Promise: The Scarred Girl (17 page)

“We are only traveling an hour,” Nea exclaims accusatorily.

“Unlike you, I have not eaten,” Kasia says, offended.

Arras stops and tosses Kasia his water bottle; it contains a small amount of water. “Sit down,” he asks her.

Kasia smiles triumphantly and sits down, satisfied. She drinks the bottle empty. Granted, it was no more than a sip, but it was better than nothing. Nea is angry again at Kasia’s audacity, but denies herself any further comment. Instead, she pulls the old map out of her backpack. Due to her earlier dip in a river, it can barely be read. She runs a finger over the spot where the mountains are located and then runs it further in the direction of Fortania. She has no idea where they are.

“Do either of you know where we are?”

Kasia looks apologetically at her. She doesn’t know.

But Arras replies without looking at her. “In three hours we will reach a small village. There is also a lake where we can fill our bottles again.”

“Do you know this area?” Nea asks further and desperately seeks his eye contact. It’s hard for her to talk to someone if they refuse to look at her.

“I grew up in Fortania.”

Nea had not expected this. Was he one of the Carris? Again, Nea must think of the twins and their description of the big city. They came from a suburb and are at least three years younger than Arras. It is unlikely he knows them.

“How long until we reach Fortania?”

Arras hesitates and looks at Kasia; apparently he has no problems with her eye contact. His behavior annoys Nea. He treats her like a leper. “Most likely three days,” he says appreciatively.

Without Kasia, Nea cannot buy her route to Promise. For better or worse, she will have to be patient.

“How is it in Fortania?” Nea asks further, to bridge the silence, but also out of curiosity.

“Beautiful,” Kasia exclaims immediately. “There are countless old buildings and narrow streets. A little river runs through the city and there are many parks. It is breathtaking.”

Nea is not surprised that she would describe Fortania as beautiful. After all, she was under the protection of Ereb and could therefore move safely throughout the city. But people who do not belong to the Carris probably live in fear. It must be hard to survive in a Carris area. She looks at Arras and cannot imagine that he might be a Carris member himself. Why did he leave the city in the first place? “How long has it been since you left Fortania, Arras?” She asks, directly to Arras. By using his name, he cannot aim his reply toward Kasia.

Nea has the feeling of seeing him freeze for a brief moment. “About three years. It is not a nice place. The Carris have only been there for three years.” So he has never been one of them, something else Nea wondered. Arras hesitates for a moment before he adds, “Just like Promise.”

Immediately he has Nea’s undivided attention. “You’ve been there?”

Arras pulls his backpack on his shoulders. “Let’s move on.”

He walks off, without waiting for Kasia and Nea. But he cannot easily ignore Nea. She runs after him and gets in his way. “What do you know about Promise?”

“It’s nothing special. It’s as dangerous as any other city.”

“What about the electricity?”

“What about it?” Arras replies and pushes past her. Although he is being evasive, Nea has no doubts that Arras would be able to enter Promise. He’s big and strong. He could go anywhere.

Without paying attention to Kasia, she follows him. Arras suddenly runs much faster than he has over the last two days. It seems as if Nea’s questions have him on the run. “Is there running water?”

“There is even hot water,” Arras growls angrily. His voice sounds threatening, but that does not stop Nea from asking further.

“What about food? Are the people who distribute it fair? Is there a government?”

“Can we please change the subject?” He growls, annoyed. His hands are clenched into fists and that should be the sign to Nea to keep her mouth shut. But she is too fascinated to curb her curiosity.

“Do you think I would be able to get in? Would they accept me?”

Arras’ fist thunders into a tree to his right. Nea, to his left, is so terrified that she cries out. She stares at Arras with wide eyes full of fear. He returns her gaze and looks into her eyes with wrath blazing in his irises. “Leave me alone,” he hisses, emphasizing each syllable. “Got it?” He continues on. Nea nods quickly.

Arras storms past her and Nea now dares to exhale. She has not noticed she had been holding her breath. Kasia comes to her. “What was that about?”

Nea shakes her head, “I don’t want to know.”

