literature

The Devein Portals Chapter 8

Deviation Actions

Shadow-StrikeRaven's avatar
Published:
89 Views

Literature Text

Chapter 8
Jay awoke to find herself covered in a damp, but cool blanket. She sat up, and found that for the second time in two days, her head was pounding. She groaned and forced herself to her feet leaning against the tree for support, before noticing that she had a bandage wrapped around her hand. She glanced around to find everything from the bags laid out around a small clearing. She looked for the river, but couldn't see any sign of it, although she thought she could hear it some distance away. She looked around for Alex, and noticed him sitting dozily at the far side of the clearing. He didn't seem to have noticed that she was awake so she cleared her throat to catch his attention. He turned his head, and noticing that she was awake, jumped to his feet and ran across to her. He looked as though he was about to hug her, but at the last second thought better of it. He stooped down and picked up one of the first aid packs and rummaging inside. He held out his hand, and dropped a box of aspirin into her hand. "Healing bands don't help with headaches," he pointed out. She didn't need them because her headache was already fading, but she popped two out and dry swallowed them, mainly to avoid questions that she couldn't answer. After she had forced the tablets down, she gestured around the camp, "What's with the clearout?" she asked, struggling to get the words out. The healing band hadn't finished healing her parched throat. Alex noticed this and headed over to where he had put the food supplies. "It's a feeble attempt to dry the stuff out," he explained, as he passed her a bottle of water, "The humidity is causing it to take a longer time to dry than it would normally." He gestured upwards, "Anyway, he added, "It's almost nightfall and the cooler temperatures should speed things along." Jay stared at him in dismay. "Almost nightfall," She exclaimed, "You're telling me that I've been out of it for almost 4 hours?!" Alex couldn't see what she was so annoyed about. "That's actually impressive," he announced, briskly. "You've only had about 3 hours sleep in two days, and we're in one of the harshest environments in the world. I expected you to sleep through most of the night too, so don't you dare beat yourself up about it." He could see that she was trying to come up with some other complaint about how pathetic she was, "But because of me, we've lost half a day of travel". He stared at her amazed. "What do you mean, wasted" he burst out. "We would have had to let the stuff dry anyway," Jay looked guilty, "Yeah, but you shouldn't have had to do all the work..." she looked at the disbelieving expression on his face and sighed, "Okay, Okay," she admitted reluctantly, "In truth, I just feel like an idiot for getting caught in the river. And falling unconscious is just pathetic". She went to run a hand through her hair, but it got caught halfway down. Her hair was a tangled mess, and she didn't even have a brush. She groaned in frustration and noticed Alex looking at her in amusement. "What," she mumbled, not in the mood for jokes, or for that matter, being the subject of one. "You're bloody brilliant," he said simply, and turned to sort out some of the things, gathering them closer together. Jay didn't know whether that had been meant as a compliment or an insult, so she chose to ignore it. Something suddenly clicked in her head. "Hey," she called hurrying over to him. "How come the first aid kits were dry? And the ammo," she added, noticing it lying in a pile. "Turns out," Alex replied, "That the backpacks were water proof, as long as they were fully shut and clasped down, and so were the medical kits." he motioned to another few piles of stuff a few paces away, "Good thing that yours was closed." He grinned as a relieved expression spread over her face, "He gestured over at the piles, "Go take a look."
She headed over to the piles he had gestured at, and was pleased to find the weapons were all still intact. She had a sudden thought and glanced quickly don at the holsters at her waste. The guns were ruined. One was smashed beyond all recognition and the other... actually, it wasn't too bad. It wasn't even that wet. The jacket she had tied around her waist must have protected it, the jacket itself was in a terrible state, but if it dried, she could be able to use it. She looked for the bundle she had thrown in the backpack and at first she was worried that it wasn't there, but she sighed with relief as she noticed it lying in a heap next to her empty bag. Alex came up behind her and noticed what she was looking at. "What's in there?" he asked, "You've checked and rechecked that bundle every time we've had trouble. Why is it so important?" Jay turned and looked at him. "That," she teased, "Is for me to know and you to... wait until I tell you to find out."  "But..." Alex started to complain, "Oh, come on," she interrupted, "Can't I keep one thing to myself? You'll find out soon enough, anyway, it's not that important." She looked up at the sky, to find that the light had faded fast, It was almost dark "Cant we just sort everything out and get ready to move in the morning?" she asked, trying to change the subject. She could tell that Alex wasn't finished with the questions, but he nodded his head and went back over to his bags. He rummaged inside, before straightening up and throwing her a dull black object, which, in the diminishing light, she only just managed to catch. She turned it over in her hands, it was a gun, identical to the one that she had ruined, she looked over at him, amazed. "How..."  "Well,"  he explained, "I saw you pick it up, and I figured I'd grab a spare...well, two spares, coz I had plenty of room left in my bag" he grinned, "You never know when you need a spare anything." Jay dropped the remains of her ruined gun onto the pile of things that Alex had classed as useless, and jammed the replacement into the holster in its place. She stared down at the stuff which had been ruined, and amongst the smashed up torches and drenched food-the packets must have torn open- she noticed a soggy mush of paper, She bent down and picked it up. Alex looked over at her and noticed what she was doing, "Sorry," he apologised, "I tried to dry it out, but the ink had run, you couldn't make anything out." Jay sighed at the waterlogged lump of paper, before throwing it to the floor in disgust. "Doesn't matter anyway," she mumbled, "Wasn't that important." They both finished sorting the stuff and settled against a tree, to rest.
Alex fell asleep almost immediately, but Jay was restless. Eventually, she decided to do something she had been planning to do for a while. Checking that Alex was asleep, she grabbed a small pair of scissors from one of the medical kits-the other kit had a pair- and she set out in the velvet hunters tread that she had developed thanks to years of being in the woods. She made her way down to the river, which was now much calmer. The water near the bank barely rippled. She looked down at her reflection, and realised how ridiculous it was to have hair that went halfway down your back. She sighed before grasping her hair just above the tangled mess and used the scissors to hack it off. She continued to cut away at it, until it was all roughly the same length, although she left the fringe long to shade her eyes. After washing it out, it fell back naturally into a style that was almost cool. She smiled at her handiwork and made her way back to their temporary camp. She wrapped the scissors in an antiseptic wipe before stowing them back into the first aid kit. It was just as she settled down next to Alex that she realised that 8 hours sleep in nearly three days really wasn't enough, even for her. As soon as her eyes closed, she was asleep.

