Awakening

by Hayden Pearton

  *

  Using the sun as a make-shift watch, Barsch estimated that he had been walking for a little under three hours. After taking another drink from the canister, Barsch shook it, and was displeased by how little remained. Looking up, a distant figure caught his attention: Yumiere. However, the same instant he blinked, she disappeared.

  “Damn it! It's too soon for them to be re-appearing. I have to move faster. I have to make it to safety before they manifest fully. Come on Barsch! Move!”

  With that, he steadily increased his pace, trying hard to ignore the pain building in his infected leg. He pushed onwards, trying to focus on nothing but moving forward. No matter what appeared, he could not afford to lose his stride.

  When he finally caught a glimpse of a mop of hair, he immediately thought that Terra had returned, to aid him once more. However, as he drew near, he saw that it was in fact the bloodied body of Rigel, which vanished as he came closer. Annoyed, Barsch struck his legs with closed hands, trying to force the blood to circulate faster. He hoped that his body would get the message: “Go faster!”

  In desperation, he resorted to repeating the words of his father, though the mounting pain and his confused mind made such a thing difficult. “Through fire...” he began, “Through fire...” he repeated the first words again and again, a mental block halting any efforts to recall the rest.

  The words lost to him, he tried to picture Alza, Maloch and Kingston sitting peacefully under the shade of the oasis palms, but their images were distorted and unclear. As he walked, his three friends slowly morphed into Rigel, Yumiere and the Unknown Woman, each calling out his name in increasing depravity.

  When he could go no further, he fell to his knees, reality and mentality blending seamlessly. His thoughts appeared to float in mid-air before him, shining intensely and rapidly changing colours. His thoughts began to twist, as the imaginary words formed into vile sentences.

  “You left them”.

  “You abandoned them.”

  “Feel their regret.”

  “Hear their cries of pain.”

  “Give yourself up to the madness.”

  A strange sound at the edge of hearing dispelled both the malicious words and the haunting voices. There, on the next dune over, lay three rabbits, basking in the sun.

  “So this is what you meant by food, huh, Terra?”

  Barsch crouched down, ignoring the groans and protests of his weary body. Madness and ghosts could wait until after his belly was full.

  Crawling on all fours, he edged closer to where his salvation lay. The rabbits themselves were a scrawny bunch, as years of expanding desert had severely limited their food supply. With a practiced movement, Barsch slid his trusted knife from its hiding place. He propped his non-throwing arm up, in order to gain accuracy and balance. Barsch thought back to the times in the past when his father had forced him to practice survival skills rather than play with the local children. His hours of practice were finally going to pay off.

  Just as he was about to through the sliver of sharpened metal, an image of Terra and his ways came to him. Closing his eyes, he softly whispered, “I ask forgiveness for what I am about to do,” before rising and throwing the blade with surprising speed. It travelled in an almost straight line, before striking the largest of the rabbits in the flank. It took one more step forward, before collapsing in a quivering heap. Barsch moved as swiftly as his leg would allow, as the remaining rabbits made for their hidden burrow. Upon reaching the stricken hare, he quickly ended its suffering, knowing in his heart that sometimes such things were necessary.

  “In time, I think that you'll come to understand that there are times when death is the only option, and at that moment, I hope you will find something worth killing for.”

  While Barsch still did not fully agree with Terra’s words, he felt as though he understood their meaning a little better.

  “Well done. I didn't think that you would actually make it all the way here by yourself.”

  Terra stood at the top of the dune, looking as though he had been there all along. Remembering Terra’s words, Barsch supposed that maybe he had been.

  “How long have you been watching?” he asked, regardless.

  “Since the day you were born.”

  “What?” he blurted out, but Terra was already gone. Where he had stood now lay a baseless fire, apparently fuelled by air alone. Barsch took advantage of the ethereal flames to cook his freshly captured meal. The meat was stringy and hard to chew, but for Barsch's starved body, it was gourmet. After he finished his meal, he carefully buried the bones, offering them back to the planet; so that it could recycle new life from them.

  “When did I get this superstitious? I haven’t done any of this since dad taught me, all those years ago…”

  Feeling the strength return to his weary frame, he stretched fully and stood, his end-goal finally in sight. The oasis was close now, just a few more hours of pain and near madness.