Chapter: 3

Thirst

Gren wasn’t sure if the room she was in stayed sunny all day or if she had slept through the night. She felt tired as she pushed herself up from the grass into a sitting position. Her eyes dropped and for a moment she thought she might fall back down. But she steadied herself against the oak and managed to find her balance again.

As she opened her eyes to the bright room, she saw the walls colored a camo-green and red that matched the grass and the tree. Her burnt eye stung and a worry crept over her. She moved a hand over her right eye and laughed with relief when she could see perfectly from her left.

Her laughter faded as her view fell upon her legs. They glinted in the sun and looked like they had been wrapped in a thin layer of water. It would have reminded her of some of the legs on the plastic dolls she had seen before, if not for their splotchy appearance. As she reached to touch the spotted pink, red, and white skin, she could see blisters starting to push up and form along the front of her leg.

She felt the skin lightly and some of the pain began to return to her. It hadn’t ever really left; she had just been too tired to notice. As she pushed on the tender skin she noticed the difference in size between her hand and her legs. The burns had caused her calves to swell unbelievably. The looked almost twice the size they had been originally.

As she pulled her hand away, Gren noticed the skin she had pressed on was paper white. She watched as it continued to stay white. Worry began to infect her. Skin wasn’t supposed to look like that. It wasn’t supposed to stay white and look glossy.

“Syth?” Gren voice caught in her throat before she could even remember that Syth wasn’t with her. Thirst overtook her as she noticed her dry throat. “Water, please.”

She was slowly waking up and her senses coming with it. Her legs caused most of the pain, but her arms and face also stung as Gren became aware of them.

“It hurts.” Gren looked around her, face blank and eyes drooping. “Please.” There was nothing but the walls, the tree, and the grass to help her.

Then in her haze she remembered the backpack.

She leaned forward and began the process of removing it from her back. She loosened the straps and twisted her right arm through, careful not to touch the strap or anything else with her hands or her forearms. The later ended up being impossible.

A combination of a groan and a whine escaped from Gren as she twisted her arm through the strap. Once she had the pack around one shoulder she paused, focusing on trying to breathe as pain pricked her arm.

After a short moment Gren grabbed the handle of the pack, deciding that, despite the burns on her hand, it would be best to lift it up over her left arm. Once she pulled it off she laid it on the ground beside her.

She was looking for food or water, but as she open the zippers she found only books and clothes. Everything she needed was in the other backpack she had thrown to the flames.

Gren couldn’t seem to think as she exhausted her breath and leaned against a tree. Her thoughts strayed from their path as she considered what she needed. Syth would be difficult to find if not impossible. In the short term what she needed was to survive. She needed to find a safe shelter to heal. Most of all she needed water.

The only way to find that was forward.

Gren struggled to returned the pack to it's place on her shoulders and climbed her way up the tree and into a standing position. She rubbed the burnt off rubber from her shoes against the grass as she shuffled to the opposite side of the tree. She took the smallest and least offensive steps she could manage while her skin pulled and begged for her to stop these movements. She let go of the tree as she pushed toward the only doorway in the room. Her steps between the tree and the door were few, but caused the pain and loneliness push up to a point inside her. She didn't want to face whatever came after this door. She wanted to lay down and sleep more, but a desert dry mouth and lips that felt they might bleed if stretched too far urged her forth. As she brought herself closer to the door she felt her mouth tighten and her lungs involuntarily began to breath in quick, short gasps. Before she could think too much further, she leaned forward and pressed her forehead against the cool stone.

The water clouding her eyes fell and froze against her cheek as a room that had seemed still, became truly stuck in time. Gren could no longer hear her panicked breaths or see the grass crumble beneath her feet. Everything she could see became a real life photo. A photo of swollen, glossy legs standing on shoes that barely held together over pretty green grass.

* * *

She should have been happy. There was no danger. There were no bandits or wild animals waiting to pounce and feed upon her. But dread filled her mind and limbs despite the apparent safety.

A hallway lay before her, one that she couldn't see an end to, and the white marble walls would provide little comfort for however long of a walk this would be. The marble that surrounded her was penetrated only by florescent lights shining far too brightly every meter along the ceiling. They washed out any trace of color or shading from the marble until Gren could barely make out that it was a hallway and not just a white screen before her.

Gren squinted her eyes. She wanted to slump to the floor and allow herself the despair she had been holding at bay, but bending her knees sounded more painful than resting sounded pleasant.

So instead she stood there, swaying slightly against the pressure of her own fatigue. Her head felt light and her brain felt like it was hovering above and resting against the ceiling. Black specks grew into her vision and invaded her sight, tell she couldn't see anything else. The only confirmation to her that she was even still standing was the hand she held up to the wall.

Gren focused on breathing, as it was the only thing she really could do. Her chest rose and fell, rose and fell; on the third fall her vision began to return. When she regained her senses she began the trek forward. Her feet slid slightly and she was very nearly hugging the wall, but she moved. A foot at a time.

She began to move faster until she had become confident enough in her own feet to let go of the wall and speed up to a full walking pace. She still felt pain and it made it hard for her to think, but moving around helped her start to feel like her normal self.

“I can do this.” Gren thought to herself. “I'm strong enough to survive.” She looked over her shoulder to see the small marble wall she had started at was discouragingly close.

“I can do this.” The words burned her throat as they came out aloud. She turned back and continued her slow pace forward.

