Saving Koda

by Mikayla Lane

  “Da—dang it!” she muttered as she grabbed the wadded up towel and pulled the water off the hook above the fire.

  Emily checked on Joey, saw her occupied with strumming the air, ran outside, and carried in the large steel basin she used for Joey’s bath. She set it in front of the fire and huffed as she dumped in half the heated water then added cold water until the temperature was warm.

  “All right, Joey Joe Joe, it’s bath time!” she called out as she pulled back the sheet and carried her sister to the basin.

  She gently undressed Joey and got her into the water before grabbing the washcloth and lathering it up with the soap.

  “Are you all right?” Sally asked.

  “Yeah, Mom, we’re good,” Emily said as she concentrated on washing her sister.

  “Emily, you need to talk about things. You can’t keep burying things inside of you like this,” her mother argued.

  Emily was already walking a thin emotional line and she turned glaring eyes to her mother.

  “Talk about it to who? My autistic baby sister? Or my dead mother? Yeah, that’s sure to help my damn sanity! Or wait!” Emily said, her voice rising. “Let’s talk about how I send the dead on their way! Or how they hunt me around the clock! Yeah, more sane things to talk about. I feel real great now, thanks for the talk!”

  Joey began to cry, and Emily immediately lowered her voice.

  “I’m sorry, Joey, I know you hate it when things are loud. I’m sorry,” Emily whispered as she kissed her sister’s head.

  “Ma,” Joey said as she pointed to her mother’s ghost while her eyes looked in the opposite direction.

  “Yes, baby girl, that’s Ma. Can you say Em? Em . . .” Emily said with a smile.

  “Mmmmm . . .” Joey said.

  Emily smiled broadly and quietly clapped her hands together.

  “Yay! You did it, Joey! Yay!” Emily said, pride in her sister’s accomplishment evident in her voice and shining eyes.

  In her world, it was the little things that meant the most because the big things were too overwhelming to think about.

  *****

  Koda awakened slowly and sat up. He had no idea where the hell he’d ended up but was stunned that he didn’t feel any pain anywhere. He’d felt the pod break up before he lost consciousness and had been sure he’d be torn apart or at least badly injured.

  He looked down at himself and didn’t even see a tear in his clothes, and he wondered at it before he took in the sights around him. It was gray outside. Not the rainy day kind of gray, but a darker shade that seemed fake.

  Koda tested his ability stand, and when he didn’t have any problems, he tried to figure out which way to go. It was then that he saw the faint light in the distance. He didn’t think that it would be Grai coming to get him, not until his brother had the military under control in the Folly, and he wondered if he should head towards it or not.

  Before he realized that he’d made up his mind, Koda found himself heading towards the light. The closer he got, the more he felt like he was being drawn towards it, like a moth to a flame. It was then he noticed that there was no sound anywhere around him. No birds singing, or even the whisper of the wind, although he could see the leaves swaying.

  What the hell? he thought as he looked around.

  There were no animals that he could see, not even a bug. Koda had spent enough time on the planet to know that bugs were everywhere, yet he didn’t see or hear anything except the shadows around him and his own thoughts.

  “Ax, buddy, you got a clue what’s going on?” Koda asked his beast out loud, just to hear something besides the silence.

  After several minutes passed with no response from Ax, Koda ran his hands over his head. He felt a large, raised lump on the side above his ear, but it didn’t hurt at all.

  “Must have been enough to knock you for a loop though, huh, Ax? Just get better buddy, I’ll handle it for now,” Koda reassured his beast, sure that the reason for Ax’s silence must be a concussion from the crash.

  Damn lucky that’s all that happened to me in that crash, he thought as he moved closer to the light in the distance.

  Koda briefly considered going back to see the crashed pod and try to figure out if any of the systems were working well enough to contact Grai, but he knew with the military in the forest, he was better off heading away from the crash until he could either find a way out on his own or wait for Grai to find him.

  There was no doubt in his mind that Grai would be out looking for him as soon as the situation in the Folly was contained. Until then, he was going to try and figure out how to get back on his own and avoid any potential military personnel that may have been sent to the crash site.

  He walked through the eerie, shadowed forest for what felt like hours. The rising moon above gave him no clue as to the time of night or even where he was since he saw no stars, but Koda knew that the pod couldn’t have gone too far from the Folly.

  The silence was beginning to rattle Koda when he saw he was almost to the light. At least he thought he was, because it’d grown so bright over the last several miles that it was now illuminating a small cabin.

  Koda made his way through the trees until he stood on the outer edges of the clearing surrounding the small cabin.

  What the hell is going on? he wondered as he stared at the light emitting from the woman he could see inside the open door of the cabin.

  That didn’t surprise him nearly as much as the half dozen people staring at her from outside the cabin.

  Chapter Two

  Emily finished giving Joey her bath and dressed her in her warmest pajamas. Winter was coming soon, and the air held a chill at night that could be pretty brutal to someone who’d spent most of their time in the south—like she had.

