Chapter Fourteen

The gods do not grant my wish because I still feel the wind change temperature from hot during the day when the sun was up and cold when the sun was down and night was fast approaching.

It is the only thing that makes me keep count of the numbers of days I spend on the ground refusing to live.

Refusing to open my eyes to a world without Elsa.

The sun is beginning to set again and my body is just starting to give in to the earth when I feel vibrations on the ground.

Someone is coming.

Not long after, my thoughts are confirmed when I hear footsteps approach me but I keep still, trying to figure out what the intruder's next move will be or what they can possibly want from me.

I hear more movements some where around me, like whoever it is, is trying to set up something. But I refuse to open my eyes. Or leave the ground.

Then I feel the heat. They must of started up a fire because I am beginning to hear the sounds of the dying embers.

I pry my eyes open a little and it takes a few seconds for my sight to clear yet I don't make out anyone aside from the burning twigs laying in a hole few metres away from my feet.

"Drink this," the person says. It's a girl's voice and it sounds familiar. But I refuse to stir from the ground.

"I know you are awake Elsa."

I open my eyes instantly and turn towards the voice to see who this person was.

RUTH!

"You---" The words get stuck in my throat and I start coughing.

"Take this."

She hands me a can which I take gratefully and gulp down, the water easing the pain in my dried throat. I finish drinking and I don't even know where to start from.

How can she be alive?

"They...said...you...were...you were...dead," I croak.

I have been sleeping here on my sister's grave for almost two days, so my body is completely dehydrated.

"I know you have lots of questions and I will answer all of it. But in due time. You are weak. You need to rest, then we go somewhere. After that, you will understand everything," she says, setting herself up in front of me.

"But...Bellman...he-" Another round of cough cuts my sentence and this time Ruth brings out something from her bag and gives it to me. It is soft like some kind of bread and I start chewing into it my body finally giving in to the hunger I have been ignoring for days now.

"You should get some rest. The fire should keep you warm. We leave by sunrise tomorrow. We will talk tomorrow," she says with finality in her tone.

"How...did...you...get...to...me?" I ask, struggling to say the words loud enough for her to hear me from where she is setting her make shift bed which comprised of two very large blankets.

"Get some rest Elsa. We talk in the morning."

She throws a blanket at me and gets comfortable in her bed. I want to tell her I am Eden and not Elsa but my entire body feels too tired to venture into that topic.

The whole day I have been hibernating and shifting, in and out of consciousness my body growing weak from exhaustion and dehydration.

All day, my only wish was that these was a dream. That I would wake up and find Elsa sleeping on our little bed back in the city.

But with Ruth here, it is prove that this is no dream. It is a real.

*********************

I open my eyes and it lands on Ruth who is sitting on a rock with her backpack on the ground close to her legs. The fire she started last night is already off and the place covered with sand.

I stand on my feet for the first time in days and fold the blanket she gave me and I walk to where she is seated and hand it to her.

"For someone who controls the earth you kind of sleep a lot." She grins at me. I want to grin back at her but I just can't forget everything that has happened.

In a way, it was her fault. If she didn't get in my way the other day, none of these would have happened.

But deep down I know its not her fault. This was bound to happen. She was just in the way. I feign a smile and dust my clothes and fix the ponytail on my head.

"Come on Blondie! Lets move! We have a long journey ahead of us." She gets up and starts walking into the dead woods, balancing her bag on her back.

"What about-"

"There is so much you need to know. But not here. There is someone I need you to meet." With that she increases her steps making them longer and longer.

"Ruth! Stop!"

I call out to her suddenly getting irritated and she stops, turning to me.

"Why should I trust you? As far as I can tell, all that happened was because of you. Why should I follow you? What if its a trap?" I ask her.

"You need answers. And I am the only lead you've got Elsa!" she says, looking pained.

"You have the right to question my motives. And I am sorry if I could take it all back I would. But right now, all that is not important and if I am leading you into a trap, you could always do your tree magic thingie," she adds, giving me a serious look.

