The Long March, Part 2 [Stalked through a harsh desert by an alien presence, a young woman discovers the truth about her home]
To read part 1 of The Long March, click here.
The story so far: Itzel, a young warrior woman, has left her pyramid home on a Long March. She is accompanied by Tzacol, her husband-to-be, and Chen, an older woman. Their task is to deliver a piece of machinery to a distant pyramid. Before they left, Itzel was haunted by a vision of a non-human creature tracking her on the journey.
Not all who make the Long March are expected to survive...
The Long March, Part 2
For the first day, we tracked the gliderail line and, but for the scalding light, the journey was easy. Our packs were light because we could stop at wells built along the gliderail route; only after the last work camp would we have to carry all of our provisions. We saw no one. In the afternoon, we passed a conquistador's grave. The grave was covered with enough red earth to discourage scavengers, but not so much that the gods thought the conquistador had been buried with respect. I stopped when we drew level with the grave, and looked at Chen.
She shook her head. "It is not new. There have been no reports for a year. They killed him long ago."
Still, she unhooked the rifle from her back.
That night, we slept at an empty worker's camp. Chen told me that she would take first watch. She nodded to one of the camp tents. "Take him", she said, "and remember it. You don't know what will happen on the March."
I took Tzacol into the tent and, as wife and man, we had sex for the first time. The feeling was almost as I expected, except that I had always thought the heat and presence of a man would stop me thinking of the emptiness outside; instead, that void, and the openness of the night, only seemed more expansive, and our retreat from it more futile.
"What is that machinery for?", I asked Tzacol afterwards. "You knew it from the foundry."
"You will have to ask Mother Chen", Tzacol said, "she knows it well".
Tzacol would say nothing more of the machinery, but his eyes were fearful. I thought him stupid, but I loved him.
I left him to sleep and relieved Chen from her watch. I had no fire, but the moon made the earth a mirror of shadows. A long way distant of the camp, I saw those shadows form together into the shape of the same skull I had seen stalking me on the Long March. The skull was no longer bone-coloured, but the black of chitin and smoke, and it hung there on a crouching body I could not see. The creature watched me until a creaking wind dispelled it.
There was a noise behind me and Chen appeared, with her rifle on her back.
"You look frightened, Itzel", she said, "Did you see something?"
"No, Mother Chen", I said, shaking my head.
And I swore to myself that, when the creature came for Chen, I would fight and kill it, and we would all three of us survive the Long March.
Part 3 coming soon
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