Ephemeral: Chapter 28
Clara smelled the rancid dump before she saw it. Lying atop a mobile heap of revolution-old cafeteria scraps and trashed paper products was one thing. But when the night air circulating underneath the cardboard only intensified the stench, she knew they were nearing their destination. “We must be close,” she said to Aaric.
“I think you're right,” he answered from in front of her. He tossed their cardboard camouflage aside. “I think we can move freely now; no one should be flying overhead.”
Clara stood to her feet and stretched, then coughed and wrinkled her nose. “It smells horrible in here!”
Aaric looked up at the stars. “Hopefully, we won't be in here much longer. When this truck spills us out, all we have to do is wait until it drives away. Then we can make our next move.”
Clara scowled at the idea of garbage raining down on her. She ached for a hot shower and the luxury accommodations at the Sapphire Hotel, not to mention a cool drink and a decent meal. Till this moment, the day's harrowing events had made her forget her appetite. But now she felt downright hungry. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of food, but she soon caught a whiff of something way past its expiration date and felt her appetite fade again. She sighed, resigned. “What is our next move?”
“We make for the trees at the base of the mountains.”
“In the dark?” Clara stiffened as she recalled her last encounter with nocturnal wildlife.
“It's not ideal ...” Aaric said. “None of it is! I didn't think we'd be hiking into Silva territory after Elpis-setting. But there's nothing for it.”
Clara leaned over and rubbed her sore thigh. “How long will it take to reach the Silvan settlement, do you think?”
“I don't know,” Aaric shook his head. “I've never been this far from Almitas before.”
“Great.” To distract herself from her hunger and frustration, Clara gazed upward through the darkness at the dazzling sky bejeweled with sparkling constellations. The familiar ones she'd always seen from Earth were shining several galaxies away. But these may still be bright enough to light our way ...
The rumbling dump truck switched gears and started going uphill at a slower pace. Clara had to adjust her position to keep from stumbling. “Are we in the dump now?”
“We must be. The wheels are slipping every now and then. They wouldn't do that on a paved road – and certainly not on a fancy photopetrium one.”
“I suppose a hovercraft might have trouble supporting so much weight,” Clara mused. “Believe it or not, seeing a truck with its wheels on the ground kind of reminds me of home.” She looked down at her shoes smeared with brown goo.
Aaric fiddled with a piece of torn cardboard. “Are you homesick, Clara?”
Clara considered. “I think I've been homesick ever since my mother passed. But what with snarleks and suicides and war and everything going sideways with Raven, I haven't had much time to think about Earth. I've been too busy trying to survive this planet.”
Aaric nodded. “I'm sorry about your friends. Especially Raven. Have you known her long?”
“Best friends growing up.” Clara smiled faintly. “We drifted a little in college, but we've always had each other's backs. Do …” she wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Do you think if we destroy the Fire Stone, she'll snap out of this?”
Aaric took a deep breath. “The way I understand it, the Fire Stone is like an addiction; it becomes the most important thing in the wearer's life. If you remove an addict from what they're addicted to, there's an uncomfortable withdraw period and varying levels of long-term damage.”
Clara nodded slowly. “So the sooner we destroy the Fire Stone, the better our chances of helping Raven recover?”
Aaric's gray eyes looked cloudy. “I hope so, Clara.”
The dump truck lurched to a stop, backed up, and with a protesting squeak from the hydraulic system slowly raised the front part of its bed into the air to dump out its contents.
“Climb toward the top!” Aaric said, clamoring on all fours toward the front of the truck.
Clara spidered her way after him till gravity would allow her to go no further. Then she turned around and slid down the truck bed into the mountain of muck. Aaric landed a yard or so from her and covered his head as the remaining bits of trash rained down upon them. Kitchen waste dripping with mystery fluids soaked through Clara's hair, making her cringe; Aaric lucked out with a bag of shredded paper and a piece of wet cardboard.
The truck driver paid no mind to the dirty stowaways. He pushed a button, and the hydraulics squeaked again as the bed descended back to its original plane.
Clara thought she might wretch at the putrid smell about her and felt unbelievably gross.
