EMERGING (2)

"Is it over Flint?" A bent-over Ulanni inquired softly in a pained voice as sweat rolled down her face to drop on her gown.

"Am not sure…Let's wait a bit more before I go up and check." Flint responded as she used her hands to support her tired-looking face.

"With everything that has happened, it would have been better if we had just remained back at the compound." Sarah hissed.

Flint gave her a side eye but didn't respond. She didn't think it would have been any better if they had continued to live in the compound.

Her eyes then looked around searchingly for the white-haired boy who had been severely injured before the last bump.

She finally spotted him. He was just some feet away from where he had previously been.

The white-haired boy was laying with his back to the ground, and Flint could see the slow rise and fall of his chest.

"I would be back." Saying this, Flint moved to crawl on all fours to where the boy lay.

She passed some children who were hurdled together with the tint of red blood painting their clothes and exposed skin.

Their hair was jagged and their face filled with pain. Flint ignored their stares until she got to the boy's side.

She couldn't get too close to the boy as the red-clotted blood had made a pool around him.

Now that she got a closer look at the boy, she saw just how heart-wrenching his injury was.

The injury on his head was almost the size of a small child's fist, with clotted blood at its opening mattered with his white mane which was now dyed red.

From where Flint knelt near the boy, she could spot the rims of a broken bone, which was most likely the skull, and inside it were folds of pinkish-gray organs. 

She had to look away as she felt uneasy staring at an opened wound like that. 

She turned to gaze at his face. His eyes were wide open and just staring in front of him. One would think him dead if not for his slow palpitating heart.

The boy as thou sensing someone staring at him, slowly rolled his eyeballs in her direction.

Flint wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a smile tug at his lips. And ever so slowly the boy's eyelids dropped followed by the uncurling of his fists.

The rise and fall of his chest also came to a halt. Flint knew what had happened. The boy was dead, but she didn't move and only kept staring at his features.

She didn't know why but the death of this boy hurt her. She tried recalling the times she had seen him around the compound.

He must have been the type to easily get unnoticed by people as no matter how Flint thought, she still couldn't pull out a memory of the boy.

Flint stretched her hand forward and closed his eyelids fully.

"May Akalikis grant you a safe journey to the beyond White" She gave a silent prayer for the boy before she turned her back on him and made her way back to her seat.

She plopped down beside Sarah and looked straight ahead. Sarah gave her a knowing look as she also looked down at her fingers.

"Is he…Dead?" Ulanni asked, her voice breaking.

Her question was met with silence. And as thou, the silence was an answer to her question.

She turned away and buried her head in between her bent knees. And the sound of silent sobbing reached their ears.

Sarah moved her hand to Ulanni's back and silently stroked it, as she tried to comfort her. Somehow the death of this boy just felt different to them unlike the previous three before him.

A long time has passed now. There was no way for Flint to gauge how long. Ulanni's sob had now turned to tired sniffing sounds from her once in a while.

As far as Flint noticed, the Mobile has been moving steadily unlike before except for the occasional 'booms' from the defense system.

It seemed to her that the threat they had faced earlier was gone now.

She turned to give a glance at the two girls by her side to find Sarah already looking at her.

"I would be going up now," Flint told Sarah and didn't wait for her confirmation as she began to rise.

Standing up, she felt her joints stretch and let off popping sounds. She plopped down on one of the two chairs there and peered outside the window.

By now this motion of hers had gotten all the children's attention. Looking out the window, what came into her view was still the occasional fiery red colored trees with different spotted colors on the trees as they had seen before.

But she also noticed that the sky had become darker and the light shade of red ahead was not like the one they had seen at the beginning when they had first entered.

After she had looked around for some minutes, she finally dimmed it safe for the others to also sit back down on the chairs.

"You can sit now." Flint first gave the signal to Sarah and Flint that sat by her feet, before turning away and facing the peering eyes of the children to give them the green light.

"You all can get back on your seat!" Flint's voice boomed in the compartment for all to hear.

"Hmmm!" Sarah moaned as she was finally able to stretch her legs out as they made the same popping sound Flint's had.

Flint then looked down at Ulanni who also tried to stand up. It seems some of her muscles had been frozen in place due to how long she had her legs curled down there.

She lengthened her hand towards Ulanni to help her up. As she climbed into it, Flint pulled her up and Sarah's hand also shot out to help.

Ulanni's joints let out cracking sounds as she was brought to sit in the space between Sarah and Flint.

When she was safely settled down, she let out a sigh of relief as the soft padding of the chair came in contact with her behind.