Violet (19 page)

Within minutes of donning their heat-resistant
clothes, the men and David have visibly improved. We decide to make
camp here for the night. We do not want to build a fire for fear of
attracting attention, but it may become unavoidable depending on
how cold it gets tonight. Though I have not heard him speak a word
at all, suddenly Saul clears his throat to get our attention. His
voice is gruff, as I would have expected, but it is not as hard as
his appearance. Saul says, “It would be better for us to travel at
night.” He looks at each of us, and when none of us immediately
objects, he continues, “It’s going to get very cold, and as we
already discussed, building a fire would draw people to us. If we
travel at night, the exertion will help us to stay warm, and we
probably won’t run into anyone else on the way. We can rest during
the day. This will also help us to conserve water. We should rest
as much as possible in the high-heat time of day.” Saul looks at
all of us, and then down at the ground.

David is the first to respond. “That sounds good
to me. I don’t know anything about the desert, but all of that
seems to make sense. Maybe we should all rest for a few hours now,
and then get moving.”

Saul seems to find this acceptable, and Foster
and I nod in agreement. We settle at the base of the tall rock to
sleep for a while. I am still groggy with sleep when I feel someone
grasp me by the ankles and drag me away from the rock. I am
confused but still I reach for David. He is gone. The man presses
his hand against my mouth so hard that it nearly stops my breath.
Even though his face is very close to mine, I can hardly see it;
the moonlight here is not as bright as ours on Cerno. Though I
cannot see him clearly I can smell his rancid breath as he
whispers, “If you scream, I’ll kill you.”

I nod my head. The man removes his hand from my
mouth, but I dare not scream. He uses one of his hands to hold my
wrists above my head, and he holds my body down with the weight of
his. “Bet you thought you were pretty smart, running like that. I
didn’t get you then, but I knew I’d get you sooner or later.” He
presses his face into the crook of my neck and inhales deeply,
smelling my neck and hair. I try to turn my head away, but he grabs
my face with his free hand and forces me to look at him. I still
can’t see him clearly. The moon is behind him; his face is just a
blur of darkness. His hand moves from my face to my neck, and then
to my chest. He moves it slowly down my torso until it reaches the
waistband of my pants. He puts one finger inside the waistband, and
then jerks his hand in an effort to tear them away. “Now you’re
going to get what you deserve.”

My eyes widen in horror, and I try to rock from
side to side to throw his weight off of me. He leaves my pants
alone for a moment and picks up his knife from the sand beside me.
He holds it to my throat. “You may not care about your own life,
but I swear I’ll bleed your boyfriend dry. I’ll make him suffer if
you fight me.” Immediately I stop struggling. He’s right; I care
about David’s life more than my own. He puts his knife back in the
sand and returns his attention to my waistband.

Before I know what’s happened, someone has
jerked the man from on top of me. I have just enough time to sit up
and now I can see Saul draw the blade of his knife across my
attacker’s throat and let his bleeding body fall to the sand. I
stand and right my clothing. I look at Saul. Saul looks at me. He
removes the survival pack from the dead man and says, “I think it’s
time that we got moving.”

As Saul and I walk silently back to the area
where Foster is undoubtedly still sleeping, I cannot help but
wonder why David had not been there when I reached for him. As if
on cue, David walks around the edge of the tall rock and quickens
his pace when he sees us. “Violet! Violet, what are you doing out
here? What’s going on?”

The concern on his face makes me feel guilty for
blaming him. “I—uh… One of the men from the Traveler took me, and
he, um, well, Saul came and it’s okay now.”

David seems crushed. “Oh, Violet, I’m so sorry,
I only left for a few minutes… I couldn’t sleep.” He pulls me into
his arms and hugs me close, resting his chin on the top of my head.
Then he looks at Saul. “Thank you.”

“Yes,” I say. “Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t say
it back there, I just—”

“Just doing what had to be done.” Saul walks
around David and me, and we follow him into the campsite. Saul
gently nudges Foster with his foot. Foster jolts awake and leaps to
his feet while still half asleep. “What? What’s going on?”

“It’s okay,” Saul says. “We’re fine for now, but
we need to move.”