The truck's rear lights soon disappeared down the mountain of trash toward the road back to Agilis. From their current elevated vantage point, Clara and Aaric could see Agilis' blue glow against the horizon. Once alone, they climbed from the garbage heap.
“Oh, my!” Clara exclaimed as she took a look around. Dozens of trash mountains towered all around them. How could they tell which dark shadows were the mountains they sought?
“There!” Aaric pointed to the not-too-distant silhouette of a dark shadow with a white peak. “The Silva forest is probably only fourteen or so furlongs away. Come on!”
Clara couldn't remember how far a furlong was, but she felt better knowing she and Aaric had a definite goal. She bravely put one foot in front of the other, trying not to guess what rubbish was soiling her socks. Aaric had a tougher time making his way through knee-deep waste, but he refused to complain despite his slow progress.
However far a furlong was, the smelly, slippery terrain at least tripled their expected travel time. After an hour's hard work with many a stumble, the snow-dusted mountains seemed barely any closer. Clara's eyelids felt heavy and her nose felt too tired to smell the horrid aromas anymore. She was about to suggest they find somewhere to rest for the night, when Aaric hissed, “Get down!”
Clara dropped to the ground and tried not to wonder how moldy the old mattress on which she lay prostrate was. “What's wrong?” she whispered.
“Look there! Near the trees!”
Clara saw a military-grade hovercraft with its blue glowing underbelly patrolling the edge of the forest. Inside it sat a troop of at least a dozen Agilis guards, their electric staffs pulsing with blue energy.
Clara swallowed hard. “There's only one ...” she said at length. “We can wait for it to pass, then sneak into the woods ...”
That's when two other hovercraft zoomed in from overhead to join the first. Soon, there would be a guard posted at every tree!
Aaric shook his head. “We can't stay here. We must go where the hovercraft can't follow.”
“How?”
Aaric looked at his feet, grabbed a mildewed blanket, and held it out to Clara. “We use camouflage.”
Clara puckered her face in disgust as she accepted her new accessory. Aaric draped a tattered tarp over himself. “Keep moving. But if they shine a light on us, freeze.”
Clara nodded and tried not to breathe in the blanket's musty smell.
With the benefit of fresh adrenaline, Clara and Aaric picked up the pace. The second wind wouldn't last forever, but Clara hoped it would at least blow them into Silva territory. Scampering from one trash mountain to the next, Clara and Aaric managed to get within thirty yards of the trees. Clara could see their thick limbs spreading heavenward. She could also see the guards posted along the forest edge.
“Here's the plan,” Aaric whispered. We get to that trash heap closest to the edge of the dump. I'll aim to knock the far left guard unconscious. When the guard in front of us runs to help and leaves his post, we charge into the woods. Got it?”
Clara nodded, her throat too dry to answer verbally. She draped the blanket over her head and tried to follow Aaric stealthily to the final trash heap. But in her haste she accidentally tripped on an old pipe and stepped on something made of glass.
Clink-crash!
Oh crap! What do I do?!
A guard turned toward them. “Who's there?” He aimed his glowing blue weapon in their general direction. “Show yourself!”
Clara froze underneath her mildewed mantle but doubted it would conceal her for long. Between her pounding heart and trembling form, she did not expect to withstand the guard's scrutiny. She heard him stomp through the refuse, then something whizzed through the air, and the guard fell to the ground with a thud.
Off came the blanket. Someone shouted in the distance.
“Clara, they saw us! Run!” Aaric called from over his shoulder as he made a dash for the forest.
Clara, momentarily stunned by the guard's fall, saw a different guard heading toward her from the corner of her right eye. Clara, move! Her mind screamed.
With panic surging through her legs, she managed to overtake Aaric and sprint toward a narrow opening between two barrel-sized tree trunks. Aaric was only a step or two behind when Clara heard the telltale electric hum and saw the blue flash in her peripheral vision. In what seemed to be becoming a signature move, Clara dove hands first through a brush pile into the dark woods. In mid air, she heard Aaric cry out in pain. A split second later, she hit the forest floor, mercifully landing in a large pile of leaves.
Limping, Aaric rushed past her holding his right arm. “Keep moving!”
