Sand Red

20

For all my laziness, it seemed Aida had stayed awake. Her eyes were heavy with lack of sleep when she shook me awake in the morning.

'Get up, we've got company.'

I whipped up immediately, my hand on my ankle scabbard. A soldier came into view, full with Old World armed forces clothing and a rifle which he was pointing at Aida.

'The water,' he said. 'How much water?' He stamped closer to us, bringing a pale, heavily scarred face into view. It looked like he had gotten into a fight with a hawk and one of his eyes was red bloodshot.

'How much!' he shouted, cocking his gun.

'Five litres,' I said quickly. Aida fell back, looking resentful and defeated.

The soldier licked his lips. 'Where did it come from?' He turned the gun to my head.

'Our camp,' I said. Aida released a heavy breath.

'Aha!' the man said and turned the gun to her.

I looked at her, trying to understand.

'Thought you would lie to Finn? You will take me to your camp or you will become feedmeat,' he said with a note of triumph.

So she had lied about the source of our water. Balloons of understanding burst in my head and I cursed myself for being so stupid. We wouldn't lead him to our camp, of course. I awoke properly and was aware that the soldier didn't seem to have realized I had a knife. I put my ankle down sideways, hiding it against the sand.

'It's nine hours from here,' I told him.

He looked at me uncomprehendingly.

'The camp,' I supplied helpfully.

'Ah.' He threw his head back and laughed. 'Think you'll lie a bit more? I know you came from the East. I've been tracking you almost since midnight. We will go East and see how many hours it takes to hit your camp.' He grinned triumphantly.

Shit. So he wasn't as stupid as he seemed. Aida hung her head. She was probably cursing me for my stupidity.

He turned his gun back to me leisurely. 'I am sorry for the inconvenience. We can't do with just your meat, our families are starving. We need big fish.' He grinned at me, showing brilliant white teeth. 'Come on, get up,' he said. He bumped the gun jovially into my head, nudging me up. I lifted myself carefully, keeping my knife out of sight. It was well camouflaged in my like coloured trousers, tucked in a little pocket with just the brown hilt showing. Hopefully, my trousers were brown enough to shield it from detection. I remembered Yul. I looked around. There was no one but us in sight. So he had gotten away. I wondered if he was watching us right now, laughing. It was more likely he didn't know. So he couldn't help us. I focused on walking carefully, so the weight of my blade would not show. The soldier pushed us along with the end of the rifle.

'It is so hot, this desert Sun, no?' he said easily, as though this were just a normal day. It probably was for him. 'My grandfathers ached for the Sun. Germany was cold as a goose in the winters. People died from the cold in the oldest days. They loved the summer.' He gave a little laugh. 'Strange, no? That people ache for winter and die of the heat in summers instead, now!' he finished delightedly. We marched on in rigid silence.

My thoughts whirled furiously. How would we get out of this now? I walked in the heat, burning up. My toes smoked in my tight boots and my eyes itched with sleep. I felt a great need to urinate. Even in trying situations, the human body ticks on. Aida stumbled and I caught her before she could fall hard. She clutched at my palm hard enough to hurt and I drew it away, aware of something sharp she had handed me. It was a little blade, the kind we used in the Dong training camps. They were meant to spin into an enemy's throat, killing them instantly. I had not mastered the technique.