Foster senses that there is something Saul isn’t
saying. “What happened?”

Saul sighs and gestures to me. “Alexander found
us. Took the girl.”

Any trace of sleep that lingered is now gone.
Foster draws his knife and looks around in the darkness. “Where is
he?”

Saul raises the pack and says, “Taken care of.
The others are nowhere in sight, but I’m sure they can’t be
far.”

Foster nods. “You’re right, we’ve got to
go.”

There’s not much packing to do. We take a few
moments to consult the map and we begin walking in the direction of
Amara. We were given a small circular device that supposedly uses
magnetism to pinpoint direction, but Foster and Saul don’t need it.
Foster says that he knows how to use the sky. It seems that these
men, like my mother, came well prepared to survive their
banishment.

We walk for hours, taking short breaks to
replenish our fluids. We are all weary, but we want to put as much
distance between ourselves and our last campsite as possible, so we
walk. As we walk, I take in the landscape around me. Rolling dunes
of sparkling sand patterned by the wind. Every once in a while,
there’s a rock formation or a clump of desert plants. It’s grown
quite cold, and every now and then I see the reflective eyes of
some nocturnal creature. I hope that we aren’t being stalked by
some predator, but if we are, I suppose there’s not much we can do
about it. I hold my knife by my side. The next time I’m attacked,
whether it be by human or animal, I’ll be ready.

By and by we come to what seems to be a ruined
village. What were once small houses made of stone are now mostly
piles of debris, but we can perceive how the structures once stood.
I’d be interested in giving the village a closer look, but Saul
reminds us that there are probably other refugees sleeping in
there, and we might be dead before we got the chance to tell them
that we only wanted to explore. Point taken; we pass silently
through the village.

Not surprisingly, the desert is mostly empty.
The cold is the only thing that we encounter, and by the time the
sky turns pink, it is beginning to dissipate. I’m sure that
sometime around midday we’ll be wishing for it again. We keep
walking. We have to. Foster and Saul undoubtedly want to reach
Amara for the promise of more comfortable conditions in addition to
the fact that we each only have a little more than three days’
worth of rations, if the dead man’s pack is split equally among us.
However, my reasoning, as well as David’s, is even more pressing
than that. We must get to Amara as soon as possible. We are cutting
it close as it is; even if we make it to Amara without losing any
time, that still only leaves one day to locate my father’s piece of
The Cube and still make it back in time to catch Dorian’s
transport.

By now, the sun is high—I estimate it to be late
morning. I look at my comrades and realize that we are all dragging
considerably. As if reading my thoughts, Foster says, “How about we
stop at the next place we find cover to rest for a while?” We all
nod, but without much emotion; we’re too tired for that.

It feels like we’re saved when, just over the
next dune, we see a place that offers cover. Another rock
formation, but this one looks as if it has somehow slid down the
side of the dune. Rather than standing pillars of rock, these have
fallen sideways on top of one another, creating a system of cracks,
crevices, and small caves. The bottommost rock has fallen on top of
another rock, leaving a significant gap between it and the ground.
Several people could comfortably stand beneath it.

Suddenly rejuvenated at the prospect of rest, we
make it to the rock in what seems like minutes but, judging by the
distance, is probably at least an hour. We decide to take shifts;
at least one of us will be awake at all times. We don’t want a
repeat of last night’s events. Foster, who got the most sleep
though not by much, volunteers to take the first shift and no one
argues. He takes a seat on the sand at the edge of the rock but
still within its shade. Saul, David, and I lie down closer to the
interior of the shelter near where the rock meets the sand. Saul
turns away from us, resting his head on his pack. David and I take
a cue from him and do the same. David holds me tightly to him; I
know that he blames himself for what Alexander almost did to me
last night. I feel reassured by David’s protection, but still, I
sleep with my blade drawn.

My sleep is not deep, but it is dreamless, and
for this I am grateful. I am slightly roused when Foster comes to
wake David to take his shift, but I fall quickly back to sleep.
However, I awake with a start when I hear Saul cry out. We all jump
and move to his aid, unsure of what’s going on.

“Saul, what happened?” It’s Foster.

