Chapter Four
We are walking again.
Like I predicted, all our feet hurt like crazy. Feeling the pain from the other kids, my head hung down in defeat, knowing that I couldn't do anything for them. I sent a healing wave to my own feet, but I could barely feel the pain now; my feet were so numb with exhaustion. I wish these guard dogs would let us stop again.
I thought back to when they came to get us. Once we realized the men were coming over to untie us, we prepared for the next measure of walking. They roughly untied the ropes binding us to our trees, and their even rougher hands pulled us up from our cramped sitting position. I began to stretch, but grubby fingers pulled my left shoulder back with enough force to snap my spine out of contortion. I gasped, but the man didn't care.
His head came down to my level and I fought the urge to spit in his face. The hand on my shoulder didn't release its cruel tension. As he began to speak, his breath swirled in my nose, and I coughed.
"I'd
seen whets you did, back ther'. You'd better not do's it agains
or else…" He stopped then to supposedly arrange some tone to his
speech. Like that would do anything; his voice was so high with
uncertainty. He shoved my shoulder harshly, releasing his grip. I
stumbled but caught myself. Then he gazed around pointedly at the
others.
"In facts, why don't yer all not do anything's?
Betcha wouldn't want to sees what happens, do yeh?" Even though
his voice was squeaky and unsure, I knew he, and his friends, could
hurt us. That's the last voice I heard for awhile.
So as we continued walking along this unbeaten path, I looked around me at the different plants and bushes. Anything to keep my mind occupied. I tried naming all the plants that crossed my path, and with me being crazy about science-naturally-I got almost all of them. Once, a strange kind of fern crossed my path but it looked nothing like the ones I'd ever seen. Must have been a cross breed or something…
The heat was taking a lot out of everybody too, not to mention the ground. I glanced down at the dried out grass. There were streaks of golden brown everywhere. Even though we were covered by the canopies of trees, there were the occasional holes in the trees where sunlight filtered through. I hated seeing the grass so out of tune, so every time I came across one, I stepped on it, healing it back to a lush emerald. For a long time, my eyes glowed sterling.
Listening to the birds, which were nowhere to be seen, I knew why they would be hiding. The big men's steps probably scared off everything around us. Each man probably weighed at least 250 pounds each. I wondered if they even had names. Another thought came into my head; where was the guy in charge? I looked around me, my eyes searching all the faces, but finding none that matched a leader. No one was leading, in fact. I hoped these men weren't planning on walking us to death; even dying for that would seem useless. A shudder ripped through me at my last thought. The last thing that needed to be on my mind was death.
Maybe, I wondered, they do know where they're going. What if they had GPS's built in their head's? What if, after all this walking, we would just have to turn around and head in a different direction? But this wasn't a place for 'what if's'. We would all have to deal with what else might be ahead of us. Right now, our only hope was to overcome.
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I found myself in blackness. At first, I was overwhelmed; where was the light? But then, I opened my eyes. I realized I must've dozed off at some point; the exhaustion, as I recall, swept over me like the passing of day. Expecting a bright haze of light, my eyes opened precariously. But I found more darkness, the darkness of night. There was no un-fluid bumping of being carried, and no scraping rhythm of me being dragged. I cautiously peeked around me, to find that I was lying on the ground, my hands tied awkwardly to a spruce tree.
There was a faint glow of a fire, sparks flying into the wall of night. Glancing over to the source of light, I saw all the men asleep except for one guard to watch us. He saw me looking at him, and gave a warning glance in my direction. I took the hint and turned back to the group. There were dark forms also lying on the forest floor. Everybody was asleep; except for Conner.
He was gazing at the stars, and he obviously didn't know I was awake. I studied him for a minute; his eyes never left the stars and I instantly wanted to know what he was thinking. I was very uncomfortable lying on the hard cold ground. Inching my way into a sitting position as quietly as I could was a hard thing to do. His head snapped down from the sky, his eyes tearing away from the stars above and at me. I froze up, and forgot to breathe.
He had caught me staring at him. The roses on my cheeks were becoming very frequent these days. I thought it of no use to just stay in my even more awkward position, so I slid into a more relaxed state and leaned against my tree. I didn't want to say anything so I waited till he did. It took him a minute.
