Ring Around the Bloodstream

“What do you see?”

Al shifted his body so that it faced me. Even from the edges of my sight I could feel his intense stare, his eyes moist with curiosity, salivating with a hunger to know. But I stayed focused on the sky; a black and empty expanse of nothingness. At least for me there was nothing up there as such, nothing that was of meaning.

“I see nothing,” I answered.

He sighed, and rolled over hovering on the edge of the hill. His voice was a whisper of a breeze and replied, “I see everything.”

His frame was a shadow that rolled down the hill shrieks of laughter and white smiles much more star-like than the bits of dust up above. They remained still and lifeless and insignificant against the black. I had always searched for meaning, for a connection. But I had never found anything. There was nothing that tied me to them; staring at them gave me no warmth or comfort, nor fear or sense of awe. It was like looking at emptiness.

But I turned my attention back to Al who was sat at the bottom of the hill calling for me, his hands waving above his head in excitement.

“Look Ren, look what I’ve found!” he shouted.

In the darkness which was lit only by his eyes, I could see there was something in the bushes by his feet. He was leaning over them when suddenly they moved.

“Al,” I called, my voice a clear warning. He backed away from the bushes as I slid down the slope until I was next to him. He still wore that giddy smile like a child who had just discovered a secret.

“Look Ren,” he said grabbing my wrist and pulling me back towards the bush. “It’s a human.”



I looked but could only stare, my eyes running over its body again and again yet not quite registering it, like rereading a line in a book without quite absorbing what it means.

There it lay, its body wrapped in a cloth, limbs of dark skin lying limp in the grass. It was barely breathing, its chest rising and falling in a deep and laboured motion. Its face was partially hidden in the foliage, but its hair was long, woven in an intricate pattern across the scalp to the small of the back of its head where in spread out in long woven strands.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Al whispered, his thumb pressing lightly against my wrist.

It was, in a strange way. We had only ever seen what humans were like when we were younger, fuelled by curiosity which led to us sneaking into the forgotten library. Pouring through books we had seen their strangely shaped bodies, their range of skin colours and the hair which only grew in certain places. They were as alien to us as the other animals we learned about in that printed museum. There are very few animals in existence today, enough for a one year old to memorise internally. Most of everything that was mentioned in that library does not exist anymore. And now those books lie in dust and are crumbling beneath the ruins somewhere out there.

I knew Al was waiting for an answer, his grip subconsciously tightening, his body leaning forward.

“Humans shouldn’t exist.” They were extinct.

“Then what is that?” Al replied.

My mind sought an explanation and I could feel myself tripping over thought streams as they whirred through my head. I would build up a reason for this human to be lying there, but then something would pull at the thread and it would all unravel and collapse in a heap of incoherent thought.

I scanned the surroundings but found nothing out of place. No presence in the acres around us but our own and the human.

Just then it turned its head and its eyes fluttered open.

They were big and black and rolled in their sockets unable to focus on any one thing. Its head lifted and for a second its lips parted as if it was about to speak, but then it fell back to the ground and its eyes closed.

Al’s grip on my wrist loosened.

“Al,” I warned, but he let go of me and knelt down beside it. He brushed his hand over its face and was startled by the feel of it. “There are too many unknowns. We should leave before someone finds us.”

“Look around Ren, there’s no one else here!” He tucked his hands between its body and the earth before lifting it up. With one arm cradling her he spun around as if to show me.

My senses went out again but found nothing out of the usual. “We don’t know-”

“So let’s find out.”

His eyes burned with determination, alive with a fire that jumped in excitement. I could see that he wasn’t going to let this go. He stood there not in defiance, but with one hand stretched towards me, inviting me on this new adventure. In the other arm lay the human, its back resting in the length of his arm, its head upon its shoulder and legs dangling. As if it knew how to taunt me, it moved its head slightly and pulled up its legs pressing its feet against his abdomen. Its fingers curled and clung to his jacket.

He laughed at its strangeness but his smile still glowed warm towards me. I wanted to for once not follow his wishes, to not start some adventure or journey or task. It was what he always did. He would start things…and I would end up finishing them. A part of me wanted to finish this now. I could feel the muscles in my arm itching to rise up so that I could shoot it into a trillion pieces.

The evidence would be destroyed and there would be no fear of getting dragged into some conspiracy of sorts. I would walk away and leave my brother to mourn his lost fun before he would catch up to me.

I barely heard the bang.

I realised the energy had left me and watched as it hit the human.

Only…

The human didn’t disperse into a trillion pieces. It didn’t even split into two.

The energy with its bright aqua hue was absorbed into the skin like flames being sucked into it. Then for a moment, its skin glowed the same colour before returning to its dark brown shade.

I looked at Al and expected him to drop the human before pulling me with him as we ran back home. But he didn’t. His eyes glowed in awe and he just looked from my arm which was still extended, to the human. It turned softly again in its sleep, clearly unaware of what was happening.

Just then, my senses which were still on high alert could discern laughter coming from the hills beyond. It was more than an hour’s walk from us, but it reminded me of the danger we were in.

“We need to go,” I said, finally retracting my hand. I pressed it to the side of my head and put pressure on it, but started to walk back towards The Hollow.

“Are you okay?”

I just nodded and quickened the pace to a jog. I could hear Al behind me and the sounds of laughter growing fainter. Just as we reached the outskirts of The Hollow, I change course running deeper into the forest until we reached a tree. It looked like any of the other trees surrounding it with nothing particularly special, except that it was where I hid spare supplies, in case they were ever needed. At the foot of this one there was a spare suit.

I flung it at Al who snatched it out the air with one arm and catching on, quickly pulled the suit over the human’s body. Just as he was about to put the head piece on, its eyes flung open again.

