2 January 2013
The sound of wind howling around our house wakens me slightly. I want to go back to sleep, cuddled up in the warm on the heavy quilt on my hay mattress. I feel dizzy and weak. I almost drift off to sleep again, but a voice interrupts. "Gemi? Gemi?" Alana says, shaking me. "Gemi?" The voice becomes lower. I snap my eyes open and Zay's smiling face comes into focus. We're under the boulder, the wind still whipping the long grass outside. Wait. I'm looking at Zay. I'm LOOKING at Zay! I struggle up but he pushes me back down. "Boy, I was getting scared there for a second," he says. "I woke up and your head was surrounded by a pool of blood. It's dry by now. Don't sit up though, we don't want you fainting." I roll my eyes, but that hurts the back of them. "How could I've gotten my eyesight back?" I ask, my voice cracking from dehydration. He scoops up snow from outside and offers it to me. I open my mouth wide and he drops the ice in. "I don't know," he says, responding to my question. "It might've been the bump on your head and your central nervous system and optical nerves might've clicked back on when you hit it..." I'm so dumbfounded by what he said I don't even try to comprehend it for a second. "Oh," I offer, trying to act like I understood. "Your better," I say. "You punch pretty hard when your mad." He laughs and I sigh, a wave of sleep washing over me. "What are we going to do Zay?" "I don't know, Gemi. I don't-" his voice fades as I fall asleep, my head throbbing in pain. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Zay's snores wake me up and I struggle to sit up, grabbing into a rock ledge to steady myself. I slump forward and carefully reach my hand to the back of my head. My head is bandaged and my hair is matted down with blood. When I touch the top of my head, flakes of dried blood float off. I gag. I lower my hand a bit more and land on the exact spot where the rock hit me. Pain shoots through my head, eyes, and even my throat. I moan and collapse, thinking of Charity. I slowly move my leg, because it's cramped and has fallen asleep, and I accidentally bump into Zay who wakes up, stretching his arms. "Gemi, we gotta do something so we can survive. We can't just expect food to fall from the sky on a 24-karat encrusted golden plate," he says. "It's a possibility." "What I'm trying to say is, I'll go look for food and you stay here and heal up." "No, I'll be better by tomorrow. Stay. Humans can go five days without food," I insist . "It's been almost three Gemi. We've got to get it quick and soon." "We will. Tomorrow." I emphasize 'tomorrow' and lay back down, using my arms as a pillow. "Now let's sleep, we're going to need it tomorrow." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I take the chains off my cutting them with the sharp rock. It takes almost all night till the early morning hours and then I finally got some sleep. I wake up to silence and I realize the snowstorm stopped, but probably not for long. I've heard it's almost always blizzard after blizzard in the Wild. I shake Zay and he finally crawls out from under the boulder after a few complaints. I set him straight. We sit on the ground a while, side by side, eating snow. Finally I stand up and start walking. Zay doesn't move. I look back and glare at him, which I'm glad I can do now. He follows. We're going to need as much luck as 100 four leaf clover bouquets surrounded by horseshoes if we're going to find food out here.
All rights reserved. Klaire™ January 2 2013
Gemini Chapter Six • Opuss № I