[b]Chapter Nine
Joanna - 21st Century AD - New Planet[/b]
No, I had never found Kinu, but I had found that old woman, she had stayed at the Shogun's house, refusing to help those who she felt should be helped first. She hadn't wanted to get her hands dirty, saying that she was too old. So she was safe, and survived.
For a time.
But my Kinu, she had truly cared about others, and died doing what she did best, putting others before herself.
Over the years, I have sometimes wished I could be more like her.
But then I remember that old woman's face as I choked the life out of her.
And now, I am the one who is having their life choked out of them. The cacoon around me is getting tighter and tighter, and though I know I can not die, it still hurts.
'I am so going to make you sorry for all this,' I shout as I struggle once again, trying to work my hand up so I can somehow maybe poke a finger through the cacoon, and widen it until I am free.
'You are going to what?' a voice asks me.
And I look up to see someone stood in the entrance to the cave who I must admit I am extremely surprised to see.
'Duck? You're working with the Spove too?'
'The who?' he asks, frowning as he walks toward me. 'Who are the Spove? And what on this new planet, has happened to you? Is that a cacoon?'
'Like you don't know,' I respond. 'Have you and James been working with them all along?'
'James?' he looks around. 'James is here. He disappeared from camp not long after you did. To be quite honest, we thought you and the aliens had taken him with you.'
'No one took him,' I say bitterly. 'He went willingly. But not to the Galen, he doesn't work for the Galen, he hates the Galen it seems, no he works for the Spove.'
'And who are the Spove?'
I frown. 'You really don't know?'
'I wouldn't have asked you if I did. So who are they? And where is James?'
'I don't know where James is,' I say. 'Probably with the Spove and the…' I sigh.
'What?'
I shake my head. If I tell him that the Spove have somehow created a copy of me, and are right now headed toward where the Galen were last seen, then he'd think I am crazy. He probably already does.
'It doesn't matter what,' I say. 'Just get me out of this cacoon. Have you got a knife?'
'I have,' he says. 'Not that I'm going to use it.' He steps toward me.
'Why not?'
'Er, let's think. You tried to wipe us out. YOu tried to get the aliens to kill the last of humanity for some strange reason only apparent to you. And now you want me to free you? Why would I do that? You'd probably either run, or you'd try to snatch my knife to kill me.' He shakes his head. 'No, I think it is much better if you stay in that cacoon for the time being.'
'You can't leave me in here. I can hardly breath.'
'It won't be for long,' he says. 'Only the time it takes me to carry you back to camp.'
And then he puts his arms around me, cacoon and all, and lifts me up, putting me across his shoulder.
I'm getting cramp in my legs and I'm really struggling for breath, but when I try to wriggle myself free, Duck just clamps his hands around my cocoon covered waist even tighter.
'Please,' I say, pushing my hands through the cocoon into his shoulder. 'I can't breathe. You've got to let me…'
'I don't have to do anything,' he responds.
'But… oh please, just cut the top of the cocoon a little so it is not so tight around my chest. Please.'
'We're nearly at camp,' he says. 'I will release you then, once I know it is impossible for you to play any of your tricks. Now shut up.'
'I will shut up in a minute. But only because I'll be dead. This thing is killing me.'
'Well it can kill you for a little longer. Anyway, I thought you couldn't die.'
I try to sigh, but I really am having trouble breathing, and sighing involves having air in my lungs, but if I cannot breathe, where am I supposed to get that from?'
I used the last of it trying to get him to free me. And now, I'm starting to feel rather weird. In fact, if my body wasn't trapped within this cocoon, I think my arms would be trailing down Duck's back. I close my eyes, and will away the minutes. Hoping that he really is nearly at camp because I really need to breathe.
'Duck,' I hear someone shout. 'What have you got there? Something good for us to eat.'
'If you want to eat Joanna yes,' Duck says. 'But I didn't think you were the sort to want to eat human flesh.'
I sense someone near me as my head, the only part of me not covered by the cocoon is pulled up by my hair.
'It really is her,' the man says. 'I thought she'd be long gone. Where did you find her?'
'In a cave about thirty minutes walk from here. All trussed up as you see her now, and ranting about something called the Spave.'
'The Spove you moran,' I just bout manage to spit out.
'Ah yes, the Spove. And they did that to her.'
'I like them already,' the man says.
I shudder. I wonder if he would like them if he knew that they resembled earth spiders?
'Where's Ayla,' Duck asks. 'I think I should take our Joanna straight to her.'
'She's in the council tent talking to the captains. A new ship, from Australia came today.'
'Right,' Duck says. 'No time like the present. I'll take her to the meeting. I'm sure they've got questions for her.'
The man laughs. 'That Australian captain is in for a shock when you walk in with our traitor looking like that.'
How funny, I want to shout at him. In fact, I just want to shout, and not just at him, but also at Duck, and the others too. Maybe I'll get the chance if they ever cut me out of this stupid cocoon.
Duck had just propped me up in a corner like a piece of luggage when he'd entered the council tent, and then had ignored me, and my need to breathe properly, as he informed them that I had been captured.
And then, after the captains had glanced at me about fifty times each, they left and Ayla comes over to me with Duck.
