“Perhaps I should fly over it…is it pretty?” While I am not keen on flying, I’m curious about seeing the colony and the continent spread out before me like a colorful map.
“Yes. The continent is beautiful from the sky.” She steps out of the water and onto the rocky shore and sighs but doesn’t stopmoving or let go of my hand until we are hidden in the trees. “I suppose we have to repeat that to get home.”
“We do.” I walk a little deeper seeking a sunny spot to stretch my legs in.
“I do not like doing this with bare feet.”
“This will do.” I sit. “Let your legs dry.”
She takes off her pack and sits next to me. “Let’s eat, and you can tell me about your socks.”
“There’s not much to tell. There was no clever theft. I stole them off the body of the next warrior who attacked me.” I took all of his clothes and weapons. Like me, he was another banished warrior. Unlike me, I think he wanted to die. Two months later, I met up with Edilk.
“So you wore someone else’s socks? You didn’t wash them first, did you?”
“No, I pulled them on, grateful for the warmth and protection from blisters.” I haven’t thought about the months I was on my own for quite a while.
I pull out a packet of sludge, which is what we were given to eat on the mission. There was a time when I’d have killed for such an easy meal. Now, like the rest of the colony, I grimace and eat the sludge, knowing that it meets most of my nutritional requirements. But not all. However, a few days without fresh meat will not hurt me. A couple of the scientists have been studying the kinds of meals the Honey usually eat, and how much energy and vitamins and minerals they provide. They are terms I’d never heard of until I agreed to be part of the study. But apparently, they can examine food and see if it is worth eating.
They aren’t studying what they call our traditional diet out of concern for our well-being, but out of how different it is and how it can be adapted for humans. They are worried about the lack of calcium. Humans don’t only have white teeth…they have white bones. The scientists say that the Honey, and otheranimals here, have red bones because of the high iron content. So while sludge is good for humans, it is not enough to sustain by brothers and me.
“Survival isn’t pretty.” I lift the container of sludge.
Alisha drinks the sludge with about as much enthusiasm as I do. “I think I’d rather drink dirty sock water.”
She takes another gulp and pulls an exaggerated face of disgust.
I laugh softly.
Blood is better than dirty sock water. She probably doesn’t want to know what it’s like to be hungry enough to drink hot blood, before eating the meat of the animal, and cracking open its bones for the soft marrow. “Would you like me to find something else to eat? There may be some edible mosses, and possibly some nuts or buds.”
“Yeah…the scientists are pretty sure that anything you can eat won’t kill us.”
While not all the plants are familiar, there are some that are. We pull on our socks and lace our boots.
Alisha checks the tablet and the sky, and I can guess what she is checking. “We won’t make it back tonight.”
“No. The question is, which side do you want to camp on?”
9
ALISHA
Idon’t want to camp on either side of the river. I want to sleep on the ship surrounded by metal walls. I’m hoping we can move fast enough to make that happen. “Let’s put the camera up and then make our plan.”
“We should return to silence, as the waterfall no longer covers our conversation.”
I nod, but it’s another reminder that we are no safer on this side than we were on the other. The waterfall becomes background noise as we partially walk, partially scramble up the steep slope. Hrad plucks moss off a rock, gives it a lick and then eats it. He offers me a piece, and I hesitate. I’m sweaty and tired, and the moss is looking like a pretty good snack.
I open my mouth, and he pops it in. It has a strong metallic taste, like when I cut my hand and licked the scratch. It also has a bit of a crunch, but I’m guessing that’s because of the dirt clinging to the bottom. I am one hundred percent sure there are scientists who’d yell at me for eating the foraged food because it hadn’t been analyzed or washed, but Hrad isn’t going to eat something that kills him.
We reached the top, and he presses me into the ground, covering me with his body. I take a couple of shallow breaths and will myself to calm. I don’t know what the threat is, and I’m sure as hell not going to ask out loud.
I’m not sure which I’d prefer, a wild animal or a Honey warrior.
I think the former. Unless it’s something that hunts in a pack. However, warriors also hunt in packs. There is a weird static over my skin, the only sign that Hrad is doing something with his kam to protect us.
It’s the reason I do not move even as the rock pressing into my thigh becomes painful, or as the weight of his body and both our packs becomes suffocating. I watch an insect crawl over the dirt in front of my face and waste a puff of air encouraging it to move away. My body is screaming at me to move.
