No Rest for the Wicked (thinking about deleting idk)

#14 A Hard Knock Life

... And now we were entering the centre of all its chaos. I was trembling from our little 'incident' back at the jetty, China's leg had nearly been chopped off by the closing container door.

She wasn't looking pretty. Her face was scrunched with pain, as Arriane tried attending to her wound. Her leg... Ugh. It was twisted in such a bizarre way, I couldn't bare to watch. The back of her calf was covered with oozing blood, poring down her leg like a river.

"Leave it!" She protested.

"Just trying to help, you grumpy hag,"

"Don't even start, Arriane." Boy, this was going to be a long, desperate journey.

After a shocking night's sleep (what we guessed was night, hardly any light came through the container), I woke up and began to curiously investigate the items that accompanied us. Mostly plants and food, after all, products from the island weren't of much use to Russia.

We rocked side to side, Arriane was still asleep and snoring. I think it was because the rocking of the ship resembled her in a pram or cot when she was little. If she could remember that far, I certainly couldn't.

I wished that I could call Max, to see if he was ok. Of course he is, you twit. I was becoming obsessed. But that day on the beach, and next to the river where he found me, I treasured those memories.

"Oh my god, this damn leg!" China moaned. "Anyone got some lotion?"

"Arriane tried to fix it yesterday, and you rejected her help. So tough luck,"

"But look, it's gotten worse," She leaned over so I could see, this time it was completely black.

"Isn't that a delightful surprise."

"Shut up. I'm serious,"

"Yeah, and I am too. That black stuff is bruises, which means its healing. On the inside, anyway." Something my kindergarten teacher taught me.

"Ok, whatever. Do u wanna wake up Arriane?"

"You do it. I don't like entering her territory during her beauty sleep-"

"Her beauty sleep?"

"Hey, I warned you. Nothing more that I can say." China tapped her on the shoulder with her razor sharp fingernails.

She had unleashed an animal, which couldn't be tamed. Poor China.

"HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT ME DURING MY BEAUTY SLEEP! DO YOU THINK MY CLEAR SKIN COMES FREE, HUH? WELL YOU'RE WRONG, IT COMES AT A COST!"

"Geez, we're at war here, and you are still concerned about your skin?"

"MY SKIN IS MY LIFE! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME WITH THOSE FILTHY SLOTH NAILS OF YOURS EVER AGAIN!" Arriane immediately fell back asleep.

China turned around to retrieve some sort of explanation from me, I shrugged.

"Ah, she's unique alright." I told her.

***

It was lucky that we'd stumbled into a container filled with food, we'd left our packs at camp. What got me worried was whether Bren and Max had been just as lucky.

Every two days we noticed a pattern that occurred on the ship. Two soldiers would check that everything was strapped tight and secure, there had been numerous accidents where cargo had simply slid off the side of the ship, once I'd heard on the news when I was little that one of them contained various species of endangered animals, lost to the depths of the ocean.

We remained silent during these patterns, though it was hard to tell when they came by. There wasn't much to talk about.

I created board games out of plants, like checkers, tic tac toe and connect four. I played them with Arriane, who won them mostly, and boasted about them all the time. At one stage I got so annoyed that I split the game board in half. That was the end of that.

"Do you guys know how long it's gonna take?" I asked them.

"What, on this ship?"

"Well yeah, where else? It's been a week already, it shouldn't be much longer should it?"

"Last time I was on one of these it felt like 2 months," said China.

"Two months!"

"Um, maybe you're getting a little exaggerated there, China." Arriane smirked.

"Whoa, I'm the exaggerated one?" She ignored her.

"Victoria, it'd be something like 2-3 weeks more. Nothing to stress about,"

"Arriane, I don't think you realize just how long that really is. How are we going to keep ourselves busy in this prison of a place for 3 whole weeks!"

Something bashed on the left wall. We couldn't hear anyone on the other side.

"Guys, try to hide behind a crate or something, incase they open the door," I whispered.

We silently took a hiding spot. No way we were here already. And we'd only had a group of people check the container last night.

But then the floor shook, and we began to move.