Survivor (Draft 1)

Rough 1st Draft. Subject to construction, change and deletion.

I

When consciousness returned I felt bone-biting cold pierce through my clothes. Was this the Heaven preached by the ancient Christianity? Or, had I fallen from their God’s grace to hell? Perhaps it was Hades’ Underworld separated from the Earth by River Styx? For all I knew, I was lying on the ground. My limbs felt heavy. Even the simple action of pulling up my cloak, for more warmth, was a ponderous struggle. I lay still. I did not care where I was. What was the point? I felt content. Away from all the struggle and fear that befell upon our shoulders. I heard voices: commands from the Instructors that told us to lay our life down for humanity, screams from citizen men and women and the lucid orders given by the fellow soldiers impassive as ever in the face of death. Then, like hallucinations, they faded.

Slowly, I forced my eyelids open. At first my vision was a hazy landscape of white. The gradual focus of my eyes cleared the original blur and replaced it with a forest, white from heavy snow fall. Winter. Had I been comatose, for this long? My last cognitive moment had been a summer day and confusion. There were other human beings too: two fellow soldiers and five civilians. Base never sent us any warnings. Had James’s machine not picked up the unknown incoming signals, our lives, and those of the civilians, would have chance of survival and ended that day. Perhaps mine had.

How were James and Benjy? How would Base receive the news of my, or our, deaths? Painfully, I rose from the ground. Here, there was only snow and the numbing cold. Numbness was good, it dulled pain’s acridity.

My cloak kept me dry and gave me all the warmth it could. I examined myself. I was wearing the same uniform as the ‘last’ day: summer camouflage uniform with thermals underneath. My backpack too was securely fastened on my back. Technology worked wonders, such a small imperceptible thing was able to hold an inventory of clothes, medicines, weapons and miscellaneous items. I walked. One step, two step, my rigid body little by little increasing in flexibility. It was dangerous to explore unknown territory without any plans or instruction from Base, Instructor Kim’s voice echoed in my head. I muted it. A living man is not killed by his need to pee. So goes an inaccurate translation of Father’s favourite Chinese proverb. It is literally saying that a living man can find a toilet to urinate, instead of holding it in, more generically, find alternatives and do not be dogmatic in the face of problems. I ignored Instructor Kim’s advice and began exploring the area.

Walking in snow was hard business. Back home at the Institution, the first day of physical training began with endurance and soundless walking. Walking silently had become a habit the years that followed and had proven to be most useful. But walking in the snow was difficult enough, let alone creating no sound. Yet, what did it matter? The years of training had made me suspicious of every movement and noise in my surroundings. My reflexes were qualified as ‘lightning speed’. If someone had the stupidity to attack me, they would have made the utmost ill-fated move on with no detrimental effect to me.

The forest was not dense. I could clearly see the sky through the gaps between the foliage of each tree. There was a mixture of broadleaf and coniferous species present: firs, oaks, beeches, pines etc. How odd! Subarctic forests are predominantly coniferous. Though much of this landscape coincided with those of the taiga where I had spent my last days, my intuition sensed a difference too great, beyond the difference in tree species, between the two. It disturbed me. Where was I? How did I come here? Why was I here? I pinched myself. Perhaps all this was just an illusion, or hallucinations, resulted from powerful physical impact and overexposure to fatal contamination. My mind was miry. My thoughts unclear like components in an overcooked mush. I could barely keep myself from shaking. Where was the composure and imperturbability required of a Medic whatever the situation? Had my long years of hard work already failed me? I wanted to cry, to scream, to release this fear and uncertainty eating its way into my mind.

Snow fell from a tree some twenty metres away. There was movement.

I tensed. To find a suitable observation point, and more importantly, a defensive position, I surveyed my surroundings. I was in a small clearing. The trees closest to my current position were unsuitable for climbing without harness. From approximately twenty metres away, I heard the faint sound of boots crunching on snow. Carefully, I shuffled towards the denser vegetation. My cloak was dark. It was a passable camouflage, had I been more desperate, I would have removed it and completely blended into the trees with my uniform. Yet that would be the worst choice: the preservation of body-heat was first priority. Pneumonia was the equivalent of death in the wild. I slipped behind a great oak and leaned on its trunk. The footsteps neared. The distinct sounds of twigs, leaves and snow crushed together made me stiffen. I glanced behind me. Clear footprints, my footprints, were indented in the snow leading directly to me. There was nothing more conspicuous than this to give away my ‘hiding’.

The footsteps belonged to more than just one person. They were a small group. Some steps were lighter, belonging to owners with smaller stature. No one was talking, save the raspy breathing. For a group, they made considerably little sound. Then, there was a halt. Had they seen my footsteps?

‘Someone’s here.’

The voice was muffled. I was unable to identify its gender. The tension emitted by the group was palpable. I too, became rigid. Again, intuition told me that they were not soldiers from our forces, nor were they civilians.

An arrow was fired. It struck the opposite side to the trunk where I hid. The impetus of the shot was great. Despite an arrow being such a primitive weapon, it possessed lethality if in a master’s hands. What other weapons did these people own?

‘Come out.’ It was another voice. It was lucid and most likely had a female owner.

‘Do not fear. We do not intend to harm.’

I chuckled to myself, soundlessly. Although I was cautious, I could not imagine how they could do me any harm? I was not invincible, but, training in multiple fields had made me competent for survival.

I walked out from behind the tree.