I am hunger
I am hunger
I am hunger!
Those words echoed through his mind, like a torrent of broken records, twisting and changing his consciousness. he felt a very conscious urge in his heart, it burned like someone had lit a candle in his lungs and the fire only grew
He woke up panting at the top of his lungs, he looked around in a panic state as images of the stub spider flushed his mind.
The brown sun hit his eyes and he realized he wasn't in the cavern anymore. He felt the sand under his legs and toes. He smelt the putrid air, he felt overjoyed to be alive, alive in hell.
The whole night before felt like a fever dream. He checked his body for signs of injury, but there were none, and in fact, he was convinced none of it had happened.
It all felt real, and he felt his mind scarred by all he'd experienced; it couldn't be a dream then, he thought. He remembered Mr Dunn and Estiah,
They must be looking for me, I've got to find them.
He got on his feet and turned around looking for any landmark he could find that would help him get his bearings.
He found the peak of a mountain they had walked through the day before, and he thought about how far they would have gone, calculating where they could possibly b,e, and he went after that.
To his surprise, he was incredibly energized; he even felt like running, and he did, and to him, he seemed faster than he'd ever been before.
He wondered if he'd eaten something that would give him all his newfound energy. He could barely remember anything, only a few flashes of stub spider carcasses; the vivid memories almost made him gag.
By noon, he could smell them; he didn't realize it at the time, but he could smell Estiah's perfume from a great distance. When he caught up to it, it seemed odd to him that he could,
I couldn't do this before yesterday, he thought. Maybe I'm just smelling a residue, she left when she passed by here.
He had snagged her perfume while they packed to escape the bombs; it had all been quite hectic; if they had left a moment later, they would have been caught up in the blast.
But at the last moment, he snatched it and gave it to her later as a gift; she loved it and thanked him dearly but had only taken to wearing it every time she went out alone at night to talk to herself.
Her scent filled his nose, and surely enough, he followed it. By night time he felt he was getting closer and closer and he wondered if they thought he was dead
She must be so sad, Mr Dunn too, I've really got to apologize to him for losing all our stuff, damn it why did I let that happen now Estiah won't have a change of clothes, how would we begin our new life if we don't have the carriage to sell
He felt ashamed of himself, and in his heart, he felt a little reluctant to go back to them, but his love for them kept pulling him closer and closer, and by nighttime, he made it up a mountain part into the dead woods.
But suddenly something stuck out to him, a heavy smell of blood hung in the air,
"What's this? It's human! No Estiah!"
He chased after the smell, he ran through the dead woods into the mist. Black brunt dead trees were everywhere he looked, and with the thick fog that hung about, he could see far, so he followed his nose.
He looked around, losing track of it for a moment, then darts left after getting his bearings again. Then he saw a faint glow of fire in the distance; he could smell her perfume coming from that direction. He chases after it.
When he got close, he remembered the blood he had smelt and decided to move with more caution. He slowed down and tip-toed towards it, constantly hiding behind trees for cover; he felt scared about what could have happened to them.
It could be another group, or a group they called the morruders, people who made their living off hell, they would be unwilling to spare them whether they were alive or dead.
Then he smelt the perfume but it was faint, he crept closer and closer but to his chagrin, he stepped on a twig and it broke, sending a sharp snapping noise echoes through the dead trees,
"Who's there!?" a deep voice cried, it was filled with a clear sense of threat and fear but the sound of it made him happy and he said,
"Mr Dunn! It's me?"
"Is that you boy?"
He quickly ran into the light
"Oh my boy it's really you"
Estiah instantly got off her seat and ran at him, she jumped on him and embraced him. It surprised him so much that he began to cry; he'd never been this close to her before.
The embrace was warm, and he felt her heartbeat against his; it was the warmest he'd been since they came to hell, and he could see past her shoulder at Mr Dunn. He smiled at them with that old smile he always had back at the farm.
********
"Don't worry about it, come on, no need to apologize, it was bound to happen, it's not your fault"
"But I lost everything, sir"
"We're just happy you found your way back to us. So how did you do it, how did you make it this far."
He told them what he could remember, but it all seemed like a blur to him so he left out the more unclear details like the stubs spider and the monster corpse. He was sure he crawled into a cavern so he told them that.
".... But when I woke up I was in the middle of nowhere, when I looked around I spotted the red mountain in the distance and I followed that and knowing the part we planned on taking I knew you guys would be here somewhere. I just wanted to make sure I made it on time. What was strange was I could smell your perfume all the way from there Estiah"
"Really?"
"Yeah"
They shared a loving glance
"All the way from there Mr Dunn asked"
"Yeah, and I followed it here."
"I remember back in the farm you couldn't smell cow dung even if it was on your nose"
They all burst out laughing
"It wasn't that bad"
"Oh it really was, remember that time your step on poo and brought it all the way to my room and you were trying to court me while you smelled like dog poo"
Mr Dunn burst out laughing hard and so did all of them
"I don't remember that," he said, feeling embarrassed.
They laughed and laughed and joyfully reminisced about the past
"Don't worry you guys," he said. "Whether we got the carriage or not when will make it to the city, we'll have a better life, I'll work my butt off to make sure we do"
"Now don't go on counting us out," Mr Dunn said. We'll all work our butt off"
"We're gonna do it," Estiah said.
They all agreed and they all rested for the night.