Only Human (13 page)

‘
Don’t you trust me Anne?’

‘
Of course I do but you are still a child, easily confused and misled. I want to know the source of your information so that I can reason it for myself.’

‘
I stopped being a child the moment I was strung up in that Clone farm Anne. You either trust me or you don’t, but I promise you this; Garok and I, together with the Clones, are leaving this place now!’

‘
Ok, ok, you win; it’s just a bit of a shock Aecia. I was just beginning to feel safe here.’

‘
I know, me too, but I have to trust my source, as you have to trust me.’

We are packed
, with our luxurious belongings thrown into a patchy brown sack. We are replete with water, a cooking pot, seven forks, a torch, paper and pens and some bedding. We also have enough food for the evening meal, although I anticipate problems with cooking it, considering we are going to be in a well!

Garok has come up with the idea of tying a blanket to two oblong lengths of wood
, and using it as a crude stretcher for the sick among us. Hopefully we will find two branches of similar width and length along the way.

It has just started to rain
, which compounds our misery and reflects our mood, as we trudge along the route. Garok is supporting the boys, while Anne, Orianna and I, are walking with Lupe. It is strange to see Lupe so listless and fatigued. She would normally have been up a tree at this point, or running a 100 meter sprint in front of us.

Sebastian
is doing quite well in comparison to Baran. He is not a good colour, and each step seems like a terrible trial to him. I am scouring the land for suitable branches for the stretcher, because it looks like he won’t make the journey without one. The rain is hazy and thin, but continues to soak us through, as we walk, and now I’m worrying about the three sick people contracting pneumonia, as well as everything else.

Disembodied voice
said that we must pass some wild vegetable fields. I hope it was an old farm, and there are remnants of a gate or fence, that will provide lengths of wood for the stretcher.

It has taken us more than one hour I reckon, just to get as far as the vegetable field.
Baran is sweating profusely, much more so than any of us, so we are stopping here, before he collapses again. Sure enough, Garok has spotted some suitable wood, and is ripping the edge of the blanket to tie on to both ends of the lengths.

Anne is so jittery and nervous today
, and she keeps looking back to check for…? I don’t know what she might be checking for. There won’t be any Vampires here in the daylight so what is she so afraid of?

‘
Anne, are you ok?’

‘
Yes, eh, it’s just the animals; there could be lions and tigers hereabouts.’

‘
Hardly, they’re both extinct Anne, and Vamps can’t patrol in the day either. Try to relax and let’s just get there.’

‘
I’ve done it, let’s see if it works. Here Baran, come and lie down.’

‘
Well done Garok.’

It
’s an effort for Baran to even get on the stretcher but he’s just about managed it. Garok and I will carry him, because we have some Vampire strength in our blood. Anne does too, but she is too pre-occupied with extinct predators that are about to have us for dinner. I can see you Amica, lounging next to Baran. Get your human, transparent, cheekiness off that stretcher, and back into my mind where I can keep an eye on you!

‘
Aecia, water?’

Lupe is actually asking for some water; despi
te everything that has happened she is still progressing and learning fast. I’ve never noticed before, but Lupe has unusual, clear green eyes. They match the lush greens we are surrounded by as we tramp through this gorgeous countryside. Lupe is usually a 5’3’ blur, as she sprints through the day and it is difficult to get a good look at her sometimes. I pray that this illness won’t possess her and I long to see her racing around again.

The sun is high in the sky above the rain and that means it is past noon
, so we had better get moving again.  Anne has wrapped a sheet over her head and body as she walks, and her face is so bright red it looks like sunburn.

‘
Anne are you sure you are ok there? Your skin is roaring red and my god, I think you have blisters on your hands!’

‘
I must be allergic to the sun; I lived in a basement for God’s sake.’

‘
I’m not having a go Anne, just concerned. Hurry up if you can everyone, and let’s get over that stream and into the shade of that forest for Anne.’

I think Anne is dehydrated too, her lips are cracked and dry and
her eyes are red rimmed and sore looking. She doesn’t look well at all. I don’t think I can go any faster either, as Garok and I are now carrying Baran:  he is a lot heavier than he looks. I can’t believe I was once able to lift our car two inches off the ground. Was it the vile blood I was forced to drink that gave me more strength? I don’t care; I’d rather be weaker and eat cabbage!

I can see the stream up ahead
, and what the hell was
‘voice’
talking about. It’s more like a river, and it must be ten meters in width! It better be smooth and still or we’re all going on a water slide! Here am I thinking we could probably step over it Amica.

‘
It is the rain that has swelled the stream Aecia.’ Don’t tell me Garok is now rooting through my mind? Did I speak my last thoughts out loud?

‘
How on earth will we get across carrying Baran?’

‘
I get up.’

Baran
is talking too! This is brilliant! If only we were safe enough to celebrate all our friends’ achievements today. There’s no time to even congratulate them.

‘
Stay where you are Baran, Garok and I will manage to get you across, don’t worry.’ I hope the bed of the river isn’t too uneven and stony friend, balancing is not one of my strong points. Here goes nothing! I don’t even know what that means? I have some old flats on that Uncle got from somewhere, and it’s so hard to get a grip. Garok seems fine but he’s got rubber soled trainers on. Lupe and Orianna are in front and have nearly reached the other side, so at least we know it’s not too deep.

‘
What’s that?’

‘
Garok, this is not the time to startle me!’

‘
Over there, behind that tree.’

‘
I don’t care if it’s an alien with twelve eyes and an umbrella! Let us get across this stream first!’

