Death In A Mile

Chapter 13: Multiplication

I woke up to grey skies and even greyer emotion. The birds kept chirping masking to the blind man a peaceful day. I had felt sluggish, unable to form a happy thought for a while, and oddly powerful. I felt dangerous, like if I had a bone to pick with you you best not look me in the eye. Never in my life had I felt this emotion, nor do I feel it is an emotion anyone else have ever had.

"C'mon sleepy head, we haven't got all day!" Questa urged toward me while nudging me with her foot. Her smile and blonde messy hair dangles down upon me as I rustled myself to sit up and look around to the motivated band.

Ostro and Spark were working on breakfast, Ivy was calmly drawing pictures in the dark brown dirt, and Madi was gone.

"Where is Madi?" I asked, seeming as if I didn't care about the others.

"She is fine," Questa said with positivity. "Just collecting firewood that is all." Collecting firewood seems like it is going to become part of our everyday lives now.

"Oh," I dully responded. She smiled and walked away, Spark stared at her as she did.

I swept away the pine needles and leaves insulating me as I slept and got up like an overweight man. Afterward I walked toward Spark, Questa was long gone by now, probably out finding some materials or doing her business.

"Think she's cute?" I said, egging him on.

"Shut up," he responded. "Help me with this." Of course I did. He had a pan out above the fire cooking what looked like chicken, which he had me hold as he walked to get a stick to flip it.

"Where did you find this?" I asked.

"Killed it this morning, it was laying right outside our campsite," Ostro interfered before Spark could respond. He was like that, immediate and down with business. No time for jokes or side talk was an important part of his life philosophy.

"What luck aye?" I said.

"Oh yeah, I take it as a sign of good things to come." I didn't believe him, or in this "sign" that he was talking about, however I could only hope he was right.

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever is making me say it must be watching over us." I rolled my eyes but with my eyes closed. I didn't feel like making anybody angry this early in the game.

Madi had soon arrived from the right with a bundle of large sticks in her arms, and being the gentleman I was I took them from her and set them down.

"What's Questa's problem?" Madi asked. We all looked at her in a confused matter, including the quiet Ivy.

"What do you mean what is wrong with her?" Spark asked concerned.

"I was coming back to drop off this wood and she silently walked up to me, about 2 feet away, and just stared into my eyes," she exclaimed. "I tried asking her what was wrong but she just kept staring at me, with no emotion."

Ivy had spoke for the first time I heard today, "Um Madi, Questa went that way," and she pointed to the left, or her right, the opposite way Madi had come from.

"That's weird, her hair was messy and she was incredibly dirty." We all looked at each other than thought the same thing.

"She looked clean when she left," I said.

"Did she fall in some mud or something?" Ostro implied.

"No, she would've followed me back."

"Okay, let's go look for here," Spark said with a sigh.

Just as we had set everything down to go look she had come back, in the same direction she had come from originally.

"Hey you are clean!" Madi said enthusiastically, seeming to ignore the obvious issue.

"Um yeah, I was always clean," Questa said. We all exchanged looks and now the confusion had spiked.

"But when I saw you in the forest, you had messy hair and were covered in dirt."

"No, I never ran into you. I was just going pee." Questa never had a filter on her mouth and honestly, it was one of the things I liked the most about her.

We all felt confused, but telepathically decided it was time to move. Finally, Spark gave the order. "Okay, I have no idea whether or not this is a prank or something far more serious, but whatever it is we need to move. Pack your things and we are out in 5 minutes."

No one debated, except Ostro. "Why do we need to move so badly, it isn't like we have anywhere to go."

"You are right," I interjected. "But we are sitting ducks chilling here right now. Pack your things Ostro." I felt being demanding was the way to convince him, and I was right. I didn't feel like psychologically convincing him, so now I figure, I will never have too.

Briskly, we all packed what little we had and headed on our way. That was intentional, we all hated packing, so we didn't bring all we owned. It was Madi's idea, and might I say I sure did listen.

Together we maneuvered through the dark thick forest with Spark as lead and me at the end. Twigs under our feet crumbled, but no one seemed to care much about the noise we made, but at the same time do we really believe what Madi was describing?

A while of walking lead us seemingly in a circle, but it was just a never ending nightmare. If a task never ends then does mean fail is inevitable? A question none of us wanted to know the answer too. Us as humans prefer to stay in a better reality; a reality without truth.

I looked ahead from my position at the end of the line and I could see light glisten from the trees. The forest was thinning. Before we knew it we found ourselves gazing upon a flatland with long grass the same color as home. It was lowered a bit so we could see the entire thing at once. To the right the flatland was elevated, and to the left it sloped down a little. Little hills were galore, almost as if it were a bald spot in the forest.

We walked down and made it to the open. Amongst ourselves we celebrated. We didn't know what we were celebrating, maybe the fact that there was more to this forest then just concrete vegetation. Nevertheless, it was something to be happy about.

We explored a little, and near the sloped end there was a clean water supply invisible from where we came, blanketed by the hills. Now there was a real reason to celebrate.

"Oh boy fellas, it is time to drink," I said. Happiness has finally met us for the first time in a while. Maybe this forest wasn't so bad after all. Hold that thought, I spoke too soon.

"Ivy, you alright?" I asked concerned. She was staring off into the distance, mute just the way she was. I glanced where she looked for a second then looked back, not comprehending what I saw. Wait a second. I looked back with wider eyes and a shock that pulsed itself through my neck and down my spine.

"You're seeing what I am seeing right," Ivy said in a fragile voice.

"Y-Yeah." This had caught the attention of the others, especially Questa and Madi.

"You mean, Q-Questa is over there now?" Madi asked, looking back at us for reassurtion, on the verge of breaking down.

"No sweetheart, I'm right here," Questa responded, with her eyes fixated in the same direction we all were staring.

Six figures appeared before us, all spitting images of ourselves. It is like a giant mirror was placed a couple hundred yards away, except for they weren't part of a mirror, they were clones. We all dumbfoundedly stood stunned, in refusal to move.