'Nice to see you again Joanna,' she says. 'What have you been up to?'
I don't answer her.
'Come on, talk,' she says.
I try to. I move my lips but no sounds comes out. I shake my head, feeling tears coming out of my eyes.
'Just tell us what the aliens intend to do,' Ayla says. 'And who these other aliens are.'
I open my mouth.
And nearly shut it again when she puts her hands on her hips.
'Can't breathe,' I manage to say.
'Well I don't care that you can't…' Ayla stops talking and glances at Duck. 'Give me your knife.'
'I don't think we should release her until we have somewhere secure to put her.'
'Just give me the knife. How would you like to be in that thing and not able to breathe?'
'I would…' he sighs. 'Fine,' he says, and pulls his knife out of his pocket and taking the cover off, hands it to Ayla.
Who steps forward and carefully cuts the top of the cocoon under my chin down to my stomach.
My chest instantly has more room, and I gasp in air as she cuts the rest of the cocoon away from me. I flop forward as I am released, right into her arms.
Thankfully Ayla has given Duck his knife back just before then.
I close my eyes, revelling in the feel of air in my lungs, but wincing as the cramp I was feeling before gets far worse.
'We need to get her to a bed,' I hear Ayla says. 'She needs medical attention.'
'Isn't she pretending?' Duck responds.
'Look at her legs,' Ayla says.
But I don't know if he does or not because the darkness that has been close, whooshes up and surrounds me into nothingness.
'Come to me,' the voice whispers to me out of the darkness of the nightmare. 'Come to me.'
'Go away,' I sob. 'Just go away. I can stand no more.'
'Then give up, and come to me. And I will make you strong. I will make you stronger than anyone has ever been before. I will make you like me.'
'I don't want to be like you,' I say, feeling the darkness creeping up my legs like icy fingertips.
'It is too late to say you don't want to be like me,' the voice continues. 'Far too late.'
'Why won't you just leave me alone? Please.' Tears trickle down my cheeks.
'I cannot leave you alone,' it says.
He says.
'You belong to me. And I am never going to let you go. You shouldn't have agreed to my presence if you wanted your freedom.'
The icy fingertips have reached my throat, freezing my lower body below it. They edge up to my chin, and then pull one lip down.
'But I didn't know. I had no ideas. You pretended to be my friend. You said you wanted to help me. But all along…'
'I pretended to be your friend,' the voice mocks.
'Why are you doing this? Why can't you just let me go? It has been so long.'
'And it is going to get even longer. Jonayla, I am never going to leave you, and you are always going to belong to me, and do what I tell you to do.'
'But I don't want to. I don't want to be like that. I've hurt people. All right, some have hurt me first, but I've enjoyed hurting them back, and that is because of you.'
'I'm so proud,' the voice says. 'I could almost cry. Well if I could cry that is. You know, sometimes I wish I could cry. I imagine my tears, rolling from my cheeks, and then flooding the land. Drowning people within my sorrow.' He laughs.
'You are a monster.'
'No, I am your master. And you are going to do what I tell you to do. So come to me.'
I shake my head. 'I won't.'
'Oh, I think you will.'
The icy fingers grab hold of my nose and start to pull me forward.
'That's right,' the voice says. 'Come to me, and I will turn your soul as black as a starless night.'
'No,' I say, struggling, trying to get my hands up so I can pull whatever is dragging me toward the voice off of my nose. 'I will not do what you want anymore.'
'She won't come you know,' the voice says.
And the icy fingers stop pulling me toward it.
'No matter what you do now, she won't come to you. Think about it, when she saw you, she was more bothered about her descendants than her own daughter. Now why would that be? Especially as she hadn't seen you since…' he laughs again. 'Since you killed her.'
'I didn't kill her.'
'I think you did,' the voice says. 'It was your fault that she and your father died anyway.'
'No it wasn't. It was your fault. You made me do it.'
'Well yes, I did, but I wouldn't have been able to do it if you hadn't asked for my help.'
'I wasn't asking you. I was asking the Doni.'
'But I came anyway, and you were so grateful to me when I said that I would help you.'
'I didn't want that.'
'Well shouldn't have made a deal with a spirit then should you.' He laughs yet again. 'Now come here.'
And the icy fingers grab hold of my ears, and pull me toward the voice.
And I struggle, kicking out my legs, twisting my body, trying to get away. 'Let me go,' I shout. 'Just let me go.'
'I can't let you go,' a voice says. 'Jonayla, just calm down. I am trying to help you.'
I open my eyes, and blink as light fills them. And then I see someone leaning over me, long hair falling out of a ponytail.
She glances up at me.
And I see that the woman who says she is trying to help is none other than that wretched girl who uses my mother's name.
'Leave me alone,' I spit at It. 'I don't want an It like you touching me.'
It holds its hands up. 'Fine,' It says. 'I won't help you.'
'You have to,' someone else says.
I turn my head and see Duck.
'You said that she could lose her legs if she isn't treated.'
'What do you expect me to do? Force her to accept my help? I've got news for you. I'm not in the habit of having to force patients to let me help them.'
'You can't help me,' I say. 'No one can help me.'
And as I say those words, I remember one who tried.