Oh no! My foot has slipped off a rock and there is a pot hole or something.
Baran has tipped sideways into the water; he can’t swim!

‘
Garok, can you grab him?’ I read somewhere that you can drown in two inches of water, and this hole is up to my waist.

‘
Baran!’ He has no strength to get up, he is still too ill!

‘
I have him, don’t worry, I have him!’

Garok has managed to drag him to the other side; I just need to climb out myself. This current is much stronger than it looks Amica
, but I am a strong swimmer. It’s just so sticky and sludgy on the river bed, my feet sink in. Nearly there now friend, I can breathe.

‘
Anne, where is Anne? Is she behind me? Is she ok?’

‘
I am to your left, I sidestepped the hole.’

‘
Good, good, we are all ok.’

I suddenly feel exhausted, I am soaked wet through
and even my thin dress feels heavy. Baran is breathing but he has closed his eyes, and his skin looks almost green. Sebastian and Lupe are quiet and ill, but they can still drag their feet along. I only hope Baran can make it as I watch the makeshift stretcher career, broken and useless, down the river.

‘
Stop; rest?’

‘
No Orianna, we must go on, we are not safe.’

She is helping me up
while still holding on to Lupe. ‘Bless you Orianna.’

‘
oookay.’

She has learnt
‘okay’, she is priceless! I am smiling inside but I can’t quite reach my mouth. Anne looks terrible! Like a native from Jerusalem lost in a heat wave! She is really dangerously allergic to the sun; I swear I can see tiny blisters on her lips. We have to move, and quickly!

‘
Garok, can you carry Baran for any length of time?’

‘
I will try.’

‘
Orianna, can you help Anne, and I will help Lupe and Sebastian?’

If we can just make it to the forest, we will have the shade of the trees and Anne won
’t burn in the sun. It is cooler and darker, and then we know we are almost at the well.

‘
Voice,’
said to bear left after the stream until we see a trail; I suppose that means a rough path, formed from repeated use of that route. How that would still be there after all these years I can’t imagine. Do the Vamps come for midnight strolls through the barren lands? Unlikely, but someone does, in order to produce a trail.

‘
Shut up talking and look for it!’

Good point Amica, I
’ll be shutting up, and looking for it now, although I am only speaking in my mind. ‘Shut up.’

Fine Amica,
I see it, there’s some bramble and leaves loosely scattered over it but it’s a definite trail. Thank goodness, we are on the last leg to the forest.

‘
Follow me.’

No-one is saying much
, and we must look like a band of half dead tramps as we move slowly along. Poor Garok is battling on with Baran slung over one shoulder; Anne is trembling as she stumbles along, and the rest of us are moving like thick treacle off a spoon. I wonder what Garok thought he saw at the stream? It is weird, but I feel like there are eyes on us as we go. Not one pair of eyes, but many. I can see you Amica, sitting on Garok’s shoulder, and staring around every nook and cranny of the terrain. You are not helping my paranoia friend. Garok could be hallucinating through extreme exhaustion, I suppose, and I am imagining things for the same reason. This has been the longest day since I was released from captivity.

I can see the forest up ahead at last and if I had the strength I would be cheering.
The rain stopped ages ago, but it is very cloudy and humid. We must have dried out from the soaking we got but we are still clammy with perspiration.

‘
Some thinnn.’ Orianna is pointing towards the forest; she knows that is where we are going. She must understand our speech even more than she can use it yet.

‘
Yeah Orianna, we’re almost at the forest now and we can have a rest there.’

‘
No, see something.’

‘
You can see something? Not just the forest, something else?’

She is still pointing over to the trees but I can
’t see anything unusual, and I’ve got Vampire enhanced vision. Not anywhere near as powerful as theirs, but still pretty sharp. Orianna could have seen an animal moving, or even the wind sweeping over the branches, I don’t know. It’s a bit disturbing though when I still feel like we are being watched and Garok thought he saw something earlier.

Baran
is in a deep sleep, and flopping around on poor Garok’s shoulders because he has picked up the pace a bit. The sight of the forest has renewed his vigor, and probably the desperate need to get Baran off his shoulder and have a rest, has spurred him on.

Now that we are getting nearer to this
‘well,’ that is going to provide us with protection, I am free to worry myself sick about all the other difficulties it presents. How are we going to get down there, for instance? Disembodied voice must have the illusion that we are all some kind of trapeze artists, or contortionists maybe? I’m not even sure how deep a well is, or how people used to draw water from it, much less, how six people get down
into
it.

If this becomes a problem that requires the use of physics
, (applied maths Amica, a distasteful business) then it’s someone else’s problem, not mine! You can’t expect a fish to breathe air and no-one has a cat-in-hell’s chance of teaching me physics! The painful truth is, short of slinging each other down there one by one, we have no choice but to simply get down there, and that is that.

We are here! I
’ve found that when I’m chattering on to you friend, I can detach from what is going on around me and time seems to move faster. I’m aching all over, hungry, thirsty and anxious, much as we all are, but I escape from it all sometimes simply by rambling on to you. Cheers mate!

‘
Let’s just get a bit deeper in all of you, it’s cooler, and safer for us to stop and rest; we’ll be further away from the edge of the forest.’

That remark was greeted with a unanimous moan, except from Anne who is already in front of us. Garok and I both have our eyes on the sun peeking through the clouds above us. I never did get that watch from
Uncle, so the sun’s position in the sky is the only clue we have to work out the time.