Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

rubbed his arm gently, back and forth.
    He nodded, his mouth hanging partway open. A couple seconds later he said, “Uhhh, yeah, I can do that. Sure. Uh-huh.” His head was bobbing up and down.
    “Good,” I said, smiling and patting his cheek. “I’ll see you in about fifteen minutes or less.” I gave him one last pat on the cheek that was more like a slap, and it woke him up out of his daze.
    “Yeah … yeah … okay,” he stuttered. “I’ll get it. All of it. Them. The things.” He grabbed Rob’s arm, pulling him along. “Come on. I need your help.”
    Rob looked over his shoulder at me as he followed his friend. “Nice,” was all he said, smiling at me, nodding his head.
    I nodded once and took off, running back towards my hut and not feeling one bit guilty that I’d manipulated Fohi so easily.
    ***
    I ran right into our hut, not stopping until I got to the sleeping area. Peter and the guys were lying down.
    “Get up! We have to go now!” I said breathlessly, turning back to the kitchen area and slinging my backpack up to my shoulders. I turned back to see Peter sitting up and shaking his head a second.
    “What? Why now? What time is it? I feel like I’ve hardly slept.”
    “You have hardly slept,” said Jamal, looking at his watch. “We just laid down fifteen minutes ago.” He looked up at me and I could hear the concern in his voice. “Bryn, are you okay?”
    “No, I’m not okay. Get up, please, we’re leaving now.”
    “Why now and not in the morning?” asked Ronald, getting to his feet and moving towards his backpack. “I thought they gave us permission to stay until then.”
    “Something’s come up. I’ll explain later. I just need you to trust me and come now.”
    All three of them moved wordlessly to their backpacks and put them on. Peter clipped the leash I hadn’t seen since we went after the canners onto Buster’s collar. He looked around the kitchen and sleeping area, his eyes sweeping past the pantry and then over to my face.
    “We’re ready,” he said, looking as serious as I’ve ever seen him look.
    “Sorry this is so sudden,” I said, truly regretting how this was going down.
    “Don’t apologize.” He looked first at the twins and then at me. “I know you wouldn’t do this if it weren’t absolutely necessary. You can explain later.”
    I nodded at all three of them and turned, leading the way out of our hut, humbled by their faith in me. I was silently hoping Winky would come and find us at the launch site, since she hadn’t shown up at the hut yet.
    I tried to be as quiet as possible, avoiding branches and taking bare paths where I could, but my top priority was getting the heck out of there as soon as possible, so there was no way to avoid announcing our travel through the swamp. I just had to hope that no one would pay too much attention to it and alert the chiefs.
    We arrived at the launch site unopposed. One empty canoe was already there, tied to a tree with Winky standing beside it, waving us over frantically. I sighed in relief seeing her there.
    “Come on,” she whispered loudly. “Fohi and Rob are already ahead of us. We’ve gotta go. They made a hell of a racket.”
    I waved the guys to go in front of me. Ronald and Jamal both got in very carefully, panicking as the boat rocked from side to side. They held the edges of the canoe with white-knuckled grips, obviously worried they were going to be flipped out and drowned. Winky got in last after having untied the rope that held the canoe to the tree. She picked up a pole that was nearby and stood at the back of the boat, using it to push us through the water. I saw her muscles straining as she battled the light current that was making our heavy load difficult to control.
    I breathed a sigh of relief as we started coasting away at greater speed, Winky finding her rhythm. I felt a little guilty about not helping, but it was probably for the best; I’d likely have gotten us all turned around and headed in the wrong direction.
    The trees and roots slid by, the sounds of animals moving away from us making rustling sounds on the banks. It was difficult to see anything in the meager moon and starlight, but it would have been impossible to miss the vision that greeted us as we turned a bend in the river.
    ***
    Trip stood with one hand on a large spear and the other hanging at his side. His right cheek sported the long strip of black warpaint that I had come to associate with attacking canners and