The Woodlands (19 page)

“Ok, well, why don’t you stay here and do what you need to do and I’ll go back and get the others,” he chirped. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. He was scrambling down the incline before I could even reply.

It was getting dark. I hoped Deshi wouldn
’t take too long. Even though there was no one around, I felt conscious of being exposed so I decided I would climb down the other side, which was less steep, and offered some privacy. I skidded lightly down the other side and found a bush to crouch behind.

Just as I finished
, I noticed a form moving towards me. At first I thought it must have been someone from the group but no, it was coming from the other direction and it was moving lower and faster than a person. I was fascinated, watching this fuzzy form move from tree to plant to rock, bowing its head and then moving on, getting closer and closer to where I stood. There was no noise as it approached. Its padded feet walked soundlessly across twigs and gravel. I hadn’t moved since I spotted it and tried to shift my weight, as I was standing with one leg on the incline and one on the flat ground. That small movement made it stop, still. It turned its head to the side and lowered its body, gliding softly towards me, ears back, eyes wide. Even in this cold air, I was sweating. It put its nose to the sky and sniffed, snorting the air from its nose like the smell was unpleasant. It was only a couple of meters away from me now and I could see clearly what it was.

It was a magnificent creature
, standing as high as my shoulders. It was covered in a thick coat of brown-grey fur, yellowing as it reached down its long, lean legs. This was a dog. No, it was far too big. A wolf.

It was upon me
now; it lowered its head to my feet and tracked its nose up to my stomach. I was as still as stone, feeling an odd sense of protectiveness about its nose nearly touching my belly. Wanting to turn to the side, so the baby was out of the way. It was so close that I could feel its hot breath on my skin. I was mesmerized by its beauty, its presence. It was majestic and powerful. It could kill me in a second, but it was all I could do to resist the ridiculous urge to run my hands through its thick fur.

Like a trap snapping shut
, it whipped its head around. It sniffed the air again and cantered gracefully away from me, making its way to the crest of the incline. Standing on the tracks, our path. It howled one long note and other howls not far away joined the chorus.

Run
, a voice in my head uttered urgently.
Run now
.

I scrambled up the
graveled hill, just in time to see the creature bounding down the tracks in the opposite direction to me. I knew I had to be quick. It was a scout, soon it would reach its pack and they would be after me.

I slid down the other side on my backside
, all the while screaming for Deshi. He couldn’t have been that far ahead of me, surely. Tramping through the thicket, I cut through to clearer ground, my arms and legs scratched and bleeding. I broke into the quickest run I could manage, which wasn’t very fast. All the while thinking,
what if they get to them first or what if they get to me first
? I was struggling to suck in breath, struggling to keep moving, but I did. I started screaming all of their names, hoping for any reply.

“
Joseph, Deshi, Clara, Apella, Alexei,
anyone
?”

Finally someone answered. It was
Joseph, sprinting in my direction. His large body barreling towards me so fast, he had to dig into the dirt to stop from knocking me over.

“
What? What’s wrong? Is it the baby?” He sounded panicked. He grabbed my arms, casting an eye over the blood and scratches. They all had their packs on their backs. Deshi must have made it back and they were preparing to come meet me at the tracks.

“
No!” I said, pulling away from his grasp violently with irritation. “There’s a pack of wolves nearby and I think they are hunting us or will be soon.”

“
Oh,” he sighed in relief. I was confused by his reaction. We were no match for a pack of wild animals. I didn’t think we even had any weapons.

“
Alexei, what do we do about wolves?” he said, with an edge to his voice I didn’t recognize—commanding and directive.

Alexei took out his reader and scanned it for some information, flicking his finger
occasionally to enlarge something he was reading. “Wolves,” he said in his intellectual voice, “hunt in packs. To avoid being attacked, climb a tree. The pack will eventually lose interest and move on.”

“
Right, let’s put our packs up in a tree and then up we go,” Joseph said with authority. But it was too late. As we were organizing ourselves, I could see glowing eyes hovering in what was left of the day’s light. There looked to be at least five pairs. I imagined them licking their lips and baring their teeth but all I could see was eyes. There was no sound. Everyone was still fussing around with their packs. I grabbed Alexei’s shoulder roughly and pointed towards the eyes. They would have been about four-hundred meters away. They were moving slowly and deliberately in our direction, stalking us.

Alexei grabbed Apella and hoisted her into the
branches, whispering through his teeth, “Climb.” She still had a tiny pack on her back. Come to think of it, I’d never seen her take it off. Luckily, the radiata pines that surrounded our chosen meeting place were tall, strong, sturdy trees with plenty of straight, easy-to-climb branches. The only problem being, the first branches started a couple of meters off the ground. Joseph went to pick me up and push me up into the branches with Apella.

