The Sands of Borrowed Time (16 page)

Freedom

Down on the plains the snow had all but melted.  The water was slow to soak into the hard-parched ground, leaving an enormous shallow lake for miles around to see.  The air was unusually clear, the standing water keeping the dust and sand down, away from the winds grasp.  The Sun and supernova were in conjunction as they rose slowly above the horizon, both blazing brilliantly in the bright blue sky.  Kyla turned to look back at the hills.  The snow there to had melted, forming streams and waterfalls that cascaded down onto the prairie.

“I guess we need to wait for the water to go,” Hayley said as they walked back to the land ship, ankle deep in cool, fresh water.  Their feet were freezing as their faces burned from the unchecked Sun.

“No! No!  We should leave immediately!” Kyla protested nervously. “They will come looking for me for sure.  I am meant to return when the Sun starts its descent, and the wind dies.  That will be soon!”

“We still have a few hours for a head start,” Demelza replied, giving Kyla a reassuring hug as they continued walking.

“Depends if the ship can get through the water,” Hayley said.  “As I said, we may need to wait until this slush melts and drains away.”

Kyla’s lips quivered as her facial tics returned with a vengeance, “We need to be far out of sight by then.  They have binoculars, motor vehicles.  If they see us, they will soon catch us,” she stammered.  Kyla took a nervous look over her shoulder and back towards the hills but saw no one.  She was glad to leave but felt apprehensive nevertheless. 

“Calm down, Kyla, you worry too much,” Hayley said, trying to reassure her, but deep down she knew there could be some serious trouble ahead, taking Kyla with them was a risk.

“Wow,” Kyla said as they neared the land ship, “It’s so big, the masts so high.’

“Allows us to pick up quite a bit of speed,” Demelza explained.

“Going to a bit slower though with all this water,” Hayley added, looking concerned.

“But at least the ground hasn’t turned to mud, which gives us a chance,” Demelza said hopefully.

Kyla was overcome with a sense of exhilaration.  To be away from Carla and Cain would be like a bird freed from its cage.  How that bird would fly was another matter, however. She had been in their company since she was born, a full thirteen years.  You get set in your ways

and accept certain things.  Maybe being with Haley and Demelza would be no different.  She thought though it was for the best, and that she was making the right decision.  She needed to evolve, leave the nest and make a new way for herself, and by herself if necessary.  She felt that all her frustrations were slowly beginning to ebb away; but first things first, they needed to get far, far away from Carla, Cain, and the others.  Only then would she have a chance at freedom.

They all gathered and fixed up the sails.  They immediately filled with air, billowing violently above them, the mast groaning from the strain.

“The breeze is so strong today, maybe we are in with a good chance of moving,” Hayley said as she released the brake.  Hayley and Kyla looked on hopefully.  There were some creaks and groans from the woodwork as the frame seemed to lunge forward, the wheels yet to turn.  Then there was a loud yell from Kyla.

“Fucking yeah, make it real!”  The ship’s wheels moved forward, slowly at first, but gaining momentum with ease, the delight in Kyla’s eyes burning bright.  Demelza leaned overboard, watching the wheels cut through the water, leaving small wakes behind them, distorting her reflection into peculiar ripples.  She felt the Sun hot on her back, her skin beginning to burn.

“I’ll get some shirts for everyone,” she said and went inside.  Kyla looked back at the hills, her home for the last thirteen years.

“Sorry to leave?” Hayley asked.

“Not really.  I just feel sad for those left behind,” Kyla replied, her expression sweet and awkward at the same time.

“What about Cain and Carla?  Do you feel sorry for them, too?”

“Not really, I guess, they ran the show.  Some of the others for sure, though.”  There was an awkward silence, but Kyla could see the question remained in Hayley’s eyes; who were Cain and Carla?  Kyla decided it was probably a good idea to talk about them, just in case they came chasing, to prepare them a little bit.

“In a nutshell, Cain and Carla were the Generals, if you like,” Kyla began, Demelza quickly returning to the deck as she heard Kyla begin, handing Kyla and Hayley a shirt each.  “Both were orphaned at a young age, becoming bandits without choice, just to survive.  They learned quickly the power of fear through violence, its hold over people and expanded their strength by assimilating other bandits.  In fact, anybody they could lay their hands on into their way.  Either you join us or die, was their motto.”

“At least they gave you a choice,” Hayley laughed as she put on her shirt.

“Not what you call normal recruiting practices, though,” Demelza added, smiling.

“They searched the plains for victims.  Those they captured, they took back to the hills, forcing them to build quite an impressive village.  They collected guns and bombs and defended their way by striking first, by aggressive attacks on anyone within view of the hills.”

“Sounds like a fun way to live,” Hayley said.

“Cain can be a bit trippy,” Kyla continued.

“Trippy?” Hayley asked.

