The Lost One

Chapter 5

Nova had awoken and she was famished. She had the sweets she found but they were not sufficient. The carcasses around her were tempting in her hunger, but the thought of eating another human being made her sick. The bodies looked fine. They didn't seem to have rotted yet, which was good. She grimaced and decided not to be a cannibal.
          
It is not right... I cannot desecrate the dead like that.

She got up from where she slept and went outside. The sick temptation of eating the dead bodies that lay around the wreckage had found her again. Even as scavengers picked away at their flesh, the temptation was there. But she again brushed it aside. It didn't seem right.
          
I cannot give in to such desires.
   
She rubbed and blew into her hands as the cold air chilled them. She went over to where the fire had previously been and relit the fire. She decided to eat the sweets she had found since they were the only food source at the moment. She didn't eat all of them though and saved a few for later use.

Then she grabbed the spears she had made and headed off to hunt. She hoped her luck would improve after what happened last time. She scanned and searched the area for an hour, but no luck yet. Another half-hour passed, and she was starting to get frustrated. She was hungry, and she couldn't find a single animal to eat.
          
I need to find food, or else...

Then her luck changed. She found the same small rodent from the previous day. She composed herself and slowly crept toward it, her spear ready to be thrown. Now is my chance. Please don't miss. Lead leg forward, she arched her right arm back and threw the spear. It landed dead on the rodent and it fell over with a squeak. A tide of relief poured over her.

She walked over to the rodent's corpse and found it still moving a little. She grimaced as she removed the spear and stabbed the rodent again. It fell still and she took it back to the plane. With her knife, she skinned the rodent and tossed the fur aside. She cut the meat into smaller pieces and pierced them with one of her clean spears. Over the fire, she slowly roasted the meat until it was a dark brown color. The meat was chewy in its texture and dry in its flavor. She shrugged it off and finished the rodent meat. Then she moved on to the organs. She attached the organs to the spear and cooked them over the fire. It was very unpleasant. The texture was weird and she ate slowly with a grimace on her face.

At least it's better than nothing.

She tossed the spear aside and grabbed her empty mug. She went around and scoped snow into the mug to turn it into water. She filled the mug to the tip and held it close to the fire. It was close enough that the snow seemed to melt but not so close that the fire was burning her hands. She let the water in the mug boil to kill off any potential bacteria inside. The water from the melted snow barely even filled the mug. It was a small amount that seemed only to be about five milliliters.

There has to be a better way.

She shook her head and sighed in frustration. She knew it would take forever to get the needed water and needed a more efficient method. She needed to build a bigger bucket to hold the snow. She didn't have an axe but the next best thing was the sledgehammer. She grabbed the sledgehammer and went to the nearest tree that was not destroyed in the crash.

The tree stood at a height of approximately nine meters with a trunk diameter of
about forty-five centimeters. She lined up her sledgehammer with the trunk of the tree and gave it a good wack. A chunk of bark chipped off and she continued this process for hours with sweat dripping down her temples and soaking her shirt. Her shoulders screamed at her and her arms trembled in their weariness.

She struck the trunk one last time before checking the sun. There were only about three hours left in the day. She was not even a third of the way done with cutting the tree and still barely consumed any water. She went back to the plane, set away the sledgehammer, grabbed the mug, and used it to gather snow. She melted this snow and boiled the water, and drank it little by little. It was well after dark when she drank her last sip of the water. Crickets chirped with nothing to see except the darkness.

Just as she changed out of her sweaty shirt with a different shirt from her bag, she heard the haunting howls of the duskfangs. It sounded distant and not too close but it was still unsettling. She lay down with the sledgehammer close by and did her routine of looking at a photo of Kestral before going to sleep.

Please don't let them come here...

***

She awoke to the sounds of footsteps nearby. They seemed heavy and slow, as of a large beast. She slowly got up from where she lay and peeked outside. It was a duskfang. The hulking behemoth of a creature sniffed around the wreckage of the plane. Nova thought this was weird. To her knowledge, they primarily ate live prey and were not scavengers. No matter. She grabbed the sledgehammer and held it tight, ready to strike the bastard if the need arose.
   
The stress was intense.
   
Her entire body was tense. She could almost hear her heart working overtime to pump blood through her body. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump. The beast's cold, dark brown eyes seemed to shine in the moonlight, its long, hog-like snout sniffing for its prey.
   
Nova kept still but the beast seemed to have noticed her. It turned its head in curiosity and slowly lumbered to her location. She tried to hide in the shadows as the beast sniffed and investigated the area. The beast was so close that she could almost hear and feel it. Her grip on the sledgehammer tightened further and she itched to strike the bastard in its stupid-looking nose.
   
It almost turned the corner where Nova had hidden before a howl cracked through the night. The thing turned back and listened for a moment before lumbering off, presumably to reunite itself with its mates.
   
She slowly removed herself from her hiding spot and checked to see if the coast was clear. It was clear. Her body calmed down and she set down the sledgehammer beside her. She lay back down and tried her best to fall asleep, sighing heavily and closing her eyes as her train of thought arrived in the dreamworld.

***

Seven months earlier.

It was midday in the city center of Caia Caeilia. The war against Zephyra was ever more unpopular in the eyes of the public. Hundreds of protesters crowded the streets, calling for an end to the war. Nova was among them. Her dislike and hatred of the war were further ignited by the death of her husband a month prior. The war had been a long and back-and-forth struggle. The hundreds of thousands of men and women who died or those who came home maimed and mutilated for seemingly nothing.
   
Lines of policemen in riot armor with shields were the only defense in front of the city hall. The mob of protesters could have very easily overrun the policemen but they didn't. Most wanted peace with Zephyra and they advocated for that with peace. But some wanted that peace through more extreme means; more violent means.
   
Items were thrown and punches exchanged. Among those items were Molotov cocktails. The cocktails combusted and the flames engulfed some of the policemen. Chaos further ensued as the policemen launched canisters of tear gas into the crowd. Members of the crowd started fist-fighting the policemen and the policemen. Other members tried to stop the fighting. Nova was one of them. No matter how much she wanted peace, violence would never achieve true peace. Images of Cyrus and Kestral flash in her mind.
          
"Stop it!" she shouted. "This isn't helping."
   
She tried to separate a policeman and a protester apart but was caught in the crossfire (more like cross-punches) between the two. The protester shoved her aside but she still tried to intervene. But the policeman also shoved her aside and started beating the protester with his baton. Nova pulled the policeman away but the policeman shoved her down and cuffed her.

After it was all settled and done, she and many others were arrested and sent to jail.