Revelations

Erik opened his eyes. He was startled by the warmth curling into the cold cave. It was a blessing after the biting cold of night. The sun had risen again, though it had seemed unlikely that it would. The nights dragged out for what seemed like years, while the days felt hours shorter. There weren’t enough hours of sunlight.

He felt Khandi resting beside him. She was still peacefully asleep and he saw the dark shadows beneath her eyes, bruising her chocolate skin with a hint of coffee. He carefully extricated himself and stood up, taking the time to stretch out his cramped muscles. His pack lay a few feet away, where he must have dropped it when they had entered the cave, not long before dawn. He bent down to retrieve it, noticing how old and full of holes it was.

The sunlight reaching into the cave through the narrow entrance was warm when he stepped into it. He yawned lazily and stretched his arms as though reaching for fragments of sunlight to keep for himself. Erik looked around the cave. The chamber he was standing in was the size, perhaps, of the bedroom he’d shared with his brother as a child. There was a tunnel stretching further into the cave, further beneath the huge rocky hill that could almost be a mountain. He wasn’t sure about venturing too far in. It was possible that an animal lived there, maybe even a group of vampires. Not all of them had accepted the new law that had been laid out for vampires by those with the most power – The Ancients.

Erik scoffed at that thought. He wasn’t sure that Ancients existed. He believed in what he saw. And he had never seen an Ancient. But he had heard the tales, and they always made him shudder in fear of that moment of truth – if he ever came face-to-face with one.

He sat down beside Khandi and pulled a can from his worn backpack. The label had faded somewhat, though the words ‘corn kernels’ were clearly emblazoned on the front, with a faint picture of corn. It was a small can, but Erik dug into it eagerly with a spoon. The kernels burst with flavour and it was the best thing that he had eaten for days. Most of the week he’d eaten a hard, flat bread Khandi had made for them. It was getting harder to find food in the smaller towns, and they were moving closer toward the city. There would be plenty of tinned food, but it would be a giant risk to go in there.

Just as he was finishing his breakfast Khandi began to stir beside him. Her large eyes opened and, for a moment, she looked a little confused as to where she was. Then the past days’ events came back to her and she sat up, yawning softly.

“How long was I asleep?” she murmured.

“About four hours,” Erik said. “We should probably move on soon, cover as much distance as we can while it’s light out.”

“Where are we?”

He shrugged. “I’m not really sure.” He pulled out a weathered map from his bag and spread it out on the dirt floor. A series of scribbling by pen and pencil marked the paper and the creases where the map had been folded many times over looked thin as tissue, ready to tear. “It’s not like I was following where we were going when we were being hunted down last night.”

Khandi sighed at his last comment, ringed in sarcasm. “I know.” She reached into her bag and procured a similar can to the one he’d just polished off. “Just let me eat and we’ll be on our way.”

Erik tried to trace their steps from the location he last remembered being in. But it was difficult. He had been so afraid that he hadn’t exactly stopped to check out landmarks when they were running for their lives.

“Do you think they will come back to this area tonight?” Khandi’s voice was a whisper. She had learned to be quiet. Now it was a habit.

Erik sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know. Probably. We should always assume the worst.”

The two companions swiftly readied themselves and emerged from the shadows of the cave and into the woods once more, where sunlight filtered in through the canopy of trees overhead. They walked in silence, pausing only for Erik to refer to their map. They had been in the woods for days, trying to evade the vampire trackers that followed them. They needed to make as much distance between themselves and the vampires while the sun was up.

The forest was alive with sounds of its dwellers, the small creatures and the big ones. Their lives had remained relatively untouched following the Vampire’s uprising. They were free from danger, for the time being at least. Erik was amazed at how full of life the forest was, when the cities were vacant, empty shells. It was suicide to enter the cities now, and Erik knew that they drew closer to Sydney without a conscious awareness that they were doing so.

The couple hadn’t come across any other humans for two months, and they had been searching futilely for a safe zone, where the Australian Army and others were guarding civilian towns. Most of them were in isolated areas, like the desert or the countryside, where the vampires were scarce. Erik and Khandi had never come across one of these safe zones, for they were difficult to find. They had merely heard of them from other survivors. Perhaps they were a myth, or they had been overrun. However Erik wasn’t ready to accept either option. Not until he had proof. Things had been going down hill for so long, and it was becoming more difficult to believe in things that might just be nothing more than rumours.

“How much more of the forest do we have to go through?” Khandi wanted to know.

“I can’t be sure. We might be travelling in the open as early as tomorrow. If we reach the forest’s edge tonight and find a safe place to rest...”

“It feels like all we do is walk, run, hide... is there ever anything else?”

Erik found her hand and gripped it tight. “We have each other. As far as I can tell, that’s all we need. I would never have come this far without you.”

“Sometimes I think we’re the only humans left,” she whispered.

“I guess we’re stuck with each other, huh?”

Khandi squeezed his hand. There was a lapse in conversation as they ducked beneath some overhanging branches. A rabbit darted just before them and startled the couple for a moment. Sometimes it was easy to believe that they were the only living creatures around, so the sight of animal life usually surprised them.

”I don’t know what I’d do without you, Erik,” she finally said, in a voice that was both querulous and on the verge of tears. “I think... that if you weren’t here, then I wouldn’t be either.”

Erik stopped after she spoke. He turned to her and his eyes were fierce with emotion. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gently but firmly. “You are so much stronger than you know. This has been fifty-fifty all the way, Khandi.”

“I don’t... disappoint you sometimes?”

“I love you. You’re an amazing person, and you have never disappointed me.”

His eyes turned soft. His hands glided to her dark hair and he pulled her to him. Their lips touched and ignited a spark of electricity that shot through them. Khandi’s arms went around Erik and she melted against him. In that moment, she didn’t mind that they could be the only two people left on the continent. All she cared about was being with Erik, feeling his touch. That was more than anything she could ask for.