waterless land still lapping at their feet. Once Sarah was certain sheâd seen a shimmer of camels â their loping domed shapes were unmistakeable â but as soon as she blinked they disappeared. Other shapes loomed too, dusty spirals whipped up to tease: Anna, calling to her, or old Whitey striding ahead, just out of reach, whistling encouragement before twisting and whirling to nothing.
Other things werenât imagined. Jon was the next to go, succumbing to a snakebite of all things, and he died much the same way as heâd lived, griping and cursing. None of them had strength to spare to dig a grave; they covered him with hot sand and marked the place with a single rock. So it was that Sarah finally got her wish, with Daniel taking the lead and the compass at last.
But the world was changed, and with it the rules; two more were lost in quick succession. Perhaps the group had become complacent, secure in the proven strength of their numbers; perhaps itâd simply been a case of wrong place, wrong time, but when Seb crested a dune ahead of them and they heard his warning shout, all of them froze while three ragged figures rose up as if from beneath the ground to pull him down, just as Sarah had once seen lions hunt a buffalo, mobbing and pressing it to the earth, subduing its struggles with tooth and claw. Similarly, Sebâs end was almost silent, any growls and howls snatched by the wind. The rest of them scattered and ran, a spooked herd; itâd happened so quickly, there was nothing they couldâve done to help and they had no ammunition to waste with panicked pot shots. But Natâs fate, a few weeks later, was worse; her screams, when the swarm of raiders cornered and tore at her, pinning and spreading her, followed the fleeing group, taunting their cowardice; Sarah later cried, remembering Anna,and hating her relief that it had been Nat whoâd been taken, and not her or Rachel.
And now they were five and two.
Go careful, Whitey had warned. Coz they werenât the only ones.
They began walking at night, when they could, when enough faint red moonlight allowed; it was more perilous, the shifting terrain masking hidden dangers â sinkholes of sand that gave way beneath tired feet, half-submerged rubble catching and tripping them â so they trudged in single file, stepping where others had and trusting to that nightâs leader to find the safest path. Better were the too-brief but more forgiving hours of dawn and dusk; once, between those hours, theyâd found shelter behind a wall of skulls someone had painstakingly stacked into a crescent shape. Sarah hadnât slept well that day, her dreams too filled with images of the wall collapsing, of suffocating beneath a pile of grinning heads, of their lipless kisses and their voiceless pleas.
She chewed slowly, painfully. Sheâd already lost one tooth, the offending brown ivory loosening from bone and gum to drop from her mouth; now it seemed she was soon to lose another. But she chewed despite the ache, and Daniel chewed too, softening sinewy flesh to a grey paste, before tearing it into tiny pieces for Jeremiah to suck and swallow. If there was any miracle to be found in their misery, it was he. Ethan sickened often â at his first taste of water, and his first bite of meat, even vomiting up a bit of old biscuit that Rachel had let soak in her milk â but Jeremiah took in everything they gave him, and then demanded more. Younger than Ethan, but already bigger, stronger, more robust, he rode in a sling on Danielâs back, bare-footed and bare-bottomed, a monkey of a boy and a child of his time, his small pot-bellied body adapting quickly to any change, his eyes trusting, his laugh infectious.It seemed to Sarah the only time she smiled any more was when Jeremiah laughed.
Annaâs miracle child, fathered by demons.
Whiteyâs big water proved bigger than perhaps even heâd imagined: a drowned
Other things werenât imagined. Jon was the next to go, succumbing to a snakebite of all things, and he died much the same way as heâd lived, griping and cursing. None of them had strength to spare to dig a grave; they covered him with hot sand and marked the place with a single rock. So it was that Sarah finally got her wish, with Daniel taking the lead and the compass at last.
But the world was changed, and with it the rules; two more were lost in quick succession. Perhaps the group had become complacent, secure in the proven strength of their numbers; perhaps itâd simply been a case of wrong place, wrong time, but when Seb crested a dune ahead of them and they heard his warning shout, all of them froze while three ragged figures rose up as if from beneath the ground to pull him down, just as Sarah had once seen lions hunt a buffalo, mobbing and pressing it to the earth, subduing its struggles with tooth and claw. Similarly, Sebâs end was almost silent, any growls and howls snatched by the wind. The rest of them scattered and ran, a spooked herd; itâd happened so quickly, there was nothing they couldâve done to help and they had no ammunition to waste with panicked pot shots. But Natâs fate, a few weeks later, was worse; her screams, when the swarm of raiders cornered and tore at her, pinning and spreading her, followed the fleeing group, taunting their cowardice; Sarah later cried, remembering Anna,and hating her relief that it had been Nat whoâd been taken, and not her or Rachel.
And now they were five and two.
Go careful, Whitey had warned. Coz they werenât the only ones.
They began walking at night, when they could, when enough faint red moonlight allowed; it was more perilous, the shifting terrain masking hidden dangers â sinkholes of sand that gave way beneath tired feet, half-submerged rubble catching and tripping them â so they trudged in single file, stepping where others had and trusting to that nightâs leader to find the safest path. Better were the too-brief but more forgiving hours of dawn and dusk; once, between those hours, theyâd found shelter behind a wall of skulls someone had painstakingly stacked into a crescent shape. Sarah hadnât slept well that day, her dreams too filled with images of the wall collapsing, of suffocating beneath a pile of grinning heads, of their lipless kisses and their voiceless pleas.
She chewed slowly, painfully. Sheâd already lost one tooth, the offending brown ivory loosening from bone and gum to drop from her mouth; now it seemed she was soon to lose another. But she chewed despite the ache, and Daniel chewed too, softening sinewy flesh to a grey paste, before tearing it into tiny pieces for Jeremiah to suck and swallow. If there was any miracle to be found in their misery, it was he. Ethan sickened often â at his first taste of water, and his first bite of meat, even vomiting up a bit of old biscuit that Rachel had let soak in her milk â but Jeremiah took in everything they gave him, and then demanded more. Younger than Ethan, but already bigger, stronger, more robust, he rode in a sling on Danielâs back, bare-footed and bare-bottomed, a monkey of a boy and a child of his time, his small pot-bellied body adapting quickly to any change, his eyes trusting, his laugh infectious.It seemed to Sarah the only time she smiled any more was when Jeremiah laughed.
Annaâs miracle child, fathered by demons.
Whiteyâs big water proved bigger than perhaps even heâd imagined: a drowned
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