She began to cry. She couldn't stand being alone anymore. It had been six days on her own since she left the farmhouse. She knew she was getting close to the border of Kentucky and she knew it was only a matter of time till she was actually on the coast and heading to New Zealand. Even though she couldn't navigate… all she knew was that if she was to walk there, she would eventually make it. She began to cry a little harder, the tears blocking her view of the road. She hadn't been on her own in ages. All she could remember is being with her baby brother through thick and thin. Now he was six days behind her, back at a nice farmhouse with a loving teenage couple. She hoped that he was all right. Unlike her, she was a complete mess. She had walked 6 days alone with barely any food, and hardly any water. She lost a lot of weight- not like she needed to anyways. But she had to keep walking. She knew that the farther she got away from her problems, the closer New Zealand seemed.
She looked up and wiped of her tears. The dirt on her jacket stuns her eyes as she tried desperately to wipe them away. But the pain in her side, her feet, and her stomach kept the tears coming back. She looked up at the sky. It was getting late. She would have to find somewhere to sleep and someplace safe to set up a fire.
She walked off the road and grabbed some leaves and some sticks. She placed it in the middle of the freeway and tried making a fire. She had dropped her bags a long way behind when she was too weak to carry them. That was about 4 days ago. She forgot to take out her liter that she had from when she left her house. Now she was stuck trying to light a fire the old cave-man style. Rubbing two sticks together. Great, she thought, I'm reduced to this hell of trying to make a fire without any matches at all. This is definitely not my day. She began to cry a little bit on her own. Then she heard something moving in the bushes. She thought it was an animal so she picked up a self-made spear and stood up, watching the bushes moved. Out came a man.
He had shoulder length black hair with a blue feather in it. She looked at him a little bit and sat down again, trying to get the fire started. He noticed her trouble and walked over to her with a liter in his hand and lit the sticks aflame.
"There you are," He said with a small British accent. "A nice flame. Err… what are you doing out here all alone?" he looked at her with his head tilted to the right a little bit. He was kind of short, but still taller then Rala.
"Aren't you alone?" She looked around him as if he was hiding someone or something behind him.
"Nope… I have someone," He looked over his shoulder and called out, "Hey Tai-san! It's all right, come on over!" Soon enough as he called, a young girl with black hair emerged out of the bushes, just as he did. "Did you find someone Lex?" She looked up at him. She followed his gaze and laid her eyes upon Rala.
"Hello there, I'm Tai-san, and this is Lex… are you alone here?" Tai-san kneeled next to Rala and felt her head. It was steaming hot. She quickly withdrew her hand and blew on it to cool it down. Rala had fallen asleep. "Lex," Tai-san looked up at him with sympathetic eyes for the girl. "It doesn't look like anyone is here for her, and she is deadly hot, I think she has a very bad fever… Lets take her back. They can help her better than out here." She almost pleaded him with her eyes. He sighed deeply and picked up the skinny, 15 year old. He noticed how hot she was and how light she felt. He hoped that she would be okay… she looked young and still full of life.
Tai-san and Lex made their way back to their camp. They were with a girl with flaming red hair, and another one with what looked to be nubs on top her head… it looked as if it was her hair.
"Sal. can you go and get some nice cold water? And Amber… can you get a rag from my bag? This girl has a terrible fever," The two girls nodded and got up. The girl with the red hair, addressed as Sal., went over to a nearby creek and filled a small bucket with water. Lex laid Rala on the bed made of leaves and looked over at the small camp that they had made only earlier that day. The girl with her hair up like mini-cinnamon rolls went digging through a small backpack in search of a rag. Sal. walked back over and set the bucket next to the sleeping Rala.
Amber looked over at the girl and looked at her sunken face. "Do you know what tribe she's from? I don't recognize these markings," She looked over at her fellow tribe members.
Lex crossed his arms over his chest. "Well… when I found her she was alone. She was crying to herself when I first saw her… looks like she's in bad condition. What do you think Tai-san?" Tai-san looked from her boyfriend down to the girl.
"From what Lex says, I don't think she belongs to a tribe. I think she's just alone. And besides that, we have to worry about her health and not her tribe, at the moment," The others nodded in agreement. "Salene," Tai-san said, "Can you guess how hot she is… I mean her temperature?" Salene placed her hand on Rala's forehead and placed her other hand onto her own.
"Well…." She said, "I think it's well into the hundreds… she's burning up." Amber glanced over at Tai-San. "You will be able to help her, right?" Tai-san nodded and got up and started collecting herbs.
Rala started moving around. She could hear voices that sounded muffled… and a ways away. She tried listening to what they were saying. "…She's waking!" "Is she…"? "I'm sure she's ok…" She could barely hear anything. She couldn't get her brothers crying out of her head. But the voiced started getting louder and clearer. Rala sat straight up. The rag fell on her lap. She looked around, covered in cold sweat. She looked around. All she could see at the moment was complete darkness… then the light of a fire brightened her surroundings.
"Where am I?" She asked, looking around at the four darkened figures. Suddenly, as her focus became clearer, and adapted to the night around her, she could make out the four people. The one called Salene, with the bright red hair was sitting across the fire, cooking something in a pot. Amber, the girl with the blonde cinnamon-roll like hair, was sitting next to the girl named Tai-San, who appeared to be praying. Lex was leaning against the tree with his arms folded across his chest. Rala asked again, "Where am I?" Amber was the first to answer.
"We're in a small clearing about a mile away from where Lex and Tai-San found you. Are you feeling okay?" Amber looked over at her friends and back down to Rala. Rala shrugged and nodded a bit. "I guess so… is…is Faith here?" She had a feeling that they wouldn't know what she was talking about, but she thought it was at least worth a try.
"I don't know anyone by the name of Faith, dear, but when Lex found you, you were alone," Salene looked at her with sad eyes. She took out a cup filled with whatever she was cooking and handed it to Rala. "Drink this… it'll help your fever," Rala took the cup and drank it. She almost spat it out; it was disgusting. But she drank it anyways.
"Faith is my one-year old little brother. I left him a couple of days ago at a farmhouse with a few friends of mine. I was just wondering if he followed me or not…." Her voice trailed off.
"Was that why you were crying… because you left your brother behind? Why didn't you take him along?" Lex asked a little aggressively. Tai-San, Amber, and Salene threw him a dirty look. Amber commented, "Ignore him… he doesn't know what he's saying half of the time," She smirked as she looked over at Tai-San. Tai-san smiled at her looked over at Rala. "What did you say your name was?" She asked politely.
"I didn't. It's Rala. I'm from California and I've been traveling with my brother for the past year now, looking for people to help take care of him and such. Only recently did I leave him and started to head for the coast," She looked down at the empty cup as she said this. Now that she repeated what she had gone through, she realized that it was a stupid idea to head to the coast alone.
It was Salenes turn to ask a question, "Alright… why did you leave California?"
"Because Martin, Bray, Ebony, Java, Siva, and a bunch of other kids from Cal. headed towards the coast to go to New Zealand. Everyone that was alive in California went with them. All but me and Faith. Only because that he was six months old back then. I didn't feel that he would be up to it. So we just started wandering around,"
"I see…" Amber said. "So… where are you headed now? Maybe we can help you there."
"I'm headed towards New Zealand." Rala looked up at the sky. One of the four people laid a plate of fish next to her bed of leaves. "Thanks for finding and helping me. I think I'd be dead without you guys," Rala smiled over at them.
"Do you wanna join us then?" asked Lex now somewhat smiling.
"Sure… I would love to," Rala beamed bigger than she had in ages. She was apart of a tribe.