I gulp down so much water that when I’m done, the taste of the fish is rinsed from my mouth, and I’m so bloated I can barely move. I lie in the shallow water, letting it wash away the grime. I stare up at the sky.
Wisps of white clouds slowly drift by, too thin to block out the sun’s rays. For a while, it feels nice, but as the minutes tick by, my skin heats.
I picture Vruksha’s sleeping face and my heart twists.
He can’t be dead...
I need to go back and find him. I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but I have to try.
Rising on my elbows, I peer about. The shore is vacant of animals, but there’s something large on the far side, across the lake. I can’t make it out fully, but it has antlers.
Water brings predators.
With that in mind, I wash my body, my wounds, and the dirt and dried blood off me. I scrub my hair and between my legs. I stay until my fingertips are wrinkled and the sun dips, watching for predators the entire time.
Finding the fish head and my clothes to dress, I retrace my path, climbing onto my ruined feet. Dusk shadows the forest by the time I find the shelter. I crawl inside and curl up into a ball on the back seat.
Vruksha’s face reappears when I close my eyes. This time his gaze is wicked and hungry. My heart thumps. I debate climbing out and finding the leaf I cleaned his seed off with earlier so I can get another sniff of his scent.
“Vruksha?” I whisper.
He doesn’t answer me, though something else does. A fuzzy crackle fills my ears.
I sit up.
Looking deeper into the shelter, a tiny light winks at me through the shadows. The crackling is coming from it. I push through the vines and overgrowth falling from above to see what it is when the light winks out. Rooting for it with my hand, my fingers curl over something round.
An orb.
I clutch it to my chest and clean the dirt off it, thrilled at my luck today.
“Orb, initiate,” I say, my voice fracturing.
The lights wink back to life. A wheezy voice from the orb answers me, but I can barely make the words out. It quickly dies.
“Orb, initiate,” I say again.
One crackle is all I get. It’s dead. Frustrated, I throw the orb out of the shelter. I hear it thump, and then I don’t hear it at all. Curling back onto my side, I close my eyes.
Sleep finds me for a time. I dream of my apartment back on The Dreadnaut, the paints that I bought last year, and how I never got a chance to use them.
I awake to another noise. This time, it’s definitely not of the electronic variety. It’s snorting. Something hits the side of my shelter, and the flimsy frame makes a terrible crunching sound at my feet. I tug my legs to my chest and clutch them, burying my face into my knees.
Pigs.
Fear takes hold.
More snorting breaks the night.
I relax a little. There’s nothing to fear from pigs. One nudges my shelter behind me, and the whole thing rocks. The orb from Vruksha’s bunker listed pigs as predators. I remember the large pack of them, and how gigantic they were.
My shelter shakes again as another one nudges it. Dirt falls on me. I hold my breath and stay as still as possible, hoping they don’t discover me and will eventually move along.
Based on the cacophony of snorts, there has to be a dozen or so outside. Or more…
If they find me, and they are predators, I’m dead. I’m too weak to run.
I bring my hands to my lips, close my eyes, and go back to praying.
Morning brightens the forest before they finally leave.
Exhausted and numb, I wait before I risk moving. After checking that they’re gone, I crawl back out of my shelter, fear twisting my gut, and I can’t tell if I’m hungry or nauseous, or both. Turning back, the shelter is broken, punctured, and has shifted a couple of feet.
I can’t stay here.
I was waiting for Vruksha… but he hasn’t come. I have to believe he’s still alive. I don’t think I can live with the guilt if I caused his death. My heart aches, and I reach up to rub the feeling from my chest.
First Daisy, and now Vruksha.
Carefully, I rise on my wounded feet.
The pigs stamped out much of the overgrowth during the night, and I can’t immediately figure out which direction they went. My trail to the lake is gone, and though I desperately want to go and fill up with water, I also know the pigs likely moved toward it for the same reason.
I wish Vruksha was here.
Shaking my head, I banish the thought. I can’t rely on him anymore, it’s up to me now. How things change so quickly.
Turning full circle, I wish for something—anything—to guide me, to lead me to Vruksha’s bunker or the facility. I eye the trees, hoping one will be easy to climb, but they’re tall and the branches are higher up. There is nothing.
Picking up a nearby stick to use for a crutch, I decide to follow the direction of the sun. It’s as good a direction as any. I don’t take more than a couple of steps when my foot rams into something hard.
Flinching, I sink my teeth into my lips.
My eyes land on the orb.
I pick it up.
“Orb, initiate,” I whisper.
Under the streaming sunlight above, it comes to life, rising from my hand to hover in the air.
“What can I help you with today?” it says.
My eyes widen.
I remember how to smile.
Sixteen
Consequences
Vruksha
Sunlight streams through the
