On a sparrow's wings

Chapter 18 - Hidden in plain sight

  Eventually the screeching subsided but Anastasia still couldn’t sleep. Even though the monsters outside the window were quiet she still shivered. A Chill enveloped her, she hugged herself tight trying to keep the little warmth of the room in. Everything in the room that could be burned was either covered in wet moss or rotten. And no one volunteered to go outside and look for wood. The cold disappeared, replaced by blazing heat. She took of her jacket but the cold returned shortly after and she put it back on and again and again all night.

  When morning finally came and the sun blazed in the sky she rustled out of her sleeping bag and up. Ava woke shortly after. Michael was standing next to the window, the same place Anastasia had left him. Anastasia shivered and caught Michael’s attention. He bent on one knee and looked her over.

“What’s wrong? Why are you shivering?”

“I am cold.”, Anastasia hugged herself.

“She is getting sick.”, Ava mumbled under a yawn, “We have to get her to a doctor. You don’t look so hot yourself too.”

Michael’s bandage was soaked in blood, a dark crimson red covering his shoulder.

“We don’t have time to go back.”, Michael grabbed Anastasia’s shoulder and continued to look at her face.

“We don’t need to.”, Ava rose and stretched, “I know some people nearby who can help.”

“And why should I trust you?”, Michael gave her a stern look.

“The other option is going back to Resurrection territory. Or you could not and die.”, there was no malice in her voice, something else but Anastasia couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

Michael gave Anastasia another long look and sighed, “Fine. But if you try-”

“Yeah, yeah you’ll kill me I get it.”, Ava walked down the stairs to the front door.

Michael helped Anastasia up and they headed after her.

  The daylight felt better on Anastasia’s skin than the dampness of the room at least, even though she was still having flashes of cold and hot. This part of the city didn’t look so scary now that there were greys swarming them and that beast. It still haunted Anastasia’s thoughts, it’s deformed and discolored head and gapping pit of teeth made her look around every corner and prick her ears up for it’s deafening roar. Ava was leading the way even though her hands were bound and she was their prisoner, well at least to Michael she was.

  Along the way they come across a couple of small groups of greys, shambling around the streets, they had been left out of the bigger one that came out of the night. Forgotten by their brethren left to fend for themselves. Michael and Anastasia managed to take them out, to make sure they don’t come at their backs further down the streets. It’s slow work, creeping behind them and jamming their knives into their skulls and inside their brain. Ava suggested giving her a weapon so she could help a couple times but every time Michael quickly shut her off and they continued on their way, taking out small groups of greys every so often.

  Night creeped in slowly above their heads, and with it Anastasia’s strength faded. Breathing became harder as her nostrils cloged. Her arms and legs felt weaker and she had to resort to carrying them as opposed to using them. 

“How much further?”, Michael had noticed Anastasia get weaker even though she managed to hide it, he was getting inpatient with Ava’s guiding.

“It’s not far now.”

“If you are lying-”

“You really need to get some new material, killing me is getting very old.”

Michael scoffed at her and they continued following the street.

  They saw four people standing over grey corpses. Michael quickly pulls Anastasia behind a corner, Ava following after.

“Those the people?”, Michael whispered to Ava.

“Yeah.”

“Go introduce yourself then.”

“Untie me. I think they might be a little suspicious if I come out all tied up.”, Ava extended her hands.

Michael gave her a long hard look, “Fine.”, he sighed, untied her hands and put the rope back in his backpack.

Ava clutched her wrists and rubbed them, “How about a gun now?”

“You are pushing it.”

  Ava waved around her arms, “Okay Ava. Let’s do this.”, and she came out of the corner.

The group instantly noticed her and lifted their rough handmade bows to stand their ground. Ava quickly raised her hands up in the air. The group made half a circle around Ava, each bow with an arrow in them, strongly pressing against the string.