“Yes, you know, likes the theatre of it all.  Revels in the violence, with firebombs and guns his drugs, to which he’s thoroughly addicted.  Once he gets going, it’s like he turns into a different person, his eyes glaze over, and he becomes a monster.”

“And Carla?”  Demelza asked, “The psycho bitch!”

“Oh, she’s lovely.”

“What?  I thought you said…”

“Just kidding,” Kyla interrupted, waving her hands in front of the scope as Demelza scoured the hills.  “Carla goes along for the ride.  She cares about nobody, and nobody cares for her.  She’s like a parasite.  Her power lies on the shoulders of Cain.  No-one would listen to her if Cain disappeared.”

“You think they will come looking?” Demelza asked.

“For sure.  I would be surprised if they haven’t spotted me missing by now.”

“Demelza, you should continue to keep a lookout with your scope,” Hayley said.

“Cain never lets anybody leave,” Kyla continued.  “He’s very possessive, insecure, and always likes to have the last word, but only because people let him, just for a quiet life.”

“And, no doubt a painless life?” Hayley added.

“Yes, only Carla stands up to him.  She knows which buttons to press, to control him for her own selfish needs.”

“I guess behind every great man, is a great woman,” Hayley chuckled.

“Sounds like it's true love,” Demelza whispered sarcastically as she scanned the receding hills through her scope.

“Any sign of the love birds,” Hayley asked.

“No; so far, all clear,” Demelza replied.  “We must be out of sight by now, anyhow.

“No,” Kyla replied apprehensively, “not until we are out of sight of the hills.  We need to keep moving.  No stopping.”

“Alright, little sister,” Hayley said.  “I’ll keep the sails high and full of wind.  Once those hills are out of sight, consider your chains broken.  You will be free to do as you please.”

“Yes, I will,” Kyla said with conviction, looking back at the retreating hills.  She watched as the Sun set, turning the escarpment into a ghostly silhouette, swallowing the plains with its long shadows.  They continued riding east until both the Sun and hills disappeared over the horizon behind them, the wind dying and the land ship coming to rest in the eerie, silent darkness.  Kyla looked at Hayley and Demelza with her jewel-like eyes.  There was a faint tremble across her lips as she smiled, but not from fear, but from joy.  Demelza appeared from inside with a large jug of water.

“Let’s drink to freedom,” she said, taking several quick gulps.

“Freedom!” Hayley added as she drank and passed the jug onto Kyla.

“Thank you both.  Freedom!”  Kyla said, holding the jug up proudly.

Bright Eyes in the Storm

The sounds were rhythmic, repetitive and precise.  They reminded her of pistons firing, interlaced with the sounds of rusty cogs grinding against another.  The rhythm was continuous; dull, uninspiring, but hypnotic.  She felt the noise was always there in the darkness, just beyond her grasp.  She wanted to see, so walked into the blackness, continuing until she could see light again.  She came to a room that was encased by pale red bricks; the surface of most had crumbled with age, forming uneven, brittle walls.  The room was not unlike that which you would find in a factory; functional in nature, but soulless to the senses.  It was spacious but dimly lit, flickering light bulbs hanging from long white cables along the centre of the room.  They poorly illuminated a black conveyor belt below them.  She was right, there were pistons and wheels driving the belt in spurts.  There was one quick movement followed by a slower one, and so on.  Thus, the conveyor belt moved around jerkily but endlessly, almost as if it needed to stop but couldn’t, the unhealthy sounds of the wheels and pistons adding to its sense of fragility. 

She felt a peculiar connection with them as she saw them sitting quietly on the conveyor belt; new-born beings with their backs upright, their legs crossed.  They were almost human like, with large black eyes that almost never blinked, but when they did, it was so quick that it was almost unperceivable.  They sat motionless, staring straight ahead, slowly breathing, but otherwise silent, like living dolls.  They moved with the conveyor belt from left to right, placed on at one end by hands in white gloves whose arms disappeared into the shadows of the corner of the room.  The beings as they moved along, appeared to receive each, in turn, a series of treatments.  Ointment was dropped into their eyes from an unseen source above, falling from the darkness.  It was a scintillating blue liquid, which on hitting their eyes caused little reaction apart from one or two blinks of their thin transparent eyelids.  The blueness glistened in the light as it spread out across their dark orbs, quickly being absorbed such that their blackness soon returned.  As the beings continued to move along the conveyor belt to the centre of the room, they, as if responding to a command only known to them, lifted their heads, opened their small mouths and received a diffuse white vapour that they sucked into their lungs.  They held their breath momentarily and then gently exhaled again, the vapour now absent, completely absorbed by the lungs.  Lastly, she watched as a man dressed immaculately in a black suit, white shirt and navy tie, injected something into their upper arms with no emotion from either man or beings.  They were then lifted and taken away by women devoid of femininity, all behaving like robots.  She held her hands to her ears in despair as the dull hypnotic turning of the cogs that drove the conveyor belt continued; round and round… creak and groan… screeching and squealing…

Kyla awoke, looking towards the southern horizon to see the advancing storm blearily through her tired eyes.  Her head felt dull.  The dream had taken its toll on her vitality as she slept.   The wind had blown dust high into the air, swirling in black threatening clouds, the Sun slowly losing its power as darkness spread across the plains.  The wind, for now, was just a breeze rippling through Kyla’s damp and sweaty hair, but soon, she knew, it would be a ferocious swirl of blinding grit.

