Wings of Fate: The Lost Ones

The men moved over land covered by a sizeable forest. A blanket of summer leaves was strewn across the ground and, where she thought it safe to place her feet, below were jagged pieces of rock. The ground sloped upwards and each time she lifted a foot the soft green leaves rustled across her shoes. The footfalls of the others in her group echoed around her like dozens of feet walking on plastic bags. Above that sound were the birds -- chirping, singing, cawing, and somewhere -- a woodpecker kept a steady work pace.

Shadows shifted along the forest floor where the sunlight broke through the leaves long enough to illuminate what lay below. Radiant spots of golden brown and vibrant green sparkled beneath the intermittent ray of sunshine before the light faded and whatever had been illuminated blended into the shadows once again. The constant shifting played tricks on her mind and Raven’s eyes darted around in search of the dancing apparition following them.

The men moved onward in an apparent hurry to reach their destination. It seemed like hours passed since they abandoned the plane in favor of some remote island village wise woman who probably had dreads and wore small bones through her nose. What was a wise woman and why was she the only one with a telephone? Weren’t wise women supposed to use chants and herbs, and be completely anti-technology? Why would she have a phone?

We should have stayed on the plane, Raven thought. Airplanes have GPS tracking devices and, sooner or later, someone would have come. These men could be a part of some kind of cannibalistic tribe walking home with their supper, and we’re just prattling along like sheep. At the thought of food, being food even, her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten since -- since that bag of pretzels -- yesterday?

There was no telling how long she and Austin were passed out in the bathroom. A quick glance at her watch told her it was nearly one in the afternoon. Raven automatically glanced to the sun for confirmation but couldn’t see past the Redwood trees. The botany course in college was unhelpful or, as her instructor insisted, Raven was simply a lost cause. New York wasn’t conducive to learning about plant life, though; where was the opportunity for everyday usage? But, if she was right about the trees, they had a problem.

Redwoods didn’t grow on islands.

Her stomach growled again. Raven grumbled to herself about the strange men who never turned to ask if she and Austin were all right, or to see if they were keeping up. Their pace did not slow a bit to allow for rest, and she and Austin were not offered anything to eat. Because she wanted to make sure Austin kept up with the group, Raven brought up the rear of their caravan and could easily see over his head to stare directly at the back of the man ahead of him. The man moved assuredly, as though he was familiar enough with the forest to know just where to put his feet. The uniform he wore twisted and turned with his steps, easily adjusting to his movements even when he had to sidle sideways past a fallen branch.

His hair was dark like Tom’s. In fact, all five of the men had dark hair. Distracted, Raven mused over the darkness, entertaining herself with something as mundane as choosing exactly which color was accurate. Was it chocolate brown? No. Coffee-bean brown, perhaps? No -- what then, she wondered. Raven searched for inspiration -- dirt brown, mud brown, tree bark -- yes, she thought, it was precisely the color of wet bark.

“Excuse me.” Raven called, not caring who answered her, as long as an answer was forthcoming. The man who spoke to them, she assumed was the leader of their group, was at the head of their line. “Can you tell me how much longer it will take to get to the village? I’m tired, you know, and my body hurts. I don’t know if you noticed or not,” she complained, huffing from the exertion of talking and walking uphill, “but we were just in a plane crash and that’s not too easy on the body.” Austin looked over his shoulder and smiled.

The leader responded. “It will be perhaps another ten minutes or so until we reach the place where we will make camp for the night. We are nearly there -- otherwise I would have allowed a brief rest for you.”

His words irritated her. “Well, can you at least tell us where we are?”

“You will have all your questions answered in the village. Ruth has many things to tell you. I am not experienced in these things, being from a different place far from here. I am a soldier, as are all the men who accompany us today. We came for a purpose. We were sent to the watchers post this morning and given orders to come here. We waited all morning for signs of life from the crash and longer yet for you to get out of the plane.”

His response was puzzling, leaving her with more questions than answers. Austin glanced at her again with a shrug but remained quiet and turned back towards the men. Raven did her best to ignore his reference to the time spent trying to get out of the plane. Again, if they had offered some assistance in getting out of the plane maybe it would have taken less time. She growled under her breath and focused her attention, instead, on where they were walking.

From what she could see the land looked magnificently preserved in its natural state. She wasn’t sure the trees would ever end as they were everywhere and each step she took only brought more of them into view. Even though the branches high overhead were covered in leaves, the blanket of shade offered to their group as they moved quickly through the forest did nothing for the heat.