“Whoa whoa guys, I am not an enemy.”, Ava lifted her jacket to show them her belts, “Look I am not armed.”, that seemed to easen up their strings a little, “We need a doctor. One of ours got shot and another is getting sick.”

“Where is the rest of your group?”, the man was trying to make his voice sound deeper than it was, but his young age was obvious.

“Behind the corner.”, Ava nodded towards Michael and Anastasia’s position.

  Michael scoffed and they were forced to come out of their hiding place with their hands raised. They took a stance next to Ava. Anastasia finally saw the man that spoke to Ava’s face. He was young, even younger than his voice had lead out, almost as young as Anastasia herself. His head was shaved clean and a small moustache stood on his upper lip. He looked at Anastasia, noticing her sniveling nose and turned to his group as his bow was kept on them.

  “We can help them.”, he said

“Are you crazy? What if they are bandits? What then? Huh?”, one of the members of the group said.

“Bandits don’t keep girls.”, another countered.

“They would if they were useful. Like for tricking people like us into helping them.”, another said.

The argueing continued until the man finally broke it, “Enough! If we leave them here to die we would be no better than the bandits. The elders put me in charge and I say we help them.”, that shut the others up and they solemnly agreed in nods.

  The man lowered her bow and approached, the others didn’t. He extended his hand, “But I will have to take your weapons.”.

Anastasia agreed and gave him her knife. Michael took some more convincing but eventually he begrudgingly gave him his pistol, shotgun and knife.

The man put the weapons in his backpack, “We will return them to you after you leave.”, he rose to his feet and to lead them.

“I thought they were your friends.”, Michael complained to Ava.

“I said that there were people who could help us not that they were my friends.”

Michael scoffed and they followed the man out of the city and into the woods nearby.

  The wood had been left to grow and thrive without humans to attend it. The woods were thicker and the trees rose higher, they were starting to even take control of the traces of the road that once was there. Even in the orange and brown storm of autumn the woods were hard to maneuver and one would get lost in here if they didn’t know their way around it. It would have swallowed them whole if the man wasn’t leading them, he was quick and nimble making his way over trunks and in between bushes with ease, his group as well. For Anastasia it was a deal harder. She found herself stumbling over the rocks and sticks that littered the ground. The slow rain of yellow and orange leaves getting in her way every once in a while.

  They finally found their way to a cover of sticks and leaves that was stuck to the trees, making a camouflaged net that covered the trees around what hid inside it. If one was looking for it they might not find it, it looked natural as if it was part of the forest, but Anastasia noticed it and as they got closer and closer it became more and more noticeable until both Michael and Ava noticed it too. The man pulled away the covered and ushered them inside. Anastasia found herself at the doorstep of a small village that hid inside the forest made of tents and campfires. Anastasia awed at it, it looked like so natural, as if it had always been here. Everything was placed around the rocks to fit perfectly. People were all around it, laughter littered the air but not the raspy awful one that the Red Fist guards had, this one was warmer and more innocent. Anastasia saw little children running around and playing, kicking balls, throwing things at each other and getting chased by grown ups as they laughed, barely managing to breathe. She saw old people sitting at campfires talking to each other, telling stories of the time that was to younger people. Everything felt alive there were people walking around carrying baskets of food, cooking, fixing things, making new things, working and even kids being taught by a teacher at a large open tent with a black board. This truly was a living working community.

  “Welcome to the Green Bush. Don’t ask I didn’t come up with it.”, the man said, “Let’s get you to the doctor.”, he lead them deeper into the village.

“This is amazing!”, Anastasia remarked, “How did you manage to make all this?”

“With a lot of hard work.”, the man said.

“And a lot of blood.”, Michael added.

“Sadly some ours did died making this.”

“And some others too surely.”, Ava said quietly so the man wouldn’t hear.

They came to a white tent with a red cross on the side the man told went in with them and introduced them to the doctor who smiled brightly at Anastasia and the others went outside as the doctor tended to her.