Against The Darkness (Cimmerian Moon) (3 page)

Was that even
possible? Ride out the alien invasion? I would like to think so. Like maybe one
day the aliens would get tired of Earth or find what they came for and leave.
Whatever the case may be. They would leave.

Wade stumbles
but rights his footing before he falls. Although I’m well behind him, I reach
up, attempting to catch the back of his shirt, but end up empty-handed.

“Ouch,” he
cries out in pain—loudly.

My heart skips
a beat. I drop, my knees meeting the wet ground. Squinting, I look around,
making sure aliens aren’t nearby to pounce on us. He’s bent over. His hands are
on his left ankle, but he looks up abruptly, catching himself from saying
anything else and realizing in a panic that he just yelled, possibly attracting
attention to us.

I pull out the
butcher’s knife I have hanging from the drawstring of my sweatpants. Still on
my knees, I shuffle, turning in a circle, keeping my eyes on the landscape, my
eyes searching for the big reptilian-like aliens. I don’t really know what
harm—if any—I can do with my knife, but it’s better than nothing.

As before, I
don’t see or hear anything.

After a few
minutes, Wade tries to straighten, but immediately sucks in a sharp breath and
lifts up his foot. His face contorts in pain.

“What is it?”
I whisper.

“My ankle.
Ow
.”

Not good.

I look around
warily. I don’t see any aliens rushing to get us, so I ease up just a little. I
lift off my knees and crawl to him on my feet and hands, closing the distance.

I reach for his
hands and try to move them from his ankle. “Let me see.”

He uses a hand
to bat mine away. “Naw, I’m fine.” But when he rises, putting weight on his
ankle, he again winces and lifts his foot off the ground.

“You are not
okay.” I reach for his ankle and this time he puts his hand on mine and looks
down at me. If I hadn’t known he was in pain there would be no mistaking it
now. His face is dark red and his eyes are watery. “I can handle this,” he says,
through gritted teeth.

“I won’t hurt
you. My mother is a nurse.”

He grunts, but
let go of my hand. “That doesn’t mean you know what to do.”

I lower myself
to a knee and lift up his dripping pant leg to assess his ankle. It’s wet, with
lines of dirt on his red and swollen skin. “Yeah it does. I’ve been helping her
out in the clinic since I was seven. I can take care of a twisted ankle.” I
touch lightly around his skin, making sure I don’t feel any protruding bones. Feeling
none, I pull away.

“Is that the
diagnosis? Twisted ankle?”

I sit back on
my heels. “That’s what it looks like. We’ll have to take it slow. We don’t want
to aggravate it.” Which means it’ll take us longer to get back to the others
and we’d have to stay put for the night. I take in a deep breath. We just added
another day to our journey home.

He turns and
tries to walk away from me but it appears more like hobbling. “You can run
ahead and tell everyone that I’m coming. I’ll be back well before darkness
falls.”

I humph. As
far as I’m concerned, darkness fell the minute the aliens came.

He waves his
hand through the air. “Go on. Make sure everyone knows we can still leave on
time.”

Rising, I don’t
concern myself with the mud stains on my knees. Those stains will blend in with
the rest of the dirt and grime. In two strides I’m by his side, lifting up his
heavy arm and putting it around my shoulder. He tries to protest and pull away,
but I don’t let him go.

“That’s not
what I’m going to do. We’re supposed to split up only if you’re down and can’t
move. And only then can I leave you and return with help,” I say, reciting the
rules that we heard every morning before a new scouting team went out for the
day.

He peers down to
me, scowling. His piercing gray eyes flicker with disappointment. “You can’t
hold me.”

I adjust my
body under his weight. “Think of me as a crutch. We’ll be back in no time.”

He takes a
step and limps, leaning on me. He’s heavy, but I do my best to hold him up.

“I thought I
was the crutch. Isn’t that what you called me?”

Argh
.
I did. When we returned from our first scouting mission. “I’m sorry, I didn’t
mean it.”

He limps along
with me helping. “You did, but it’s okay. I was…still am.”

“No. It wasn’t
nice. I was frustrated. I just want to get home.”

“Me too.”

I realize now
that I don’t know much about him, although we’ve had band together since the
sixth grade. To me he’s always been “Big Wade”, the tuba player.

“Do you think
your family survived?” I ask.

“I know they
did.”

“You sound so
sure.”

“I am. We’re
hunters. We can survive this.”

He says “this”
as though it’s just a mere power outage or something else we’re used to dealing
with.

“So you mean
to tell me that you know how to hunt and we’ve been eating stale bread for two
weeks?” I say, trying to lighten the mood.

He grunts and
presses down on me. My legs shake under his weight. “This isn’t going to work.”

