What are you fighting for?

12. The Escape

One week passed and I feel like I'm not one step further in my plan, not one step closer to Zana Burris. For the past days we just existed next to each other. Words only exchanged when necessary or superficial conversations. Only two more weeks until, I'm pretty certain, she will shoot me in the circle.

While I'm trying to catch fish, she is sitting on the beach, playing with the stones between her hand. Besides her, hunger is the greatest danger. We haven't received deliveries and I'm certain there are no fish left in this damn water. Maybe we should move to the forest and hunt small animals. More precisely I can do that since she is still unable to walk faster than a snail.

Another glimpse at her.
I was so lost in my thoughts it took a while for me to realise why the beach looked so strange, so abnormally large. The surf had drawn back hundreds of metres, the abandoned stones shining pale and bright.
And that could only mean one thing. I scanned the horizon, desperately hoping I was wrong.
Then I saw it, the blue line on the horizon.

'Tsunami" I breathe.

I run back to Zana, the stones hurting my feet, but I keep running. One look at me and she let's the stones slip through her fingers, falling to the ground. The clacking was the only break in an otherwise oppressive silence.

Roughly, I grab her body, pulling her over my shoulder on my back. I feel her head turning and I know exactly when she realised what is happening. Her grip tightens and she clings onto my shirt.

She doesn't way much. Maybe 50 kg, but have you ever tried to move a full bucket of water? You know how much that small amount weighs, now imagine billions of buckets moving with the speed of an express locomotive twenty feet high. It's not something you want to mess with. It's not something I want to mess with.

Every five seconds her body weight shifts and she turns around to look how far the wave is away.
I never thought I'd see a tsunami in a lake. It's a big lake but I know that a tsunami does not occur in lakes. So I guess it happened for the same reasons the earthquake did.

"Where are you going?" She screams right in my ear.
There is only one place. The forest.
I know we are in the west and the desert would be closer but I'm not running down the entire shore to reach the desert where we won't find anything edible.

I start getting out of breath. Not only hadn't I had much food but I have to carry extra weight on my back. Zana keeps on screaming words but I can't hear anything but the water rushing behind us, trying to catch me.

Finally, I reach the circle.
The tsunami wave crashed louder than the explosion in the city. I expect to be washed away by water masses but I'm not. Not even a spritzer hits my skin so I slow down and turn around. The wave stopped when we left the area. It's not able to reach us.

"Oh my god" Zana breaths.

But we haven't reached our destination yet.

The woodland seemed ominously quiet. I pause, now that even the sound of my own footfalls was silent, all that could be heard was the susurration of the leaves in the gusty wind.

I start to calm down after running for our lives, almost hypnotised by the dance of the leaves, but the longer I stare the more the leaves look like eyes staring back down.

After walking a couple more minutes I let her down. We reached the place where my team and I prepared for missions. I know I hid some food, maps and other material here.

The woods were the perfect place to hide. It wasn't as easy to walk through as the city. The trees formed a labyrinth and the leaves block the sunlight as if they were forming a cage around you.

"Can you collect some sticks for a fire?" I ask and she wanders off into the trees. Meanwhile, I pull the fallen tree aside, for us to sit on it.

She shouldn't wander off too far, because we need the fire soon. The woods accelerated the twilight, shrinking what would normally take an hour into just a few minutes.

The forest will fall asleep but we know we don't have a quiet minute, no pause.