The Differents | ✓

E I G H T E E N

After about half an hour of walking and not getting very far, Sniper was too tired to keep going in the state he was in, so I sat him against a tree and gave him a water bottle. Sitting down next to him, I finally attended to my own wounds. I started with the minor things, wetting a corner of my shirt and dabbing at the cuts to clean them. Once I got to my shoulder, however, it was a different problem. I distanced myself from Sniper, who was half asleep against the tree, and peeled back the neckline of the shirt. It stuck to my skin, sticky with blood, but I eased it down enough to see the wound.

Although it no longer hurt very badly, it looked like something that wouldn't take just a rinse and a bandage to heal. After dousing it with as much water as I allowed myself to waste, I was able to see it better. It was quite deep although I couldn't see the bone. It was also messy, my skin and all the stuff underneath cut in jagged lines. My stomach turned but I forced myself to keep looking. It must have been caused by the tree branch sticking through the windshield or some piece of metal that had come loose during the crash.

I swallowed hard and went to get the bandages.

After wrapping it up in clean white cloth, it looked -- and almost felt -- a lot better. I pulled my jacket over the red stain on my shirt sleeve and went back over to Sniper. The water bottle I had given him lay untouched in his lap and he had his head back, staring into the treetops.

"I've never seen trees like this," he said. "Did you have any idea they could grow this big?"

I didn't. I was just as much in awe as him. Tall trees stood around us from every side, their dark, rough exteriors too wide for me to put my arms around. Their leaves, of every different shade and size, stretched out into the breeze, catching the most sun they could. It was beautiful to see.

We didn't talk. I wasn't ready to talk about what had happened, nor was I ready to talk about what will happen. It was a miracle enough that we had escaped. I had no idea what we'd do after escaping since the idea of even getting out was so preposterous already. I sat down next to Sniper and tried to relax.

As we settled into silence, the forest came alive in our place. What once was simply the wind rushing through the trees became so many more sounds than that. Sounds I had never heard before, which made me smile and feel happy.

Sniper seemed to feel the same way. He was smiling and swiveling his head around, taking in the sounds, the smells, all the things we had been denied all our lives.

He stopped and slowly raised his hand to a tree on our far right. "Do you see that?" he asked. "There's something moving around in that tree."

I slowly closed my hand around the smallest gun, ready to shoot should something attack us. I could see what he was pointing at; a movement between the leaves. We stayed still, watching. The thing moved around again, rustling the leaves, and then burst out of the tree into the air toward us. I screamed and scrambled backward, firing my gun at it, but Sniper knocked it out of my hand and pushed me down into the soil.

"Don't shoot it." He was breathing rapidly, his eyes wide as he looked around for it. It had landed a few trees away and was staring at us curiously. "You don't know that it's harmful yet."

"So you'd rather it kill you first and then ask it politely whether it's friendly or not?"

He slowly released me and took the gun into his own hands. Opening it up, he flashed me an annoyed look. "You wasted five bullets."

The thing was in better view in its new tree. Perched on a branch like some sort of guard. It was a brownish colour, and had a white head and white on its lower back. It cocked its head to the side and looked at us curiously, before opening a part of itself and sticking its head in to seemingly clean it.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Looks like some sort of life form," Sniper said in awe. "I had no idea they still existed."

"Is it going to hurt us?"

"Maybe we can find that out gently, instead of whipping out a gun."

"Maybe it's actually deadly and our best chance of survival was that gun," I snapped.

The creature had a sharp-looking, pointed yellow thing protruding from its face, which it opened and suddenly released a high-pitched shriek. I covered my ears and silently cursed myself for not killing the thing.

Sniper advanced slowly toward it. "I'm guessing that the thing on its face is its mouth." He was talking slowly, gently, his eyes fixated on the creature. "It looks like maybe it could use it to do some damage so maybe it hunts other creatures, if there still are any."

"Or maybe there aren't and we're the perfect idea of a mid-day snack for it," I replied bitterly.

Sniper was still holding the gun, which he held at his side. I thought about running for it and grabbing it before the creature could attack us, but didn't move. I trusted Sniper more than I wanted to admit, and I hoped he knew what he was doing.

The creature opened its mouth and screeched again, focusing on us with its yellow eyes. It seemed to say, I don't want to hurt you, but I will. And I was just about to say this when Sniper took another step forward and the thing screeched, opened the sides of its body again, and lifted itself into the air. I ran at Sniper and pushed him to the ground, but by the time I looked around me again, the thing was gone.

Sniper shoved me off of him angrily. "What was that for?" he yelled. "Why'd you push me?! I almost had it!"

"It flew into the air!" I yelled back. "What if the next thing we know it's dropping bombs on us?!"

Sniper threw the gun at the ground and got up, brushing dirt and leaves off his clothes. He hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder. "That thing was the first life form other than humans that I have ever seen. I never even knew things other than us existed, let alone ones that fly! That one had wings, wings, Arthemis! And your first impulse is to shoot it!"

"Oh, I'm sorry I offended you by trying to save your life," I snapped. "It's kind of my go-to impulse when I'm being hunted by the people who raised me!"

His shoulders dropped. "You're right," he sighed. "I'm sorry."

I picked up the gun and walked over to our bags. "Just... be careful, okay? You never know what could be out here."

As if on cue, all the sounds of the forest suddenly went silent. All I could hear was the rustling of the leaves made by the breeze. I looked around us. Everything was the same, yet an eerie feeling crept over me.

And then I heard it.

Planes.