He tries to stop
but I won’t let him. I nod toward the trees up ahead. “You can make it to the
trees. I’d feel better if we got out of the open.”

He straightens
and keeps going. He can do it, but he’s having a hard time, his breaths coming out
strained and hard. We make it to the trees but he passes some. I don’t say
anything as he continues on, into the thick of them, until finally he stops. He
lifts his arm from my shoulder and leans back against one. His face is redder and
I can tell he’s holding his breath.

I drop to the
ground to view his ankle again. He doesn’t complain this time. I’m not happy
with what I see. It’s still red and more swollen than before. There’s no use in
getting angry or worked up about our time or progress. We won’t be going
anywhere anytime soon.

“We’ll have to
rest here.” I glance at my watch. One-thirty p.m. “We can take a breather for
an hour to let the swelling go down and start again.”

“No, you know
the rules. I’ll stay here while you go for help.”

I know the
rules but leaving him alone out here doesn’t seem right. But I can’t help but think
I would have easily done it three hours ago, when my irritation with him was at
its peak.

“Not hap’n cap’n.”
I say the words my mother says when she doesn’t agree with a choice I was
making.

“Sinta, go on.
You’re a fast runner. I’ve seen you in track. You can get help and be back here
within the hour.”

He’s right. I
run the one hundred meter dash in ten-point-five seconds. It’ll take me no time
at all to cover the five miles, and getting someone to come back with me won’t
be a problem. There are a couple of guys that can easily hold Wade’s weight.

“Alright.” I rise
and look around for something to cover him with. “We’ll need leaves.”

He pushes off
the tree to try and help me, but I stop him with a hand. “Stay there. I can
find some.”

Thump!
Thump! Thump!

The rapid
succession of noise penetrates the quietness.

I drop low to
the ground. “What the hell is that?”

Wade eases
slowly down the trunk of the tree “I don’t kno—”

Thump!
Thump! Thump!

My heart seems
to crash against my ribs in time with each thump. It sounds so close.

I scramble
closer to the tree, almost hugging it.

I glance at Wade,
wondering what we should do. He’s just as scared as I am, but his fear is more
controlled. I’m poised to bolt away, but he isn’t. It takes me a second to
remember.

“Your ankle.
How will we run?”

“It’s not near
us,” he says calmly.

Thump!
Thump! Thump!

“See?”

He’s right. It’s
loud, but it isn’t close.

I still don’t
let up my grip on the tree. “Jesus. I almost peed on myself.”

“Well, I for
one am happy that you didn’t. There’s nothing like the scent of scared piss to
make the predators all excited.”

“I’m not
scared,” I say, defending myself, although I swear he can see my body shaking.

“It’s okay to
admit when you’re afraid. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

I pretend to
rise. “If I was scared I wouldn’t be going to see what that noise is, now would
I?”

He reaches
out, grabbing onto my arm tightly. “The hell you are.”

I give him a
sideways glance. “It was a joke.”

He rolls his
eyes, releasing me. “Hardy-har-har. Not very funny.” He blows out a breath. “It
sounds like its coming from the direction of camp.”

“You don’t
think…” I stop right there. I don’t even want to form the words.

After hearing
the ominous noises, the plan for me to run back to get help is nixed. We don’t
know what is out there and where the noise is coming from. For all we know it
could be gunfire, but whether from humans or aliens is what we don’t know.

I help Wade
move deeper into the trees. The canopy of branches and leaves provide cover
from the assault of the rain and, most importantly, we won’t be easily spotted
from the sky. The new plan is to stay where we are for a couple of hours, let
some of the swelling in his ankle go down and the pain to subside, and for the
noises to stop, and then head back to camp together.

Two hours
turned into three. The loud noises continued on. Just when we thought they
would stop, we would hear another round.

Thump!
Thump! Thump!

Sometimes
closer, sometimes farther away. We sit on opposite sides of the tree, resting
our backs against the trunk. He keeps his legs stretched out, with the left foot
elevated on a rock that I found. My legs are bent and pulled up to my chest, and
my chin is resting on my knees.

“May…be we sh…should
get closer together?” I ask. My teeth chatter as the chilly air seems to seep
into my bones.

“I know you’re
cold, but in this position we have a better vantage point.”

“O…okay.”

Thump!
Thump! Thump!

I cringe. It
could be anything, but the more I hear it the more I realize it’s coming from
the aliens. No one else would be that loud willingly. That would only invite
the aliens to your location.

Thump!
Thump! Thump!

Closer.

Cringing again,
I tighten my grip on my leg, scraping my nails against my skin. “I hate this,”
I whisper.

“I do too, but
we’re going to be okay, Sin.”

I don’t mind
that he has shortened my name, using a nickname that only my mother and Mia
call me.