“
No, help Clara,” I said. He looked at me as if he were going to argue but then went to Clara and gently raised her to the first branch. His arms flexed under her weight, but his face showed no exertion. Apella held out her hand and pulled the tiny ball of a girl into the tree. She looked ridiculous, a tiny ninth months’ pregnant girl balancing on a branch like a swollen songbird. She looked scared, but I was confident she would be safe.

Apella was looking anxiously to Alexei, beckoning with her hands for him to follow. Her selfishness never stopped surprising me. I wanted to take a rock, aim it at her porcelain
face, and knock her out of the tree. Let her be devoured by these hunters. Not that they would get much of a feed from her bony body. I turned to see the eyes were closer now. I could see their padded feet silently creeping towards us, their heads low.

Alexei and Deshi both clambered up the tree, helping each other. Clara and Apella were quite far up now
, and the tree was swaying under the weight of four people.

We could hear them now. They had separated and were circling our little campsite, sniffing and panting.
Without asking, Joseph swept me into his arms and unceremoniously catapulted me into the tree. I couldn’t get a grip on the branch and I slipped, just hanging from the rough bark by my hands, my feet a foot off the ground.

Alexei
’s voice carried down. “No. The tree won’t hold all of us.” He was aiming his whispers at Joseph. “Take her to the one over there.” He pointed across the circle to the other big pine. Joseph growled as he held his arms out for me to fall into. I let go and he caught me but I quickly wiggled out of his grasp and to my feet.

We ran to the opposite tree. Joseph was about to lift me when I stopped him
. “You first,” I didn’t want to be thrown again.

“
Are you joking? No!” he whispered tersely. He was angry but I knew it was the smart thing to do. The wolves were moving in, watching our little performance with hungry eyes. A black wolf had taken the lead. It was so close to the ground, it looked as though it was slithering, only a couple meters away from us. Its yellow eyes were menacing in the almost dark. A soft growl emitted from its bared teeth. We didn’t have time to argue.

“
I need you to pull me up!” I shoved him. I think it took all his strength to obey me, but he did. Once in the branch, he grabbed my arm and pulled. But something was wrong. I was stuck. No, not stuck, something was pulling me backwards. Did it bite me? I felt no pain. I turned around to see the black wolf had a hold of my pant leg. It was tugging me to the ground, my toes desperately trying to find something to push off but finding only scrapings of dirt and air. Joseph eyes looked crazed with worry as he grabbed me with both arms and pulled as hard as he could, my arms straining at their sockets. Then I felt teeth sink into flesh and I screamed. For a split second, the animal paused, which was long enough for me to kick it as hard as I could with my good leg. It yelped and then it lunged. I closed my eyes. This was it. Air rushed across my face and I was flying.

When I opened them again
, I was in Joseph’s arms and the wolves were surrounding the tree, moving in unison as if in a dance, taking turns jumping and scratching at the trunk and trying to snap at our toes.

Joseph
was breathing hard. So was I. He was holding me so tight that I was starting to feel suffocated.

“
Joseph,” I whispered, “I’m ok, you can let me go.” He looked at me and it registered. He loosened his hold on me, but he didn’t let go. After a few seconds, he put his large hands on either side of my waist and helped me to stand on the branch. A flicker in my chest made me pause. We needed to climb higher, just to be safely out of reach of the frenzied clawing that was taking place beneath us. I pushed up onto my toes, feeling the squelch of the sock in my left boot, which was filling with blood.

As we climbed higher
, we heard them shouting from the other tree. It was Clara I could hear the clearest. “Are you all right, Rosa?” Her voice sounded high and strained. It must have been very uncomfortable for her, sitting in a tree. I hoped Deshi was looking after her.

“
She’s safe,” Joseph answered for me. “What about you?”

“
All good over here,” she said, adding, “Beautiful moon, don’t you think?” My eyes were starting to get sore from all the rolling I had done since I met her. She always managed to find a positive even in the worst situation possible.

Joseph chuckl
ed. I looked up at the sky, and sure enough, there was a beautiful moon rising, casting pointed, ghostly shadows on the forest floor.

“
Joseph, I’m not ok. It bit me,” I whispered.

He nodded
tightly. “I know. I just didn’t want to worry her,” he confessed quietly. I was grateful that, for once, we were on the same page.

We sat together on the strongest branch we could find, that was high enough to keep us safe from the snapping jaws of the wolves below. I had said I could sit on a branch on my own, but Joseph absolutely refused to let me go and we were balancing so precariously, I couldn’t really start a fight. If I had tried to pry myself out of his arms, I was liable to fall. So I allowed him to hold me, reminding him every so often that he was squeezing a little too tight.