* * *

The end couldn't have come any sooner. It was hard for Gren to tell time but she estimated that it might have been an hour. She could barely stand and all she could think about was cool water running through her mouth and into her stomach, filling her with life. It consumed her mind to such a degree that she didn't notice she had made it through until sunlight hit her face and sharp forest air filled her lungs.

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After a blink and a small shake of her head, she looked at her surroundings. The hallway had emerged from a textured sky-blue wall into a small gap between massive jungle trees that twisted together in some kind of long lived dance. There trunks twirled and fought their way from the ground to the thick canopy above, twisting against each other, forcing their many branches to mingle and push for a spot in the air. Making it seem as if the trees blended together and fused, so that Gren couldn't tell which leaves belonged to which tree. A chirping of birds interrupted the beautiful sight before her. They whistled and spun through the entanglement of threes as if dancing to their own tune.

Before Gren could finish her thought of catching the birds to eat, she also registered the sound of running water. Her limbs lightened and the pain from the burns faded to an echo. She started toward the sound and stumbled across roots that rose from the ground. She almost laughed and felt like she might just float above them.

“Water. There's water.” were the only thoughts that could fit in Gren's brain. It didn't matter what had happened before or what would happen after, in that moment she was the happiest girl in all of existence.

Gren let out a high pitched squeal before finding herself upside down and completely submerged. The river had come sooner then she expected and seemed to cut deeply into the land. She struggled to right herself but calmed when her feet found the ground. The river was moving slowly and after a initial sting of torment, helped to sooth the sores on her legs and arms. Looking around she saw herself surrounded by a low wall of dirt.

Gren dipped her lips beneath the surface of the clear water and watched her feet standing upon the rocks. She pulled as much liquid into her mouth as she could hold and gulped it down. She took another and another; so much went down her throat that Gren lost track of how many times she swallowed. In the end she felt she would drown and her stomach would explode.

Pulling her face from the river, Gren wadded to the bank and leaned against the dirt and the roots that rested there. They made an effective wall that would be difficult to get out of, but at the moment she couldn't think about that.

Gren felt nauseous. Her stomach gave a growl before seaming to barrel roll inside of her body. Water spewed forth from her mouth while she simultaneously cried out. Bout after bout, buckets of water seemed to come out of Gren, each time there was just enough of a pause for her to grab half a lung full of air before continuing. The sudden and violent reaction forced tears from her eyes. She was facing down stream and the contents of her previous binging washed away from her. Her body shuddered as she ran out of water and Gren stood there gagging with a sharp acidic taste lingering between her teeth.

She put her mouth to the river again but this time she swished the water from cheek to cheek. After spiting out most of the bitter taste. she began to drink, slowly this time. She paused after each sip to catch her breath and feel the water settle in her stomach.

Once she finished, she was forced to pull several roots from the bank in an effort to climb out. By the time she had, dirt and water mixed to create a mud tapestry on the whole front of her shirt. Gren clenched her teeth, both against the returning pain and to stop them from chattering. She turned her head from side to side, wondering where to go.

“Syth.” Her voice came out clearer this time as she though of her brother. If he had come through the same door then there might be tracks. He might even be close enough to hear her. “Syth.”

Gren called as loud as her tired throat would let her while she moved around trees toward the direction the door had been, but it wasn't there anymore. Or at least it wasn't where she thought it had been. She turned in a circle before looking above her, seeing if she could spot the wall through the trees, but any blue she manged to spot past the branches was indistinguishable from the normal sky.

“Where had the sun been when I first came in?” Gren thought while trying to ignore her shivering and stinging limbs. “It was opposite me so I should move away from the sun to get back to the wall.” She took her own advice and began pushing through the brush in the direction away from where she could make out the light.

After several minutes of walking and looking back to check the sun Gren decided she had been wrong. She tried going a little more to the right to find the wall. After an even longer walk she decided she was lost. She had no idea if the wall was a couple meters away or if it was a hundred.

She wanted to make a fire or something to warm her and dry off her clothes, but she had no idea how she would. She thought about ripping off the pages from books that had no print on them, but again she had no idea how she would get a spark. She eventually settled on finding a sunny clearing or shelter for what she suspected to be the coming night.

As the light aimed and struggled to glow through the leaves, Gren pushed her way forward. She wrapped her arms around each other and moved her shoulders closer together. Nothing to improve her situation appeared. All that surrounded her were tall trees that didn't seem to change.

Strange sounds flew between the trees. Wild hoots accompanied Gren as she nearly tripped on a root and had to pick her way across the landscape. She couldn't tell if the ground had become infected with even more hazards or if she just could no longer see where to put her feet.

“Ahhuh,” Gren sputtered as she grabbed the bark on a tree to save her self from a fall. The bark scraped against her still sensitive skin and a sharp pain lingered there. She looked around her.

Her shoulder rested against the tree that had saved her and she squinted in the darkness trying to decide what to do.

A loud hoot cut into Gren's mind and caused her to jump straight and look above her. “Most animals are afraid of humans, “she reminded herself, “just an owl” but she had no idea what kind of animals were in this room or if they fit into the category of most. The fact that she was both small and wounded didn't give her much hope either. 

She decided to stop for the night. It was impossible to see clearly as damp clothes clung to her. There was no point in wasting energy on getting lost. Gren found herself sitting slumped against a tree for the second time that day. A tide of fuzz seemed to sweep through and fill her head. She knew she hadn't been awake for long but somehow sleep managed to pull her below again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I appreciate any and all suggestions. This is still a work in progress and I hope to have the next chapter done soon.