“So hot,” Demelza complained as she came from the humid cabin to sit next to Kyla.

“Looks like a mighty storm is coming our way,” Kyla replied, looking at the dark billowing clouds of sand slowly advancing towards their ship. 

“I think we should try and sail ahead of this one,” Hayley remarked as she freed the sails from their moorings, looking at the sparking nebula of dust rising ever higher into the sky.  There was a crack of thunder as the scintillations cumulated into an intense lightning bolt, echoing across the plains like an angry demonic voice.

“Let’s get out of here!” Demelza said.

“Before we get buried alive!” Hayley added as she secured the sails to the mast.  The wheels started to turn as the sails filled with air, the vessel gaining speed quickly as the breeze quickly stirred into a ferocious gale.

“I don’t think we can outrun this one,” Hayley shouted anxiously above the noise of the buffeting sails.

“Doesn’t look good,” Kyla agreed, glancing back at the advancing dark orange clouds.

“Looks like the desert is on fire, filling the sky with brimstone and smoke,” Kyla continued quietly to herself.

“You what?” Demelza asked as she battled with the steer.

“Nothing,” Kyla said a bit louder as sand started to blow across the ship. “Just thinking aloud.”

“I’m thinking we might get stuck in this one if we don’t hurry up,” Demelza said, shaking the sand from her hair.  Hayley grunted as she turned the sails into the powerful stream of the wind.  The ship immediately responded, surging forward, the dark shadows of the sand clouds, however, still rushed towards them.

“It’s still gaining on us!” Hayley shouted anxiously as she looked back at the towering, dark clouds suffocating the Sun’s breath until its light could be seen no more.  Sparks and lightning bolts continued to scintillate within the darkness as the wind howled sand into twisting funnels.  They danced across the plains behind them, threatening to become full-blown twisters.

“Fuck!  Hold on tight!  This is too fast!” Demelza shouted, still struggling with the steer.  Hayley and Kyla grabbed onto the rails as the ship shuddered across the plains, the storm now engulfing them.  Kyla watched as the ship sped through golden yellow clouds of sand, listening to the wind howl through her hair. 

She remembered Cain and shouted, “This is turning out to be a lovely day!”

“Indeed, it is,” Hayley shouted. 

Demelza smiled at them before shouting in a long shrill, “Happy days!” 

The swirling clouds of sand got thicker and thicker as the wind became more violent in its passage across the plains.  It was almost as dark as night, just glimmers of light flirting through the murky, coursing clouds.  All three girls held onto the rails in silence as the ship sailed through the storm.  Their faces were caked in sand and their hair blown into matted sandy knots, each covered their eyes with their hands, peeking every now and again, hoping to glimpse the plains ahead.  The howling wind was almost hypnotic as it screamed like tormented ghouls through the sails above them.  Kyla remembered when she was found by Cain, just a little girl wandering the plains in a storm just like this one.  Bandits had chased her and her mum, and she had fallen from the motorbike they were on.  Her mum had told her to hold on tight, as she was now, as Demelza had said.  She remembered being scared, terrified, burying her head into her mum’s blouse, sticky with perspiration.  They were travelling through the blowing sands like now, a ferocious storm.  They were going so fast, and the ground was so rough.  She had held on as tight as she could, her arms welded around her mum’s waist.  She was crying as the bikes chased, the scary men that drove them taunting them with their clown-like smiles.  She recalled that her mum was also crying, the smell of fear burning in her sweat.  It became too much.  Her arms were tired.  They were slipping from around her mum’s waist as she screamed for her baby to hold on.  It took one shuddering bump, and her mum was gone, the men riding right by, not seeing her as she tumbled across the sand into the brown fog.  There she lay, looking up into the swirling, dark clouds, petrified of being alone.  She screamed for her mum, but she never came back.  Why did she not come back for her?  Did she not turn around?  Could she not find her through the ferocious storm?  Did she fall too and get captured?  She wandered the plains for days and nights, stunned, sand sticking to her congealed scars.  She was in shock, knowing no hunger, numb to the heat of the Sun and the freezing air of the still nights.  She was like a zombie doll, wandering all alone through the desert.  Then, one morning, he broke through the shimmering heat rising on the horizon; Cain, looking big and powerful on his motorbike.  There was nowhere to run.  She was too tired to run, so she just collapsed to her knees on the ground, still in shock of her abandonment, completely defeated.  She looked up at Cain as his bike came to stop beside her, too exhausted to care who he was.  Cain, without apology, bundled her into a cloth sack, then drove her back to his camp where she remained for almost thirteen years, for better or worse, not knowing, and still not knowing what became of her mum.  She held on tight to the ships rails as it thundered through the plains, tears flowing, washing lines down her sandy face.  Why could she not hold on then as she could now?  Why did she not stop and come back for me?  That thought, that question, had haunted her ever since; every day and every night.  However, today was the first time she felt the pain, the grief of losing her mum as the tears continued to stream down her face.

