Chapter 9 #2
A while later and her mind was quiet, curiosity dimmed. Her entire focus was on keeping going, putting one foot in front of the other. The energy from the many bowls of soup that Girard had fed her had long since worn off and her feet were dead weights as she lifted one then the next to keep going.
“Let’s stop for a little bit,” Girard said. “I want to try the phone again.”
“Alright.” Hallie gratefully stopped moving forward and stood, swaying a little, in the middle of the road.
The dirt path had wound its way through increasingly dense shrubs and trees so that they were now in the middle of what Hallie could only call a forest, with great trees to either side blocking out open views of the sky.
There were narrow strips of clearer ground to either side of the path, where the shrubs and undergrowth had been cut back, along with a few trees.
Hallie could see a few tree stumps not far away.
“Here, let’s sit for a moment,” Girard said, and led them off the road towards the tree stumps.
Hallie didn’t say anything as she struggled across the uneven ground, almost crying with relief when she shed her backpack and sat on the nearest tree stump, not caring that it was still damp from the storm the night before.
“Why didn’t you say you were tired?” Girard asked. He’d shed his own backpack and was crouched in front of her, eyes intent on her face. “You look completely worn out.”
“I didn’t want to be a drag,” Hallie confessed, hearing a plaintive note in her voice and hating it.
She was used to working alone. She was used to relying on her own resources.
Now that she was still, and sitting, she realised just how exhausted she was.
No use to anyone. It had been foolish and dangerous to let herself get so tired.
“And I didn’t realise how tired I was until we stopped,” she added, scrubbing her hands across her face.
“Here, try this,” Girard said. He was holding out a protein bar and what looked like a miniature drink can. “It’s an energy drink. It’s mostly caffeine and sugar, with some vitamins,” he told her as she just stared at him.
“Oh. Sounds good. Thank you.” She took both items from him and opened the drink first, taking a cautious sip. “It’s really sweet.”
“I know.” Girard had taken a seat on a nearby tree stump and she was a little heartened to see he had one of the drinks, too. “But they are pretty effective for a short while.”
As they ate and drank, Girard pulled the radio phone out of his pack and tried it again, shaking his head in answer to Hallie’s silent question.
“Still no signal.” There was a note of concern in his voice that hadn’t been there earlier.
“Should we try climbing and see if that helps?” Hallie asked. The road had been relatively flat, winding through the trees, but she remembered seeing a lot of hills in the brief look she’d gotten from the helicopter.
“It’s probably the trees,” Girard said. He frowned for a moment. “From memory, the ground around the main settlement is more open, near the coast. That should give us a better chance to get through. Or it could still be the storm. It will still be between us and Daydawn.”
Hallie nodded, trying not to worry too much and finish her snack.
The protein bar was a good counter-point to the sticky sweetness of the drink.
When she’d finished both, Hallie sat and breathed, feeling some life returning to her body.
Enough that she was able to notice the smells and sounds around them.
There were some winter berries growing not far away, the tart and sweet scent carrying clearly through the air.
One of the nearby trees had a wound in its bark, sap seeping out, adding a bitter note.
And then there were the unfamiliar scents of the damp earth, and faint smell of leaf rot from fallen leaves mixed in with the tangled undergrowth.
She could hear a few birds calling. Perhaps individuals marking their territories or keeping touch with their fellows.
There was a sigh of wind through the leaves high overhead, and the faint rustling of creatures in the undergrowth.
All things that she wasn’t used to, but which felt safe and normal in this environment.
If she’d had more energy, she would have wanted to get up and explore just for the sake of looking around.
As it was, she was happy to sit still and draw in whatever she could from her stationary post.
Girard made a faint, choking sound and she looked over to find his face was pink, all the way to his ears.
“Are you alright?” Hallie asked, concerned.
“I just realised what I said earlier. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest you looked bad,” he said, clearly embarrassed.
“What? You said I looked worn out. That’s fair,” Hallie said, frowning. “I don’t see why that’s a problem?”
“You’re not offended?” he asked, as if amazed by the idea.
“No. It was honest,” Hallie said.
“You really are remarkable,” Girard said, colour fading and a smile pulling his mouth.
It was Hallie’s turn to blush. She could tell he was completely sincere. And as much as she liked him, and their time together, she was still not used to compliments. “I never know what to say when you say things like that,” she confessed.
“You don’t need to say anything,” Girard said, still smiling. “I like paying you compliments.”
And Hallie really didn’t know what to say to that.
She ducked her head down, heat still in her face, but there were no answers on the ground between her feet.
Like her environment, this relationship was new to her and she was still working out how to navigate all of it.
She drew in a deep breath, feeling her body growing stiff and cold, and caught a trace of something in the air.
“What is it?” Girard asked, in quite a different voice, as her head came up and she started looking around.
“I’m not sure. I caught a scent. Something … dark.” Her nose wrinkled. “It’s too faint for me to get much more than that.”
Girard was on his feet, shrugging his pack back into place.
Hallie copied him, trying not to grunt with effort.
She saw Girard watching her closely and tried to look awake and alert, not wanting him to worry about her.
She felt better than she had when they’d stopped walking, but was still tired.
The pack settled back into place and she fastened the straps as she followed Girard back to the road.
“The road’s easiest to walk on, so we’ll stick to it for just now.
Let me know if you sense anything else,” Girard said.
She noticed that he had a hand on the holster of his gun and had deliberately placed himself in front of her as they started walking along the road again.
She thought about objecting to that, but he was wearing body armour and knew how to use the gun.
If they ran into trouble, he was better prepared for it than she was.
“I will,” she promised.