Chapter 8 - Under the Canyon
Letting out a soft moan, Tamsin rubbed her cheek against whatever that was under her. What is it? She asked herself, her head spinning in the haziness and darkness.
She drifted in and out of her dreams; one them was her lying in a dark, cold bog while staring into the bright fullmoon. She was sinking slowly. She could feel herself being pulled down into the very bottom of the bog. Strangely, she wasn't afraid, nor was she panicking. The moonlight embraced her, and the bog gently took her into its very heart.
She thought as she sank deeper the surroundings would be darker, but everything just got brighter as if the moonlight pierced through the bog. It took her a long time to realize that it was the sun.
She refused to open her eyes and snuggled into the warmth under her face. She sighed in a whisper, trying to resume her dream.
A soft chuckle came to her. Then her nose got pinched. "Wakey wakey," Bo singsonged.
Tamsin murmured a vague grunt. She pried one eye open, a little startled by Bo's face since it was only inches away from hers. There was a warm smile blooming on the brunette's lips, and the bright sunlight rendered her contours soft. So soft that a silent gasp escaped from Tamsin.
"Didn't someone said to me last night that only losers would need sleep after a fight or something?" Bo teased as she slid the back of her index finger along a thin lock of Tamsin's.
Tamsin barely managed to swallow her moan when Bo's skin made contact with hers. It was then she realized that she had her head resting on Bo's lap the entire time.
Giving the brunette a cold stare, Tamsin quickly sat up and moved away from the giggling brunette. She pulled her wrinkled t-shirt as she looked around.
They were still at the same place where she had fallen asleep last night: behind a huge rock in the middle of nowhere. The fire pit that Bo had made last night now had nothing but embers left inside. The rolling green that surrounded them was decorated with patches of pale, dry grass. The closer to the direction of the canyon they were heading to, the drier the grass was.
Tamsin stared at those tall seedheads that were bending down along the wind, before she searched for the presence of any zombie dogs. She couldn't find any. In fact there was not a single animal to be seen around them.
If it wasn't for the blood spatters of the torn off furs that were among the grass, she wouldn't believe what a nightmare last night had been.
As the image of Bo holding the torch and coming at her on the pink bike came to her, Tamsin quickly glanced at the bike lying beside them. Then she frowned at the back of Bo's index finger. The burn there had turned into bright red, with a cluster of blisters.
"How could you be so clumsy, hmm?" Tamsin drawled.
"Because I was too concerned that you might have already become dog food?" Bo replied.
Tamsin rolled her eyes. "You should squeeze them," she said as she pointed at the blisters with her chin. "It would heal faster."
"Yeah, squeeze them with these?" Bo showed Tamsin her dirty, bloody hands. "I think I have a better chance surviving if I don't touch them."
Tamsin sighed. "You decided to come all the way here to save your girl, but you haven't packed even a small bottle of alcohol or something?"
"I...used all of it on the torch last night cuz I couldn't get the torch to-anyway, there isn't a single drop left in my bottle," Bo murmured.
Tamsin rolled her eyes and moved closer to Bo. She grabbed the brunette's wounded hand and laid it on her knee. Then, she unzipped the front pocket of her backpack and took out a small flask, a roll of gauze and a sewing kit.
Holding Bo's hand in hers while trying not to pay any attention of how soft or warm it was, she tilted the flask and poured some vodka on the brunette's wound. Gently and slowly, she wiped Bo's injured finger clean with a piece of gauze.
She took out a short, sharp needle and sanitized it with a lighter. Slowly, she punctured the blisters and drained them by gently pressing on the side to force the fluid out. After all blisters were drained, she applied a thick layer of antibiotic cream before wrapping Bo's finger nicely with gauze.
"It's...ummm...done," she murmured, finding it impossible for her to let Bo's hand go. She nervously licked her lips and looked up, immediately lost herself in the brunette's eyes.
Enthralled by the dancing sunlight in those brown eyes, Tamsin suddenly found her throat dry and her heart stop.
She wanted to turn away, but how could she? How could she turn away from those eyes? How could she, when drops of the sun rippled in them. There was something there, something subtle, behind the teasing smile, behind the brightness. There was something that made her lungs clench and her breath gone.
Tamsin let out a desperate gasp, unable to stop herself from leaning in. She inhaled Bo. She inhaled the smell of fire and heat. She inhaled the smell of the sun, the wind, the air, and the grass.
To her, Bo smelled like summer. The damn summer, the hottest season. Just the slightest inhale would surely get one's lungs scorched and heart blazed.
Tamsin inched forward, about to touch Bo's lips with her own. She paused, though, when the corner of her eyes caught something bright.
She looked down, finding herself awkwardly staring at the brunette's cleavage. It took her a few seconds to realize that there was something lighting up and going out under Bo's clothes.