  Emily sighed as she tried to shake away the memories of the last winter with Joey. She just prayed it would be a little easier this time now that Joey was a little older. It’d had been a special kind of hell trying to chop firewood and hunt for food with her sister strapped to her back.

  Even though Joey couldn’t walk at the time, Emily still had to worry about them being found by Joey’s grandfather, and she wouldn’t let the baby out of her reach.

  Emily plopped Joey down on the blanket she had laid on the floor.

  “OK, Joey Joe Joe. It’s my turn to take a bath. Can you sit and play for me?” she asked, not expecting a response, but intent on engaging her mostly non-verbal sister.

  When Joey put her hand in the air, Emily stood and pulled off her sweater and slid her jeans down. She sat on the floor to pull off her boots and socks before standing in front of the now cooled and dingy bathwater, shaking her head. She had no idea how one small baby could get so dirty.

  Emily sighed heavily and began to wash as fast as she could, trying not to think about the last time she’d had a real bath with hot, clean water.

  Emily finished and dressed quickly, knowing that she could only hold them off for so long before she weakened too much from the effort. Finally dressed, she leaned down to pick up Joey and kangaroo hopped with her to the sheet covered bed.

  “It’s time for sleep, Joey Joe Joe,” she teased.

  She laid the baby down on the bed and waited until Joey rolled away from her before she gently tucked her in and sat down on the edge of the small bed.

  “Once upon a time, there was a baby kangaroo named Joey. She was the most beautiful kangaroo in the whole of the Australian outback, and everyone wanted to keep her for themselves,” Emily said, beginning Joey’s favorite story.

  “One day, Joey’s mom got hurt and baby Joey had to live with her sister, Emily. Emily was so happy to be with Joey and little Joey was happy too, even though she still missed her mommy. The sisters were a great team, and Emily never wanted to be away from Joey because she loved her more than anything in the whole wide world.”

  Joey cooed and closed her eyes as Emily finished the story and she stood quickly, closing the sheet behind her as she moved to c
lean up the mess from their baths while she still had time. In fact, Emily was more than a little surprised that they hadn’t been interrupted already. She was exhausted, and it was almost impossible to hold them off for long when she was that tired.

  Unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth, Emily used some of the remaining hot water in the kettle to clean Joey’s bowl and spoon. She went back to the cabinet and looked over the meager contents with another sigh before she grabbed a packet of ramen noodles.

  Emily broke up the noodles in the bowl then added some of the remaining hot water before setting it near the fireplace, hoping to keep it hot while she dealt with the ones she knew had to be waiting for her.

  She looked down at the large bucket of dirty cleaning water and couldn’t leave it inside until morning. Emily was a light sleeper when she could sleep at all, but she couldn’t take a chance that Joey could fall into the bucket.

  She opened the door without looking outside and reached down to grab the tub of water. With a grunt of surprise at the weight, she carried it onto the tiny front porch and nearly dropped the tub when she saw the beautiful man standing alone in front of the house.

  *****

  Koda stood on the edge of the small clearing and watched the strange people to try and figure out who they were and what they were doing. It was an odd group of three men, a woman, and a teenage girl.

  He looked around the area again, knowing that they were miles and miles from anywhere before he looked back at the silent group. He looked through the window and could see the woman begin to take her shirt off, and something in him kind of snapped at the voyeurs who were watching her intently. Before he could stop himself, he stepped into the clearing.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded as he faced the now startled group.

  “What are you?” one of the men whispered in fear as he stared at Koda with wide eyes.

  Koda snorted in anger.

  “I’m the guy who’s going to kick your ass if you don’t stop watching her undress!” he growled.

  “But . . . we need her help!” the woman said in a whining voice while she wrung her hands.

  Koda turned glaring eyes to her.

  “You expect to get it by violating her privacy? What the hell is wrong with you? Get out of here until she’s done; then you can come back,” he argued, shooing them away.

  One of the younger men sneered at Koda.

  “Asshole ain’t much different than the rest of us. He’s just as powerless,” he taunted.

  Koda walked up to the man and stood toe to toe with him before glaring down at him.

  “You’d be best served not to underestimate anything about who or what I am or can do,” Koda warned, his tone dangerously low.

  “Go to hell,” the man replied.

  Koda watched the man’s eyes widen moments before everyone fled into the surrounding woods. He looked around, wondering what had frightened them off when the door to the cabin opened and he stared into the face of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen.

  He knew he was staring open-mouthed but couldn’t seem to find the words to speak as she stared at him with green eyes that looked eerily like a cat’s in the shadowed darkness.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered.

  “Do you know who I am?” Koda asked curiously, finally finding his voice.

  She shook her head before she carried the tub to the edge of the forest and dumped it out. He watched her rinse it with water before hanging it on a hook on the side of the cabin.

  “You need to go back; you aren’t ready to be here yet,” she said.

  “I don’t understand,” Koda said, looking at her in confusion. “I just got here. How can I not be ready to be here if I’m already here?”

  Emily looked up at the beautiful man and wished there was something she could do for him. His situation was beyond her control, unlike the others that she could see peeking at her from the surrounding forest. The most she could do was explain things to him, and she intended to do just that when she was done with the others.

