by BC Powell
“Am I hurting you?” I ask.
“My ribs hurt,” she answers quietly, “but it’s helping.”
I slide my hand out from under her shirt. “We should set your shoulder before any more time passes. Do you feel up to it?”
“I think so,” she tells me. “I need more sap first.”
I open one of the flasks and help her drink about half of what’s inside. After spreading the rest over her bruised shoulder, I use both hands to force the joint into place. She hoarsely wails and her body stiffens.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “It had to be done.”
“I know,” she replies, choking back tears.
“I think that’s all we should do for now.”
“I need to sleep,” she whimpers.
“Not yet,” I reply. “I don’t want to make a decision without talking to you about it first. Do you want me to go to the Delta and bring back help?”
After staring at the cavern ceiling for a few seconds, she moves her eyes to me. “I don’t want to be alone. If the Murkovin find me, they’ll kill me.”
“I worry about that, too,” I say. “I’d carry you back, but I don’t think you’re stable enough. It might do permanent damage.”
“I shouldn’t be moved,” she confirms. “Are they looking for us?”
I nod my head. “I think so, especially after I stole their transport.”
“They might gather others and block our route to the Delta.”
I turn my face towards the puddle of water while evaluating our situation. I’m sure Tela’s mind is foggy, but everything she says makes sense. I agree that she shouldn’t be moved yet, and it had already occurred to me that the Murkovin could try to set a trap. More than anything else, I don’t want to leave Tela alone. I would never forgive myself if I went to the Delta and came back to find her dead. Accepting that we’re stuck here for a little while, I look at Tela again. She’s struggling to keep her eyes open, but I need answers to a few more questions before she sleeps.
“I haven’t had any wild sap yet,” I say, “but I doubt I have enough energy left to blend my light. How long will it take for it to affect us?”
“You’ll feel it right away,” she answers.
“Feel what?”
“Extreme emotions. Anger almost to the point of rage, a sense of power, and some other things I don’t understand.”
“Those things are all common in my world,” I say. “I should be able to control them.”
She clenches her jaw. “It’s hard. It twists your thoughts in a strange way. I’m already fighting it.”
“How long until it turns us into Murkovin?” I ask.
“We’ll be fine for several morrows. It takes eight or nine to completely change someone if all they have is wild sap.”
“That should give us plenty of time.” I want my next words to instill as much confidence in Tela as they can, so I pause for a few seconds to choose them carefully. “This cavern is well hidden and we have more than enough sap. We’ll stay here until you’re ready to be moved. If the Murkovin show up near here, I’ll lure them away and come back to get you.”
“That’s a good plan,” she says.
“I need to go out and get more sap. It shouldn’t take long. I hid the transport a few hundred miles from here.”
“Why so far?” she asks.
“So if the Murkovin find it, they’ll search for us there and not here.”
Her eyelids sag. “You really are clever.”
“I have my moments,” I say. “I just want to do everything I can to help you.”
“Please don’t be gone long.”
“I won’t,” I reply.
“Will you wait until I’m asleep?” she asks.
“Of course.”
After her eyes close again, I hold her hand in mine. I know it doesn’t have much meaning to the people of Krymzyn, but I guess the need to show compassion the way we do on Earth will always be with me. Seeming to appreciate the gesture, she softly squeezes my hand.
Just a few seconds later, she’s fast asleep. I lay her hand on the ground, check to make sure that her head is in a comfortable position, and then sit down by the tunnel entrance. I feel a little better about Tela’s injuries since the wild sap seems to have the same healing power as the sap of the Delta. Tela once told me that it took two morrows to heal her broken legs when she was younger. I hope that the wild sap can do the same.
With no other choice, I unscrew the top from a full flask. The sap from the Delta energizes me instantly while also having a calming, almost euphoric effect. When I take one large sip of the wild sap, a flamethrower ignites inside me. Without making a conscious decision to do, I drain the rest of what’s inside.
As a wave of rabid power flows through my limbs, the muscles in my body involuntarily flex. Trying to relax, I close my eyes. Every part of my being yearns for more sap.
I open my eyes and stare at the steel containers while a battle rages inside my mind. Should I give in and drink more? Or should I try to get some level of control over it now? Several times, I reach for a flask but stop myself before my hand wraps around it. Using the excuse that I need it to blend my light, I finally give in and swig down a second flask. It does little to quench my thirst.
After another heated mental debate, I win the next fight for control of my brain. I pick up the canisters, flasks, and spear, and then take a few steps inside the tunnel. Pausing for a moment, I look back and call out, “Dark.”
When I reach the end of the passage, I don’t stop to scan the outside. Clenching my spear in both hands, I boldly jump straight out to the gully. If any Murkovin are nearby, I’d rather kill them now than play a game of cat and mouse. As I did before, I run a few hundred feet down the ravine and then stop to look behind me. The last thing I’ll let those cowardly bastards do is trick me into leaving the area so they can have their way with Tela.
