Chapter 14: Black as Coal
Emelie never grew tired of seeing the color green. She missed walking in the forest; it was even more beautiful than how she remembered it. The sounds of rustling and crunching resonated around; almost like music to her ears, but the sounds echoing over her head were her favorite. It wasn't just the rustle of trees--a variety of small birds whistled above, beyond the branches and leaves that sheltered them from the sun, although some of the light peeked through, highlighting more of the green. The thin rays of light reminded her of life, of hope that maybe somehow, something or someone out there would miracally make the world back to the way it was before. If not that, then perhaps make it a little better, where existing humans could continue living, not to find happiness, but to find meaning, and purpose. She looked at Doug when she thought about it, and he looked back at her, with a faint smile.
Their walk through the forest was quiet, but it wasn't gloomy. The hum of nature brought them to a state of tranquility. Although they all knew that this was only temporary. They were aware that the sun won't stay for long, and soon darkness will take over once more.
Johnny earlier took an effort to do introductions, but it didn't interest the majority. He didn't speak for over an hour, but when he heard Henry and Penny talking about Elaine, he had asked about her. Penny didn't answer him, and when Henry had asked why, Ramsey said, 'So what, you'd feel better if she was a bad kid, is that it?' He then kept his mouth shut after that, for good this time.
Emelie didn't like the way they treated Johnny. She heard their conversations, but said nothing. It was understood well why they were like that towards him. No matter how much Johnny wanted to prove that he was harmless, he was still a cherno, and would never change. He couldn't admit to himself that he felt somewhat ashamed by it.
The group stopped by a small stream, sheltering under a cool shade when their shadows puddled beneath their feet. Paige was the first one that sat down and washed her oily face with the cold, gushing water. When her hands left her face, she flinched when there was suddenly a figure next to her.
"You seem really worn out," said Doug, letting the water run through his hand.
"Well," Paige flicked her matted hair, "You look. . ." Her eyes slowly and carefully fell down, from Doug's face to his torso. When she heard Henry's laugh from a short distance, she snapped out of her train of thoughts. "Fine. You look fine."
Doug blinked and until now, still wondered why Paige was the only woman who eyed him differently, "How are you, really?"
"Look, Doug," she sighed and wiped her wet hands on her pants, "I don't know if, like--maybe there's a part of you in there that somehow uhm--" she smiled to herself in embarrassment, "--Remembers me in any way possible, but uhm, I hope that you do."
They stared at each other for a while before Doug's eyebrows furrowed, "I'm not sure I'm following."
"David, the uh," she scratched her head, "The owner of the body that you took, is what I meant."
"Alright," Doug said slowly, "What about him?"
Paige's lips tucked together and she slapped her thighs when she stood up, "You know what, it's fine. Forget it, it's--nothing, I'm sorry." The heat from both the sun and the blood on her face was almost unbearable. She found Doug's eyes tight on her.
"You don't need to hesitate to tell me anything," he got up to his feet, "You just need to find better words, and know what question you want to ask."
Paige's chest dropped with her shoulders, "Right."
"It's about David Myers, right?"
She nodded in response.
"You ever wondered why he wore a suit?"
She shook her head, "David didn't really like wearing suits before. He said that suits made him feel hot," she snorted, "I mean, literally."
"You miss him."
Paige cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest, "Anyway, yes, I do wonder why you found David, I mean his uh--body in a suit."
"The thing is that I wonder too," he removed his coat and said, "You wanted to talk about Mr. Myers, yes?"
Blood rushed to her face again, pondering why he needed to remove his coat, "Of course," she stuttered out, "But you don't need to uh--"
"Maybe you know what this means?" he gave her his coat.
She pushed aside the collar and her eyes grew wide at the sight of a small red symbol from inside--a circle with a big X over it. "I'm not sure what this is. . . Maybe Ramsey knows?" At the same time, she felt relieved and ashamed.
Ramsey was leaning against a tree, inhaling a cigarette. "You guys are suddenly a thing now?" he said when Doug and Paige came into view.
"You should take a look at this," Paige handed him the coat.
He tucked the cigarette between his lips as he studied the symbol. "I'm not sure what this is--but it's fairly familiar. Like I've seen this before." His rough fingers brushed over it.
"Go on," Doug insisted.