"Your boobs are blinking," she blurted, too distracted by Bo's slightly heaving chest to form the proper description.
"What?" Bo whispered, her voice a little husky and completely absent minded.
"Your-umm...your whatever is blinking," Tamsin tried.
Bo didn't respond. Instead, she looked blankly into the blonde's eyes. She swallowed for a few times, before she eventually looked down at her own chest. There she saw a spot under the hem of her neckline lighting up for a second or two before going out for the same amount of time.
With her mind elsewhere, she had a hard time figuring out what it was until she tucked her hand into her bra and found the signal detector there. It was then she remember that she had put it there because she had been afraid of losing it when putting it somewhere else.
She took it out and stared at the flashing light for a short while, before she concluded that she must have flipped the switch accidentally.
She grabbed Tamsin's arm and squeezed it. "Tamsin, it's blinking! It's blinking!" She exclaimed, her voice shaking a little.
"Didn't I just tell you that?" Tamsin smirked. The brunette squeezed her hard without saying a word.
Tamsin put her backpack on and raised on her feet slowly. She leaned against the rock as she watched Bo bouncing back and forth in front of her, laughing, giggling, mumbling while trying to figure out which direction would give the device a more frequent flash.
She saw tears in Bo's eyes, and a corner of her heart clenched. The dull pain made her fingertips quiver, but she curled her lips into a smile when Bo turned back at her.
"Figured out which direction we should go yet?" Tamsin asked.
"Yeah," Bo murmured, nodding. She took a deep breath, checked the device again, and said "this way" while heading to the northeast.
They walked for hours. The land bore less and less green, till it became completely barran. The hard surface of the rocky ground couldn't even hold a quarter inch of dirt, let alone vegetations.
The wind seemed to have stood still, and the hot air was too thick to breathe, but they kept trekking until they reached a long, deep canyon.
Bo took a look around, and saw canyons after canyons in front of them. The entire landscape looked as if someone had hammered the earth till it eventually cracked.
She looked down at the canyon that was in front of them, finding it funny that lots of trees and greens grew at the bottom of it. A river ran through the bottom, roaring.
Bo held the device and walked along the canyon in both directions until she found a spot where the signal was the strongest.
She stared at the twenty feet gap between her and the other side of the canyon, before she turned to Tamsin for help.
"Under, or beyond?" The blonde asked simply, pointing at the bottom of the canyon then at the other side of it.
Bo sighed and shook her head. "I...can't tell."
"Well, either way we'll have to go down first," Tamsin said, narrowing her eyes at the sun before looking down.
"Go-go down?" Bo murmured, confused.
"There's only one way to get to the other side. We have to climb down first, then up," Tamsin explained as she headed to the left.
"Oh," Bo replied, immediately catching up. She scuttle behind Tamsin for a short while, before she paused and asked, "climb down how?"
"Well, there's certainly a fast, easy way," Tamsin smirked at the brunette after turning around.
"Like…?" Bo hummed, wiping her sweat off her chin with the back of her hand. "If you are talking about rock climbing, I suck at it."
"How about shoving your ass over the edge and watching you land on your face?"
Bo gave the giggling blonde a punch that was heavy enough to make Tamsin step back. "Seriously, Tamsin," she hissed. "How do we get down?"
Tamsin shook her head, chuckles still coming out from her mouth. "You don't see...stairs, ladders, anything?"
Bo frowned. At first she thought the blonde was teasing her again, since all she could see was the reddish surface of the inside of the canyon. It took her quite a while to notice a thin, gray line far away from them.
She narrowed her eyes and stared at it. It looked like a long ladder with steep, narrow steps. "Why would there be-I mean, the ladder?"
"Some cave down there were formed during some...ancient earthquake or something, and a lot of people came over to study them," Tamsin explained. "Anyway, someone built it to reach the very bottom of the canyon. There are ladders on both sides of the major ones, so…."
"Oh," Bo murmured, nodding. She paused, before she turned to the blonde. "It's great that you are here with me, Tamsin," she said, smiling.
Tamsin heard all the sincerity in that voice. She saw the dancing sun in those brown eyes. A rush made her heart go crazy. She swallowed hard and turned away.
"Come one, sweetheart," she said, heading to the ladder while commanding her heart to slow down.
Slowly they climbed down the ladder, watching out from dangers and paying attention to where their feet landed.
When they reached the bottom of the canyon, the light on Bo's device almost stayed on instead of flashing, and that made Bo excited.
She looked around, searching for anything that would interest her. She scanned the river, the trees, and the rocks, till a strange clicking sound caught her attention.
She walked towards it, holding her knife up. From the shadow that was cast from behind her, she knew the blonde was watching her back, and that calmed her pounding heart.