While traveling to the south, I have trouble concentrating on the beams. My attention is constantly distracted by the hills that pass by me. To make matters worse, the milky light of the Barrens fades, the clouds tumble into one another, and rain pounds down from the sky. With my blood simmering with a fresh desire for sap, I madly search for a sustaining tree. I’d rip a limb from a trunk in a heartbeat to gratify the incessant hunger gnawing at me.
I spot a tree near the base of a hill and slide to stop. I can’t figure out why the limbs aren’t moving, but then I notice thin strands of black string hanging from the branches and blowing in the gusts of wind. It’s nothing but a thread tree like the ones that grow in the Delta.
After gushing into the few beams that I can find, I finally reach the transport. A shallow, fast-moving stream is now flowing through the wash. I climb over the rocks, jump into the water, and throw myself down beside the transport. Once my mouth locks to the spigot, I open the valve and drink until I’m nauseous from gluttony.
As I sit up, warmth spreads through my body. Like lit fuses sizzling inside my blood, heat spreads outward from my stomach to the tips of my fingers and toes. With the water still rushing around me, I lean over to fill the canisters and flasks with sap. Realizing that the water has risen almost to the spigot, I bolt upright.
The cavern could flood! I shout in my mind.
My heart pounds faster and faster while panic tightens my chest. I search for my spear, but it’s hidden somewhere under the water. Deciding to leave it behind, I sling the canisters around my neck and clip the flasks to my belt. I leap to my feet and bound out of the wash. Slipping and stumbling across the wet dirt, I lurch into a few dull rays.
Heading straight for the cavern, I swish over the bleak hills. I soon descend into the gully and tear my body out of the beams. Sloshing through knee-deep water, I lope towards the pile of rocks. The newborn river has risen almost to the bottom of the tunnel entrance.
When I make it to the crevice, I spring out of the water. As I jam my body through the entrance, my shoulders scrape against the sharp rocks. I
barrel through the tunnel with the crash of water in front of me growing louder and louder.
“Light!” I shout once I reach the opening to the cave.
“Chase!” Tela calls out.
I storm through the entrance, drop to my knees beside Tela, and lock my eyes on the far end of the cave. What was once a trickle of water down the wall is now a thick, tumultuous spill. The pool is substantially larger than it was before I left and has risen to Tela’s waist.
After grabbing Tela under her arms, I drag her to the higher ground near the tunnel entrance. To keep her body as far away as possible from the spreading pool, I turn her sideways. I place the rocks under her knees again and slip the pillow under her head. She glares at me with flaming amber eyes.
“I could have drowned!” she hoarsely snarls.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I came back as soon as I could.”
Her eyes drift away from mine and stop on the waterfall. “I need sap!” she demands.
I open a flask, lift her head with one hand, and hold the steel to her lips. She downs sip after sip until the flask is half empty. After a few deep breaths, she looks at me.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It was the wild sap. Darkness makes it worse.”
“Don’t worry about it. I feel it, too. Go back to sleep. I won’t leave you again.”
I reach out a hand and brush long strands of hair away from her face. She used to have bangs that hung just over her eyebrows, but she’s let her hair grow out over the past few months. Her longer hair seems to make her look more mature—more womanly—and I’m not sure that I ever realized how truly attractive she is.
“Thank you for all you’re doing for me,” Tela whispers.
She immediately passes out. I lean my face down to hers and gently kiss her forehead. After scooting to the mouth of the tunnel, I stare at the swirling pool. It appears to have grown as much as it’s going to, so I don’t think there’s a threat of the cavern completely flooding.
Once I’m confident that the pool won’t reach Tela, I walk to the end of the tunnel to make sure the temporary river hasn’t risen to the entrance. Water surges through the gully, slams against the rocky banks, and sprays mud in the air. It doesn’t seem to have grown much since I got back from the transport, but I decide to monitor it a little longer. If the tunnel floods, Tela and I could drown inside the cavern.
Darkness goes on and on and on. It might be the longest I’ve experienced since being in Krymzyn. The terrain around me is dark and lifeless, an endless stark landscape of black and gray. I take an occasional swig from a flask while looking out at the dreary landscape. There’s no color or detail to anything around me, just murky outlines of vacant hills. What could possibly have made me want to live in Krymzyn? It sure as hell wasn’t for this glamorous life.
Even on the Delta, we live like wild animals in caves and drink tree sap to survive. That brain tumor must have really fucked with my mind. I’ve broken bones, been stabbed by spears, and watched people slaughtered in front of my eyes. I’ve been chased across a desolate wasteland by creatures that belong in a horror show. I know I came to Krymzyn to be with Sash, but I’m not sure she was worth it.
She wanted to give our daughter away to the goddamn Keepers. What kind of person thinks that way? I sacrificed my life on Earth to be here, abandoned my family and friends, and that’s the thanks I get? Take my daughter away from me? If the Tree of Vision hadn’t intervened, Sash would have gone through with it. Having a daughter is the only good thing that’s happened to me in Krymzyn, but Sash wanted to take her from me.
I think I finally realize where her true loyalty lies. It sure as hell isn’t with me. Everything she does is for the great and powerful Krymzyn, the elusive lie of balance that the zealots on the Delta preach all the time. Sash tried to brainwash me into thinking like the rest of the cult.