“That one
sounded closer,” I whisper, so low that I’m not even sure he can hear me.

A ship can be
heard off in the distance. Although it doesn’t seem to be coming our way I keep
listening for it, willing it away.

“Yeah, but I
still think its three or four miles to the south of us.”

“That would
put the sound between us and camp.”

“Yeah, but I’m
sure they’re doing what we are—hunkering down and staying out of the way.
If the noise gets any closer, we’ll have to start heading north again.”

“But your
ankle.”

“It’s getting
better. I can feel it. It doesn’t hurt as much.” I hear him rustling. “We don’t
have to make any hard decisions right now. We’ll wait it out. See what
happens.”

I bury my face
between my knees. I don’t want to think about what he means by “hard
decisions”. Wade and I can’t leave everyone else behind and take off on our own.
Mia is still back there. “I can’t leave without Mia, or everyone else.”

“Stop thinking
like that. I don’t think we could make it back on our own. We need all the help
we can get.”

“Do you really
think they’re okay?”

He pauses
before he answers. “Yeah.”

Does he
really think that? Was there a hint of uncertainty in his voice?

“Are you
worried about Mia?”

“I’m worried
about her and everyone else, but mainly her. I can’t lie. We’ve been best
friends since we were in the second grade. She’s the sister I never had. If
anything happened to her, I don’t know what I would do.”

“She’ll be
fine. They all will.”

I close my
eyes and will what he says to be true. She had just moved to America from
Medellin, Columbia and, on her first day of school, the teacher assigned me to
be her buddy. We haven’t separated since, even though we’re more different than
alike. I spend most of my time studying and the only time she’ll crack open a
book is if I make her. If she didn’t hang out with me, I have no doubt she could
assimilate into the “in” crowd, while I would be stuck hanging with the nerds. She
has a golden skin tone, telling of her Latin heritage, and mine is a light
caramel color. She’s gorgeous, with more of a woman’s body than I have, curves
in the right places and breasts that can actually fill out an adult bra. If I
didn’t wear a bra, no one would ever be able to tell the difference.

But I really
did hit the jackpot in the best friend category. We’re inseparable.

“I don’t want
the aliens to get them. And I especially don’t want them to get us.”

He chuckles. “I
don’t see us going with any aliens without a fight.”

I reach for my
butcher’s knife. “I’ll make a lizard-skinned belt out of one of them first.”

“
Pft
. Have
you seen how big those motherfuckers are? We’ll have enough left over for some
cool boots, maybe a hat for me and a purse for you.”

“And a jacket.
Not a short jacket, but a long one, down to my ankles.”

“We won’t make
it easy for them,” he promises.

“No, we won’t.”

We talk about everything
that comes to our mind for the next couple of hours, trying to keep our minds
off what could possibly be going on in the distance. We’ve talked about school,
band and our families. I know he’s the middle of three boys,  that his family
has an impressive collection of weapons, and he’s been hunting since he could
hold a rifle.

I’ve told him
I’m an only child. I don’t elaborate that I’m my mother’s only child but the
youngest of three of my dad’s. I tell him that my mom is black and my dad is
white, which he says he pretty much guessed on his own. I don’t tell him that
my mom and dad aren’t married, that they’ve never been married, or that I’m the
product of an affair. There’s no need to go into all of that. Mia is the only
one I’ve ever told my secret to and, as far as I’m concerned, it can be one I
take to my grave.

So I go on
about my dad being an corporate lawyer for a pharmaceutical company and that he
travels a lot—that’s why no one from school has ever seen him
around—not because he can’t have anyone recognizing him and telling his
wife. And I also tell him I have never held a weapon in my life. Besides band,
track and volunteering at the free clinic, I have no other extracurricular
activities. I spend my spare time hanging out with my best friend Mia, who is safe—I
pray.

I pick at the
rocks in the dirt around my feet. “What’s the first thing you’re going to do
when you get home?” I ask.

“Get my
weapons and join my family in fighting these bastards.”

After hearing
about his family and their farm, I wouldn’t have expected him to answer any
other way.

“I’m going to
help my mom. I know she’s probably at some hospital. Well, maybe not a
hospital. I doubt if any are still standing. But I’m sure she’s helping people
somewhere.”
Picking up one of the rocks, I skip it on the ground,
so that it lands a few feet in front of me.

“I’m sure she
could use your help. You’re good at this kinda stuff.”

I smirk. “You
say that like you’re surprised.”

“I am. Sinta
Allen, first chair clarinet and current record holder in the one hundred meter
dash. I would’ve never guessed that you had a helping streak in you.”

“Hey, that’s
not fair. I help out a lot.”

He chuckles
playfully. “It’s not that I didn’t think you helped out. I just never thought
of you outside of school.”