Circling to the behind of a huge rock looking like a monolith, she finally figure out that the sound had been coming from under the water. It seemed that something was banging into the lower part of the rock that was submerged in the river.
A net weaved with foliage, twigs and dirt floated there, covering whatever it was under. Bo reached in and pulled the thing out with her empty hand.
It was a military helmet. It had been trapped in dead tree roots underneath the water, and the current forced it to move forward but was unable to carry it away, therefore causing it to bang into the rock.
Bo examined the helmet. When she saw a few painted letters on the helmet, her heart slammed violently against her chest.
An "M" immediately followed by an "a" were the only three readable ones. The other letters were gone, possibly scratched out by the abrasion between the rock and the helmet. She tried to figure out if the first one was a "K", but she couldn't be fure.
"What is this?" Tamsin asked as she grabbed the helmet. She checked the letters, before she flipped it in her hands and examined the inside.
"There's an army number or whatever stuff," she told Bo as she pointed at a string of numbers.
Bo gave her an absentminded nod, too anxious to pay attention to some numbers. She ran along the side of the river back and forth, trying to determine which way to go, but both directions seemed to be the wrong way since the light would go out for a bit once she was away from where she found the helmet.
She tried a few times, before she went back to the monolith rock. Where is it? She asked herself, looking around desperately.
After a while, she noticed a creek a few feet away from her. It seemed to have come out from behind a fallen tree.
She rushed to the fallen tree, and found a patch of shrubs behind it. A cool, almost freezing breeze came to her.
Where is it from? She thought as she curiously squeezed herself through the thorny branches. Then, she realized that there was a cave behind all the shrubs, but its entrance couldn't be seen from the outside because of the lush greens.
She looked down at her device. The light was on, as if it would never go out.
Bo turned to find Tamsin, only to realize that the blonde was following her closely. Together they stepped into the cave.
A big hole on the top let the sunlight come through, illuminating everything inside. The creek, which had been coming out from another dark cave, peacefully travelled through a corner of the cave. A few thin, pale bushes grew along it, clustering a pile of trash of some kind.
Part of the trash pile was submerged in the water. Comparing to the dancing sunlight on the surface of the creek, the pile seemed to be too dark. The flickering light rendered a corner of something behind the trash pile.
When Bo realized that it had the same camo pattern as the helmet she had just found, she swallowed hard and rushed over breathlessly.
Behind the pile, there was a person in a full set of military uniform lying there. Bo quickly grabbed that person's shoulder and flipped them around.
A pale, lifeless female face entered her vision. Her tousled hair clung to her skin tightly, looking like some sort of seaweed. Although that face had been streaked by dirt, water and crumbled leaves, Bo still recognized her.
"Kenzi…?" She murmured, holding her breath while touching the girl's face with her trembling fingers. Tears stung her eyes when Kenzi's cold skin chilled her bones.
She threw her backpack aside and tucked one arm under Kenzi's back to lift her. Half carrying, half pulling, she let Kenzi rest on her lap. She called her name, tapped her face, held her hand to her chest, shook her, yelled, cried, begged, but the girl just wouldn't wake up.
"She's not...she's not-" Bo mumbled as she raised to look at Tamsin who stood beside her, unable to finish her sentence. Sobs and whimpers clogged her throat, and tears ran down her face.
Tamsin took a deep breath and turn away a little. The pain in Bo's eyes was too much for her to bear. Then, she got down on one knee and pressed two fingers on the side of Kenzi's neck.
She couldn't find a pulse. How the hell would that chip still be working if she's dead? She asked herself as she moved her fingers in front of Kenzi's nose. She couldn't feel her breathing either.
Tamsin bit bottom lip, frowning at the name "Kenzi" sewed on the girl's uniform. She exhaled and grabbed Kenzi's collar to rip her clothes open.
She lowered her head, pressing one ear tightly against Kenzi's chest and held her breath.
At first she heard nothing, but just as she was about to give up, a slight, weak flutter came to her.
Then it was gone, as if it was never there. Tamsin pulled away briefly, before she leaned in and listened again.
She waited patiently, with her eyes closed and her breath held. She didn't know how long it took, but she eventually heard another heartbeat. Then, nothing for a long time, too long as an interval between two heartbeats of anyone. She didn't think it would be possible, but the heartbeat came back again. Weak, almost non-existing, but it was there.
Tamsin reached for Kenzi's pulse again while her ear was still on the girl's chest. Soon she noticed that whenever she heard a flutter, she would feel a slight pulse on the tip of her finger.
"I think she's still alive," she finally concluded, though wasn't sure how it would be possible for anyone's heart to beat that slowly and weakly.
Bo stared at her with her teary eyes, unable to believe her. She tried to say something but her voice was gone.
"Seriously, I think that she might still be alive," Tamsin repeated.
