Strandline

Strandline - Episode 16: Barrier

Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.

Dripping water was the only thing Naveen could hear over his own breathing and heartbeat. Keeping his belly on the cool ground, he dared to raise his head to look for its source. Grass-covered sand dunes, their colors faded from the twilight, surrounded him, and stars pierced the night sky. The tall concrete wall he’d first seen after he’d gotten outside loomed fifty meters ahead.

Plunk. Plunk.

Naveen rested his forehead on his arm. Shouldn’t be able to hear it. Shouldn’t be able to see, his adrenaline-fueled thoughts rambled. Never mind. Not important. He took a deep breath and readied himself. His overdeveloped leg muscles—when had that happened?— trembled with pent-up energy.

He leaped forward, his strides too long and movements too fast. But it didn’t matter. He whispered through the reedy grass and flew over one dune, then another and another.

When he crested the last dune he launching himself up and forward. Colliding with the wall hurt, but he was too busy digging his fingertips into the concrete to care. Naveen ignored complaining nerves as blood flowed and concrete crumbled. Getting a handhold was more important than pain.

Dangling from from a three-fingertip grip on the wall, Naveen balled his other hand and drove it into the concrete. It and the skin on his knuckles broke, but he had something else to grip.

Now relatively secure, he looked around. Grass waved in the salty breeze eight meters below him. Above him was another three meters of wall, topped with loops of razor wire. Light briefly reflected from its surface, vanished, then glinted again.

They were coming. Up was the only way out.

Using the heels of his palms, Naveen gouged one handhold after another into the wall. His arms and shoulders didn’t complain as he hauled himself up, but his hands were throbbing and bloody.

With his pulse pounding in his ears, Naveen’s raw fingertips grasped the top of the wall. Grinning, he threw his other hand up. Before it reached its target, pain pricked his back once, twice, three times. Numbness swelled from each point.

Plunk.

“No!” Naveen shouted. He barely heard his voice over his heartbeat and ragged breaths. “You can’t—”

Plunk. Plunk.

His arms went numb, then his fingers. Gravity dragged him down—

—to his bed, where he gasped awake. Naveen lay stock-still, wondering why he hadn’t crashed into the sandy grass. Gradually the barely organized chaos of his bedroom came into focus. All of the lights were off, but it looked dimly lit. The only dark he saw anymore was the back of his eyelids. Just like in the dream.

The realization made Naveen draw a shuddering breath. He’d had that nightmare before, but had written it off to watching the Bourne movies one too many times. But now…

He sat up, scrubbing his hands over his face. After a moment’s hesitation he got up and stepped over the stray clothes and gaming console to the mirror over his dresser. His plain ol’ five-o’clock-shadowed refection stared back. No glowing symbols, which he hadn’t wanted to know about earlier that evening. Now he wasn’t so sure.

Although he was wide awake, Naveen returned to bed. He almost didn’t want to fall back to sleep. Morning would come faster, and with it questions he didn’t want to ask.

He must have dozed off eventually, because he awoke to sunlight backlighting the window blinds and the clinks and thumps of people moving around in the kitchen. He donned yesterday’s shorts and T-shirt and dragged himself down the hall to face his nictan friends.