An Inch Of Infinity (Short Version)

CHAPTER 29~The Story Comes

The cooks have gotten our pots and pans outside and are salting and smoking meat, children have gone into the box storage room and gotten out boxes to make little forts. Even lazy Emily had grabbed some curtains and made a hammock! We really must be settling in! I walk over to where Emma was planting seeds in some soil that she had prepared herself. It smells like cow poop.

She had the apple plants I gave her and was planting others from the kitchen. She was using some chart with highlighted words. She saw me coming and got up.

"Hi Kari, did you hear the news?" Emma asked.

"What news?" I asked her cautiously.

"It's almost winter, so we are staying here for a while. Some people are even thinking of staying here permanently." Emma replied enthusiastically. She went back to planting seeds. I bent down and started to help her as I told her what happened.

"So, they not only tricked the entire world to think that the rest is dead, but then they began to bomb their own territory to keep these rumors alive?" She snarls with disgust. "I can't believe them!"

"I know, but I don't think these were their own people. They are horrible people, but I think they offered us an empty threat. If they couldn't destroy Australia before, who says they can do it now?" I say, my voice shaking.

"What if we can't,can't, what if we can't stop them if they come back?" Emma asks, her voice shaking with fear.

"I don't know, but we need to be ready, if we stock up on supplies we might be able to..." I start, but am interrupted

"Hey, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that's why they call it the present." she says with a smile. I smile back and continue planting tomatoes and avocados. We get four rows done before a young man runs over to us.

"That boy you found at the abandoned village, he's out of surgery and the medics are about to wake him. Come quickly!" he shouts and runs off. I get up and I follow him.

Soon I am on a boat in a crowded room. Lying down on a surgery table is the little boy. He has a bandage wrapped around his upper head, his left arm is in a sling and he has many strings and wires hooked up to him. He has a tube going into his shoulder and red liquid is moving around in there, and I cannot tell if the liquid is going in or out. His body is cleaner than it was, but there still is stains left by the soot and ash from a raging fire.

He is still unconscious and he is so still that you can see his heart beating. His breathing seems labored and weak. I am surprised he has made it at this rate.

His thick black hair was sticking out of his bandage and was damp with sweat. I saw him and I couldn't help but think of a sick or starving animal, dying in a damp dark alleyway, and nobody will know till morning.

A nurse filled a thin syringe with a clear fluid and taped the air bubbles out. Then he pushed a drop out and stuck it into the boy's arm. The boy woke up with a start. He saw us and started to yell.

"Apa yang sedang terjadi? Apa yang sedang terjadi !!?MEMBANTU!" he yelled enraged. An engineer pressed a white contraption to his neck, then one more to each of his ears.

"What's going on? What's going on !!? HELP" he cried out, startled by his own voice "Who are you? Where am I? Where is my family? " he started to cry. Then he got angry, and started to hit and push so he could leave, tubes and wires flying off of him as he moved. Coral grabbed him, and no matter how hard he tried to shove her away, she held on tight. Soon he was sitting down on a chair with nowhere to run.

"My name is Akari, and you and I have something in common. We both have a problem. I'm gonna give it to you straight kid, you are going to have to be strong. Your village is destroyed. You barely made it out yourself. I'm sorry, but there is no way to sugar coat this. Your family, friends, everyone, they, they are all gone. The village was bombed by the royalties. How you got out is nothing short of a mystery and more than a miracle. Everyone is dead. Everything, destroyed. And it's all the royals fault. I need you to tell me everything you can remember. OK?" I say slowly and incurably. If we are lucky, he will go into shock from this news. He looks up. We are not lucky.