Unnatural Instinct: Amazon

30.

'Christopher. Christopher.'

That voice. I know that voice. It's so familiar but one I feel like I haven't heard in years. I try to open my eyes but they weigh a tonne.

'You need to wake up.'

I know I need to wake up!

I try and I try, rolling my eyes, my heart racing, until it finally happens. For several long moments everything is a blur. I squint against the unexpected brightness. Out of the blaze is a dark figure hovering over me. A figure with long hair. I blink. Red hair. All too familiar red hair. Her face is still a blur but I don't need to see properly to know who it is.

'Rebecca,' I croak. My research partner. She seems to have recovered from her illness. 'You look good.'

'You look like shit.'

'What's happened?' I look around me in a daze. Finally, everything becomes clear. I'm lying in a hospital cot in the medical wing of our ship. No. Not our ship. I frown. 'Where am I?'

'You're on the mothership. You've been injured. Don't you remember what happened?'

I blink, confused. 'Injured?'

She gestures at my abdomen. I look down to see a thick white bandage wrapped around my torso. I stare at it for several puzzled moments before it suddenly hits me. A spear. I was pierced by a spear! The Amazons! My capture! The war!

You!

I bolt upright.

'Woah!' Rebecca cries, pushing me back down again with a gentle but firm hand to my chest. I am so weak I can't fight her. 'Be careful. You're not supposed to move too much. The wound is still fragile.'

But I sit up again and this time she doesn't bother stopping me, frowning as I struggle to get out of the cot. She sighs. 'You need to calm down. Where do you think you're going to go?'

I flop back down again, panting. 'What's happened? Did we win the war? How long was I out? Is she ... is she alive?' I clutch at my chest with a wince. It hurts to breathe.

'Is who alive?' She shakes her head. 'If you calm down I'll tell you what I know.'

I try to slow my breathing.

Satisfied, she nods. 'We came to rescue you. When we didn't receive your weekly report we tried to contact you.'

'I wasn't there.'

'We know. You weren't at the ship so we tried to locate you and discovered that your GPS locator was signalling in the middle of the Amazon camp. What the heck happened? How did you get stuck there?'

'You haven't watched the surveillance data yet?'

She shakes her head. 'We're looking through it now. It's only been five hours since we picked you up. Since then, we've taken down all the surveillance cameras, removed all our equipment. Our ship is now berthed here on the mothership. Our research is over.' Rebecca lifts her chin as she tries to keep control of herself but she has to look away as her eyes glitter with tears.

'I'm sorry,' I say. 'I didn't mean for this to happen.'

She turns back to me with a shrug and attempts a wobbly smile. 'You're alive and that's all that matters.'

I sit up again, slowly this time. I touch my abdomen. I'm sore but not in agony like I was. Modern medical care is a wonderful thing. 'You must have gotten to me pretty quickly.'

'You were in cardiac arrest when we arrived.' She sniffs and wipes her nose. 'You were dead.'

I wait for her to continue.

'We landed right in the middle of the battle. We had to. Your life signs were fading rapidly.'

'So ... so they know? The Amazons?'

'All they know is what they saw. And what they saw they can't explain.' She gives a grim smile. 'We'll be a part of their history now: the star that fell from the sky, or whatever.'

'But what happened with the war?'

'It ended. The Amazon's are alive. What's left of them anyway. I don't know the specifics of what happened but apparently both sides fled. Unsurprising.'

I stare at her, trying to think. 'Was there anyone with me ... with my body ... when you picked me up?'

She shakes her head. 'I don't know. The Medical Evac team didn't say anything. I wasn't there. All I know is what I've been told.'

I gaze about the room. 'When will I be well enough to get out of here?'

'They say a day or two.'

'I want to speak with the doctor. I have to leave now. I need to know what's happened.' I attempt to leave the cot. And again, I fall back down, dizzy and breathless.

'You died, Christopher!' Rebecca snaps. 'They had to revive you! You had a Goddamn spear hanging out of your guts!' She sighs and slaps a hand to her forehead. 'Look, I'll go and find out all I can and I'll let you know.'

'I want to go back. I need to go back.'

'Go back? Go back where? To the planet?'

I nod.

'You can't go back. Nobody can go back. We've done enough damage. Why would you want to anyway?'

'I need to know if she's all right.'

'Who?'

I hesitate. 'The woman I love.'

Her eyes widen. 'Jesus, Christopher.'

I frown. 'I can't believe it either. But you don't know what happened.' I take a painful breath. 'You don't know what happened down there. What I've been through. How I've changed.' I fall silent, gazing up at the ceiling as all the wonderful and terrible and heartbreaking memories roll through my head. I've more than changed. I'm a different person.

A different man.

'I can't believe it all happened. Now that I'm up here in the real world, it all seems so surreal. Like it was all just a dream.'

'It was definitely not a dream. We are yet to discover what the repercussions of all this are going to be for us. For all of us researchers.' She grabs my wrist. Her hand feels so small. I'm not used to it. It almost makes me want to laugh. 'How did this happen, Christopher? You're usually so careful.'

'I slipped up.'

She frowns, then releases me. 'I'll go and find out some answers for you. Just promise me you'll do what the doctor orders.'

'I promise.'

She turns to leave. 'Wait!' I seize her wrist. 'You need to promise me one thing: don't view the surveillance data yourself.'

She raises her eyebrows. 'Why not?'

I wince as I think of the pakka dance. 'Just ... promise me. For the love of God, don't see it.'

She gives me a puzzled look. 'All right. I promise.'

I release her and she walks away.