"I saw this symbol a few years ago. . . I think it represents a group of some sort," he blinked when he realized that this was not just a random symbol. An old friend appeared in his head. "Matteo's previous group. . .He was with these guys when I met him, when he saved and--and joined me," he gulped down something in his throat, followed by a fake cough, "I saw this symbol on their shirts, but none of them was wearing a suit."
"So. . . David was with them? He was part of it?" Paige looked at Doug from the corners of her eyes.
"Possibly," Ramsey handed the coat back to Doug before inhaling his cigarette again. "Gather everyone, we'll have to move again soon."
Emelie's words echoed in Doug's mind. The words she said when they met, back at the bridge. "Hold on," he paused and stared at the coat, "Have any of you heard about the 'hidden government'?"
Ramsey scoffed, his head tilted back in disbelief, "Hidden what now?"
"I don't think a government would possibly exist now," Paige suggested, wiping sweat off her forehead.
"Where did you hear that?" Ramsey almost chuckled.
"I'll have to ask Emelie."
Emelie was reading one of her mother's Shakespeare novels, not too far from the group. She couldn't concentrate from their chatters. Her forehead and cheeks were turned to a light shade of red from the heat of the sun's rays. Unbothered, she flipped another page of the book.
When she heard what seemed like a noise of an animal, she lowered her book; her wide blue eyes wandered about. A view of endless trees seemed to grow thinner and smaller when she stared longer ahead. Nothing seemed unusual. Leveling the book up to her eyes, she continued to read again.
This time, the sound was clearer. It was the sound of a goat bleating, she was sure of it. When she lowered her book down, more swiftly this time, and there stood a goat. It was black as coal. Large, grey horns stuck out between its attentive ears. For Emelie, it wasn't usual to see goats, especially in the forest. It almost looked like a foreign creature to her.
Its rectangular-shaped pupils stared at her blankly, and it bleated again, a low-pitched 'meh.'
"Go away," she mumbled, and continued to read. She had only read a sentence before a blow of air was released from her mouth when she looked up again.
A herd of identical black goats were arranged in a straight line. The goats moved closer, and came to a stop.
Based on her judgement, they didn't seem like they were going to charge at her, yet she couldn't deny the fact that she felt uneasy, and fearful of their curved, pointed horns. They seemed calm, but their dark yellow eyes continued to glare at her. Every direction she turned to, a black goat stood, not moving.
'Can goats be territorial? Maybe she was in their territory and now they're somewhat asking me to go away?' She thought to herself. 'Funny how they could be so organized.'
The tension was almost unbearable for her, and this made her rise to her feet slowly. "Alright now," she whispered to herself, closing the book. "I'll be on my way then." With the book close to her chest, she turned around and began to walk away. She gripped the book tightly when a twig cracked behind her. Sweat dropped from her chin when she peered over her shoulder. The goats were following her.
Chuckling to herself in an effort to be at ease, she paced up, not wanting to look back anymore. When the sounds of the twigs and dried leaves were still audible from behind, she started to sprint. The crackles of the twigs and leaves multiplied quickly, and she found herself panting, her feet going over anything on her way.
Her momentum was abruptly stopped when something hit the bridge of her foot. Unable to keep her balance, she tripped over. Not looking whatever it was, she immediately stood up and continued to run again, ignoring the sharp stinging on her foot.
When the group was finally in sight, she smiled in relief. Penny and the others waved at her, but they stiffened after seeing a herd of black goats chasing Emelie.
Being relieved was a positive emotion, yet being too relieved during such an incident like her's wasn't. She had forgotten the sudden slope on the ground, and she stumbled once more, rolling down. Her pair of elbows and knees landed roughly on the grass, where small rocks were underneath. This time, Emelie didn't stand up. Only managing to sit up, she flipped her heavy, bruised body towards the herd of goats.
One of the goats was faster than the rest, it jumped, and galloped towards her, its hooves thundered down the slope, head lowered, horns ready to ram at her--or even stab her to death. After one goat, she had no doubt that the others would follow and do the same. She was horrified.
She closed her eyes and positioned her arms in front of her face, her knees close to her chest, embracing for the worst.