"So. I guess you're awake." He said. No, I just sleep with my eyes open, I thought sarcastically. Was he reading my thoughts yet?
"Yah, I heard that." He smirked. This time, when he smirked, I didn't want to shake it off. I found I was beginning to like his smile…
"So, you like watching the stars?" I asked him, naturally curious. His features scrunched up a little bit, making a crease between his perfect blue eyes.
"Yes." He said this slowly, drawing it out like a question. Didn't give great answers, that boy. I was intent on learning more.
"Oh come on" I roused him with a smile. "Why do you like watching the stars?" Now that was a direct question. I had caught him now, no escaping my questionable wrath. I waited patiently while he composed his thoughts. Finally the silence broke.
"The stars; there's just so many of them. Whenever I look up at them, I feel that I'm not alone quit so much." He broke of as if he was embarrassed to say this. I thought about what he told me, and thought quietly to myself that he's not as alone as he thinks. I sighed and looked up at the millions of stars with him.
"They're beautiful." I told him simply. Just then, as he was about to say something in response, a shooting star crossed the disorganized jumble of stars. It lasted for only a second, but I knew, and I think Connor knew, what I'd be wishing of. I hope we'll be safe, hope that we'll get out of here. I closed my eyes to the starry jungle up there and turned my head to the fire. I heard Connor rustle about, so I waited for sleep to come over me
As my eyes shut themselves away from the dark, I heard the lone whisper that barely drifted on the soft wind. It was almost as if nothing was being said, and for a second I think I might have imagined how the words caressed the breeze and floated in my ear.
"Sweet dreams." It said. Soft and dreamlike, they wisped away with the wind covering the hard ground. And as my head swam to try to recover the lost words, my head fell into a sweet un-conciseness.
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I was in the middle of a nice dream; my parents were there, my annoying older brother Derrick was there and even my two dogs, Rox and Sox- yes, very coordinated names-were there. Even though the ones I loved were beside me, the ones I had suddenly forgotten about, I couldn't keep my eyes from wandering even more lovingly to the stack of food sitting before me. There were all my favorites; chocolate chip cookies, hot dogs with all the dressings, and even a Big Mac were wafting in the scent of their own delicious smell. I was just about to take a long gulp of my lemonade when a heavy kick in my side drove me to conciseness.
I groaned and rolled over on my side, twisting my legs under me. Whoever this lug was, the one who kicked me, well, he was sure gonna get it. But then I opened my rage-filled eyes to see huge booted feet near my dirt smudged face. All my bravery drained out of me and I was yanked to my feet with another grumble. Everybody else was up and stretching, me being the last one up. We immediately started walking, but I was soon to be surprised at the amount we had to do...
We walked for an hour, drudging our feet along every minute. My brain was swelling with the heat of late summer full upon us. When was the walking going to end? But I heard a noise that brought joy to my ears. It started off as a low hum, getting louder every step. I recognized it as the swift sound of running water. Suddenly, the smoothness of the sound became louder than ever and it swelled and gurgled like a fountain. As this sweet music filled my ears, I looked up from my level stare at the ground to see a wall of hanging moss. It was thick; so thick I couldn't even see to the other side.
I turned to look questionably at Conner, down at the end of the row of kids. He stared back, shrugging as he too wondered about the blanket of moss. The sound was rushing up at us when suddenly it hit me: it was rushing, moving, flowing. A waterfall! I said it in my mind over and over again; maybe Conner would listen. I saw Conner nod in agreement from the corner of my eye. The hand holding me searched their back pocket for something, and as I turned around, he whipped something in my face: something soft, but rough. A rag?
"What's that…" I was about to say, when he through the rag around my eyes. Ah, not a rag. A blindfold. I waited patiently-but wondering what I need a blindfold for- as he tightened the scratchy material behind my eyes. I heard the others protesting slightly, and I heard Jade whimper softly. She couldn't deal with this, I thought. This must be toughest for her…
We had stopped fighting now; we just had to go along. There was a rustling sound and we were pushed through the moss curtain. Before, the waterfall had sound like music; now, I realized, it was almost unbearably loud, as if the curtain had been holding back all the sound.
Well, I thought as I felt some misty air sprinkle my skin, here we go.
