Survivors

Chapter Six - To The Watering Hole

Chapter Six - To The Watering Hole

Elizabeth

I was sat alone, in the darkness of the road a few minutes away from the girl and her frog. With the glow of our little fire behind me, and the fact I hadn’t turned at all meant I couldn’t get lost or forget the way back.

I just sat there really, in the middle of the road, on the cooling tarmac, with my knees tucked to my chin and ripping a dead weed out of the ground with my left hand.

The wind that was now blowing through the streets was tinged with a crisp, salty smell that cradled and soothed me as I stared at my right hand. Closed in the shape of a fist.

Clenching it and unclenching it the restricted light made it seem like shadows engulfed the fist but retreated when I lay my palm open. Guilt was now devouring me, like she had devoured the soup. This time the guilt was more ravenous than when I had attempted to flee with that precious food.

I had punched her; I had closed my fist and swung it at her. And it had connected with her face, hard. I could still feel the slight shockwaves bouncing up and down the bones in my arm.

But she had it coming did she not; she shouldn’t have joked about such things. She shouldn’t have leapt at me, shouldn’t have said those things.

I had stopped terrorizing the deceased piece of flora and was now just staring at the cloudless sky. For once, could it rain? I suppose not, so I breathed deeply and picked up a stone and threw it as far as I could; it wasn’t long before the darkness consumed it though.

I glanced back, the red glow still there and the girl, with her frog upon shoulder, watching it intently but then yawned. In the moment my eyes reopened, the fire had gone and my whole world was darkness. I’d leave it another half hour or so, so I didn’t disturb her.

I feel into a pit of self-brooding. Shivering slightly and gazing at the constellations, trying to find the plough or another of the commonly known and easy to find ones. But the stars seemed faded, like the world had been flung into the depths of a desolate part of space and left there, away from the glowing lights of the night.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so, distant and moody, maybe I should liven up a bit. I’ll try in the morning, I mean, if she decides to stick around Im going to have to adapt to her childish behaviour.

Singing could be a good place to start; I mean it’ll brighten up my mood and help to get used to using my voice again. I sat for a moment, thinking rather than doing. Then a smile crept onto my face as a song from my child hood resurfaced in my memory, all I could truly remember was the chorus but that didn’t matter.

“I’m on tonight..” I began, my voice barely a whisper and was strained so badly it resembled more of a yowl than singing “…you know my hips don’t lie and I’m starting to feel it’s right!” My voice began to get stronger, louder and my smile grew as I slowly stood up and twirled around blindly in the darkness. The coldness was gone, as was the aches and the bruises I had managed to recently accumulate and all that mattered was this song. “All the attraction, the tension, don’t you see baby, this is perfection!” Then I froze, a different song, different words reaching my ears.

“Friday I’m in loveeeeeeee…” I knew, I knew I was not hearing things. It was closer, closer than it was previously but still faint, carried by the wind from somewhere across the city. Slowly, cautiously, with the cold making its presence felt once more, I eyed up the darkness on every corner. I began to slink back towards the place where the fire had been. Where the girl and her frog was. Back towards safety.

As I settled down, on my rucksack, the wind died and so went the sound, but another filled my ears, one of water, running smooth water, the giver of life. Not far off either. It was calling for me to go to it, but not now, I was too worried over what I had heard to fall asleep, not now.