days he would starve. But these peopleknow how to survive.
Humans.
Why did the Zlathars force them to thebottom of Uni society when they are such great survivors?
“Dora?”
Hearingmy name snapped me from my thoughts, and I turned to Patrick.
“Yes?”
“Couldyou please help me put these sticks on the side of the firewood?”
Iwalked to Patrick and took one of the branches he was talking about. “What doyou need them for?”
“Thesewill be holders where we put the spit with the rabbit on it. Into these forks,”he said, pointing to the V-shaped ends of the branches, “you put
