Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the next chapter for you guys! There might be a bit of a delay before the next one because I've got some logistics problems to iron out. ^^; Enjoy and review! Much love to all the regulars.
The sun curved across the sky as they walked the entire day, stopping only to rest for lunch when they finished the rest of the sandwich bread and peanut butter that Nick had brought with them. It would be dark within a few hours, so he began to collect stray bits of wood and brush as they walked for the fire he would have to build. When they stopped to set up camp, Nick stacked the wood into a cone-shaped mound. The matchbook was still in his pocket; he pulled it out and on his second attempt was able to start the fire.
Then they walked around, collecting wood for the kindle pile to keep the bonfire blazing throughout the night. Nick wondered what kind of creature they were trying to ward off and how light would stop them. He picked up as many logs and branches as he could to keep in a stack besides the fire that had taken hold and was now burning merrily.
Lene tagged along with him, clutching a few sticks in her hand. "Look, I'm helping, too!" she exclaimed.
Nick turned and smiled at her, "You're doing great there," he told her. Once the wood was sufficiently piled up, Nick sat down and opened his backpack. "You hungry, kid?" he asked Lene.
"Yeah! Let's eat!" she bounced up and down.
"Have you ever had mushrooms before? Do you like them?"
"Is that veggies?" the five-year-old asked. "Mamma says I need to eat my veggies, but I don't like to."
"Nah, these aren't vegetables..." Nick began slowly. "They're /fungus/!" He pulled one of the mushrooms out of the bag and waved it in her face.
"Ewwwww!" she erupted in giggles. "What's fungus?"
"It's like... well, I don't really know how to explain it, kid, but that's what we're eating for dinner." Nick pulled several long, thin branches from the pile of firewood, and they speared the mushrooms on the sticks, toasting them over the fire. The late afternoon was still warm, so once the mushrooms were toasted, Nick and Lene moved away from the flames and sat on a log that was left from a tree that had fallen over. They ate the roasted mushrooms and a pack of powdered donuts that Nick had with him and drank bottles of spring water.
"No more juice?" Lene asked, disappointed.
"Sorry, Lene, we're out of juice. All that's left is water, unless you can magically make a juice box appear." She shook her head. "Yeah, I didn't think so," Nick said with a shrug.
After they were finished eating, he tossed some wood on the flames to build them up more. The sun was setting, and Nick gazed at the spare kindle, satisfied that they had a large enough stack of wood to keep the fire going all night. He sat in front of the bonfire, his back against the pile of timber, and Lene climbed into his lap. Wrapping his arms around the five-year-old, Nick looked down and noticed her clothing. "Your dress is all dirty, Lene. And it's a white dress. Do you know how hard it's going to be to wash that?"
She shook her head. "Doesn't it just get clean by itself when you put it in the washer machine?"
"Have you ever seen your parents do laundry?" Again she shook her head. "Well, it's not easy taking a stain like that out, even when you use a washing machine. I do my own laundry, and when Aaron came to live with me, he'd never done it by himself before, so I had to show him. What a pampered brat!" Nick laughed. And then he realized – Aaron was the name of the blonde guy from his dreams, the one who looked like him.
"Who's Aaron, Nick?" Lene asked. "I never heard about him before..."
"Aaron's my brother... he's younger than B.J. and Leslie... And the brunette... that's Angel! She's his twin sister," he remembered. "You know, the first time we did laundry, he forgot to separate his socks and got the whites and colors all mixed up, so he ended up with a load of pink socks."
"I like pink," Lene told him. She started talking about her pink room back at home – Nick thought it had been white with teddy bears – until it got late and she fell asleep. Nick fed their collected wood to the roaring fire and kept a vigilant eye on the darkness around them. He wasn't sure what strange creatures Arthur had been talking about, and there didn't seem to be any sign of them tonight. Eventually Nick became drowsy, and his head bowed down until his chin rested on his chest and he fell sleep.
...
