Authors: Maria Bradley
‘
We will be gone child. Get on my back.’
He is my own
Uncle again Amica, but I still feel hesitant, different than I did before. It is strange and unfamiliar to feel like this around my protector.
‘
Are you holding tight?’
‘
Yes, but I don’t want to squash my friend.’
‘
I have you both, we will be home soon.’
My stomach is anywhere but where it should be, once again
, as Uncle is running to begin his ascent through the tightly knitted trees. I am clinging to his back with my legs around his waist; my arms hold onto my friend’s legs as well as my Uncle’s neck, and I pray that we are both secure. A sharp stinging pain in my back, and another, my back is sticky and wet with something. Another sharp, deeper throb in my arm, and I am falling into blessed, pain free, nothingness.
8.02.3012
So here I am, alone, yet surrounded, in this dark forest of creatures, slipping in and out of dreams and memories, and reliving every second of my journey with you friend. A twilight cushion of my own creation; maybe I’ll just stay here and sleep the long sleep forever, with you Amica.
No, something
’s happening, I’m awake again, and moving! The pain in my head is excruciating as it bangs against the ragged floor of the forest. My legs are tied and useless as I am being dragged, and there is no strength in my arms to grab hold of something and stop myself. It’s too dark to see anything but the smudged black shape of whatever is pulling me.
‘
Who are you? What do you want from me?’ My voice is cracked and husky, little more than a whisper. ‘You’ll see.’ I know that voice, it’s female, who is it Amica? She continues to mutter as she callously pulls my wounded body over sharp stones and jagged splintered branches.
‘
Stupid child, you can’t escape them. You turn or you die, and you have chosen death.’ I know who it is, it’s Anne, but how did she know where I was? She is with the Elders now isn’t she? Does this mean the Elders know of Watchers mountain? Are they all being attacked? I can’t warn them, I can’t help them. Oh Uncle, find me, find me now!
I must have passed out. We have stopped
, and I can see subtle, paler light through my closed eyelids. This could be my salvation! Anne is Vampire, she will have to hide from the dawn and maybe I can escape her somehow.
‘
Hurry, do it now. The sun is coming up and she will burn. Do it!’
The sound of Anne
’s voice is like a dose of salt in my wounds. She is behind me talking to someone, or some thing! I can hear deep, rasping breaths, but I’m too sore and too tightly bound to twist around and see it. I am trembling beneath the pain but they won’t see that in my eyes. Anne, I know, enjoys others’ fear and pain. My mind flits back to the battle in the tunnels under the well, when Garok and the Sanguis were locked in a gruesome battle. Anne was practically purring, in her enjoyment of the scene.
The dry leaves crackle as she walks around to face me. God, she is ugly! I never noticed it before. Her eyes are slits, empty of emotion, her nose is short and fat,
like a pigs, and thin lips surround a crooked, evil smile. ‘You will be Vampire soon Aecia, but for a very short time. Ha ha, a very short time indeed.’
It is getting brighter by the second as the dawn fights
its way through the thick branches of the trees. She is wearing a hooded cloak, covering her head and body. Does she mean to bite me herself, or is the unknown fiend behind me, going to do as she asked? My head hurts Amica, my eyes are closing against my will and even the pain is dimming. I’m going to pass out again.
‘No you’re not! You must fight!’
‘For god’s sake Amica, why won’t you let me go? There is no hope. One of them is going to bite me and then, that’s that! I will be ashes. I’m in agony and I’m bound, I can’t move. There is no hope.’
‘There is always hope.’
I can feel warm breath on my neck and something is slithering around to my side. It is red skinned, red eyed. It is the Sanguis from the well tunnels, the one that fought Garok! I’m trying to lift my tethered hands to strike it, but they are attached to another rope, which is attached to my tied legs. Thick rope, so tight, my wrists and ankles are bleeding. It is opening its mouth; a red chasm of sharp, overlapping teeth, with two huge, filthy, red stained fangs overshadowing the rest. I close my eyes and wait for the sting.