Bo hesitantly leaned in to listen, and when she heard the weak beat, she choked in her own tears. "She's alive! She's alive!" She shouted loudly, the echoes of her voice bouncing against the walls of the cave.
"She's alive!" She repeated, wiping her tears off with her hands yet unable to stop more from coming out. She pulled Kenzi to her chest and held her tightly, laughters bursting through her throat with slight gags.
Tamsin look at the brunette who seemed to be a happy mess now. A smile of joy and bitterness appeared on her face. When Bo raised to look at her, she curled her lips up while a painful rush seized her heart.
Still on her knees, Tamsin leaned in and grabbed Bo's face. She pulled her in, almost forcefully, and crushed her lips on Bo's.
She held her breath, drowning in that sweetness, in those salty tears and in the taste of happiness and excitement. She savored the brunette, inhaling everything of her.
Bo reciprocated her almost immediately, cupping her face with one of her cold hands. She nibbled the blonde's lips as if they were the most delicious treat she had ever had in her entire life.
Both revelled in the kiss, enjoying the very feel of their lips pressing together and the tips of their tongues touching gently until they had to break the kiss because their lungs started to protest.
They panted, looking at each other. Both are little startled, but neither pulled away.
Tamsin stared at Bo's swollen lips for a long time, before she looked down at Kenzi. "I...ummm...I don't-I guess we should take her to a doctor or something. I mean, it's kind of-I mean-" She mumbled, knowing that they should take care of the unconscious girl first yet really wanting to continue that kiss.
Bo nodded as she licked her lips. She held Kenzi's waist with one hand, and put the girl's right arm around her neck with the other to pull her up.
"Here," Tamsin suggested as she turned around, preparing to carry Kenzi on her back.
"Are you sure?" Bo asked. "I mean, she's petite, but we have a lot of steps to go."
"Just shut up and hand her over," Tamsin commanded, though her tone soft as the mist above the river.
"Fine," Bo murmured. She put Kenzi's arms around the blonde's neck, and tied the girl tightly to Tamsin's back with a rope.
"Alright, let's go," Tamsin said as she carried Kenzi towards the stairs.
It took them forever to transport Kenzi outside the canyon. The moment Tamsin finished the last step of the stairs, she kneeled down and let out the breath she had been holding for too long.
She slowly untied the rope and let Kenzi roll down from her back and into Bo's arms. She gasped, sprawling on the ground afterwards.
"Oh crap, I think I left my bag down there," Bo murmured after she had checked Kenzi's heartbeat again.
"Well go get it then," Tamsin said breathlessly as she threw her hand at the canyon. She shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand and took a glance at Bo. "Relax, I won't eat her while you are gone."
Bo giggled and punched Tamsin's shoulder softly. She sucked her bottom lip and held Tamsin's sweaty hand in hers, as if she was about to say something. She ended up mouthing a "thank you" to the blonde before she left.
Tamsin watched Bo walking away, her heart pounding so hard inside her chest. So hard it made her fingertips tingle and her ears deaf.
She sighed as she stared at the bright sun, till her vision started to blur and tears filled her eyes. She felt so contented, like she had found the best of her life. She was beyond exhausted, sweaty, dirty and with bruises everywhere, yet that joy overwhelmed her and she just didn't want to move at all.
After glancing at Kenzi again, Tamsin closed her eyes for a while. When she opened them again, the sun had hidden behind a thick layer of clouds. She noticed a particular piece of cloud floating. An almost transparent cloud with a rainbow color.
She stared at the intently, until something suddenly occurred to her. The still air, the heat, the fleeing animals, and now that cloud.
She rolled on her knees and rushed to the edge of the canyon. "Bo!" She yelled, forcing air out from her chest. "Get back! Get the fuck back!" Her voice echoed in the canyon, and it scared herself because it was fueled with too much fear.
Right after that, the world trembled, and she fell down. Earthquake shattered the world. The ground broke into pieces, some of them rising while others sinking.
Tamsin yelled, but since the whole world was trembling, who could have possibly heard her?
Tears burst out from her eyes as she crawled towards the edge of the canyon, only to find that the entire place had collapsed completely.
She swallowed hard and caught Kenzi, who got thrown down right into her arms. She covered the unconscious girl with her own body in reflex as she tried to hold both of them still.
However, she failed. The elevated ground forced them to roll down. She tried to grab something just so they wouldn't be buried by the landslides, but everything was falling down.
As her waist crashed into a tree trunk, she bit back an agonizing moan. Then something hit her head, and knocked her out.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. Life has been a bit crazy lately :)
So here an earthquake happened to them...The signs I mentioned in the story are said to be signs before big earthquakes. They probably don't always appear together, but it's for the story.
Thanks for reading :D