Awake

Chapter Fifty-Three - Salt Water and Reality

When Miriam awoke the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky. With some creativity, the fire had been started up again and was now billowing smoke dramatically out into the forest. Carmen sat beside it looking proud.

"Did you put damp wood on?" Miriam asked, sitting up and pushing her hair back from her face.

Carmen shrugged. "How should I know? It was just wood."

Miriam sighed and wandered over, solving the problem as deftly as she could. Carmen watched with a mixture of indignation and desperate hope.

"I did start it again, though, didn't I?" she urged. "It was a good fire. It was burning. There were only embers when I woke up but now look!"

"Yes, look at the choking pillar of smoke," Miriam rolled her eyes. "No, it wasn't bad. You just need some practice."

Carmen was looking bright-eyed and fresh, all aglow with energy and enthusiasm. Nigs sitting beside her, chewing down an energy bar, looked well-rested but broody, deep in some thoughts of his own. On the other side of the fire, Sandy and Ebb sat apart from one another, both in silence.

"Where's Jonathan?" Miriam asked.

"Over there," Carmen pointed. "We didn't want to wake either of you. You were so soundly asleep."

"You've gone soft," Miriam teased. "Don't we have things to do today?"

Carmen shrugged. "No sense in rushing. We don't know how far away the sea is, after all."

"All the same," Miriam glanced up at the sun, "we should probably wake him."

"Be my guest," Carmen spread her hands wide. "I don't want to get my head snapped off for disturbing him."

Miriam walked across their encampment to where Jonathan lay, curled up with his knees against his chest, a blanket twisted across him.

"Hey," she shook his shoulder gently. "Hey, wake up. It's midmorning already."

He rolled over and blinked up at her, bleary-eyed. "Huh?"

"Wake up," she repeated. "It's time to get moving. The others have been up for hours."

"They have?" Jonathan forced himself into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes and brushing leaves out of his hair. "Damn."

"I've only just woken up as well," Miriam smiled. "Guess they slept better than us. Come on. There's time for some breakfast before we go."

"Miriam?" he caught her wrist before she could leave. "I need to talk to you today. Privately."

Miriam's eyebrows wrinkled into a frown. "You do?"

"It's just...something I don't want to discuss with anyone else," he paused. "Well, not yet. I'd just like to talk to you. Is that alright?"

Miriam's smile returned. "Of course. Whenever we have a moment."

"Thank you. It means a lot."

Miriam freed herself gently from his grip and walked back to fire while behind her Jonathan straightened out his shirt and struggled onto his feet. She saw, to her surprise, Nigs watching her, eyes narrowed, a look on his face as though there was something he desperately wanted to ask but didn't quite dare.

The day's walking was not strenuous. None of them, save Carmen, had any great ambition to reach the sea. They didn't even care whether they found civilisation or any trace of other humans left alive. All that mattered was being outside, relaxed, far away from Subterra.