SIX: A STRANGE PLACE(1)

I opened my eyes not even realising that I had fallen asleep. I noticed something different.

There wasn't an enveloping sensation of intense cold surrounding my body. It was warm and so dark that my sight couldn't pierce through the darkness to see anything.

Everything felt different especially because I couldn't feel any pain from my right leg anymore and it was as if I was under a huge covering.

Feeling as confused as someone that just woke up from a long nap I stretched my arms in an attempt to push away the thing that covered me.

Putting away a heavy piece of clothing I could finally see where I was.

It wasn't the snow we landed in. It was cold but not as cold as the snow.

The walls glowed in blue incandescence and the ceilings had crystals pointed at the end, threatening to pierce through anyone who stood beneath it.

The pain in my right leg was gone.

'What the...?' There were leaves wrapped around it and there was no pain.

How did that even happen? Did someone rescue us when I fell asleep? Thinking about that filled my mind with hope. Finally, the whole charade will come to an end.

Looking at the heavy piece of clothing I had pushed to the corner I felt tempted to go under it again. It was warm and comfortable, unlike the atmosphere that I was in, which was getting colder as time passed by.

I looked at where I was and it looked like a cart of some sort. It was a rectangular wooden box with two wheels which were on its sides and two large handles behind me.

It didn't feel so safe. If someone wanted to save me would they leave me here?

Then I remembered...

"Sky and Hassan"

Where were they?

That thought was interrupted when the part of the wooden cart where I leaned my back let loose and sent me crashing onto the floor.

"Shit!" I screamed as my back landed on the floor with a loud thud.

All the pain I had experienced in this strange place from the time I was back at the hospital to that very moment didn't make me immune to pain.

The leaves covering my legs didn't budge. Speaking of the leaves... These leaves didn't look normal... They were green with pink edges.

Well, it's not as if I was an expert on plants. I knew absolutely nothing about them.

The thought of standing up sent cold shivers down my spine. What if the leaves came off and whatever magic healing powers they gave would be gone leaving the horrible pain?

But I had to find out where I was. And most importantly where Hassan and Sky were.

Leaning on the nearest cart I carefully stood up while trying to rest my weight on my left leg. One can never be too careful. After an eternity of trying to stand without leaning on my right leg, I started looking around to find them.

If I was in the cart covered by that heavy piece of clothing there was a high chance that Sky and Hassan were there too; in one of the many carts.

The place I was in had twelve wooden carts which were all covered with the same piece of clothing.

As I leaned closer to the cart that I was using as a crutch I tried to push some dark thoughts down to the bottom of my mind.

'What if we were with human traffickers? Organ traffickers? Cannibals?'

The thoughts dissipated into nothingness when I lifted the heavy piece of clothing. This one was different from the one that had covered me. It wasn't as wooly as that one...

They looked alike but it felt like it was made up of nylon. Beneath it wasn't Hassan or Sky but foul-smelling rock-like things. Why did ordinary rocks smell? Or else there weren't rocks but something else?

I didn't wait around to find out because immediately the stench oozed into my nostrils I left the piece of clothing to fall back to cover the fowl smelling rocks.

The next cart was also covered in the same wooly-looking heavy piece of clothing but like the previous one, it didn't feel wooly at all. This one was rigid and heavier than the first two. I almost gave up trying to lift it.

What was beneath it wasn't foul smelling or even human, it was just crystals. The crystals were similar to the ones on the ceiling. They were laid side by side with their pointy ends facing the entrance of the cart.

'What are all these for?' I wondered as I walked to the next cart still using the carts as crutches.