“Full steam ahead!” Hayley screamed as the ship’s mast strained and groaned, the sails bloating almost to breaking point as the wind continued to howl and swirl.  Demelza simply punched her fist in the air as she stood at the helm.

Kyla looked ahead through the tunnel of swirling sand, the haze making patterns in the air, teasing out images like a dreaming mind.  She thought she saw a glimpse of her mum’s face in the patterns before she was forced to close her eyes, the sweeping sand too much to bear.  She watched the image in her mind’s eye until it to dissolved into darkness.

“I still believe you’re out there mum!” she shouted out into the desert.  “Turn around and come back!”  Tears streamed down her face.  “Believe in me, like I believe in you!” she yelled awkwardly, choking as sand filled her lungs.

The darkness became all-enveloping as the ship struggled on through the storm.  The wind was now directly side on, streams of sand lifting off the desert floor and screaming across them in golden swirls. 

Kyla and Demelza could hear the muffled shouts of Hayley, “Can’t see a bastard thing!  We have to stop!”  She took the tension out of the sails, and they fell downwards, the ship gradually coming to a halt.  All three grappled with the flapping loose sails until they moored them back safely against the mast.  The sandy blizzard forced them to go inside, each covered in baked dust and sand.

“Fucking shit weather,” Hayley panted. “What’s it coming to?”  Demelza and Kyla were too exhausted to speak, sitting on the floor breathless, looking up at her with dazed faces.  Hayley got a jug of water and passed it around, each grateful to quench their thirst.  Kyla shook the sand from her matted hair, rubbing her hands afterwards, watching the sand fall to the floor.

“You hear that?” Hayley suddenly remarked.

“Hear what?” Demelza asked.

“I hear the friggin wind howling outside,” Kyla said, almost incoherently between gulps of water.

“There again,” Hayley said as she walked to the door, peeking outside.  “Like the sound of a horn.”  Demelza and Kyla followed until all three were looking through the door ajar, staring out at the dark, sandy hurricane.  This time, it was unmistakable.

“What the hell is that?” Kyla said, alarmed.

“Sounds like a bugle horn you hear before a battle,” Demelza said nervously.

“Maybe it’s a trick of the wind as it flows across the desert,” Kyla said, blowing the sand from her lips.  Again, a trumpet sound blew loudly across the plains; a long monotonous drone.

“That’s no fucking trick of the wind,” Hayley remarked sternly.  Again, a long haunting drone boomed across the prairie.

“Sounds like a trumpet during a funeral march,” Hayley said.

“Maybe the angels sounding their horns for the final chapter,” Kyla said, her eyes big and wide.  Through the gloomy mist of sand, Kyla thought she could make out faint, shadowy figures walking slowly south.  It was difficult to tell through the thick torrent of sand, and she dared not tell the others until she was certain.  Were these
the Others
that Cain and Carla had talked of?

“Look!” Hayley exclaimed.

“What?” Demelza asked.

“Over there,” Hayley pointed towards the group of figures that Kyla thought she saw.

“Just shadows,” Demelza remarked, “but maybe...”

“I see something too,” Kyla added.  Kyla dared not say who she thought they were. 
The Others
travelled the plains under the cover of sand storms, ominous figures like death, appearing to people for a reason, to seal their fate.  To keep them trapped in the desert forever; eternally thirsty and tired of life. 

“I don’t think they’re coming this way,” Hayley said.

“They must have seen us, as we can see them!” Demelza added alarmed.

“Never look them in the eyes!  Kyla yelled out.

“Never look them in the eyes?” Hayley asked, intrigued by Kyla’s remark.

“You know these guys?” Demelza asked.

“Maybe,” Kyla replied.

“Maybe?” Hayley asked, her curiosity becoming like an itch that needed scratching.

“Not sure,” Kyla said, pausing before beginning hesitantly again, “They could be…”

“Go on,” Hayley interrupted impatiently, “They could be...?”

“
The Others
,” Kyla replied, looking startled.

“
The Others
?” Demelza asked.