A pop and a crack from the logs in the fire woke him several hours later. The flames had died down to half their original size, so Nick reached for more wood and started tossing the pieces in. Lene was curled up against his body, resting so deeply that she didn't even stir when he moved. As Nick shook off the fog of sleep, he suddenly became aware that they weren't alone. Ranged in a circle just beyond the reach of the fire's light were figures, people positioned shoulder to shoulder. They stood there watching, waiting... except that they didn't have eyes to watch with or faces that those eyes could belong to even if eyes did exist. In fact, they had nothing – no body, no substance. They were invisible, flat like cardboard displays. The only reason Nick could tell they were there was by the thin outline surrounding their bodies, distinguishing them from the rest of the empty air like giant man-shaped cookie cutters.
The strange beings were muttering in low voices, but their speech was so garbled that he couldn't make it out. Nick dropped the piece of wood that he'd been holding in his hand just as his mouth dropped open wide in shock. Were these the things Arthur had spoken of? They had to be. Nick just couldn't imagine a creature getting any stranger than this. He wondered just how these human-shaped things were going to attack. He couldn't imagine them being capable of physical harm, and yet they were so creepy that it didn't matter anyway.
But how was Nick going to fight something that nearly wasn't there? What if whatever he threw at them went right through their invisible bodies? Nick then recalled that Arthur had said to keep the fire blazing strong, so he resumed tossing pieces of wood onto the flames. The bonfire grew stronger, extending its light in a wider ring, and the strange creatures backed away, always staying just beyond the firelight's reach.
Nick didn't trust himself to sleep anymore now that he knew those things were out there. He fought his tiredness and kept the fire going strong into the late hours of the night. When the first rays of dawn finally shone over the horizon, the strange creatures backed off and faded away. Nick stared after them for a minute, just to make sure they had really gone, and then he allowed himself to get some rest. But when Nick closed his eyes, for a long time all he could see behind his eyelids were those eerie outlined people.
...
He managed only a couple hours' worth of light sleep before Lene woke him, shaking his arm. For breakfast, they had more mushrooms roasted over the fire pit with packets of string cheese.
"Mushrooms again?" Lene complained.
"Sorry, kiddo. This is all we got until we get off this hill and find a refrigerator."
By the time they were finished eating, the fire had burned down to a heap of glowing coals, and Nick covered it with rocks and dirt until the flames went out. They continued their way down the sloping fields, and the day went much the same as it had the day before with walking, wood collecting, and mushrooms. This time when night fell, Lene tried to stay awake with Nick and he had to persuade her to sleep so that she wouldn't have to see the scary cookie-cutter people.
"But, Nick, I'm not sleepy!" the five-year-old claimed. "I want to stay up late with you like a big kid."
"You've been walking all day, Lene; you need your rest for tomorrow. I don't see the bottom of this hill yet, which means we've been traveling slower than Arthur thought we would. We have to make it to that marketplace town before we run out of food," Nick told her. "And who knows, maybe there will even be other people there..."
Eventually, she quieted down and settled against him, and it was just in time because soon afterward the creepy outline figures gathered around the bonfire like they had the night before. They were a lot earlier this time, and Nick couldn't help but wonder if these things had been following them all day, waiting for night to fall. He constantly threw more kindle on the fire to keep it blazing, one eye kept on the weird creatures though they didn't move any closer. The sound of their muttering was audible over the crackle of the burning wood, and then Nick heard another voice, as well.
"What are they, Nick?" Lene sat up in amazement.
"Kid, I told you to go to sleep." He wondered if she was scared.
"I tried like you told me to, I really did, but they woke me up. Where are their faces?" she peered at them closely, standing to get a better look.
"Lene, don't go anywhere," Nick tugged her back by the dusty skirt of her white dress. "Arthur said they're dangerous."
"Oh. Well if Arthur said so..." she walked back to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and looking past his shoulder into the darkness. "They look sad," the five-year-old commented. "Prolly ‘cause they don't have any bodies."