Clara heard a guard curse the brush at the forest edge and recharge his staff for another blast. She staggered to her feet and followed Aaric deeper into the forest. The trees quickly grew closer together and blocked out the helpful starlight. Clara held her arms out in front of her and followed the sound of Aaric's side-to-side gait to keep from losing him altogether. She heard another blast behind her as the guard tried to light his path. The others would arrive soon.
Rather than going deeper into the forest in the guard's line of sight, Aaric veered sharply to the right and walked uphill away from where he and Clara had entered the wood. Several times he and Clara stumbled, but sheer fear drove them on. At one point they hugged the trunk of a great tree to avoid discovery when a hovercraft floated over the canopy. But it moved on and circled back to the left. They paused every so often to listen for sounds of pursuit. None came, but the forest was far from silent.
A variety of chirppings, skitterings, and flappings made Clara gasp more than once as she tried to place one foot in front of the other. Aaric kept marching uphill in the dark until they came to a clearing. Here, the starlight illuminated everything – even Aaric's expression. He winced in pain as he supported his right arm with his left. Clara could see beads of sweat on his brow, and his whole right arm looked wet.
“We can't go any further,” he said, exhausted. “But we need to get off the ground. That's our best bet.” He nodded to a towering tree growing at the other end of the clearing.
Clara looked at the tree and felt like collapsing. For the second time that evening, she yearned for a soft bed, a hot shower, and something to eat and drink. Hadn't she done enough running for her life for one day? This whole situation was so unreasonable! But her ears pricked up at a familiar sound which gave her fresh motivation. Something in the not-too-distant vicinity howled. Answering calls soon followed.
Snarleks! Clara's neck hairs stood on end. She knew from experience how quickly they could close a distance. She headed for the tree and – with the help of Aaric's knee – hoisted herself onto the lowest limb. She groped her way up a few more feet while Aaric reached up with only his left hand and walked up the tree trunk till he could wrap his legs over the lowest branch. He grunted as he pulled/swung himself right-side up and rested, cradling his right wing.
“How's your arm?” Clara asked from above.
“Throbbing like crazy,” Aaric grumbled.
“Is it broken?”
“Possibly. It's definitely seared.”
Clara winced sympathetically, then continued climbing until she found a thick branch which was wide enough for her to sit on with both legs extended. Aaric labored through the foliage with one arm and the occasional yelp of pain until he found a similar branch jutting out from the trunk directly behind Clara. He sat on it and leaned his head back against the rough bark, breathing heavily.
From her leafy perch, Clara could see the entire clearing. The snarleks howled more frequently, but she felt more secure hidden in the canopy. Then she heard a clear, trumpeting call which sounded completely foreign to her – something between a flute and a horn – and it seemed to be nearing the clearing.
“Is that the Silva people?” Clara asked hopefully.
Aaric sounded weary. “Sounds more like an animal – perhaps the one the snarleks are hunting.”
At that moment, an elegant creature with four delicate legs, a long tail with a tuft at the end, and a single twisted horn set squarely in its forehead stepped into the clearing. It sniffed the air with flaring nostrils, pranced in a jittery circle, then gave a French horn-like call through its headpiece before disappearing again through the trees.
Despite her exhaustion, Clara leaned forward excitedly. “Was that ... a unicorn?!”
“There's no such thing as unicorns.” Aaric pronounced. “Probably some sort of Silvan antelope – ouch!” He shifted on his branch.
“You okay?”
“I'll live,” he muttered sourly. Then he struggled a little from behind the trunk. “Can you reach back here and grab the cuff of my shirtsleeve?”
Clara reached behind her and grasped the cuff in her fingers. Aaric pulled his arm from it with a slight whimper. Then he cleared his throat. “Okay. Can you take the sleeve on the other side of the trunk and tie them together under your arms? My shirt should be long enough to secure us both.”
“Secure us?” Clara asked as her fumbling fingers tied the knot in the dark.
“To keep us from falling out of the tree in our sleep.”
Sleep! The very thought of it made Clara nod, and she soon fell into the comforting oblivion of a dreamless night's rest.
So what do you think?
Ever been so exhausted you fell asleep as soon as you thought of it? I think my longest stretch of consciousness was traveling to England, not falling asleep on the plane, touring a few places before passing out in the hotel. Would love to hear of any exhaustion stories below!