  “Let me finish with them, and I’ll explain it, OK?” she asked, hoping he wouldn’t be a problem and would figure it out as she worked.

  Koda nodded as Emily motioned the others out of the forest and sat down on the edge of the porch to face them all.

  “Ladies first,” Emily said to the teenage girl who ran to stand in front of her.

  Koda watched in stunned amazement as the green eyed beauty spoke quietly to the girl. He wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t hear what they were saying. With Ax silent from the possible concussion, his heightened senses weren’t working. Moments later, the girl vanished in front of them all.

  “What the fuck?” he whispered in shock as he looked around the clearing and the forest for where the girl could have gone.

  He turned back around in time to see the other woman disappear, and he ran forward, holding his arms up.

  “Wait! What the hell are you doing to them?” he demanded as he faced the green-eyed witch.

  Koda was stunned when the men glared at him and stepped towards Emily. He saw her stand and send him a sympathetic gaze, making him wonder why she would feel sorry for him.

  “I told you, I will explain it after I’m done,” Emily said. “Please, just let me finish. They aren’t being harmed, and they’re here of their own free will.”

  “Yeah, so back off, asshole,” said the man who confronted Koda earlier.

  What the hell did I walk into? Koda wondered as he stepped away from the porch—but not far enough away that he couldn’t hear what she said to the next person.

  “OK, like I told the other two, all you need to do is step into the light when I open the corridor,” she said with a gentle smile.

  “It doesn’t hurt, right?” one of the men asked.

  Emily shook her head.

  “No, it doesn’t hurt. It’s peaceful because your torment here is finally over,” she responded.

  Koda kept waiting to see the light she spoke of, but all he saw was the man disappear before another man stepped forward to take his place. Although he didn’t see any light except for the one that seemed to glow from within her, he kept his mouth shut and watched as everyone disappeared.

  When the clearing was empty except for the two of them, she turned and faced him.

  “What’s your name?” Emily asked, fearing she already knew the answer.

  “Koda. What is yours?” he asked and wondered at why her face fell when he said his name.

  “I’m Emily. Come inside, Koda. It’s getting cold out,” she said as she wrapped her arms around herself and moved to the cabin door, holding it open for him.

  Koda looked between her and the door and stepped inside, allowing her to shut the door behind him. He looked around the small cabin curiously, wondering why such a beautiful woman would be hiding out in the forest.

  Emily moved to the fireplace and added more wood to keep the small cabin well lit. She hated the dark and not being able to see what was around her. Especially when there was always something around her.

  “Have a seat, and we can talk,” Emily offered, gesturing to the only chair in the room.

  Koda looked at the weary woman and the chair and shook his head before he sat on the floor in front of it.

  “You go ahead and sit there; I’m good on the floor,” he said with a gentle smile.

  Emily sat down with a sigh. It’d been a long day, and looking at Koda sitting there she knew it was going to be a lot longer.

  “Thanks. Koda, tell me, what’s the last thing you remember?” Emily asked.

  “That’s a strange thing to ask a complete stranger, don’t you think?” Koda asked with a furrowed brow as he wondered if she could see what happened in the Folly from here.

  “It’s important, though. Tell me what you remember before you saw the light that led you to me,” Emily asked gently, knowing it would be harder on him than the ones she usually dealt with.


  Koda stood and looked around nervously, wondering how she’d known about the light he’d seen.

  “How did you know that? What the hell is going on here?” he demanded as he stood in front of her.

  Emily sighed and rubbed her tired eyes.

  It’s a good thing Gran’s already dead, or I would kill her myself, she thought.

  Straightening her shoulders she stood to face the large man whose dark, rugged looks were so appealing to her.

  He towered over her and Emily guessed he had to be over six and a half feet tall since he was at least a foot taller than her five foot six frame. He was so big she bet his bicep was as big as her thigh, and his muscles bulged beneath his clothing, but she faced him without a bit of fear.

  “Sit down and keep your voice down because if you wake my baby sister, I’m throwing you the hell out of here. Gran or no Gran. Got it?” she whispered harshly.

  Koda looked around curiously, wondering where she was hiding a baby when he saw the sheet covered area and saw a fuzzy, pink covered foot peeking out of it. He turned back to Emily and sat back down on the floor.

  “What the hell is going on here?” he whispered back.

  Emily moved the chair out of the way and sat down in front on him on the floor so they wouldn’t have to talk too loudly.

  “Koda, people only come to me when they are ready to move on. They follow the light to me, and I help them to leave the nether realms they are trapped in. You’re in one of those nether realms,” Emily explained.

  Koda just stared at her for a moment, her words slowly sinking in. Then he burst out laughing.

  “You’re freaking crazy! I’m sitting right in front of you. I just walked here through the woods,” he argued, wondering what kind of game she was playing as he stood to pace the small room.

  “Koda, sit down and try to remember the last thing before you came here. You had to have been in an accident of some kind. Car accident, fell off a ladder . . . something. Think,” she urged him, knowing that the sooner he remembered something the easier it would be.

  Koda stared at her in shock.