Sand Red

26

Syenin was the first to wake. I was shaken awake by him immediately after and then we drank our water ration and woke the other two up. The sky was black and a few stars were out, the rest coming soon. I had eaten well last night and I felt lazy and somehow, hungry again. It had been the first time in days my pain had allowed me to eat properly.

'How much longer is it to the Reds?' I asked Aida.

'Three days?' she answered.

Three more days of limping. My wound had opened up the night before anda rebandaging had been necessary as it had spouted fearful amounts of blood. We had wasted a precious little water on boiling the bandages.

Yul stood up with a spring. 'Let's start,' he said brightly, yesterday's quarrel forgotten.

We started.

My boots were enclosed and thick and I thanked my stars for it, because the desert sands in moonlight are known to give you bone ache in your feet from the absolute cold. Walking fifty kilometers a day, I did not fancy bone ache in my feet.

The evening bore on and the sky darkened as the Sun disappeared, but still blotted out the stars. The moon rose in all its glory and we were led in the light darkness by its yellow light. The moon had been pale white in the Old World days, they said, because the Sun was not as big and bright and the moon reflected the light of the blood Sun.

The galaxy came into view in the next hour and my heart gladdened at the sight and for a few blissful minutes, I was at peace with my birth in this war torn world, because had I been born in the Old World, I would never have beheld the Milky Way. Unless I had been born in Egypt, of course. Or theSouth Pole. But what were the odds.

Yul's foot was useless this night, but his mood was not dampened and he walked with quite a literal spring in his step, limping over his injured foot. Poor Yul. The walking would be hard on him.

Around dawn, my wound began to burn incessantly and my blood throbbed and I hurt with every step. It had pained me all night, but not as bad as this. I slowed a little and leaned hard against Yul, looking directly down at his hand as the urge to vomit overcame me. But there was nothing in my stomach and nothing came up as my muscles contracted painfully.

'What is it?' Aida asked anxiously.

Yul's stabbed palm ignited a ray of hope within me. It had healed well and the hole was closing up, though he still couldn't grasp things with it, or use it for most anything because of the pain.

'It hurts,' I choked out.

Aida came up in a fluster, 'Lay him down, lay him down,' she said quickly.

Syenin scrabbled some thorn off quickly and Yul set me down.

'Is it the wound?' she asked.

'Yes,' I whispered.

'Since when?' She said urgently, untying my bandages.

'Tonight.'

I heard her take a sharp breath.

'What is it?' Yul said anxiously.

I looked up at him in surprise. With this new coldness between us, I didn't think he cared. Despite my state, my heart flared up in satisfaction as I realized that he did.

'I think it's infected,' Aida said. My heart stopped. No, no, no, no, no. I had faced infected wounds before. I had faced cauterization. I lifted my head to try and look down at the wound so I could tell for myself. I couldn't see it.

'Show me,' I begged.

'It really does look infected, Kun,' Yul said quietly.

Syenin lifted me up from behind and I struggled to sit up. The wound was ugly. It sat within the crinkles of my stomach, half closed, half open, expelling blood at intervals, which in the darkness glinted black. It was too dark to tell the colour or an infection just yet. The Sun was coming up. The stars were gone.

'You can't see,' I accused Aida.

'I can't,' she agreed. Should we go on, or rest here?' she asked, looking at Yul.

'Rest here,' I said, butting in with my opinion because I deserved a say too.

Yul looked at me with worry in his eyes. 'Let's rest here.'

So it was decided. Aida put the bandages back on me and Yul dug his sand hole next to me and I sat against Syenin because he was kind enough to offer. It was tiring never getting to sit up and I appreciated the view. It put me at par with everyone else. I wasn't the weakling and I didn't feel left out.

'I'm sorry for last night,' Yul said softly to Aida.

She and I both turned our heads in surprise. Yul had never been one to apologize. I knew this, and his behaviour must have been very telling for Aida to be able to perceive this after only a few days with him.

'We should sleep,' Syenin said, nestling in his sand hole. 'I, for one, am sleeping,' he said quite grandly and put his head down. I fought the urge to smile. I liked the boy. It was rare to meet someone so light when the world we lived in was so bleak. Aida sat against my back now and I watched the dawn sky with the little pleasure of being able to sit up.

The Sun rose a little and as dawn broke, I undid my bandages and looked down at my wound with apprehension.

The skin curled and the red balck tears in it had not yet stopped bleeding and the place was decorated red with a waste of my water. The skin surrounding the place was an unhealthy grey and the thing itself was puffed and angry, looking like it was frustrated about being unable to clot. It did look infected.

'It isn't too far gone,' I said hopefully, as Aida craned her neck to see. Yul looked at it carefully and I felt uncomfortable below his gaze.

'It isn't,' he voiced agreement. 'But we'll have to take care of this. Change the bandaging again.'

I felt a gladness for the way he had said ''we''. 'Not yet!' I mimicked his cry when Od had wanted to change Yul's bandaging. Yul looked angry, then he burst out laughing.

'I was a baby, aye,' he said as though reminiscing a long forgotten scene and his wound was not unhealed. 'I couldn't help it. It hurt so much,' he explained, growing serious.

I empathized. I nodded my head in exaggerated graveness. 'Aye, aye.'

Yul looked at me and laughed. Syenin's little brightnesses had brought me back to my better self and I, in turn, had brought Yul back so our friendship seemed strong again.

After the ordeal of changing my bandaging, I slept a deep sleep. I didn't wake till after dark and I struggled to a sitting position, for the first time by myself and looked down at Yul by my side. They were all asleep but Syenin, who sat with big luminous eyes like a cat's, looking up towards the night sky.

'Good morning,' he said and I smiled at him in encouragement of his humor. I looked around for Aida. She was gone again.

'Where's she?' I asked.

'Toilet.'

Aida appeared from behind a dune and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

'When do we start?' she asked, dusting her hands.

I looked over at Yul, still sleeping. He looked so very peaceful, I didn't want to wake him.

'If he's not up in a few minutes, we'll wake him,' I said.

Aida sat down and began picking at her nails. I looked down at mine flat on the sand. Dirt was caked under the brown nails and they were long and rough, needing cutting, but I dare not nibble them off in the current state of my immune system.

Minutes passed and Yul did not stir. I thought of my wound despairingly and hoped the infection would clear up.

'I'm waking him up,' Aida said. She shook him. 'Yul! Get up!' she said, still shaking him. Yul didn't move. She shook him harder, speaking and then yelling in his ear. My blood grew cold. I couldn't move.Yul was a light sleeper.

'Check his pulse,' Syenin said sensibly.

I crawled over to him, ignoring the sting of the thorn and grabbed his other wrist. I waited, several heartstopping moments. There was a beat. Faint, but it was there. Yul!' I yelled at him desperately. What would Od say if we came back without Yul? What would I be without Yul?

He would not budge.