Dawnpoint

Chapter 22

"It can't hurt to try, right?" Levi asked with a small smile.

Micah didn't answer. He scanned over the faces of everyone, the world seemingly split into two as he stared at the camera. They had finally managed to be at the ruins at the same time, with no means of communication other than being in the same place, and they couldn't decide on times or days considering there was no concept of time in their reality.

Kato held her hand out and tilted her head as to motion for him to grab it. With a sigh, Micah threw his arm out and tried to touch her. A slight breeze brushed over them as his fingers sliced straight through, not leaving a single faint whisper of a touch. He pulled his hand back and looked away as Kato began to cough again.

He tried to block out the noise, unable to stomach the sight of his best friend. Kato's eyes were outlined with dark circles, face thinning and paling from malnutrition, and her body growing weaker, threatening to collapse and rest wherever she was, regardless of the situation. He had shouted at her for letting herself fall so ill and shouted at Alex and Levi for breaking their promise.

He was the reason his best friend was suffering, staying up for countless nights working and trying to figure out a way to get them back. He had been gone for a month and Kato hadn't stopped to take care of herself between trying to find answers and dreaming of him dying and never knowing what happened.

"I'm alright," Kato said as she took a swig of water from the bottle Alex had passed her.

Micah still didn't look up at her as Phoenix started another conversation. They started discussing how they were going to get back, weighing the possibilities of having the Rulie's drag them back if they were lured with meat. Liliana deemed it impossible: they would only end up dead, left with nothing to salvage. Micah clenched his fists as they threw out more solutions and Kato called his name, asking for his input.

"I can't do this," he said and grabbed the spear sticking out of the ground beside him.

He took off, ignoring the quiet shouts from the others to stay as Oryn apologised and ran after him, leaving Liliana and Phoenix to continue and try to defend Micah's sudden departure.

"Wait, Micah." Oryn caught up to him and was taken back when he saw the deadly glare he directed at the horizon, walking firmly without looking back. "Hey, what's wrong?"

He trudged further until he saw their building and ran toward it, Oryn keeping up easily. When they got there, Micah headed to the kitchen and routed through the various piles of junk along the walls. Oryn stood behind him, confused, as he dragged out scraps of wood.

"Where's the stone and metal?" Micah asked, pushing past him to get to the opposite side.

Oryn made his way to the water barrels and pulled out a small crate of various rocks and scraps of metal they found while gathering food and materials and had shoved to the side to resharpen their dulling blades when needed. He passed it to Micah who took it and sat down in the centre of the room, tipping them onto the floor.

He picked up a roughly textured rock and a thing piece of metal that didn't bend under his fingers. He began shaping it, wearing it down gradually as he scraped it against the stone. Oryn sat beside him and put his hand over his, twisting the rock in his hand and demonstrating how to sharpen the metal to a point with a small groove to make it lighter.

"You want to do it this way."

"Thanks," Micah grumbled as he continued wearing it down, using the same technique.

Oryn picked up his own materials and started carving similar, smaller knives than the ones the already had, coping Micah's attempts. They sat for a while, making new weapons until Micah picked one of his up and threw it at the pile across from them. It embedded into the centre of a small piece of wood he had aimed at and Oryn grinned.