“Well, we both
have secret lives outside of school. You, the avid hunter and furry animal
killer and me the junior Florence Nightingale.”

He chokes.
“Junior Florence Nightingale? I think that’s a bit of a stretch.”

“
That
bothers you and not the furry animal killer?”

“Hell no. As a
matter of fact, if a furry animal passed by me right now I’d grab it, snap its
neck and cook it up.”

“Gross.” But
my stomach growls when I think of eating some kind of meat—furry or not. I
haven’t had any in so long. “But I’ll let you teach me how to hunt.”

“It’ll be my
pleasure.”

We’re silent
for a few more minutes. “I’m sorry about talking mess about you before.”

He’s silent
for so long I didn’t think he heard me. I was about to say it again, louder
this time, before he finally spoke. “It’s okay.”

I straighten
and rest my head against the tree. “No it’s not. I shouldn’t have said those
things.”

Thinking back,
I said some horrible things. I hadn’t intended to, it just happened. I had been
sitting with Mia, complaining about how slow scouting with Wade was. All the other
teams had gone farther than we had and come back quicker. I didn’t want anyone
to think we were the weak links in the group. No one had said that we were, but
they griped and mumbled under their breaths.

I only meant
to complain to Mia, but her boyfriend Ian Harmon approached us and, as soon as
he had, she started telling him everything I told her. Then he told everyone
else. It had snow-balled from there, with the guys and some of the girls
teasing him. I hadn’t joined in on the teasing, but I started it just the same.

“That wasn’t
the first time I’ve been teased about my weight.”

I flinch,
knowing he was right. It makes me feel worse. I’ve heard how the other band
members teased him for being overweight and for playing the tuba. I should have
used more restraint and been more understanding. In short, I acted like a
bitch.

On that thought, I fling a rock through
the air where it hits with a “tink” on the nearest tree.

“What’s that?” Wade whispers, his
voice coming out fast and strained.

“Nothing. That was me, sorry.”

He let out a relieved breath. “I
think I just had a mini heart attack.”

I wipe the
dirt from my hands off on my sweats, resigning to controlling my anger and stop
throwing rocks. “I won’t do it again. I’m just mad at the way I acted. I’ve never
acted that way before.
I shouldn’t have—”

“Sin, forget
about it. Look on the bright side. This crash diet is doing wonders for my
figure,” he jokes. Then, in a more serious tone, he adds, “I really don’t want
to mention it again.”

I still feel
like I have more apologizing to do but I snap my mouth shut. We sit in silence
for a while longer. It’s starting to get darker as the sun begins to set and,
luckily for us, the rain ceases. I keep watching through the trees for anything
that shouldn’t be there, mainly of the alien nature. I know Wade is doing the
same, but in the opposite direction, and I’m glad he has my back.

Finally I take
a glance at my watch again. We haven’t heard anything for an hour and, taking
that as a good sign, I stand. The muscles in my legs hurt from being worked all
morning and then the long lapse of no movement without so much as a stretch.

Wade peeks his
head around the tree. “What are you doing?”

I bend my leg
and reach behind me for my foot, stretching out my thigh muscles. “We haven’t
heard anything for a while.” Grunting, I release my leg to do the same to the
other.

He pulls up
his pant leg, revealing his ankle. I come around to see it. The swelling has
gone down and the redness is almost gone.

“How does it
feel? Can you walk?”

He rotates his
foot and grimaces. “It’s still a little sore but a lot better. I should be
fine.”

“Good.” I
reach out my hand.

He glances up
to me. “You’re going to help me up?” He chuckles. “You weigh what? Ninety
pounds soaking wet?”

“I weigh more
than that,” I grumble.

He reaches out
for me and I take his hand. I pull him hard as I can, leaning back on my heels.
He’s heavy, but with my help, he’s able to stand.

“I weigh one-hundred
and ten pounds to be exact.”

“Oh, that
makes you so able to pick me up.”

“I just did,
didn’t I?” I flex my biceps like the weightlifters do and kiss each one.
“Welcome to the gun show.”

He burst out
in a laugh and catches himself. We both glance around for aliens. When we don’t
see anything we begin to laugh again, this time quietly and covering our mouths.

He takes a
step forward and doesn’t flinch. “Come on, let’s head back.”

I roll my
right shoulder. “You need my support?”

He takes some
more steps and I follow him. “Naw, I’ll give your shoulder a break. I don’t
want to go limping back into camp supported by you. That’s all I need right
now.”

“I said I was
sorry.”

“I was
jo-king,” he said, elongating the pronunciation of joking.

“Oh.”

We walk for
only about twenty feet before I hear something.

Trampling?
Running?

I stop and put
out my hand, catching Wade on the chest, stopping him. “You hear that?” I
whisper.