Wanderer

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sal lay on her bed, thoughts yet again going back to her time with Markus, back to their last few hours together… not that they’d known it at the time. Even now, years later, her memories of it were crystal clear…

Sal sat on the cold stone floor, leaning back against Markus’s chest and enjoying the warmth from his body and his arms. Most of the other prisoners were asleep, huddled together to share heat or curled up under any scraps of material they could find. The air was damp and cold.

Dim light illuminated the cell, but it showed nothing Sal hadn’t seen almost every day since she was born. Thick, solid bars. A floor that was stone in this case but was as often cold metal. No windows. Nothing to make their lives comfortable. Enough people packed into the cell to make it crowded, though on such cold nights that became something of a blessing.

“I love you, Sal,” Markus whispered in her ear. “I want to stay with your forever.”

Tears started to fall down Sal’s face, and she grabbed Markus’s arms to her.

“I love you too,” she replied, turning her head as far as she could. “But I’m scared. You know there’s no way we’ll be able to stay together for long. Even if we get lucky and aren’t split up during the next two or three times they shuffle everyone up it's only a matter of time before they do another male-female split. And once we’re split up we’ll never see each other again.”

“Don’t say that.” He held her tightly, nearly crushing the air from her. She didn’t mind. “Never say that. We’ll find a way. I swear to you that if we get split up then no matter how long it takes I will track you down again. I love you too much for them to ever split us up for good.”

Tears poured down her face. Desperately wanting to believe what Markus, said Sal turned round so she could kiss him. Her heart ached at the thought of the separation she knew deep down would come. She tried to ignore it, to focus on the moment, on holding Markus as close as she could.

They’d only been together a few short weeks, but those weeks had been the happiest Sal had ever known. Truth be told, they were the only truly happy times she had known. Every moment of pleasure had been tainted, though, had carried the shadow of the inevitable time when they would be separated forever.

What they couldn’t possibly have imagined at that moment was quite how soon it would be. Sal dropped off to sleep for what felt like only a few minutes, then was woken by blazing lights and a blaring hooter. Guards flooded into the cell, separating prisoners into two groups. Sal tried desperately to hang on to Markus, but several guards pulled them apart. Sal was forced further into the cell, while Markus was dragged out kicking and screaming. When Sal tried to force her way out after him she was beaten to the floor by two guards.

In the end the guards only took eight of the prisoners, out of nearly ninety in the cell, but that made no difference to Sal. Markus was gone, torn from her life, and with him went her broken heart.

Sal jerked awake, blinking in confusion for several seconds before she realised she was in her cabin on the Wanderer. She must have fallen asleep while thinking about Markus, then thoughts had transformed into dreams. She could still feel the warmth of his body against her back, his arms wrapped around her, his soft voice in her ear.

For a moment the sensation was so strong she wondered if she had somehow brought him back from her dreams, but when she turned over there was only an empty bed. Markus was gone. Despite his promise, she knew he would never be able to find her. In fact he was almost certainly dead. When the guards pulled so few prisoners out, and were so picky, there was a particularly unpleasant, and dangerous, task to be tackled. Occasionally, very occasionally, one prisoner would survive such tasks and would then spread the word on returning to their fellow prisoners. Normally all died.

Sal closed her eyes again and settled down to sleep. Despite the pain that accompanied them she wished for another dream of Markus. In some ways those dreams seemed to be her only true chance at happiness.