It was a strange set of senses I was experiencing. The smell of the pine needles was refreshing and stirred up pleasant memories of a life past. I know I should have been fearful but I wasn
’t. From here, the wolves looked less menacing and more entertaining. And with Joseph’s arms around me, I felt calm. I thought about how many times I had wished to be in his arms before. Before everything had changed. I felt safe, certainly, but I was sure it couldn’t last. Nothing ever did.

On the
ground, the wolves were scratching the tree trunks, jumping up, and sometimes fighting with each other. Their sharp claws made shredding noises as they tore large chunks of bark from the poor bleeding tree. Yelping and howling. Every time I thought they had given up, they would start again. They were ravenous.

Despite this, I still found them stunning. Their long fur was standing on end
and they were mad with hunger, but there was something so fierce and powerful about them. We were in their world now and I was fascinated by their behavior. The black wolf was clearly the leader and two other, bigger, stronger wolves flanked him. One of them was the scout I had encountered earlier. They behaved how I imagine a family would… Helping each other most of the time, occasionally fighting, but all working towards the same goal—to kill and eat us.

“
Look at them,” I whispered. “Aren’t they beautiful?”

Joseph scoffed
. “Yeah, they’re gorgeous; I particularly like the look of the one that sank its teeth into you.” I didn’t really think he would see them the way I did.

He was shivering and I noticed that he was only wearing
a thin shirt. He must have dropped his jacket on the ground when we ran. I was sitting across his lap, with my back against the trunk of the tree. I leaned into him, trying to warm him with my own body. Slowly, his breathing steadied and he stopped shaking. I could just make out his face in the moonlight. He smelled like the woods, like damp dirt and wood fire. I liked it. After being in an artificial environment for so long, these natural smells were intoxicating to me.

He slid his hand down my leg slowly and gently
tried to lift my boot off. I was shivering but I wasn’t cold. I was not used to this closeness and every touch felt charged. I winced as he carefully pulled it. The blood was drying and the boot and sock were stuck to each other and my foot. He dropped it down and I watched as it bounced off branches and landed amongst the wolves. They jumped back then leaned in to sniff it, shaking their heads in frustration when they realized it wasn’t attached to one of us. Then Joseph started working his fingers into my sock. I shuddered.

“
Please leave it! It has stopped bleeding,” I said a little too grumpily. He let my foot fall and I let out a small squeak in pain.

“
Are you all right?” His hand was searching for my face. I held still. He traced my lips with his finger. “I can’t see you; you have to tell me if this is ok.” I wasn’t sure what he meant. Was he asking me if my foot was ok, or was he asking if his hand on my face, his other hand gripped tightly around my waist, was ok? I didn’t know, so I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to feel this way but a very big part of me was more content than I had ever been—which was ridiculous given our situation. We had each other captive; there was no running from him now.

“
I can see you,” I said. He was smoothing my hair back from my face, running his hand down my neck. Warmth was all I could feel, like liquid gold running through my veins.

“
You must be part wolf,” he joked. I could feel his breath, warm, drawing me in. His face lit up by the moon, eyes earnest, painful in their restraint. I knew I should stop him. I knew what he wanted, and that he wasn’t going to get it from me. His lips were brushing my neck. I reacted, giggling. It tickled.

Suddenly
, the sound of tearing fabric interrupted us. Initially panicked, thinking someone had fallen from their tree, I saw the wolves had moved on to our packs. I could hear plastic wrappers being torn open and wolves growling and fighting over our dried meat and bread.

“
There go our supplies,” yelled Deshi from the other tree. I was staring down at the ground, straining to see what the wild animals had done. They didn’t seem so scary this far up. They were just puffs of fur moving around each other in a destructive dance. Joseph’s hand was pulling my face towards his own. He was clumsy because he couldn’t see, but his intent was clear. I went rigid. He sensed my hesitation and spoke.

“
Please, I need to do this. I need to finish it.” He sounded so determined.

“
Finish what?” I asked, confused.

“
I owe you this kiss; I need to kiss you back. The way I should have back in Pau,” he said sincerely, nervously. Like he had practiced this speech before. It wasn’t like him to be nervous. I couldn’t help myself.

“
Geez, could you be any sappier?” I laughed. I could see him smiling, his strong jaw and cheeks looking more angular in the moonlight. And then his lips were on mine and I forgot everything. Every logical argument for why this shouldn’t happen flew out my head. We were both overcome. It was more than I had expected, more intense, almost to the point of being painful. I couldn’t pull away. He was never going to pull away. He was right. This was what it should have been like the first time.