After another hour, Kasia starts panting again. “I cannot go on,” she exclaims, breathing heavily. Nea suppresses any comment and rolls her eyes before she turns to Kasia. “Then rest for five minutes.”

Kasia immediately sinks to the ground. Her chest rises and falls as if she had run a marathon herself. He face is wet with sweat and is flushed.

Arras walks over to them. It’s a miracle he knew they had stopped walking.

“I fear five minutes will not help her,” he says resignedly.

“What do you mean?” Nea asks.

“What month are you?” Arras asks Kasia, ignoring Nea’s question completely.

“The ninth?” Kasia replies hesitantly and unconsciously lays her hand on her round belly.

Arras shakes his head. “We cannot go on.”

“Of course we can! She just needs a brief pause,” Nea protests immediately, but she already suspects what Arras is getting at.

“No,” he says seriously and permanently. “It’s all this rushing through the forest... she will have the baby here. We need a safe haven until the child comes.” His words are accusatory.

For three days, suddenly at least two weeks, Nea sees herself stuck with the two of them in a small hut. A nightmare!

“Kasia, tell him that you can go on!” Nea asks the pregnant girl. Her voice is clear that she will not tolerate contradiction. However, Kasia has never been one to impress.

"For me and the child, it would be safer if we stayed somewhere. Once the child is safely in the world, we can head to Fortania. I will be back stronger and can fight better.”

Nea would have loved to have burst out laughing. Kasia fight? This is an impossibility! Before Kasia learns to fight, the moon would break into a thousand pieces, with or without a baby bump!

“Two weeks,” Nea hisses and eventually admits defeat. She would leave them behind, but she does not know the way. Let Arras take care of Kasia, he seems to care so much about her well-being.

After two more hours, they finally reach their temporary target and enter the village. The town’s welcome sign states its name is the “Old lane by the sea.” Nea quickly realizes what the name’s creator had to have been thinking. The village could hardly be described as a village. It’s more of a single road which is lined with ten houses. Each house is painted red with white shutters. However, many of the roofs have holes in them. It seems hardly anyone has been here since the outbreak of the disease.

“Which house will we take?” Kasia asks. It seems she likes it here, as opposed to Nea, she is almost happy.

“Pick one out,” Arras replies, disinterested.

Nea would check the conditions of the houses first before choosing the best one, but Kasia just picks the one in the middle. “I want this one! I like the porch swing in the front yard.

Great choice! Nea squints, scowling up at the roof. At least it has no visible holes.

“Wait here,” Arras says before he ascends the steps of the porch. He pulls his knife out before he disappears behind the front door. The door itself had broken long before. Nea does not like it, having to wait with the pregnant Kasia. Nea thinks she should just leave right now. He always treated her condescendingly.

After a short time, he comes back from the house. He seems satisfied. “All right.”

Kasia says, “How many bedrooms does the house have?”

Arras shrugs. “No idea. I only saw two.”

“Great, then we can share a room now,” Kasia whistles and turns to Nea. Nea cannot imagine it, just the nerve of suggesting such a thing. Arras is right though, there are only two bedrooms. “I will not share a room with you!” Nea snaps at Kasia.

“Why not?” Kasia asks, offended.

Before Nea can answer, Arras comes to the rescue, “Calm down! You can both have a bedroom. I’ll sleep in the living room.”

It is actually a nice touch that he would voluntarily leave the bedrooms to the girls, but even so, Nea is not satisfied. While it looks like he has done her a favor, she does not want to be deeper in his debt than she already is.

“No need. I can sleep in the living room,” she announces and stomps into the house. Surprisingly, Arras does not comment that she’s being childish and silly. He can see through her actions. She is disappointed that he does not enter into an argument with her because to argue with him would be better than to continue to endure his silence.

In the living room, Nea stops and looks around. The room is clean, but everything is under a thick layer of dust. The dust in the air is so thick that preventing a sneeze is difficult.

A few minutes later, Arras enters the room.

“Come on, let’s go looking for food!” he asks Nea.

Surprised, she looks up. “What about Kasia?”

“She can stay here. We’ll be close.”

Without waiting for her, he leaves. Nea can hardly believe her luck. At last he asks for her help, even if he did not directly ask. She hurries after him and sees him enter the next house over. She quickly runs after him and almost runs into him as he stands in the hallway of the next house. This house is silent, just like the one they just left.