Sweat beaded on her lip, dripped from her forehead and made an uncomfortable stream down her back, giving her long hair something on which to cling. Raven spent the next five minutes of their walk deliberating about her hair ties -- also left back home. She sighed inwardly. Well, wherever they landed happened to be a lush island. Might even be good for retirement locations.

In her opinion, the so-called clearing chosen for their camping ground was just another cluster of trees. The leader of the group halted in the midst of their processional walking, turned his beanie-covered head from side to side and nodded decisively.

“Amman, take your knife and find food for the fire.” He instructed in a low tone to one of his men who stepped, without word, to the edge of the clearing where he disappeared almost immediately. Though another quick glance at her watch told her it was only three o’clock in the afternoon -- the light was fading and she could tell the sun would be gone within an hour. “Jeswein, see to the fire.” Raven watched the retreating back of another man as he stepped into the trees as the other had done -- disappearing. “Linden and Calitin, perimeter.” The last two men nodded and left. After the men left, the leader walked around the camping area while collecting rocks and red branches of varying sizes, which he used to create a fire-pit.

“So -- those men, they are your men?” Raven asked the leader as she sat down on the ground Indian-style. Austin sighed as he sat beside her.

The man glanced at her, as though just remembering her presence, and then down again at the rocks he was placing in a giant circle in the center of camp. “They are not my men but on this particular mission they answer to me, if that is what you are referring to.”

“Hmmmm,” Raven said noncommittally. “What is your name?”

“What is your name?” he countered.

“I am Raven and the boy is Austin.”

“I don’t like being called ‘the boy’” Austin objected with a scowl, speaking for the first time since they had left the plane.

Laugh lines appeared around the man’s eyes when he smiled. Raising a brow at Austin he said, “I would not like being called ‘the boy’ either, it makes you sound like an object instead of a human.”

“What do you like to be called?” Raven asked, trying again to learn his name.

“My name is Bael.” He answered, continuing his efforts with the rocks and sticks.

“Bayul? Well, that’s an interesting name, isn’t it?”

“Hmmmm, it has an interesting meaning I suppose, but you speak it incorrectly. You would pronounce it Bael, like,” he paused, tilting his head in contemplation of his options and then continued, “a bale of hay. Bael. Not Bayul.” He murmured before walking away. Within moments the trees enveloped him into the growing darkness. She stared after him, her eyes focused on the spot where she last spotted the black uniform. Just like that, she thought, gone. There was no telling how long he would be gone or what he was doing, the man said nothing. Bael. The name was interesting -- regardless of whatever meaning he said was behind it.

The clearing Bael chose for their camp did not seem large enough for their group -- indeed with just her and Austin sitting alone the space felt crowded. Did the man plan to pitch tents or were they winging it? How was she supposed to go to the bathroom? Sure, for a man it was a simple thing, but for a woman? A cursory glimpse into the forest turned up no ideal bathrooms -- there were no bushes though the trees were wide enough to hide three or four people. But Bael sent two of his men to guard the perimeter -- which part of the perimeter included her toilet?

She tamped down on the sigh rising in her chest and looked at Austin. The boy was quiet all afternoon and she wondered what he was thinking. Her fears and paranoia could keep her busy for days if allowed to roam on its own. How would a little boy feel? She thought, again, how she was the most inappropriate person for this situation. She was terrified of getting lost and having no control over things, and no idea how to handle a kid.

“What do you make of that?” She asked, deciding to be frank with him.

“Of what?”

“What do you think of him, Bael, just taking off like that? The peculiar way he talks -- did you notice he said ‘human’ and not ‘person’? This island? The plane crash -- anything Austin, I just want to know what you’re thinking about. You’re quiet.”

“I don’t know.” He answered. “I really don’t know.”

She picked at the silken grass by her shoes and glanced at him. Deep shadows developed beneath his eyes at some point, making him look older than he was. Taking notice of him, really, for the first time she acknowledged he was a decent looking kid. Some people had truly ugly kids and she was always hard-pressed to remain complimentary when they bragged. They had lopsided eyes, blotchy faces, or the constant sheen of smeared snot around their nose and mouth.

But not Austin. He seemed clean and not overly hyper like most kids were. He had serious eyes and watched the clearing as she did. She tried to decipher the closed expression in his eyes before his long eyelashes hid them again. His mouth, which was alternately pinched, grave, pouting, or trembling, lay relaxed now as though he was suddenly unconcerned with anything at all. Austin reminded her of someone but no matter how hard she stared at him, she couldn’t place it. He’s just a cute kid, she decided, turning back to their conversation. “You don’t know what?”

