Camrin wakes up at the crack of dawn, convinced she's crazy. She wakes up to the tingly feeling of sunlight brushing her face and the warmth of being somewhere you belong. Skeptical but curious, she wants to ask Lilith how the animals here survive these sudden and frequent changes in whether, before remembering she had left them. Her essence is no longer something Camrin could sense. To add to her argument of going crazy, she feels safe. The forest doesn't seem to be full of threats and challenges, only bright light which is supposed to have been blocked by the thick trees that take root in the jungle. Camrin doesn't fully believe what's she's feeling. Maybe it's a dream. But she couldn't take the risk of moving, destroying the snow glob, and showing themselves to predators. So she stays set, from dawn to morning, feeling oddly refreshed, and extremely suspicious. On mornings like these, she usually plans out the day in her head. First class, then lunch, then social time, then homework. She plans it out every day, even when she knows she won't do it. Just the reminder that she knew what needed to be done and eventually did it, kept her mind and to do list organized.
But that isn't applicable here. She feels a pang of longing for her home. Her real home. She had been so busy trying to survive this past week she forgot she used to live. Everything here happened so suddenly and without pause. Yes, she lived a disorganized yet organized life on Earth, but this is even more unpredictable. You live one day, you die the next, you don't even know how you got here, or if it's real. She sighs, feeling the powerlessness weigh her down. Next to her, Lila stirs, stretching out across the snow. Camrin is hit with the irony of them resting on the snow. Her: bloody, muddy, not to mention smelly, and the snow: clean and seemingly pure.
Without giving Lila tie to orient herself she asks, " Do you want to be going, Lills. Even knowing what could happen." She blinks
"Where else would we go, Cam. We're in a dark tunnel and there's only one way out: forward. And if we weren't to move, what would we do? Sit around and wait to freeze to death? Get eaten? What about that question even popped in your mind." Camrin laughs.
"My little motivator." Lila gives a lazy smile.
"Yeah, and for once, you need to procrastinate your death."
With their motivation refreshed, the girls slowly climb out of the hole. Camrin wants to clean herself from all that dirt on her body but stops when she realizes that without Lilith, they need the scent reducer more than ever. They barely get out of the hole before it collapses in on itself, the sun finally melting away its earlier strength. But for the girls, the sun brightens their paths and after a little more of the fruit Cam brought with her, they set out with high hopes of finding human existence.
The sun warms the girls, but Camrin still finds something sinister in it. She feels exposed in the middle of the forest she could have sworn was overcrowded with so many trees they struggled to walk steadily yesterday. But maybe it is just her imagination. Maybe, it's because they're nearing the end of the forest and the trees are thinning out. Still, Camrin feels the itchy sensation of being watched. Like the whole sky and is waiting in amusement to see what they do. How they will fail now. The hairs on the back of her neck stands and Cam quickens her pace.
"Camrin, what's wrong? There's no cold pushing us faster now."
"How about the animals. We could get attacked by animals." And yet animals are not what has her heart racing. Maybe they're the least threatening thing it this forest. Maybe whatever humans or beings lived on this planet are worse. Whatever they are, the land is telling her to prepare for their meeting. And it's coming at the fast.
Absentmindedly Camrin says, "We're going to be out of this forest today." Lila looks at her.
"Really? How do you know? Are you that much of an expert on nature? "After internalizing that simple statement as the future, Lila smiles.
"That a good thing. We'll finally reach civilization and figure out what's going on here. Why are you saying it with such horror?"
Because Camrin is not sure the meeting will be pleasant or if they will receive help at all. Why is this happening. Why does she feel so many things all the time now. 'Impending doom' was never something she imagined was racing towards her on Earth.
The sun melting the snow into slush proves to make travel harder. And yet the only thing occupying Camrin's brain is how despite how slow they're going, why are no animals showing up? No birds, nothing.
Why does she crave hardship now?
She tries everything to alleviate the unease in her heart. They eat, they walk, they talk. She distracts herself enough that she forgets Lilith is not with them any longer until Lila, who had not paid the creature any mind finally notices her long absence. Cam flushes with shame at forgetting her creature, then flushes again, this time with anger at her feelings when Lilith is the one that left. As for Lila, she reacts to the creature's absence with little thought and suggests that the lazy, dumb creature got lost somewhere or wondered off into her natural habitat.
A few hours later, the sun has reached its highest point in the sky, and now they start to sweat. The girls glance at each other.
"It really takes a strong body to endure these conditions." Lila says panting, trying to keep pace with the rushing Camrin. The past two days, they traveled in a straight line, unless otherwise suggested by her creature. The creature, Camrin reminds herself. Now they were traveling in zigzag lines and uneven distances. Camrin would suddenly take a sharp left, and Lila would simply follow. She has had enough of being stuck here as well, and Camrin sharing her emotions made Lila more comfortable in hers. She's been afraid to say anything after her entire fiasco, but now, she unleashed the stop to her mouth.
"God Camrin, I'm so done. So done with this. I don't even care. If it was a gang that kidnapped us, ok. If some figment of my imagination dumped us into this fake believe land, then ok, I'll believe it. I'll believe anything, just as long as they return us back to the day this all went wrong."
Soon, with the harsh light, and fast pace, they needed more energy. Taking the bundle out of her jacket pocket, Cam finds the fruit smashed from the movement and spoiling from the extensive sun heat. Still, they both squat down and gratefully eat what they could. Saving the rest of the fruit with one hand, and shoving food into her mouth with the other, Cam gets up to keep moving. At that moment, she sees something truly disturbing.
Birds. Everywhere. On every branch, on every tree, flying in the air, landing on the ground. Birds colored in orange and red and yellow and black, all blending together, all staring right at them.
It would have been very beautiful, had it not been so haunting. Because right there, with fruit juice still running down their chins, and all the birds bearing witness, the girls' feet stunk into the floor. The orange and yellow and red birds are not disturbed by the loud shouts. They only watch, stare, confirm, that after all that, the girls have completely vanished.