Empire

Chapter eighteen

I hear a yell behind me, they'll be after us soon. I go as fast as I can but I'm making the others slower. Finally I stop, I can't go any farther with my arm like this. I think it's broken but I'm not sure where so I can't splint it. Takira helps me bind it up close to my chest and I try to keep going. She stops by a tree and cuts a piece of bark off and hands it to me "Chew it, it will help with the pain."
I do as she says and it does help a little. Soon I hear dogs barking, that scares me, with dogs they'll be able to track our scent.
Takira takes the lead and the boys fall in behind us. We're already out of sight of the plantation and I can hear all the sounds of the jungle around us. I've been in a few jungles now, but I'm still not used to the humidity and the mosquitoes. My wrist burns where the whip cut it and I can feel every drop of sweat that touches it. I start hearing a river and a few minutes later I see it winding lazily through the trees.
We descend a steep bank and Takira leads us into the water. It feels good on my feet and I wish I could stay here. A few minutes later Takira heads out of the water on the same side we came in. She steps on pieces of moss instead of the rocks so we won't leave a trail of water. The bank hangs over the shore in one place almost forming a cave. We go into it and try to catch our breath. The ground is rocky and a bit wet but I sit down anyways. The piece of bark that was giving me relief from the pain is losing its potency and I start to feel it again. The dogs are getting closer but I don't want to get up, I just want to go to sleep so I won't feel my arm. Soon the dogs are barking where we went into the river and I hear voices following it. We couldn't leave now if we wanted to.
They seem to lose our scent in the river, which is muddy enough so any dirt we stirred up should go unnoticed. The voices are angry now and they split up and start moving up and down the river.
Takira starts covering her skin in mud, I follow her example and try to sink into the walls of our little cave. Footsteps crunch closer and closer to where we're hiding. Soon I see the person's shadow, then I see the person and recognize Eric. I try not to stare, knowing that it attracts attention, and stifle my breathing. He glances into the overhang and his eyes catch mine briefly. He nods to me, turns around, and shouts back to the others "They didn't come this way. They must have crossed the river."
The voices slowly die away and Takira leads us back up the bank. The sun is going down and we're not very far from the plantation. My need to sleep is overpowered by my fear of capture, but eventually we all have to rest and traveling in the dark becomes dangerous. We've been following the river and we find a small cave where we decide to spend the night. Tretan and I take the first watch, he tries to make me go to sleep and I try for a few minutes but it doesn't work so I sit back up and keep watch. Takira gave me a bit more of the bark and I think I recognize the tree now but there's only so much it can do. After an hour I take the binding off my arm and try to find where it's broken.
"Is there something I can do to help?" Tretan asks quietly.
I nod gratefully and show him how to feel for a break or something out of place. When he gets close to my shoulder he stops, "I think I found it."
    "Okay, message it and lift it slowly, it might go back like that." I say.
I put a few pieces of bark in my mouth and try not to cry out as he sets it back in place. Then he helps me rebind it, with splints this time.
Our moving around woke Takira and Amandi and they take their turn watching now. I'm just laying down when Tretan "Oh Susan, happy birthday."
I can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it, this has officially been my worst birthday ever. But I'm still alive, I'm not alone, and we're not at the plantation anymore. I realize that I haven't seen a drone or camera in a while. I wonder how they were filming us at the plantation.
Amandi and Takira are talking and the sound of it lulls me to sleep.
I wake up to water hitting my face, when I open my eyes I see that it's raining and the others are getting ready to leave. My stomach growls and I realize I haven't eaten since breakfast yesterday. Takira hands me a roll and a bit of cheese, I'm wondering where she got it when I remember the satchel she brought with. She must have packed food.
"So what happened yesterday? Why did we have to leave so suddenly?" She asks when we start walking.
Tretan doesn't say anything and I'm still kind of confused about what happened so Amandi tells her. The story isn't very detailed but because I was there it makes it more intense. It's hard to believe it all happened yesterday.
During the day we don't hear anyone else so they must have lost our trail. Takira was zigzagging yesterday so we didn't get very far but today we go mostly straight ahead. Halfway through the day we start travelling uphill, but we keep a steady pace and the walk isn't very hard. The hardest part is navigating around the trees and undergrowth without getting off track. Takira knows how to use the machete to clear a path but I'm not very good at it so Amandi goes in front of me.
I don't feel as much sharp pain today, it's mostly an ache, but having my arm bound up makes it harder not to trip on roots.
Not that I want other people hurt but it's much easier when I can treat someone in pain than to be in pain myself. Then I know what to do, but now I feel like I'm slowing everyone down, and I don't recognize the plants so I can't treat myself.
I look around at our group as we walk through the jungle and realize we must look awful. I wonder if they can manage to make us look nice back in Emor. They probably want me to at least fix my hair but I can't even if I wanted to.
It's only the fifth day of this challenge but it feels like the longest one yet. I'm not complaining out loud but I realize that every thought entering my brain is negative. Lord please help me change my mindset.
I run through my head the good things that have happened in the past few days. We all got away, we know where we're going, Eric helped us, I got to meet Mathew and Grace.
Even the bad things that happened could have been worse, I could have been sold by myself with no one to help me, I could have been punished severely for spilling water on the master's friend. Yesterday if Tretan hadn't been there I would have been whipped more, and on top of all those things we even have food. Thinking about it this way makes me feel thankful, and even a little bit happy.
It's still raining off and on and the air is becoming more foggy. We're getting closer and closer to the mountains. We stop for an early supper and Takira says we should camp for the night. There's still plenty of light but she doesn't want to reach the Maroon village in the dark. I wonder if we'll be picked up as soon as we get there.
We're all tired but it's muggy and hard to sleep so instead we just sit in a circle resting our bodies. We are still for a few minutes and soon I start to notice the butterflies and hummingbirds that are everywhere. A bright blue butterfly floats slowly through the air and lands on my leg. It folds its wings and suddenly it looks like a leaf. I watch it as it rests on me. After a bit it flutters away and a different one lands on Amandi.
He starts speaking softly, almost as if to the butterfly, in a tone I haven't heard him use before "My sister loves butterflies, her favourites are the golden ones because they match her eyes. Sometimes if we're not working she spends all day laying in the grass with flowers all over her waiting for them to come. When they do she memorizes every detail of their tiny bodies. When she gets home she tells my father and he paints a picture of them, her room is full of pictures. But none of them are as beautiful as she is."
I'm stunned, he's never talked this way about anything, and he's talking about two of the people he misses most. He talks about his father in the present tense, as if he's still alive.
His words paint a picture of peace and happiness, making it sound as if there is no evil in the world. Those are the kind of words that bring people hope.
He should have been a poet.

The Maroon's village is small and built so that it is concealed by the trees. There's probably around a hundred people who live here, hiding from the plantation owners but also fighting back.
They seem to accept us pretty easily after the chief invites us to stay with him in his house. I suspect the chief is an official, which means we might be almost done.
The sun is going down so we go straight to sleep. The houses are built to keep out heat so it's the first time in a few days that I sleep in relative comfort.
The next morning the chief tells us we need to move to a different village, then takes us on a walk to a clearing where the helicopter is waiting for us.
We fly to an airport where we board a plane and start the journey back to Emor.
This was the last challenge, soon we'll get to find out who won and then we all get to go home.