In the dark, she heard footsteps running to her, a pump of a gun, a pull on the trigger, and goats bleating. When she opened her eyes, the herd was running back up the slope frantically. She looked down at the body of a dead goat inches away from her. Its front knees were folded, and its forehead was flat on the ground. Blood oozed out of its thick neck.
"Damn! Crazy mountain goats, I believe," Ramsey said, putting his shotgun to his side, "Not sure why they're here though." He offered his hand to Emelie, who shakely took it, rising up to her feet.
The others followed quickly, "What happened?" Penny asked, grabbing both of Emelie's sweaty arms to take a good look at her. "Are you hurt somewhere?"
Emelie did a sideways movement with her head, and answered a question that no one had asked, "I didn't do anything, I swear."
"What were you even doing out there?" Paige asked, pinching her nose from the smell of the dead goat.
"I was just reading my book and--" she stopped herself, pulling herself away from Penny's grasp. "The book!"
"What book? You have books?" Henry asked, looking around.
"Yes, I was holding it firmly. . . I must have dropped it when I stumbled the first time." Emelie sighed, "I have to get it back."
"Forget about the damn book," Ramsey scratched his sticky neck, "We have to keep moving."
"No, please, I have to go look for it," Emelie choked out, "You can go ahead with the others, I'll catch up."
"There's no need to go back for a book," he replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"There would be no need to be separate for such a reason, either," Doug stepped towards Emelie, looking into her eyes as he added, "We'll all look for your book, though before that, you should wipe your cheek."
"What--" Her fingers slowly reached to touch her cheek, and something wet touched the tips of her fingers--thick liquid. When she looked at it, it was red.
"That herd definitely had intentions of killing you, without a doubt," Johnny assumed.
Doug pulled his sleeve up to his hand and wiped the blood off Emelie's cheek. "Come on."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emelie had remembered clearly where she stumbled down the first time, but the book wasn't there. They all searched near the area, but found nothing. When an hour passed, Ramsey sighed loudly, letting everyone hear, "Okay, it's clearly not here, Emelie. Can we go. . .now? Gee, it's going to be dark soon."
When Emelie didn't respond, Paige asked out of curiosity, "What's so special about the book anyway?"
Penny gave a look at Paige and shook her head disapprovingly.
"It was my mother's. Her books are the only things left of her. I had already lost my father's pocket watch--I can't bear to lose anything else from them anymore." Emelie looked at Doug, who was already looking at her in concern. She gave him a smile to let him know that she was fine, and continued to look under curved roots.
"I think you're the only one in our group that has something left to cherish," Paige said, using a long stick to rummage a bush. "I'm pretty jealous, I admit that."
Emelie didn't answer again. Finding the book was her main and only priority.
Johnny watched everyone rummage all sorts of things in the forest for the book. He wanted to help, but he couldn't bring himself to ask what a book was. He had never seen a book in his life. When everyone's backs were turned against him, he decided to take a break from carrying his body, so he levitated slightly, and looked up at the clear sky. He wasn't sure if it was just him, but it seemed that the day was passing by quicker than before. He watched the sun shift and move. The night was growing near.
At last, after a few hours, her book was found in tall grass, covered in dirt. Emelie didn't even question why it was there, she was just glad that she found it. Henry approached her the moment she put it back in her bag, saying, "Can you read it to me?"
After a pause, Emelie smiled and took the book in her hands once again. She wiped the cover with her shirt and opened it, reading the first few pages out loud as they walked together.
Johnny's assumption was right.The sun did seem to disappear a little quicker today, and he wondered if Doug had noticed. He walked quickly to catch up to him, "Does something feel a little different for you? The pace of the day, perhaps?"
Doug nodded his head once. "Though they don't seem to notice. There would be no need to make them worry about it. Just keep an eye out."
"Not my intention to tell them. None of them would ever listen to me anyway," he corrected himself when he heard Emelie reading to Henry, "I mean, except for the girl reading."
Doug smirked at him, "She didn't even know what I was, yet she spoke to me. Until now, she still doesn't know, yet she still speaks to me with such comfort, like we are of the same kind. I'm quite sure opening up to you is effortless to her. Humans are usually more fearful of the unknown."
"But I'm a cherno. I am seen as evil."
Doug ducked under a low branch, "Doesn't make a difference. I'm not evil, nor good. I am in between, who only chose to accompany them. . .I can't deny that I have grown fond of the girl."