This time they weren’t so unfocused. They were still large and black, but they shifted from Al to myself. Its arms were tensed by its sides as it rose to a half sitting position. It opened its mouth to speak, the noise a strange garble of tones and sounds. It wasn’t an ugly sound, but it wasn’t the most beautiful either. It was simply unknown.

I could feel Al looking at me asking the same question as the one that raced in my mind. The human was looking down at itself most likely frightened by what it was wearing. Before I could speak our thoughts aloud, he slowly knelt back down towards it. It flinched away, but didn’t run which was a good thing. He pointed with one gloved finger at his helmet and then at the one he held in his hands before pointing at its head. The human simply watched without speaking.

Believing he had successfully communicated his intentions, he began to put the helmet over its head but then it yelled something in its foreign language before scuttling out from under him. Just as it turned to run I sent a blast of energy which exploded at its feet. It froze and stared at me, its eyes wide with fright. I could see it puzzling over whether to risk running, its eyes darting from my outstretched arm to the nearest thick tree which would offer protection.

I aimed my arm at a tree and gave it an answer. The energy licked at the bark like flames swallowing it up, the tree buckling from the hole in its side and crashing to the ground right behind it. It made a yelping noise dashing forwards to get out of the way of some of the branches.

Al stepped forward again with the helmet and this time it didn’t resist although once it was sealed on its head, I saw that its arms began to tremble.

“Let’s go,” I said heading back to the main path. I could hear Al behind me, but then there was a smack and a thud.

Turning round, I could see the human on the ground seeming to have run into a tree. Al burst out laughing.

“I don’t think it can see through these,” he exclaimed picking it up off the ground.

I could only sigh and carry on walking. That was another problem to add to the list of problems which were only going to keep rising.

This time, Al lifted the human back onto its feet leading it gently by the elbow until we cleared the trees. It flinched as it felt the damp undergrowth change to solid dirt and it turned its head from side to side as noises became louder and echoed.

We had left the cover of the forest and before us stood the flat side of the mountain, carved so that it rose straight upwards so that even from a few minutes from its base you could not see the top. The base was enclosed by a towering wall, wide enough to comfortably fit a small city. Except that there was no city at the mountain’s base; there was only open space. The Hollow was in and beneath the mountain.

We passed through the large black gates which rested open; there were no guards here. If something were to attack this place and we couldn’t defend ourselves than there was no use to us being there. Not being qualified meant that we were worthless. Only when we had passed the final test would we be of value to those in power.

The door to inside was only guarded by one of us and he simply nodded as we entered. The halls were winding and narrow and thankfully we didn’t meet anyone of importance as we headed for our flat.

Once inside Al led the human to the sofa and sat it down before removing the helmet. He stepped back and I covered my nose as vomit spilled out onto the carpet. The human, unconscious, slumped onto its side, sick still dripping from it.

“You’re cleaning that up,” I stated before making an exit to my room.

I headed straight for the bookshelf reaching into the back vault where I kept the most important books. I smiled as my hands closed around the one I was looking for and pulled it out. It was thick, its sides bound in a leather type material. On the front written in a gold script was the language of the book, a dead language which was no longer used. I opened up the first page and found the message written in the flyleaf. It was written in both the language that we used today and the language of the book. It was a message from our grandfather.

We had never met him, but we knew him through his books. The majority of them now rested in the bottom of a cavern caved in by collapsed ruin walls, but some had been saved. This one like most of the others we’d saved were useful to us because they were subscripted in our language. It was how we had been able to learn so much about the previous world.

I could feel the warmth of familiarity wash over me as I brushed my hand across the page. The message was him saying that may whoever was reading this find it useful and insightful and also that they would enjoy themselves.

I flipped a few pages in and read down the contents and scrolled through what seemed to be relevant. Unfortunately, there was not much in the book which seemed particularly relevant to the human we had. There was nothing about the hair or skin, or how it had absorbed the energy blast, however there were a few things which explained such wide eyes and vomiting. When a substantial amount of time had passed I returned to the living room carrying the book.

The human was still unconscious but lying on its side with its feet up, no longer wearing the suit. There was a bucket on the floor by its head, Al sat in the chair opposite watching it.

“Did you find something?” he asked as he saw me approach with the book.

“A few things,” I replied but remained standing behind it. Reaching across I pricked its skin with my finger and analysed the blood. The book had been right.

Al simply looked at me curious and waiting. I smiled. “She was drugged.”

“She?” he asked bewildered but then smiled as if over a baby.

“Yes, she, her blood says so. But that is why she is so disorientated and also the likely cause of her vomiting.”

Al nodded absent-mindedly, still watching her. “So where did she come from?”

“Analysing her blood isn’t going to tell us that.”

“What about her hair?”

“Book doesn’t say anything about it,” I said closing it but keeping it in my grip.

“Perhaps she can read it,” he said. He seemed to be enamoured by the girl’s hair, picking up a row and dropping it before picking it up again and feeling the length of it. His hands brushed from the tips right up and were about to trace her scalp when I grabbed his wrist.

“Let her rest,” I said. His wrist went limp and I released him. “She has a lot to answer for when she wakes up.”

“I’m going to stay and keep watch,” he smiled as he returned to his perch.

“We have to be up early tomorrow,” I said. He waved it off like it would be a simple thing to do before returning his gaze to the girl. I left the light on and retired to my bedroom. As was always the case, as soon as I lay submerged in the warm sleep fluids and closed my eyes, I was dreaming. And that night they were not pretty dreams of any sort. They were black whispers dripping blood into my thoughts like a weighted tree branch. They were dark enough to swallow me whole until first light. And when I woke, it was as if I hadn’t slept at all.