But wait! It’s movi
ng past me, standing up so fast it has knocked the gloating Anne off her feet. It’s pulling the cloak from her body, and she stands in a shaft of the emerging sunlight. The beast has leaped on her and is biting her as they struggle in the dirt. The singed smell of both their bodies fills my open mouth with acrid smoke, and I can barely see. I’m rescuing the final ounces of strength left in my body, and trying to shuffle away, like a baby learning to crawl. I don’t know who the winner will be and I don’t want to be the reward for either of them. Anne’s obviously upset the Sanguis somehow, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is my friend. She could be the appetizer and I could be the main course! I don’t know, I just want to get home to my Uncle.
Disembodied voice
!
He could be a bit better and maybe be well enough to hear me now, or he could be ….No, he’s not. I know it, I feel it. Maybe there is enough life left in me to connect with his mind.
‘Help me! Look for the smoke coming through the trees. Anne and another Sanguis are fighting. It was Anne who fired at me, I… Help me please.’
Silence, except for the guttural sounds of my tormenters, tearing each other to pieces. They are biting each other viciously, and beneath them, the forest flotsam is crimson red with their blood. All this, while their Vampire skin is a smouldering fire from the filtered sunlight. It’s a macabre and fascinating sight, but that goes over my head as I watch, fearfully, to see who is getting the better of whom. I can’t win no matter what the outcome. I must double my efforts to contact
voice.
It’s my only hope now. ‘Please, please hear me! I need you. Come here please. Look for the smoke in the forest.’
Oh God, it looks like Anne is winning now. The Sanguis is writhing on the ground, blood gushing from
its throat. How did I ever mistake her for a human? She has no soul, no compassion, she’s pure evil. A dark shadow has passed over the sun, and a gust of wind has knocked Anne off her feet, as she stands triumphant, over the twitching Sanguis. I don’t believe it Amica, it’s my Uncle! My voice won’t work, can he see me?
‘
Uncle.’
A coarse, sandy whisper leaves my mouth, and for once, I applaud the
Vampire’s enhanced hearing ability, as he turns in my direction and I know he has seen me. The morning has control of the new day, but Uncle is not burning in the sun. He must have had a shadow tablet. ‘Aecia sweetheart, I’ve found you at last. Thank God child.’
He is hugging me so tight I can barely take a breath. The smoke stings my eyes, but I can just make out, behind his shoulder, that Anne has gon
e. She has made her escape while Uncle is distracted with me. Uncle has covered the dying Sanguis with his cloak, and it’s not moving.
‘Is it dead?’
I can only croak a question to my Uncle.
‘
Shhh, the Watchers are behind me. We will take you home. Rest now, rest child.’
‘But
Uncle…’
‘Half dead and you still can’t be quiet!’
He looks almost proud, as a smile momentarily uncurls his furrowed, anxious brow. ‘Strong genes you have Aecia, so strong.’ Strong Amica? He didn’t see my stricken face five minutes ago. I think I will just close my eyes for a minute, and then I’ll tell him about Anne. I don’t know if that other creature is good or bad yet. Uncle will know, I’ll tell him and he’ll know.
MOVING MOUNTAINS
I must have fallen asleep
again. Where are we Amica? I’m moving, I’m lying flat on a pallet or something, and I’m being carried somewhere. The ground is trembling with the thunderous little feet of the Watchers, so it seems, we are all moving.
Look at you friend in your pretty dress! It looks like one I saw a picture of in that ancient book
Uncle found for me, “Before The Cloning”. It was banned I think. It shows Humans in history, before “The Great War”. The photographs and pictures are all bright and warm, with blue skies; girls and boys moving freely, wearing flowery tops and tight blue jeans. The expressions on their faces are animated, positively glowing smiles, and eyes shining with smooth unfurrowed brows. You look just like a young woman I saw wearing a strappy dress; white cotton and mixed colour print. She had dancing eyes and a wide, laughing smile; in fact, she could be your double Amica.