They quietly walk to the kitchen and open one cabinet after the other. All are empty. This also explains the broken doors. Someone else beat them here and has already taken all the food.

It does not look better in the next few houses either. Although none of the homes have been devastated from the inside, each has been plundered to the last box. They stop at the last house on the street and Nea can see the narrow path that leads down to the lake shore. She has not washed for days and stinks of sweat. A bath would be pleasant.

“I can catch us some fish,” she suggests. She wants to impress Arras, who has already given up.

“And what about Kasia? She will have to eat something.”

Nea sighs, annoyed. “A little bit of fish should not hurt her.”

“Any excitement could harm the child,” Arras replies. “I am also not going to force her to eat.”

Nea rolls her eyes, but suddenly has an idea. “We could search for a garden. Maybe someone has grown a fruit or vegetable garden.” She is proud of herself for the good suggestion, but Arras just shrugs his shoulders and starts walking back toward the house. Nea turns her back to him and starts walking to the lake shore.

There is a small lake. More of a pond really. Nevertheless, Nea slips out of her boots. She hesitates for a moment, but then removes her jacket and her pants, so that she is dressed only in her underwear. Even if Arras were to see her, she is sure she would not interest him. Nea is convinced he does not have an interest in her personality or her appearance.

As Nea reaches the middle of the lake, the water is shoulder-deep. She takes a deep breath and dives under the water. It is so cold that her teeth chatter against each other when she comes back to the surface. She quickly tosses several fish out of the water. It’s too late to have a towel or basket to put them in.

Freezing, she makes her way to the muddy shore. The fish in the pond are not large, but they are big enough for a meal.

Nea stood on the shore and stepped into the waves with uncertain feet. She had her pants rolled up to her knees. Sweat rolled down her back. Eagerly she looked at Miro, who had just ducked his head under water. Had she not been such a damn coward, she would now be in the sea, instead of sizzling in the sun. But she did not have a bathing suit, not to mention she was in the middle of her menstrual period. In addition, she was ashamed in front of Miro. What if he did not like her? She did not have a plump bosom as some of the other girls who so willingly ensnared Miro.

“Come on, or do I have to come get you?” Miro called and splashed water in her direction.

“It’s too cold,” Nea lied. Nervously she ran her hand over her damp neck. Actually, she felt as though she were cooking.

“Do you think I’m stupid? I can see the sweat glistening on your forehead from here,” Miro said and then came running toward her.

Automatically, Nea backed up a few steps and turned around abruptly. Miro was naked and he obviously enjoyed embarrassing Nea.

“What’s wrong? Have you never seen a naked man before?” He teased, amused. He knew the answer. Nea was as blank as a white sheet.

Of course, he did not let that stop him. He marched around her. Annoyed, Nea immediately covered her eyes up with her hands.

“Miro, stop it!” She shrieked and looked through a silt in between her fingers to see where Miro had gone.

“Take your hands down, Nea.”

Nea dropped her hands from her eyes and concentrated to look Miro in the face.

“If I say I am not hot, then I am not hot, got it?”

“You’re just shy, that’s all. I don’t understand why. We’ve known each other so long; I’ve seen you naked lots of times.”

“That’s not true,” Nea defended herself immediately and crossed her arms over her breasts.

“Silly, when you tell a man that he should turn and look away, you can be sure that he will watch anyway. That is the natural rule of man, the unwritten law.”

Outraged, Nea can feel her cheeks turn red. “I am not warm,” she blurts again, unable to say anything else. She was still ashamed.

“Shall I perhaps help you?” He offered her a grin and walked up to her, to take her by the hand.

Nea panicked and wanted no more from him. “Leave me alone,” she hissed and left Miro standing alone on the beach.

Nea lay with her back to Miro. She felt his gaze on her neck and narrowed her eyes even tighter. However, she tried to breathe evenly. She did not talk to him. She did not see him. Neither today nor tomorrow. However she knew herself that she would not endure this forever. The latest she had gone so far was a week. She wanted to beat that record. She would probably give in earlier, but not at this moment.