She is right about being my only lead. I still need to find out what happened to Samuel. Sleeping here and waiting for death to come won't teach Silas and Bellman a lesson. I need to do something and maybe Ruth can help me.

I just nod at her and resume walking, she also turns around and we continue our journey, rather my journey to the unknown.

"By the way, I am Eden, not Elsa," I say to her.

She steals a glance at me and quickly returns her attention to the road but I had already seen the hint of embarrassment in them.

Most people found it a bit hard to tell the difference between Elsa and I. Especially if they were not very close to us.

With all the mud and tear stains marking my skin and face, it's no surprise Ruth thought I was Elsa.

As we walk through the dead woods my mind takes me back to the time before my mother was taken from me. To the time when the forest was so bright and green. A time when birds sang lovely songs all around and up above in the trees.

We only stop a few times to drink from her can or to chew the bread thing. She seem to have an entire supply of the stuff in that pack of hers. I make a mental note to ask her about it.

The sun is just starting to set as we leave the woods and head into one of the old cities.

It must have been a lovely place full of life before the wars but now it is in ruins. There are debris of broken blocks, reinforcements shooting out of some collapsed buildings and no sign of life.

But the path we take leads to an alley and at the end of it, I see a building which is among the lucky ones to survive the disaster.

Ruth walks into the building and I follow even though I am not as confident as she is because these buildings were very unsafe, any slight change in load can bring the whole thing to the ground.

It is already dark and even if I loved the forest, sleeping on the cold ground for another day is no longer on my wish list so I am grateful we are in some kind of shelter far from the dead woods.

"How far are we from Amazon?" I ask out loud.

"About a week walk," she responds and takes a turn into a hallway and a boy throws his head into it, smiling when he sees us coming and goes back into the room probably resuming his business.

"Right on time, you see that dude? He is a bag of information. He would answer all your questions and then you can come to me for the rest." She stops in front of a door.

"Ola! It's up to you now," she calls out and I turn around wondering if there are more people in this building my head screaming how dangerous extra load on this building can be.

The same boy who smiled at us steps into the hallway and comes to us.

"Don't worry this building is still strong. I double checked and that dude use to be a builder, so we are relatively safe," she says, like she just glanced through my mind.

"I knew you were going to make it back in one piece," the boy says, as soon as he reaches us, grinning from ear to ear. He is standing a few inches taller than us with a slim body. His hair is low on his head and he has caramel coloured skin with a deep set of dimples.

"Great!!" she gives him a dry look.

"Now meet El- sorry- meet Eden and Eden this is Ola, I found him a few days ago, he is from compound three," Ruth says to him giving me an apologetic smile for the mistake.

"Hey," I say shyly.

"Oh my God! You are Eden!! I have heard so much about you!" Now that he is smiling directly at me, I notice that he is just around the same age as us.

"Actually we all thought it was Elsa with the abilities. But I have heard so much about you two," he continues, flashing me his white set of teeth.

"Yeah," I reply awkwardly.

"Okay boy! Enough drooling." She rolls her eyes at him, "you need to update her on everything before I talk to her." Then she turns to me, "If you need me or he gets too boring, this is my room." With that she goes into the room and smiles at me before closing the door.

"Come with me," he says to me and heads into what I presume to be his room.

It is a medium sized room with a single bed at the centre and two chairs by the large window at the opposite side of the door. The paintings must have been sky blue or white I can't really say because they are faded out already. The wall condition is the same with the carpet beneath my feet but all together it is still a mystery how this place stood and looked fairly intact after everything.

A lantern burning on the side table is the only source of light in here illuminating the room. Or so I think, until my eyes lands on another table at the far corner with a glass cage that span to about one cubic meter with sand in it.

What draws my attention is the wheat growing in it. The cage is illuminated by some kind of bright white light.

"What is that?" I ask.

"Artificial farming," he says.