Days Gone Bye: Part 2 - Exodus

Days Gone Bye: Part 2 - Exodus

Osa and Mara had been walking for a day and a half now. It was about midday and the heat was high...Osa was still walking forward, despite the hunger pangs and Mara trudged slowly behind him, her baby brother in her arms.
"Osa....Osa, please...we have to eat...we're all getting hungrier, and we're not getting any closer to where we're going..."
Osa kept walking silently. Without turning around, he spoke to Mara
"I'm sorry...I know we're hungry...I'll keep an eye out for an animal..."

Mara nodded slowly, "Alright..." Osa looked around a bit and saw a large tree. Oddly..the only one standing in this grassy plain. It was large and lush, with drooping branches and large leaves that blanked anything and everything beneath it in shade. "There," Osa motioned over to tree. "We'll sleep there tonight."
They all walked over to the tree and sat beneath the shade. Mara looked down at her feet as they sat bare in the soft grass, "Osa..we still need food, though.."

Osa sat up and looked around..for something..anything that looked edible. Osa spotted something a few feet from the tree. He couldn't see it, but there was something moving through the grass. Osa stood up and walked towards it..he picked up a large rock that was laying on the ground. Mara got up to come along, but Osa put his hand out, urging her to sit back down.
"Stay here..no matter what, just stay here, alright?"

Mara nodded and sat back down. Osa moved forward through the grass, the rock clutched tight in his hand. He moved silently and slowly, looking for what he saw moving before. He didn't see anything...he heard something move behind him. Osa turned around saw an animal resembling a large boar. It charged Osa and rammed its head into his chest, knocking him back into a roll. Osa clutched the rock tightly in his hand again and slowly gets up. The beast charges him again, slamming him in the ribs., knocking Osa onto his side. He coughs harshly as it charges him again.

Osa swung the rock downward at the animal, smashing it hard across the face. It screeched loudly and fell onto its back and rolled onto its side. It thrashed around on the ground, screeching loudly still. Osa scrambled to his feet and pinned the animal down by its throat. He swung the rock onto the animals head, repeatedly bashing it over the skull until he heard a sickening crack. As the crack sounded, the animal instantly stopped its screeches and laid there motionless.

Osa drags the dead animal back to the tree and builds a fire to cook it over. That night, Mara and her brother sleep contently, their stomachs now full. Osa is still awake by the fire, keeping watch for any other animals or any of the attackers. Osa wasn't sure if they had gotten away clean..they might have been followed. He wasn't going to risk it. The warmth and glow of the fire made Osa feel even more tired then he already was.

It was 30 minutes past the third hour of the night. Osa huddled up close to the flames, Mara and her brother laying next to him. He looked down at her face, which was bathed in the orange glow of the fire. He sighed softly as his eyes slowly began to grow heavy. Osa lowered his head and his eyes slowly closed. As his eyes closed, a faint smell drifted by Osa's nose. The smell of blood.

"You shouldn't be falling asleep on the job, little one...that's how people die." Osa's head shot up at the sound of the familiar raspy voice. In front of him, across the fire, sat the girl he had seen in the burial mound. But something was different...the smell of blood was stronger now. Osa looked back at her, a serious expression on his face. "Who are you?"
The girl looked down at the sleeping Mara, and a saddened expression appeared on her face; "There are so many things..that she will never know...the love of a mother for her child...the warm embrace of a lover.."
Her hand slowly went down, and she gently caressed Mara's cheek with her fingertips, "She loves you...you know that, don't you?"
"She...loves me?"

Some droplets of blood from the girls throat dripped onto Mara's face and trickled down her cheek the way a tear would. The flames of the fire flicked up high, and the girl was gone, as was the blood that dripped onto Mara's face. Osa sat there in the silence and decided that now was the time to move. He gathered up the strong, giant leaves from the tree and made a make-shift Papoose out of them. He picked up Mara's brother and put him inside of it and slung it onto his back. He picked up Mara in his arms and he wandered forward to their destination.

He wandered for the rest of the night until the morning of the next day. Mara slept the whole time. By noon, Osa was exhausted..he couldn't carry on anymore. He was tired and hungry. He collapsed forward onto the ground, dropping Mara, and she landed on the ground in front of him. Then...he heard footsteps. Soft ones, coming closer. In a haze, he saw a small figure..blurred..walking up to him. For a brief moment..he saw something strange...it was a white Koi. It was floating down by the feet of the blurred figure. It faded into a white mist as the figure came into focus.
A young, tan-skinned girl with dark brown hair came forward and knelt down in front of Osa.
"Are...you okay?"


End.