As Yet, Untitled: Chapter Two
Drip, drip, drip…..the sound of dripping water splashing against the dry earth had slowly brought me out of my slumber. One of the plastic water jugs had a slow leak and water escaped one drop at a time. The routine had been the same for the past three days as our group traveled further and further from my home in the mountains. The landscape was changing so much. Gone were the cool temperatures and forested hills of my village. In its place a flat and dry wasteland was emerging before me that seemed to go on forever. The air was dry and hot and Nidan carefully regulated the amount of water we could have. They had also stopped posting a guard at night. Where would I go? In every direction nothing but dry, sunbaked earth providing a natural boundary to prevent a new one like me from escaping. “If we travel well today, we should meet them by night fall” Drak said to the men around the table who were enjoying a breakfast of salt-cured meat, nan bread and goats milk. “Finally awake new one?” Drak asked without looking at me. “You will need to wake with sun once we hit the waves.” How he knew I was awake I could not say for certain but there were many things I could not say for certain about Drak. For one so foreign, he seemed strangely familiar to me. As the days had passed, my fear of him had started to change in awe and respect. He was a leader; different from the men who led hunting parties or organized the sharing of crops in my village. Drak held a power over the other men that made them loyal to him. I felt that sensation taking over me too. As I sat down at the table and received my ration from Nidan, I responded to Drak. “I shall try.” “He speaks! The New One speaks!” I didn’t realize it until then, but it was true. I had not spoken a word since we had left my village; not since I saw Drak with mother. Not since I heard their conversation. The train of thought led my memory down a trail that was disappearing. Like the jungle reclaiming the ground faster than my dull machete could cut away the vegetation, my memories were fading. In my mind I could see them together but the words were distant and hard to hear. The conversation was right there about to materialize in my mind when I heard the rumbling of something strange. In the distance, a truck appeared and headed in our direction. The rolling wheels created a cloud of dust behind the vehicle and the heat coming off its metal skin made it appear to be a mirage of the desert. Suddenly my neck felt as though a python had grabbed me, squeezing the life from me. It was Drak. He threw me toward Nidan. “Hide him quickly!” Nidan grabbed my arm and slung me between the crates that stored the food supplies. He looked into my eyes and said, “stay quiet if you know what’s good for you.” He covered me with an old tarp. I lay there still as I could and tried to control my breathing as the sound of the trucks engine grew closer and closer. I hear Drak giving orders and guns cocking.