105 DAYS

Chapter Sixteen

“Whoa!” Laura jumped up in happiness. So did the others. At last after three months they were out of the forest. It already felt familiarized and less solitary in
the open ground.

“Wait a minute,” Tom was leaning on his good foot and had a finger up in front of him with his face puzzled. Kevin looked at him.

“Where are we?” he asked. Everyone looked at one another.

“We are out of the forest” Edith replied bluntly.

“No, I mean, we walked for three months. And now we are here. Are we still in the same country? Or somewhere else?” Tom’s quick thinking made others to stop their celebrations in half.

“Mate,” Kevin placed his hand gently on Tom’s shoulder. “Wherever we are now we are out of the forest. At least it is an upgrade to us. We stayed twelve weeks in the dense forest with nowhere to turn to and now we are here. I am sure that it won’t take long for us to find someone”. Kevin had his eyebrows raised asking help from others to back up. Ian nodded behind him.

“Yeah, he is right” he pointed towards Kevin. “We’ll find someone sooner or later.” He smiled assuring.

“Yeah. We’ve faced all sorts of trouble in the forest, haven’t we? What else could happen now?” Jack said cheerfully.

“At least we have the sunlight now” said Edith making others roll over with laughter.

The team walked forwards with Tom limping behind with Kevin beside him. They walked through the soft sand filled large place. They didn’t know whether to
call it a ground or a clearing. They hoped that it won’t take long for them to meet someone.

As the hours moved on Edith grew tired of walking through nothingness.

“The forest was better” she said grumpily.

“Hmm” Kevin agreed.

“But we know that at least there is an end to this” Laura said to herself.

“Yeah let’s walk quickly and hope for it to reach us soon” said Tom and he quickened his pace.

That night they put up two tents and the boys and girls slept peacefully separated in their tents. No one stayed on watch that night. The ground was human
free and they hoped that it is animal free also. They know that even if someone came near them it won’t be possible for them to hear as the sand would muffle
their footsteps. But that night they trusted their instincts and took the risk.

***

As Ian was walking with others on the next day his mind drifted towards his mother. He thought where his mother was now. He knew that however bad his father had treated her, she had always been by his side. Ian also knew that now with her husband gone and with her son missing it might be a bad time for her.

Since he was just a kid Ian loved his mom. He knew whatever he said wouldn’t change her mind about her husband and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. So, he
bit back his comments and was a dutiful son to her. It was not the first time he thought of her. Even before the hike however badly he wanted to know about his mom. He didn’t try in anyway to be in contact with her. But now Ian felt as though he had looked back on his responsibilities and had let his mother do all the work. And now at the moment he didn’t know whether she is alright or not. He regretting thought that he should have at least let her in the care of someone he knew.

Ian’s mother, Ariana was really old and not until his father’s death had he noticed it. The old age had been cruel on her as well and her wrinkled skin and lost
eyes made Ian wonder what had happened to the mom he knew. She had not aged in time but in tiredness and worries. Her husband’s poor health and the never ending grudge between the father and the son had always beat her poor heart and Ian felt ashamed of himself to think that he had also played a major role in making his mom suffer more than she had already.