A Time To Rise

Chapter 6

I climb down a few branches to get Catherine. In the deteriorating light, I inspect her arm. Yuck. I feel the horrible acid-like stuff swell up in my throat. I look away before it makes it way out of my mouth. I can see Catherine also trying not to vomit. I take a few seconds to centre myself. I turn back to her arm. There is a gash about 2cm wide and reaches from her elbow to her wrist. Her warm blood seeps out of the gross wound and finds its way onto my leg. The dirt combined with yellow pus makes the wound look infected.

"I can't do anything now. Not until we find water and better shelter."

I don't bother to say that she probably won't make it. She probably knows. All the same, I can't let her die from blood loss, it is not a honourable way to go. I need to go find some water. I make sure Catherine doesn't fall off the branch and start to climb down the tree. I walk through the forest completely at home. Songs and rhythms fill the air as the birds sit happily chirping away as if nothing had change. How nice it would be to sit up high on a branch all day chirping away and when the world turns against me, I can take flight. I jerk my foot out of the ice-cold pool of water I just happened to step in as a chill runs up my back. The pool looks clear but I build a fire anyway to kill the bacteria. I scale a nearby tree to the top and get hollownuts. Hollownuts are about the size of a coconut but have no inside so it is perfect to store water. Pegging them down the tree makes me kind of nervous. If these break, it means I take longer to get back to Catherine. They land perfectly. I slide down the tree and break a tiny hole in two of the nuts and reach for the leaves.....Ah. The leaves.

I quickly scale the tree again and break a branch off the top full of leaves. I stick two lots of three leaves together and then stick one side of the leaves on one side of the whole on the hollownut. I smear tree sap on the other side so the leaves will come off without being ripped. I quickly turn the other nut into a water bottle. I cut the top of four hollownuts right off to make cups. The water lapses over my hands as I dip each of the cups into the water. The water is somewhat refreshing even though it is ice cold. Ok. The next thing to do is to heat the water. I leave the nuts on the fire and hunt for a smooth, straight stick. I can use it if Catherine's arm is broken. Bingo. Just what I need. I pick up the stick and rush back to the campsite and poor two of the cups into one hollownut and then the other two into the other waterbottle. I put the cups together and stuff them out of sight. There. Now if I need to get more water, I can. I scoop up some of the mud from the pool and dump it over the fire. I wash my hands and set off back to the tree.

Whoa. I slam my back into a tree and go stiff. Soldiers. I peek around my tree hoping for a glimpse of the number of soldiers. Whoa. I pull my head back behind the tree. That's a lot. The unwelcome sound of leaves being crunched comes closer and closer. Oh dear. They are coming. I instantly climb the tree I was hiding behind. Up and up I climb. The further I climb, the higher I go, the safer I feel. I stop and look down the tree. The soldiers march in sync underneath the tree. Fear that one will look up shoots through my body,disabling my legs and stunning my head. I hug the trunk and hope with all my heart they don't look up. An owl hoots loudly in the distance, roaring it's battle cry out to all it's enemies. The soldiers laugh and march on.

I stay glued to the tree trunk for a long time, long enough to see the moonlight. I snap back to my senses when a wind picks up, blowing my hair and cooling my skin. Time to get back to Catherine. I climb down the tree. Somethings nags me at the back of my mind. 5feet off the ground, it hits me. Literally. I remember seeing a weak branch on my way up. Too late. I shift my weight onto the branch and it snaps. I fall 5feet to the foot of the tree. Ouch. My breath seems to have escaped me and a dull throb appears at the back of my head. The urge to sleep wells up inside me. My eyes droop and my senses dull. I can't do this. They will come. I find the water bottles in the fallen leaves and take off towards the tree. I need to get there tonight. I reach the tree and climb up it, keeping the water bottles in branches as I climb. The climb depletes the energy from my legs and sets my arms on fire. Finally! Catherine's pale form peers down at me as I gaze up. I climb those last painful branches and sit next to her on the thick branch. Handing her a water bottle, I stretch her arm out and pour some water over it. Catherine jerks her arm.

"I'm sorry, but I need to clean it." Catherine makes her arm go still. I pour more water over the gash. She tilts her head back and screams. I will never understand girls and there screaming. There. The wound looks well like a wound now and not like an infected medical experiment gone wrong.

"Catherine. I need you to focus. Can you squeeze my hand?"

"No," she gasps as tears stream down her face. And I thought the world had turned against me. This is great. She probably broke something. I grab some of the nearby leaves and squeeze the juice out of them. Pulling the leaves from the hollownut tree out of my pocket, I sneak a look at Catherine. She looks pale and sore. I feel sorry for her her. I turn my attention back to the leaves and place a few small hollownut leaves across the gash, covering it from view. I layer the sticky leaf juice on top of the leaves and on the surrounding skin and stick more hollownut leaves, larger ones this time, over it, holding the 'dressing' over the wound. I place my stick under Catherine's arm and look around for something to secure her arm to the stick to prevent her from moving her arm. There. I reach across to a short, thin vine and pluck it from it's branch.

"There," I say, tying the vine around the stick and Catherine's arm.

"Try to get some sleep." I climb one branch up and lie down on it, drifting off to sleep.