Migration

Foraging

When Zoe awoke, her eyes opened gently in the muted underground light and her focus adjusted to the smoothed rock face just a few feet above her head. It took her a moment to remember where she was, her waking dreams still filled with morning routines from the Metropolis, or more recently the crisp dawn chill that drifted through the woods with the early light. There was a rich, heavy scent in the air, the fleshy musk of sleeping bodies and the sulphurous, aged damp of the cave. It should have been unpleasant, but as she came around to her surroundings the pungent air felt comforting, homely and safe, like waking in a nest or deep inside a hidden burrow.

She pushed her hands behind her head and stared at the space around her and the rock above, a broad smile slowly creeping over her face. Yesterday had been a blur of introductions, inductions and spirit-fuelled celebrations. Today would be her first day as a bona fide Lifer. The real deal, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Her excitement fizzed and fluttered in her chest, a great rush of joy that felt like it would arc out of her in a huge rainbow of happiness, enthusiastically illuminating the still sleeping stillness of the cave. It was all she could do not to squeal and she flexed and curled her toes tightly to let loose at least some of her energy.

She turned her head slowly to one side and peered into the dark to see her sleeping comrades. Some were turned towards her, their vacant faces slack and calm with inactivity. Others were buried somewhere deep in the mess of covers, perhaps a bump or stray body part giving a clue to their identity and orientation. Some of the beds were empty and she noticed that Jennifer's, just three away from hers, was already vacated and made. The layers of blankets and animal hides were arranged meticulously so that each one ended six inches short of the next, creating an intricate banding of textures and tone.

Zoe sat up slowly. She caressed the last residues of sleep from her face with both hands and made a few satisfying scratches on her shoulder tops, up her neck and onto her scalp. There were bits and pieces of debris knotted into her hair. Some were small and gritty and stuck firmly to her skin. Others, like the fragment she teased out along the shafts of her hair with her fingernails, were larger. She loved her new filthiness and spent several minutes satisfyingly picking at the endless treasures from her fringe and around her crown.

When she was done she swung her legs out of the bed and stood up, banging her head on the roof of the cave at the exact moment she remembered it was there. She rubbed the impact swiftly with the flat of her hand until the pain receded. Max, one of the older Lifers she had met last night, had his eyes open now and was watching her motionless from his bed. He smiled and emitted a little laugh at her bump, and for a moment she remembered her newbie status bashfully.

"You alright?" he whispered, his deep voice rumbling like distant thunder.

"Yes, thanks," she replied softly, her voice croaking a little from the atmosphere. "Where's the nearest toilet?" she asked after a pause, more for something to say than any dire need.

"Outside of the cave, then follow the rock face around to your right. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," she smiled back as she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and put her shoes loosely on her feet. Her heels stuck uncomfortably out of the backs and she thought about loosening them to put them on properly, before carrying on anyway, hobbling slightly from the discomfort.

The entrance corridor and the area immediately outside of the cave were people-less, although in the hush Zoe could hear the faint rhythms of conversation coming from the kitchens further inside. She skirted around the rock face as instructed and came upon the toilet block, a little ivy creeping picturesquely over the roof, six roughly assembled wooden doors marking each stall. She had been here last night, she remembered, although it wasn't where she thought it was. She noticed three shower heads mounted on the forest side of the block and tracked their fittings up to the roof, where thermo-plastic tubs collected run-off rainwater from the cliff. She would shower here later, she decided. In the moonlight.