Evelyn Earth Part 5

Just as I was about to step forward I felt a hand on my back. It grabbed a fist full of my shirt and yanked me backwards. I was disorientated as the ground swung up to meet me. We landed with a thud narrowly missing a jagged piece of concrete. As I lay there looking up at the mass of swirling darkness I knew that I should probably roll away from the man who was half under me and struggling to get up. I knew that I should probably make another run for it, but I couldn’t move. The enormity of the substance before me dwarfed everything else.

                “Are you insane” grumbled the man. His voice was right next to my ear, but all I could hear were echoes of the melody that had come from the darkness. I wanted to find out what it meant. I struggled onto my knees and tried to crawl forward, but strong hands encircled my waist and lifted me up off the ground. I was flung over a broad shoulder and for a moment the darkness was behind me, gone from my line of vision and I panicked. I needed to know what the voices meant. I began to struggle but the man tightened his hold around me and turned to walk away. As his back turned to the liquid fire my face was once again in front of it. With the last ounce of my strength I lunged forward and my fingertips grazed the roiling mass.

                All at once it felt like an electric shock and a silken caress. My eyes rolled into the back of my head as the tingling sensation ran up my arm and settled somewhere deep within my heart. It felt like a second heartbeat, an echo of my own. Buh boom buh buh buh boom. It dragged me inside myself and my eyelids slowly closed until the darkness was all around me.

                Searing. Red. Molten. She spun around and around. Licks of flame unfurled and touched the surface. It was a slow, peaceful process. Spinning. Rising. Flying. She was crouched down before a field of dark earth. As she looked closer tiny shoots of green burst forth and uncoiled to meet the rising sun. The sun. It’s rays beat down on the surface, but beneath it all her own sun raged. Molten. Hot. Alive. She was lying on the dry ground with her ear pressed to the dirt. She could hear the sound of rushing water. Water was the sustenance of all life. It filled the bodies of all living things, just like blood filled their veins. She stood before a vast tribe of people. Their grass skirts whirled around them as they jumped over fire, as they walked over coals, as they doused themselves in water and bathed in mud. She heard their voices rise up and saw the animals they slaughtered as a sacrifice to the Earth Mother. Betrayed. Forgotten. Alone. As the world spun around she was no longer in the presence of men who revered nature. Huge machines uncoiled chains that swept away the wood that had once been tiny green shoots. Men in black suits brushed past her, clutching papers that had signed away the life of a thousand sea creatures. Drowned by oil, drowned by man. Anger. Seething. Sorrow. Her heart missed a beat. Tears fell down her face, never ending was the mothers pain.

               

                A cold breeze stirred my hair. Thin black tendrils swept over my face and my hand shot up to wipe them away. I had to blink a few times before my eyes could focus. The sun was blaring down right onto my head and I could feel the beginnings of a migraine. As I sat up I took in my surroundings. I was lying in what looked like a storage unit. The big metal door was flung open allowing for the sun to penetrate half of the dank space. I frantically patted myself down and let out a sigh of relief. All my clothes were still intact and it didn’t seem like any part of my body was hurt or broken.

                I slowly got to my knees and peered out of the storage unit. My pack was nowhere in sight and I felt utterly naked without any form of defence. What surprised me most was that I knew exactly where we were. Shipping containers were stacked up all around me, they rose up into the sky like poor man’s sky scrapers. It didn’t make sense. I had been taken, but not bound, transported but to a familiar location and most of all no one was guarding me. What was going on?         

                As I tried to rise my knees buckled under me and I dropped back to the ground. White and yellow spots danced before my eyes and for an instant I felt like I was watching myself from a distance. Shaking my head I tried to get up a second time. Clutching at the metal door I stepped out into the full unimpeded glare of the Melbourne summer sun. In the distance I could hear voices, muffled by the walls of containers, but definitely there. Regaining my former stealth I slinked around a column and crouched down in its shadows. Being closer I could distinguish between male and female voices, which shocked me. Out of all the times I had sat on my rooftop perch and tracked scavengers I had never seen a woman.

                Before I could even take a look at the people behind the voices another shadow appeared next to me. Whirling around I came face to face with a tall dark haired man. He was standing casually with his feet apart appraising me with his unnaturally yellow hazel eyes.

                “You like to run about don’t you?” He stated with a smug grin on his face.

                “If I was running about I wouldn’t be standing here would I?” I countered. The silence stretched before us and in in those empty moments I realised that I was completely out of practise. I had basically forgotten how to interact with other people. He continued to look at me, but after a few more beats his gaze faltered and he shuffled his feet. This was quickly turning into an awkward situation that neither of us seemed to know how to fix.

                “I’m Evelyn” I volunteered.

                “Your bloody crazy that’s what you are”

                The sudden outburst startled me.

                “What?”

                “You heard me,” he stated “what did you think you were doing? Running towards the black hole like a lunatic! You almost got me sucked into that thing.” He looked almost accusatory.

                “So you’re the one who tackled me”

                “I wouldn’t call it a tackle” he trailed off. It was almost too easy to intimidate the guy, but then again I was coming across like a crazy person.

                “What do you mean by ‘black hole’?”  I asked. He couldn’t possibly be referring to the liquid fire. It clearly wasn’t a hole and it definitely didn’t have any sucking powers. Why did you want to walk right into it then?

                Before he could answer me the people from behind the shipping containers decided to join us. There were two women, both in their mid-thirties by the looks of them, and four men. Well three men and one boy who looked no older than sixteen. The looks on their faces didn’t seem half as welcoming or as tolerant as my new friend’s.

                “So you’re awake” grumbled the oldest man of the group.