REDEMPTION

CHAPTER 4

I woke up with a start. I rubbed at my cheeks, feeling disoriented. Instinctively, I reached for Derek but all I felt was cool, rough stone underneath my palm. I closed my eyes again and yesterday's events came back to me in a rush, as if a floodgate had opened. I was alone.

I sat up and looked around. The cave was empty and the fire was almost out, leaving the place in semi-darkness. I gingerly stood up and went outside.

The sun hadn't come up yet and the sky was tinged with orange and indigo. The air smelt fresh with dew on the grass and leaves. I saw ripples form in the pond and then Derek emerged, breaking the surface of the water. His back was to me so he didn't know I was standing there. My breath got caught in my throat and I looked away, my cheeks burning.

I retreated back into the cave and sat down with my back against the stony wall. I closed my eyes and I saw his image imprinted behind my eyelids. I sat like that for a while, trying to calm myself and soon my thoughts ran astray and my mind warped and twisted Derek's image into Azure's bloody, burned face and I was trapped and suffocating and I wouldn't have been able to make her face go away if Derek's voice hadn't extracted me from my viscous subconscious mind.

I opened my eyes and saw him standing in front of me. His hair looked almost black with water and his shirt was plastered to his body.

"Sleep well?", he asked.

"Yes", I reply.

"You should take a dip in the pond. Clean up a bit. You'll feel better".

I nodded and got up. He handed me one of his T-shirts from his bag pack as mine was very badly burnt. I took it with a small smile and murmured a thanks and headed out to the pond.

Once I was sure he wasn't looking, I took off my clothes and stepped into the pond. The water was cold but refreshing. I splashed the water over my face and cleaned my hair. My burns felt tolerable with the cool water covering them. I hadn't realized until now how sore I was all over- everything hurt. My arms were covered in bruises and my left leg started to hurt again, the medication having worn off. I knew I wasn't going to get any cleaner but I couldn't bring myself to move out of the pond. The cold started to make me shiver, but it felt purifying. Finally I waded back to the bank and washed my jeans. I didn't have a choice so I put them on even though they were soaking wet and put on Derek's T-shirt.

I returned back to the cave and found Derek crouching on the ground with the contents of his bag spread out in front of him- a few extra T-shirts and 2 pairs of jeans, bullets for the rifle, a knife, some pills for fever and pain, three filled bottles of water, a big pack of energy bars and a Smart Disk, with the Iris emblazoned on it.

The Smart Disk was a disk shaped glass and metal combined object which could be connected to the Iris bracelets every citizen of Detrix wore on their wrists. But only the Rangers and The Protector owned the Smart Disks. It helped them to keep tabs on the citizens and they used the in-built map system to scavenge the cities for the Rebels.

"Where did you get those?", I asked him, pointing towards the Smart Disk and the rifle.

I could tell he hadn't noticed my presence because he started a little at the sound of my voice.

"From one of the Rangers".

"At the crash site?", I asked.

"Uh-huh". He said without meeting my eyes. "We should get moving".

"Where are we going?"

"To Eletia".

"Eletia? How are we going to get there? Our pod crashed and we don't know where we are", I said.