To Have A Wandering Soul

Chapter 10

Caroline focused her eyes on the road. She had been driving for near eight hours but she knew it would not be much longer. She glanced over at Adrian who was sleeping in the passenger seat. He had been so exhausted that he had passed out after four hours and stayed asleep for the duration of the ride.

They were nearing the edge of the Seba, Caroline had been there once before. Seba was an elevated country without a low coastline; it was as though even the land of the Sebans was higher than the others. A large cliff dropped into the channel that separated Seba from Ceria. Caroline intended to hide her pickup and use the cover of the night to lower the canoe she and Adrian had carried into the water. She knew it would take them near two more hours to paddle across the rippled surface but it would all be worth it, being out of Seba was all that she wanted.

As they neared the coast the air became denser, it grew hard for Caroline to see through the thick fog that covered the edge of what had been her nation. She parked in a grove of trees and sat back for a moment, preparing herself for what was to come. It was nearing sundown, she knew they would need to move quickly. Gently shaking Adrian's arm she woke him up. It took him a moment to register where they were before he straightened his spine and looked at her.

"Are we ready to go?

"We are."

Taking a deep breath Adrian opened his door and stepped out. He walked around the front to open Caroline's door for her. He started to unload the boat as she pulled two backpacks from the car. There was one for each of them with three sets of clothing carefully rolled up under sweatpants for sleeping. Beneath it all were two envelopes full of Seban currency. This money had been communized all across the world for easy trading for the Seban race. With that was a copy of the newspaper from that day and Caroline's cell phone. She knew making calls would be risky but she needed the ability to try.

She glanced back to see Adrian was still unloading the boat. Carefully she pulled her phone out of the waterproof bag and dialed her home phone number. It was late and nobody picked up, instead she heard her father's voice on the other end asking the caller to leave a message.

"Hey guys, it's me. We're on the edge of Seba getting ready to head out. I miss you already. Look I won't be able to be in contact for a while so I just wanted to tell you how much I love you. Okay, I have to go so I guess I'll talk to you later. Bye."

She hung up the phone and placed it back in the water proof pack and picked it up. She opened her door, leaving the keys inside, and walked to the back where Adrian had just gotten the boat out. She handed him one backpack and helped pick up the canoe. It took them until dark to move the boat to the edge of the cliff. They lowered it the forty-foot drop lightly into the water and Adrian held the rope to make sure it didn't float away.

"Do you want me to go down first to help you?"

"No I should be okay," Caroline answered as she glanced over the edge of the cliff. She sat on the grass and dangled her feet over. She spun herself over and pushed all her weight onto her arms and glanced up at Adrian, giving him a shy smile before lowering herself down the overhang.

Already her weight was too much for her hands alone; she knew it would be a long forty feet. Quickly her sneaker clad feet found holds in the rock face. Her fingers grasped the dirt on the edge for a moment while she caught her breath, a rush of adrenaline already pumping through her veins. Keeping one hand firmly planted in the cold grass she moved the other down, found a larger rock and grabbed hold of it. She moved the other down and held onto the face of the cliff. When she knew she had support she moved her feet farther down. Slowly and tediously she made her way down the rock wall. She eventually found her feet in the rocking boat below her.