font-face { font-family: "Calibri"; } font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; } , , { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; } 1 { page: Section1; }
Chapter 8: The rescue
– One week later –
Elliott had been down in the Deeps for more than a week. She would probably have been dead by now if she hadn't found the little river from which she now drunk. Everything felt so much better with some water in her body.
When she was finished she lay down beside the river to sleep, but she couldn't. All she could think about was her mum. What would she do now, when she realized Elliott had run away? Elliott guessed her mother was really sad, probably blaming herself for Elliott's disappearance. Elliott missed her a lot.
Suddenly, while she laid there thinking about all this, she heard voices. She froze, listening carefully to what they were saying. She relaxed a little when she heard they spoke English. The Styx never spoke English when they didn't have to. They thought it was shameful and preferred their own language. The voices had to be from the Colony. She thought for a moment. If they were Colonists, and she was almost positive that they were, then they would probably be nice to her. And she knew – even though she preferred not to think about it – that she couldn't manage to live on her own forever. She was a good survivor, sure. But her stomach screamed for food. She finally made up her mind.
"Who's there?" she said quietly, her voice shaking a bit. The men went silent, and she could hear them stop walking.
"Did you hear that?" one of the men asked quietly.
"Yes, it was a voice," the other one replied. "Where are you? Walk towards our light, slowly, so we can see who you are." Elliott obeyed; she could see a light orb's green shine on her right side and started to walk towards it. She could soon see the men better. One was very tall, and the other one a bit shorter, and now she could see they were definitely from the Colony. Their hair was white and their eyes were red.
"A child?" the short one said. "A styx child?" he added when he noticed her hair colour.
"No," Elliott said, "I'm a Colonist like you. My dad's a Styx, but I hate them just as much as everybody else."
"How long have you been down here?" the tall one asked.
"About a week, I think." The man seemed to think for a moment.
"Do you want to come with us? You can have food, drink, and a bed, if you'd like? Honestly, I don't want to worry you, but it's a big world out there with lots of danger," he added and looked her in her eyes. She didn't really like him; he scared her. But he had offered her a place to live. A safe place. And food. Oh, food…
"Yes, I want to come with you," she said, nodding.
"Fine. I'm Lloyd. And this is Jacob," said the tall man – Lloyd – and smiled at her. "What's your name, my little friend?"
"Elliott."
"That's a nice name. Let's go home then," said Lloyd. Elliott grabbed her bag and followed them to the place where they lived.
It wasn't big. In fact, it was very small. Some kind of cave, probably. But there were beds, and they did have lots of food.
That night, when she lay on some sort of bed, trying to sleep, Elliott heard the two men talking outside.
"Why the hell did you bring her here? Now we'll never get rid of her!" Jacob said. He sounded angry.
"You're so stupid sometimes. She's a girl!"
"So what?" Elliott heard Lloyd sigh.
"Don't you want some fun?" he said. "Are you gay or something? Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'll take her myself."
"Of course I'm not gay! But I think I understand what you mean now," Jacob said and laughed.
"Shut up. You'll wake her," Lloyd barked. Then they stopped talking. But Elliott couldn't sleep. What had they meant?