“I don’t know how to answer your question, alright? I don’t know what I think -- other than that I’m tired and hungry.” He sighed wearily, hunching his shoulders. “I’m just very tired.”

“Yeah I know. I’m tired too. Maybe we can go to sleep soon and forget about all this. You think we’ll wake up in our own beds tomorrow?”

Austin squinted with an expression of consideration. “You know what Raven? I really, really don’t think that will happen. Really.” He finished, widening his eyes for emphasis.

Raven laughed and the feeling sent a shot of relief through her overwrought system. Winking at him, she turned her attention back to the blade of grass between her fingers. They grew silent as they waited in the stillness of the clearing by themselves. All the men left. Raven had a moments’ fear they had been abandoned and the whole day was some sort of joke on them -- or something much worse than a joke. If the men left them to their own devices she didn’t know what she would do. She had no idea where they were.

Pulling her purse onto her lap she dug through it again until she located her cell phone and feebly attempted to find a signal. No service bars appeared on her phone. What did that mean? Were they so far out in the boon docks of island life they didn’t even have phone service? Didn’t cell phones work off of something similar to the internet? Was there no internet either? Raven considered that line of thought for a moment before she slid her laptop out of her purse.

Glancing around the clearing she saw they were still on their own. Fine help they turned out to be, she grumbled to herself. Pushing in the little latch on the front of her laptop she heard the lever pop and the top of her laptop sprung open slowly. She pushed the top back until she had an easier view of the screen and then punched the power button. The black screen pulsed at her for a moment before the login box appeared in its center. She typed in her login and password and waited while the computer accepted her credentials.

“Welcome Raven.” Her computer’s animated voice spoke softly.

“Welcome Lilly,” she mumbled to herself as all of her saved documents appeared on the desktop. Clicking on the Internet icon on her desktop provided nothing in the way of results, the same error message as before. No signal. The only thing to do was get to a phone and call her mom. Since she had to rely on the men taking them to the village so she could find a phone, it meant staying the night in the middle of this forest on some godforsaken island. “Looks like there’s no internet service out here...wherever here is.” She remarked to Austin.

When he didn’t respond she glanced to her side where he lay curled into a fetal position in the grass, completely asleep.

She was jealous.

Raven signed off the computer and put it back in her purse. It was going to take a long time to feel comfortable enough to fall asleep tonight. As she was having the thought, Bael returned to camp carrying an armload of branches towards the campfire he erected before leaving. Beside him walked Jeswein, equally loaded down with firewood. The two men moved on silent feet to the campfire and began stacking the wood in some jenga-like manner.

The men spoke quietly to each other as they worked and Raven tried to follow their conversation but quickly realized exhaustion was making it impossible to understand them. Instead she watched the way they worked together, noting how easily they moved around each other as though they had been doing so for a long time; they seemed comfortable together. Not just co-workers, but also friends maybe, she thought.

Though they wore the same uniform and hairstyle; that is where the physical similarities ended. Bael’s expression was passive -- the few lines on his face were laugh lines curving around his mouth and eyes -- it gave the impression of being soft, kind, and open. Even though he wasn’t as informative with her as she would have liked, he appeared to be a nice guy. If one went off appearances, only, she thought. Bael seemed older than his friend but only because Jeswein’s eyes lit up when he laughed -- he seemed playful. Bael seemed tense.

It was all so odd to her.

Why didn’t they die in the plane crash? What sent the plane plunging towards the ocean? Admittedly, she hadn’t been on hundreds of planes but she had never experienced anything like that. It was horrifying -- the screaming of the engines, the terror on the passenger’s faces, her neighbor praying for deliverance. Raven couldn’t get his voice out of her head.

She and Austin should have died.

And where had the other passengers gone? No one asked, not even Austin, about the other passengers. The others hadn’t died, they hadn’t lived -- they simply disappeared. Simply. Something tells me the answer is anything but simple, she thought. All those people had been onboard when the plane was going down but after the plane crashed -- their bodies and belongings disappeared. It didn’t make any sense. And she could focus on the here and now, and the new goal of getting to this village, but the distraction would only last so long.

Something was wrong.

Raven glanced up when an orange glow shifted across the skin of her arm and saw the men accomplished a roaring fire. Almost on cue, Amman returned with arms laden with rabbits. He squatted next to Jeswein and distributed the rabbits between the three of them. When knives were pulled out she understood what they were about to do and looked away.