Saul sits up and, turning to us, holds up the
blade of his knife. Impaled on the tip is the wriggling body of a
still-living reptile about the size of both of my hands
side-by-side.

“This bit me.” Saul holds up his other hand,
showing us the clearly visible bite mark. It’s on the outer edge of
his hand, near the small finger. The bite is half-moon shaped and
the animal must have lots of needle-like teeth, because the bite
mark is defined by what looks like at least a hundred holes oozing
tiny drops of blood. Finally dead, the creature stops wiggling, and
Saul gingerly pushes it off the end of his knife, tossing its body
out into the sun.

David is the next to speak. “Do you know what it
is?”

Saul shrugs. “Some type of lizard. Beyond that,
I’m not sure.”

“What do we do?” I ask.

Saul shrugs again. “Nothing to do. We don’t have
any medical aid supplies.”

“Maybe we should suck out the poison,” Foster
adds.

Saul rolls his eyes. “We don’t know that it had
any poison. It’s probably just a bite. I’ll rinse it with some
water and it will probably just heal and go away on its own.”

We rotate shifts for the rest of the day and
when night falls, we begin walking again. Each of us is watching
Saul and it seems that he was right; there do not appear to be any
adverse reactions stemming from his lizard bite.

Walking is more difficult today than it was
yesterday. David tells me that the only way he can keep going is to
know that tomorrow it will be over. Again, we walk until late
morning and then begin looking for a place to camp. Unfortunately,
one is not as readily available today as it was yesterday and we
have to keep walking until well past midday. When we finally find
shelter, none of us has the strength to stay awake. We all sleep
facing outward with our blades drawn. This situation is not ideal,
but it will have to do.

My sleep is fitful, but I do not dream of The
Cube itself. Instead, I dream of the jungle in which my father’s
shard is hidden. The greenery is thick and lush. In stark contrast
to the desert, we will have to fight to get through its density.
Bright flowers bloom and dangerous serpents twist themselves
amongst branches. The floor of this area teems with insect life.
There is no place that is not in motion. Another area of Amara is
grassy plain, not unlike the grass that I so admired in Eligo. How
will I know where to find the shard?

I am awake now, still wondering how I will find
the Cube piece within such an expansive area. I look out to the
horizon. The sun hangs low in the sky. It is almost time for us to
continue our journey; we must arrive tomorrow morning or risk
missing the transport back to Cerno. For a long time, I lie
watching the horizon, wondering what it would be like if I had not
been found by The Vox. Certainly, my father would be alive, but
would I be content? I know that the answer is no. This is the only
path I could have taken. I needed answers that my father was not
willing to give.

The others begin to stir and I know that it is
time to get up. I rouse myself and replace my pack on my shoulders.
As Saul stands, I see him falter for a moment. He stumbles. At
first I think that he is only disoriented from sleep, but when he
turns, I see that his condition has taken a turn for the worse. His
left arm hangs limply at his side, and I notice that the half-moon
shaped bite is now black with decay. The color fades to purple, but
continues up his forearm. His eyes look glassy and yellow. He is
sweating so profusely that his clothes are soaked and plastered to
his body. I rush to his aid, but I can see in his eyes that he
knows it is futile.

“Leave me, Violet.”

“Saul, we won’t leave you here.”

“Even if I make it, I won’t be saved. That much
is clear. At this point, I’m only slowing you down.”

I know that he is correct; for Saul to continue
on this trek puts us all in danger. But when I was in danger Saul
was there, and I will defend him with my life.

“I may not be able to save you, Saul, but I’ll
make sure you see paradise.”

Saul looks relieved. Though he knew it would be
best for us to leave him, I’m sure he hoped I would refuse. No one
wants to sit alone in the desert waiting to die. I fashion an arm
sling out of the pants from my prison garb, and we’re on our
way.

Our progress is slow. Saul stumbles often.
Sometimes he falls. I allow Saul and Foster to move ahead of us a
little, and I ask David if he thinks that bringing Saul was the
wrong choice. While I do not regret making the decision for us, I
fear that David may be resentful of our slow progress. After all, I
risked his life in addition to Foster’s without even consulting
him.