THE FOURTH DAY: Chapter XIV

We had cooked fish and dried fruit for lunch, and then Calix laid down to take a nap beside Madeline and Echo took her shoes and socks off to wade into the river. I sat down on a rock and took out my knife to sharpen it.

"We could stay here." Echo suggested. She glanced over at me, and then at Madeline who shrugged. "We could just take the rest of the day off... rest here until tomorrow..."

In theory, it was a good idea, but a horrible plan.

Every second we sat still that we could possibly be moving was another second that a different scenario ran through my head:

The black cloud came closer and closer, and we froze. I blinked, and they were all dead, the happy expressions from playing, laughing, and talking still on their faces. I blinked again, and I, too, was dead.

I shook my head, clearing it, and leaned back again, continuing to sharpen the knife.

Madeline rose from the ground, her eyes the colour of the poisonous cloud and her hair blowing wildly in the wind. Her hands were balled into fists, slowly rising from her side and uncurling. In her palms, seemingly seeping from the flesh, was smoke, rising up. It surrounded us, choking me. Black. Black cloud. It was all I could see.

Calix's shoulder nudged mine as he skipped past, bringing me back to the present. I retrieved the knife and stone from where it had fallen in my lap and started sharpening it once more.

Echo was gone. I looked round for her, but she was gone, as though she had simply disappeared beneath the stream. I got quickly to my feet and turned in a circle frantically.

"Madeline! Where's Echo?"

Madeline merely shrugged, seeming not to care as she closed her eyes, propping an arm behind her head. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and then a stabbing pain. There was a knife sticking out of the left side of my chest, blood soaking through my dress. I fell backward, seeing Echo's blond hair over me fading to black.

The knife in my hand had been sharpened down to a sliver. I dropped it into my lap and threw the stone hard. It ricocheted off the rock Madeline's head was resting on, jerking her awake.

"What the hell!" Madeline breathed in shock, pushing herself upright and forcing a hand through her tangled black curls. She turned toward me. "What is wrong with you?"

I got to my feet in one swift move, the knife in my lap tumbling to the ground.

"I'm losing my mind!" I shouted. "The cloud keeps attacking, Madeline's a freaky possessed person, Echo's literally stabbing me in the back-"

"No I'm not!"

Madeline and Echo spoke in complete unison.

"My mind! In my mind!"

Neither Madeline nor my friend replied, and then Madeline laughed.

"Point taken," she stated. "We'll keep going for a bit."

Having gotten my way technically due to a temper tantrum, I flushed, realising how childish I had been. But nonetheless, I turned to gather our things while Echo reached for Calix and Madeline covered the remnants of the fire in damp soil.

I was strapping the bag of provisions onto Inca when I felt a tug on my skirt. My brother bobbed up and down in my peripheral vision as I secured the rope over the bundle and tied a sailor's knot before turning to my brother.

"Yes, Cal?"

"Rain." Calix commented. He pointed up at the horizon, just over the treetops where there was a thundercloud hovering. I ruffled his hair fondly.

"Yes, Baby. It looks like there's going to be rain."

I carried the bag of camp supplies over to Artemis and started the process of tying it down: securing first one side and then the other. I glanced back at the sky for a moment, watching the storm cloud coming closer, and then Echo was at my shoulder, staring at it too.

"That's moving pretty fast." Echo murmured.

And it certainly was.

It was skimming across the sky at the speed of a galloping horse. It was unwaveringly rigid, and it was coming directly at us.

Madeline looked up quickly at Echo's words, her face turning from thoughtful to panic in less than a second as she watched the cloud for a moment, her head shaking narrowly. She turned back to face us, absolutely appalled.

"That's no cloud, Echo!"

And then I understood. We were idiots.

That cloud was spreading an epidemic, not raindrops and rainbows.

My heart thudding painfully, I grabbed Echo and pushed her after Madeline into the thick forest bushes, gambling on the fact that the thickness of the leaves might yet block out the infectiousness off the deadly cloud.

It was our best shot.

The four of us were huddled together so close I could feel every one of my companions. Echo's arm was twisted midway under my left rib and Madeline's hand gripped my right bicep as though concerned I would dive out in some heroic act of extreme stupidity.

My breathing was quick, watching the cloud come closer, and I counted the four of us one more time to console myself.

It was then that I realised my mistake.

Out by the stream, singing his alphabet in the way that left out half of the letters and playing with his teddy bear, was my brother. His eyes glittered in amusement as he waved joyously to me.

And I stared back in frozen disbelief, watching him play along with what he appeared to believe was a game of hide-and-no-peeking.

Because the truth was: my brother was completely and blissfully unaware of the scientifically engineered killer heading directly towards him.