I grit my teeth, clench my hand into a fist, and hammer it against the rocks. As much as I want to find the assholes who attacked us and bash their goddamn brains in, I can’t risk leaving Tela alone during Darkness. While the relentless storm wreaks havoc on the wasteland, one thought echoes in my head.
Why did I ever want to live in this godforsaken world?
Chapter 19
When Darkness finally ends, I return to the cave. Sitting beside Tela, I lean back against the wall. The fall isn’t as powerful as it was during the storm, but it’s still stronger than before the rain. The pool has receded enough that the edge is several feet away from Tela’s side. As I stare at our dismal surroundings, I think the same thought over and over.
What the fuck am I doing here?
I eventually close my eyes and try to sleep. Every time I nod off, I almost immediately jerk upright with cold numbness prickling my skin and shortness of breath. I tell myself that the momentary anxiety attacks are because of the dire situation we’re in, but in the back of my mind, I know it’s the wild sap. None the less, every time it happens, I take a couple of swigs to restore the feeling of warmth.
Empty hours and more empty hours agonizingly tick by. I occasionally walk to the end of the tunnel to check the ravine, but soon return to the cavern. Sitting with my back against the wall, I never doze off for more than a few minutes during the entire Krymzyn night.
When Tela finally stirs a little, I reach a hand to her and lightly press my fingers against the artery on the side of her neck. While I measure her heart rate, she opens her eyes.
“Your pulse is stronger,” I say.
“I feel a little better,” she whispers.
“How’s your neck?”
She starts to turn her head to the side but winces after moving no more than an inch. “It’s stiff. At least I can move it a little now.”
“That’s a good sign,” I say. “What about your legs?”
She tries to raise the leg with the compound fracture, but grabs my arm and immediately gives up. “They hurt a lot. I don’t think the wild sap heals as quickly as sap from the Delta.”
“At least it’s doing something,” I reply. “The bone in that leg was sticking out of your skin.”
She frowns. “When I broke my legs before, neither one was a compound fracture.”
“It may take a while to heal, but you seem more alert now.”
Her eyes roam around the cavern. “How did you know how to get light?”
“It was an accident,” I tell her truthfully. “I just happened to say the word ‘light’ out loud. I don’t even know what makes it.”
“Grubs,” she says, returning her eyes to me. “Tiny creatures no bigger than a small twig. They burrow in the ceilings of caverns in the Barrens.”
“You owe your life to them. Without their light, we were in bad shape.”
Still holding my arm, she tightens her grip on it. “I’m alive because of you.”
I smile at her. “Do you feel up to working on your neck?”
“I guess we have to. Do we have sap?”
“A few canisters and flasks,” I answer. “Should we see if you can sit up?”
“Let’s try,” she says.
As I help her sit upright, she moans and bites her bottom lip. I grab a full canister of sap and hold it to her mouth. While I support her neck with one hand, she gradually drinks about half of what’s inside. I start to pull the canister away, but she raises a hand to it and pushes it back to her mouth. It takes most of the canister to get her craving fully in check.
I scoot behind her and hold her head in my hands. Gently rotating it to the sides, I only turn her head about an inch in each direction the first few times. Once her muscles seem to loosen, I try to twist her head a little farther.
“No more!” she yells.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I say.
“You need to be more careful!”
“You need to watch your mouth!” I snap.
After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, she leans back against my chest. Her voice is much softer when she
speaks again.
“I’m sorry. I’m having trouble with the wild sap.”
“I feel it, too,” I say with my anger subsiding. “I’m sorry I talked to you that way. I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s really hard to control sometimes.”
I tenderly grip her shoulders in my hands. “Don’t feel bad. We just have to stay aware of what it’s doing to us. If we pay attention, we can keep it in check.”
“Thanks, Chase,” she says softly. “Do you think you can help me clean up a little while I’m sitting up?”
“Sure thing.”
After making sure she can stay upright on her own, I rinse out an empty canister in the fall and fill it with water. She sits perfectly still while I wash her legs, arms, and face. I pour another canister of water over her head and comb my fingers through her hair. It takes two more refills before the knots, sap, and dried blood are all washed away. Just like in the Delta, her hair dries in a few seconds.
I help her lie down on her back again. As I adjust the pillow under her head, she asks me to spread sap on her injured shoulder and ribs. I rub it on her shoulder first and then reach my hand under her shirt. While lightly gliding my fingertips over her ribcage, the side of my hand accidentally grazes the underside of her breast. The sensation triggers a momentary flutter in my stomach.
“It feels good when you rub sap on me,” she says.
I stop my hand on the firm muscles of her stomach. “I’m glad it helps.”
“Will you hold me while I fall asleep?” she asks quietly. “It helps me feel safe.”
I pull my hand out from under her shirt and set the canister aside. Facing her, I stretch out on the ground with my head resting on one of my arms. After I drape the other arm over her body, she slips her hand inside mine.
“What happened to your shirt?” she asks.
“It’s your pillow,” I answer. “It’s all I had to support your neck.”
“I’m sorry I’m putting you through so much,” she whispers.