Awake

Chapter Fifty-One - If We Stay Out Here

The explorers stopped in the evening light in a pleasant clearing beneath the trees, set just back from the river. They dropped their packs to the ground with relief, groaning as they stretched their aching limbs.

"Now here's the real test," Nigs said, grimly. "Night is when all the wild beasts come to eat us."

"I wish we had a fire," Jonathan said, regretfully. "The light is supposed to keep animals away, isn't it?"

"I can make a fire," Miriam promised.

Nigs looked at her in surprise. "You can? We don't have anything to make one with."

"There are trees," Miriam pointed. "Go and gather firewood."

Grumbling, Nigs went off to do just that. Miriam knelt on the grass, gently pushing any fallen leaves aside and using pebbles plucked from the riverbank to build a little fireplace. When Nigs returned with an armful of twigs, she began to expertly stack them, building up a construction.

"Can you really set a fire without matches?" Jonathan asked, interested.

Miriam smiled faintly. "I lived in a refugee camp. Of course I can."

It took a few minutes but soon there was a fire blazing between them, the flames leaping up towards the sky. They watched, mesmerised. There was no fire underground, nothing so warm. They breathed in the smoke as sparks popped and danced above them.

"This is good," Carmen announced, half-lying and leaning on her pack. "This is a life I could live quite happily."

"Sleeping outdoors, sitting round a fire, surrounded by friends," Jonathan said, dreamily. "It's like the old days."

"It'll be a shame to go back underground," Miriam sighed. "I wish we didn't have to. We could just build ourselves little houses out here, down near the river. Trap animals. Gather fruit. And at night we'd sit out round a fire, under the stars."

Carmen snorted. "I suppose you know how to set snares as well, wilderness survivor? And build a house?"

"I can hunt animals," Ebb spoke up, unexpectedly. "I know how to make snares, and lay traps. It's not as hard as you think."

Carmen studied him for a moment. "Alright. You'd be on hunting duty. You could teach us what to do."

"I can't trap, but I can cook," Miriam offered. "It's something I've always been good at."

Jonathan nodded approvingly. "You'd tend the fire and cook the meals. The rest of us would build houses."

"We could have one each," Miriam continued, longingly. "Little houses, with roofs and doors and we could cover them in flowers."

"Speak for yourself," Nigs muttered. "I get hay fever."

"Flowers aren't compulsory," Carmen promised. "You can do what you like with your hut. It's yours."

"Just the six of us, living out here," Jonathan breathed. "All this space, all this land. No rules to follow, nobody to push us around, no danger. It would be wonderful."

For a moment, they sat in silence, transfixed by this picture of a blameless future in their own personal Eden.

"Of course, it'd never work out," Nigs broke the hush. "I mean, we've never got on. We'd end up setting fire to each other's huts and tricking people into walking into the boar nets."

Jonathan looked hurt. "You had to spoil our dreams, didn't you?"

"There's no point anyway," Nigs sighed deeply. "We have to go back. We have responsibilities. So at least we can be practical and not pretend we have the option."