Academy Island

Intruder

Just go to sleep. Do it. It's not so hard you stupid worrywart brain.

I sighed and continued to stare out the window. If stars had a sound at all, then cricket song must be as close to it as anything. The few places I'd been in my life always had the high chirps in the background when night fell. Here it was the same, even if the tone was ever so slightly different, as if they sang in a different dialect than the type of cricket I was used to. My gaze dropped from the window's interminable scene; clouds drifting slowly across the vivid predawn landscape, and settled on the center of the room, taking in the outlines of all the objects in the dark to try a guess what they were. A collage of boxes, rope, and an occasional glint of metal alluded me as to what their purposes were with only their outlines to tell me what they might be. They'd put me in someone's hut, but it looked more like a storage room with all the stuff tucked on shelves and the table that ran along it all, cluttered with half finished projects. It was early, too early to rise for as unable to sleep as I was, not sure if I should get up anyway since I couldn't hear anyone actively stirring around the camp yet. I liked the quiet opportunity to just sit and stare uninterrupted anyway, just exploring with my eyes part of the world the men had made more civilized for themselves.

A few minutes had passed this way before droopiness finally visited me, ready for sleep to claim the rest of the starry morning. The shuffle of feet far outside the door perked me up a bit. It was probably Silas or Nathan, making rounds around the camp like they had done several times throughout the night. I settled my head back down, closing my eyes again now that my fatigue seemed willing. Unfamiliar voices caught my drifting up short, right outside the door. My eyes widened in the dark.

"What the hell is this?"

There was a creaking against the door, probably a hand leaning against the wood. I covered up to my chin with the sheet, embarrassed, ashamed that I had taken over somebody's hut without protesting more, and that that somebody was currently reading the eviction notice while I cowered in his hammock. The door creaked again, released from the weight. I craned my neck to peek over the edge of the hammock at the ominous door, fearing the person on the other side would ignore the message and barge right in. Another voice coughed, so different from the other, but no less commanding.

"Whatever it is I'm sure I can handle it. You go ahead and get your injury tended to. I'll go see what he needs."

I tightened my sheet under my chin and peeled my lips apart, protesting the invasion. The minor squeak I got out past dry lips got lost in the creak of the door and the noisy shuffling moving into the room, the newcomer rummaging through the shelves immediately on entering. The clang of a pot and random falling objects had the guy cursing and me biting on a corner of the sheet. A dark figure, tall, complaining things had been moved, loomed right by me to the other side of the hut. More objects fell. I struggled to find a opportune spot to interject that I was here over the top of all the noise he was making.

The rip of a match and a growing glow had more detail showing up. His shirt was off, his back to me. I tried not to notice the way the lamp flame highlighted each dip in tanned muscle...had to say something, anything before this guy found out the rude way that I was here. He rolled his shoulder and groaned loudly, moved to take his belt off and backed up to the hammock I lay in, his intention to pull his pants off and sit clear. I coughed, now that he was being relatively quiet, hopeful that would get his attention. He froze instantly, half lowered and too close for comfort. My voice, dry and still thirsty, came out tiny and soft as a whisper.

"Pardon me."

He yanked his pants up, twisting as he fell on his butt to the floor. The light snuffed out just as a hard booted kick from underneath bottomed me out of the hammock. My face was suddenly kissing packed dirt, gasping dry dust and coughing, twisting myself out of the way of kicking boots. His outline made a grab for that all too familiar stick they all used as guns, curses being thrown every which way with all of the falling, clattering objects, all of it filling the hut with the sounds of metal and fear.

I was up, gave another painful cough against my forearm to get the dirt out of my mouth, and darted for the nearest exit, the window. I couldn't think, just wanted out, anywhere but here where sudden mayhem had exploded. The white sheet poofed partly over my head from behind like a net, getting in my way and making it impossible to see.

What was he trying to do, catch me like an animal?

I managed to get a foot on the sill and used it to get myself up and out, the sheet around me flapping noisily. The gun went off inside the hut behind me, the sound like gravel hitting the inside of the walls amping up my terror. He yelled and I hit the ground outside, my back taking the brunt of it, a tight band of pain enveloping my chest at the jolt.

I battled to pull air into my lungs and clung to the pain in my ribs, rolling up to stand on shaky feet. I struggled, throwing the sheet off of my head to the side angrily, my hair static and getting in the way. I brushed it back out of my face while there was new banging and clanging inside the hut for a few awful seconds, yelling, then he was at his door, a dark silhouette swinging the hard wood open with another startling bang.

I couldn't do this. From day one this had been happening. My breath was all shaky, gasping rage, hugging paralyzed lungs as I glared at the dark barbarian that had dumped me out of bed. I at last took half a shaky breath in, my lip trembling and my lungs aching, my eyes on a barrel, leveled, once again, at me. Mother was right. All of my worry seemed to snap into crystal clear place, making it obvious that if I stayed with these men, I'd probably meet a violent end. My lips trembled with the effort to shout, barking and gasping, accusing.

"Would...you men...stop...shooting at me!?"

I balled the sheet up in a hurried crumple and threw it at him just as alarmed shouts began ringing here and there around the camp. I couldn't face them. I wasn't even sure if they would let me go once they all congregated. I wavered, pulling at my hair in distress, wasting a precious moment regretting the false kindness I'd been shown before sprinting for the cover of jungle.

I left the calling of my name in multiple voices behind me with my eyes stinging and a sob caught painfully against my gasping.

Black plants brushed against my furious pace, clinging against how fast I could run and being noisy enough to easily hail where I was. After my rage had spent I collapsed, my scratched palms landing against a warm log that barred my way. My tears were still caught in my throat, choking me as if invisible hands pressed against my windpipe. It was all I could do for several minutes but rest, fatigue dragging down on my limbs like dead weight.

I sniffed once my breath had returned almost normal, listened to the shouting out to each other to let each other know that they'd lost sight of me, looked back see the light from their lamps, moving erratically through the darkened tangle like large panicking fireflies. I kept my eyes on them for a long while, calming down enough to use reason again. I regretted running off already, should probably go back once I was calmer and apologize to one of the men I knew for the disturbance, leave on good terms. That way if we came across each other we could just tip our hats and move on, rather than there be any hard feelings. Or shootings. Sighing, I rose to my knees with my back to them so I could gather my nerve, pressed down hard on my feet on purpose a couple times to break them in so I could use them. As I readied to head back, an uneasiness began to creep over me that froze into sharp awareness once I realized what was spooking me.

The shift of a blade of grass against another. Breathing that wasn't mine. Right behind me.

How could I have forgotten about the tiger? I froze and listened carefully to anything my ears would tell me, all my hair at attention, my only movements my shaking hands sliding over the log and sand beneath it to find anything I could to use as a weapon. My palm and fingers closed over a lucky branch, long and slender, easy enough to swing around if I put my slight weight behind it. I lifted it, untangling it with a firm pull, and placed it's almost too heavy end in front of myself, getting ready to round and hit whatever had me in it's sights.

"You're injured." the dark one quipped.