Nick tossed some more wood on the fire and told her to go back to sleep. "Come on, kiddo. Like I said before, you need to get some rest."
"What about you, Nick? Aren't you tired," she asked, lying down in the grass beside him again.
"Don't worry about me," he told her, but yawned, revealing his fatigue. "I'll sleep eventually, okay?" Nick ran his hands soothingly over her curly hair until she finally went to bed.
...
"See, I told you that you would be tired if you didn't go to sleep early," Nick said as he carried Lene in his arms along the canyon's side. "Now I have to carry you, you big baby," he teased.
"I'm a big girl," the five-year-old murmured sleepily, her head lolling against his shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, kiddo. Just get some rest," Nick told her, "and we should finally get to that town today."
After a couple of hours of walking, the canyon trail finally began its gradual descent in a sequence of small hills. Making it to the top of the last rise, Nick saw the land finally flatten out at the bottom where the canyon opened onto a wide, rushing river. Fortunately, the gorge had narrowed, as well, so that they wouldn't have to ford a river that was several miles wide. In the distance was the town that Arthur had spoken of. At the sight of it, Nick's stomach rumbled because they'd finished the rest of the mushrooms the night before and there'd been nothing but a few crackers washed down with a drink of water this morning, and he couldn't wait to find food at their destination.
As Nick descended from the hillside, the scenery changed from the open, brown plains to a lush, green landscape. There were trees here and shade, and the walk was more pleasant. The ground was soft and sandy where the river had overrun its banks, and it gently gave way beneath his feet. Nick saw rabbits and birds again, which made him feel less worried that the scary, invisible people were down here in the valley as well. Animals had abandoned the plains out of fear of those strange beings, but if they felt safe here, then that had to be a good sign.
Across the river and further down the road, Nick could see the outer edges of a town. It stood maybe an hour or so away from his current location, and the sight of it gave Nick a renewed burst of energy and made him walk faster toward his goal. He bounced along the road, enjoying the crunching sound of sand beneath his feet. The past couple of days of walking and carrying Lene seemed to have strengthened Nick because he didn't feel too tired from carrying her, and yet when she had been a baby, his arms had grown exhausted a lot more quickly. Somehow Nick's whole body felt stronger. Maybe there was something in the air? It just felt so cool and clean out here, and he felt like he could breathe easily.
Surveying the deep rushing river as he walked, Nick was grateful for the safe crossing spot that waited for him by the town. He couldn't imagine trying to cross those turbulent rapids; he'd probably slip on a rock and fall into the water to be swept away by the current.
Lene woke from her long nap and snuggled against his neck. "I hear water," she mumbled.
"Uh-huh, you want to take a look?" Nick stopped and turned her around in his arms.
Her amber eyes flashed with excitement. "Ooh, so fast! I bet if you swimmed in it, the water's too fast, huh?"
"Yeah, way too fast," Nick agreed. "That's why we're going to cross the river later on. Arthur said there's supposed to be a spot near the town. Hey, did you want to walk now?" he asked. It would be nice to give his arms a rest.
"Sure." Nick set Lene down and made sure that she was steady on her feet before he started off again. The five-year-old giggled and ran around spiritedly, and with a yawn Nick wished that he could take a nap and be as refreshed as she was when he woke up.
"Hey, stay away from the river, okay? I don't want you falling in," he warned.
When Lene finally burned off her excess energy, she came up to him and took his hand. "I'm hungry, Nick. When are we going to eat? Besides mushrooms," Lene made a face. "Those taste like vegetables."
"Sorry, kid, you'll have to wait until we get into town. Don't worry, it's not too far. See, it's right over there," he pointed. "Can you wait until then?"
"I think so. Let's hurry!" The five-year-old tugged on his arm and began running again.
Nick laughed because he only had to take one long step for every several that her small legs did. "Careful, don't trip over your own feet," he said, "or your dress."
"But I'm hungry. Come on!" Lene urged him on.
"Allright, allright..."