Jay stirred awake, and sat up to find herself enclosed in four woven walls. "What the..." she thought to herself, and reached over to where Alex lay, to shake him awake. "Alex," she whispered as he stirred, "Where are we?" He sat up, "What do you mean where are...we" he looked around in the dim light. "Well..." he said after some time, "I think were in some sort of wooden hut." Jay gave him an irritated look. "Is this really the right time for one of your lame attempts at humour?" she asked. He looked at her in mock outrage, "Hey, I'm a first class comedian!" Then his eyes travelled to her hair, widening in surprise. "What did you…?  When did you…? Why did you…?"  Jay motioned for him to shut up, which he did immediately. He silently reached over and ran his fingers through the slightly longer hair down the side of her head. "It's almost as short as mine now" he observed, "It suits you… looks kinda cool…" He grinned. "It's kinda sexy…"
Before Jay could do more than give him a shocked and infuriated stare, a door in the far corner of the room was flung open, and a small figure stepped inside. "Bonjour," he said in a loud voice, with a thick accent that Jay couldn't place, "Konichiwa… Hello," He paused, obviously expecting them to say something. "Uum, Hello," Alex replied, tentatively, and a smile covered the young man's face. "You is engleesha, yays?" he asked, and when they nodded, he exclaimed, "Goody good," he gestured outside, "Come, you follows," Alex and Jay turned, almost at the same time, and stared at each other, before they getting to their feet. They followed the man outside to find themselves surrounded by a crowd of strange people. The people were all speaking in a mixture of languages, but Jay could barely make out what any of them were over the general fuss being made. Alex, however, was looking delighted, "I can hear French, English and what I think is Cambodian, although I'll have to test that," he whispered to her. She turned and gave him a mischievous look, "Yes, but did you pick out the Japanese, Spanish, Greek and... hold on" She made a show of listening to the crowd, "Yep, you're right, it's Cambodian?"  Alex shot an annoyed glance at her, but he couldn't help but be slightly impressed. "Where did you learn all that?" he asked, but Jay had noticed that the group of people had quietened down, "Tell you later," she promised quietly, before turning her attention to the man that had fetched them earlier, and who was now heading back towards them. Alex quickly copied her example.

"My name is Joka" he announced, in his heavily accented English, "Mens are shoots at us and we has hurt. Lots of us peoples has hurts, for yous they is looking, and they is coming back, always, they is coming back. Yous must make them leave us. We no want parts in yous fights." "We wants to help yous."
Alex looked at Jay, dismayed, "They haven't stopped chasing us yet?" he asked, in disbelief, "Surely they must think were already dead or something, did they think that we could survive the fire and everything, I thought that they would have given us up for dead." Jay stared into space, her expression thoughtful, "No," she mumbled quietly, then looked at over at Alex. "No," she repeated, louder, "They won't stop, will they? Not until they have caught us or are certain that were dead." she stared at the man, "Can you show us the way out of this forest?" she asked, "If we can get away from the forest, we could have a chance to escape," she looked over at Alex who nodded, thinking ahead, "That would suit everyone, wouldn't it," he added quietly. "Yes," replied Jay, and turned back to the people, "Help us out of the forest," she bargained, "and those men will follow us, and leave you alone."  The man repeated what she had said to the others, translating it into several different languages, and a roar of approval rose into the air. Then jay heard one voice call out, louder than the rest, in English, "Why don't we just hand them over, it'll be easier for us, Why risk helping them?" Whispers of outrage filled the crowd as those who spoke English translated for their neighbours. No matter how grave the situation, Jay couldn't help but marvel at how well the small society coordinated with each other. Before long, the entire crowd had turned and were shooting contemptuous looks at the speaker, and shouting curses at him, with disgust in their voices. Jay translated some of the different things that were said, and they were all along the lines of, 'Coward...cant hand over children to those animals...where's the harm in helping them out? It'll piss off those gun wielding maniacs...' and her personal favourites, '...cowardly bloody ass, he needs to grow a backbone... what was that he was saying about wrestling a jaguar?...' and '...where's my attack parrot, that'll teach him a thing or two...' She glanced over at Alex and whispered "You ever heard of a parrot being trained to attack someone?" Alex gave her a grin. "Before now? No. But judging from some of the conversations, they have an army of them here"
Hey, feedback would be appeciated!!!
© 2012 - 2024 Shadow-StrikeRaven
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In