I don
’t know how long it lasted. It could have been a minute—it could have been hours. Slowly though, we disconnected from one another. I forgot where I was and over balanced, teetering backwards just slightly, he had me though. I felt like, perhaps, he would always have me. He held me tightly, running his fingers gently up and down my arm and kissing me lightly on the neck. I buried my head in his chest, listening to his heart, feeling the rise and fall as he breathed. I wondered if we needed to speak. Should I say something? Was he going to say something? The biggest question would spoil everything, so I left it. I wanted to stay here, with him, as long as I could. The gold spread through my body. Like a drug, it found its way through every part of me, threatening to dislodge that stone in my heart.

Somehow
, I must have drifted off, because when I opened my eyes, it was dawn. I felt stiff and achy. My ankle was throbbing and crusty with blood. Joseph was awake. He was looking down at me, eyes protective, but with a slight smile on his face.

“
How are you feeling?” he said. He was still holding me tight. I was still curled up in his lap, very reluctant to move at all. This was the safest place in the world to me; I didn’t want to give it up.

“
I’m fine,” I said croakily. I took his hand in mine and kissed it. He held out my arm to inspect it and traced the numerous scrapes and scratches lightly with his fingers, sending more shivers through me.

“
Are you cold?” he asked. I shook my head, attempting to make myself smaller, so he could wrap himself even more tightly around me.

I looked down through the branches. The wolves were gone but they had left a huge mess. Everything was destroyed. The others were already out of the tree. Clara was
standing with her hands on her hips, arching her back and beaming at us. She looked very tired.

“
Good morning, you two,” she said. I didn’t like her tone. Joseph eased me off his lap and helped me climb down from the tree. The stench burned my nostrils as soon as my good foot hit the ground. The wolves had certainly ‘marked’ their territory.

I surveyed the torn bags and crumbs of food
, shaking my head. There was very little we could salvage. Clara sidled up to me, slipped her arm in mine and whispered in my ear, “Joseph and Rosa sitting in a tree k…i…s…s.” I cringed. I gave her a look, which she understood to mean: I don’t care if you’re pregnant; if you finish that sentence, I’m going to finish you. She stopped and grinned at me. Threats never worked with her. Joseph jumped to the ground with ease, barely able to control his glee. Then Clara saw my foot.

I
’ve never had someone fuss over me so much. She sat me down and cleaned the wound, chastising me constantly for lying to her. I pointed out that it was Joseph that lied to her. She whacked the back of his legs as he passed. “Ouch!” he said in mock pain. Their mood was easy to read, like co-conspirators, they just had to give each other a knowing look to work out what the other was thinking. She may as well have congratulated him. But now that I was back on the ground, reality was creeping back in. I was a bit embarrassed. Conscious that maybe the others knew as well. Although, they didn’t seem to show it. They were too concerned with sifting through the chaos our four-legged pursuers had left for us.

Looking at the bite marks
, it seemed I was pretty lucky. I had two neat gashes where the wolf’s teeth had connected with my flesh and dragged across it as Joseph pulled me up. They weren’t too deep. I shut my eyes, remembering the pain as the beast had sunk its fangs into my ankle. The bleeding had stopped. It was going to be hard to walk on though. While Clara was bandaging it up with some torn-up scraps of fabric she had found, care of the wolves, Alexei was busy scanning his reader. He said we needed to get moving. We needed to evacuate the wolves’ territory before they returned. It would mean walking all day, with very little breaks.

Joseph scooped me up in his
arms; he touched his forehead to mine affectionately. Our eyes connected—it was easy to get lost in those green eyes. But I was aware that everyone was looking at us. I asked him to put me down. I would walk, at least, for a while. He looked like he hadn’t slept all night and we all needed to save our energy. He scrounged around and presented me with a long piece of wood with my missing boot on the end of it. I tried to shove the boot on my foot but it was hard with all the bandages. Joseph walked towards me. “Sit down,” he ordered. I obeyed. Gently he lifted my leg, sliding both hands down from my knee to my foot, slowly. I trembled. He balanced my foot on his bended knee and loosened the laces on my shoe. As he positioned my shoe, he winked. As infuriating as ever. “You’re blushing,” he whispered, as he helped me to my feet and handed me the walking stick. I tried to hit him with the stick but he was too fast for me. He ducked and ran to the front of our group, consulting Alexei about what we needed to do next. Although, he may as well have skipped off for how pleased he was with himself.

We put everything we owned into
a couple of packs, which Alexei and Deshi took turns carrying. There wasn’t much. We had lost all our water and dried food. What we had saved or really, what the wolves had decided they didn’t want, were empty water containers, our blankets, and the grey box that had dispensed my breakfast. Apella still had her little pack, which I reminded myself I needed to ask her about.

Deshi led us with the help of my instruction
s to where we had found the railway line.