I wish I knew what was happening friend. I know it is the
Watchers that are carrying me because my stretcher isn’t too far from the ground. The speed in which they travel has disturbed the sandstone ground and we are enveloped in a cloud of red dust. I guess we are all in danger from something, so everything is as normal then! My crusty eyes can just make out another stretcher being carried, directly in front of me. Maybe it’s our friend “Disembodied voice”. I wonder if I could connect with him now? He must have heard me in the forest or Uncle wouldn’t have known how to find me; maybe he was just too weak to answer.
‘Are you okay voice? Can you hear me? If you can, could you tell me what’s happening, where are we going and why?’
Silence Amica, but I do have the buzzing sound in my head which only happens when he is connecting with me.
‘Are you too weak to answer, voice? What if I ask a question and you say yes or no? Maybe
you’d be able to manage that.? Here goes then voice. Are we in danger from the Vampires?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did they find out we were in Mount Ignifer (fire mountain)?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do we have anywhere to go?’
‘No.’
‘Blimey voice, that’s reassuring! So I guess we are searching for another mountain to invade and call home?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay voice, at least I know a little bit of what’s going on. In fact, it seems to me that everyone only knows a little bit of what’s going on! You’re weak voice, so get some rest and feel better okay?’
‘Yes’.
He must be ill friend; he usually revels in chatter, telling me where to go, what to do and how to do it! I’m so glad he is alive still, and if we get through this next crisis, whatever it may be, I’ll finally be able to find out who he is and what he looks like. I know he is a grown man from when we rescued him from the forest, but I’m dying to see his face.
The red smog is diminishing a bit now, to be replaced by the thinner, grey dust of the hardened dirt and, or, stone roads, we are travelling on. We are going too fast for me to determine which it is. I can see more clearly
though, and I recognise the Watcher who is carrying the right back corner of my stretcher. He is one of the most disfigured I’ve seen, and also one of the kindest. He looked after me when I first arrived in the mountain. He has only one working eye, perched in the area a face usually reserves for its nose. The iris is yellow, bright and extremely noticeable, given its position on his face. The other eye is high up in the forehead and it has no pupil, no iris and is of no use whatsoever; it is quite blind. He has wispy, fuzzy, ginger hair, which isn’t long enough to cover his one black ear. His skin is grey, the colour of granite, and when he stops whatever he is doing and stands perfectly still (a quirk many of the Watchers practice at odd times during the day) you could be forgiven for thinking he is a gargoyle statue.
I have called him ‘Bill’ in my mind. Someone so extraordinary should have an ordinary, simple name. All of the
Watchers are exceptional in some way but Bill is special to me. He isn’t the leader; he stands back from the crowd and follows. He is quiet but I reckon he knows a lot more than he lets on. ‘Bill?’ He is looking at me, smiling his lop-sided smile with his uneven lips. They say a human’s eyes are the windows to their soul, and Bill’s one-eyed gaze is just as revealing. He is scared, uncertain and confused. I won’t trouble him with questions now.
Now the dust has settled somewhat, I can just make out the top of the head of my fellow invalid on the stretcher in front of me. Blimey friend, it looks bright red from the mountain dust. I’m sure my own reflection would tell me I look much the same. I’m so thirsty now, and as bored as a person can be
, while she is being propelled at break-neck speed through a place I can only describe as ‘blurred!’
I wonder where we
are? I can’t believe I know so little of the world outside of my house, our market place and my school. It seems the earth is comprised of pockets of communities with vast, fascinating, but wasted land in-between each one. It’s teeming with life too, examples of which are carrying us to, hoped for, safety right now. It’s disgraceful that all of this living, breathing land has been used, for all intents and purposes, as a tip by the Vampires. If Uncle’s plan eventually succeeds there’ll have to be a massive development project to house all he freed Clones, and the generations of Humans they will give birth to. I imagine areas like these will be filled with human farmers, growing all the glorious food they need to survive and I would love to eat!