Botanicaust

left Levi. And the knife, she realized. How could she be so careless? Smoke drifted lazily upward from the campfire, and she kicked herself for leaving it burning. Of course, if cannibals were about, they would spot the fire. She ’ d led them right to a helpless Levi.
    Creeping toward the camp, she prepared herself for the worst. Maybe they hadn ’ t killed him yet. Mo told stories of cannibals leaving their victims alive to transport them. But at this stage, Levi couldn ’ t even walk. They had no reason to let him live.
    Next to the fire, a woman sat cross-legged with her back to Tula, brown hair in small braids down her back. The tiny feet of a child hung off one side of her lap as she nursed. Levi lay where Tula had left him, either unconscious or dead.
    Certainly this woman didn ’ t travel alone? Easing forward a tiny bit more, Tula looked past a stand of amarantox. Her heart thundered in her ears, drowning out the little noises the woman sang to her child. Maybe she could rush in and overpower the woman while she was occupied with the baby.
    When she turned away from the camp, a pair of dark-skinned feet splayed across the red rock directly in front of her. The sharp tip of a spear pressed the hollow between her neck and collarbone. Her muscles seized.
    Without moving anything but her eyes, she let her sight travel up the legs and body to a man ’ s face. His skin was covered with light lines of keloid scarification. Tufts of kinky hair stood out around his head. He wore a loose loincloth made of some sort of skin. And the point of his spear was very sharp.
    “ What are you? ” Cannibal dialect, but she understood well enough.
    Dry air rasped in and out of her throat, but no words. Caught. Cannibals caught her, again. Her worst nightmares ended just like this. Remember to bluff. Don ’ t show weakness . “ I am Haldanian Protectorate? ” The words came out more of a question than a threat.
    “ You a flame runna. ” He cocked his head and looked her over.
    She swallowed. Her voice trembled. “ No. I ’ m a doctor. ”
    “ Get up. ” He pulled the spear back gesturing her to gain her feet. “ Osula! ”
    Next to the fire, the woman rose in a single fluid motion, baby still attached to her breast, and looked toward them. She backed up a step when she saw Tula, her eyes going to the sky. “ Flame runnas? ”
    “ I have a … fish. ” Tula pointed behind her, hoping to give the cannibals food to distract them. She didn ’ t know the word for fish in cannibal, only what Levi had told her in his language.
    The man tensed at her movement and glanced where she pointed. He looked at her slime and dirt crusted hands and nodded. “ Get it. ”
    Backing up a few steps, Tula sidled toward where she ’ d dropped the fish. Red dirt covered the once gray sides. She kept her eye on the cannibal as she bent to retrieve her catch.
    He twitched the spear back toward the fire, and Tula complied. At the camp, the leaves plastering Levi ’ s shoulder were gone, leaving the healing pink skin exposed.
    Tula dropped the fish and rushed to his side. The ground was littered with peeled cattail shoots. “ Levi, did they hurt you? ”
    His eyes were closed tight in pain. “ Run. ”
    That one word evoked a wash of helpless memories, and her entire body trembled so violently she fell to her knees beside him. She wouldn ’ t leave him. Her brother ’ s screams echoed through her memory. She turned her head to face the cannibals. “ Take the fish. Just leave us alone. Take whatever you want. ”
    The woman looked between Tula and Levi. Ritually scarred over her face and down her pale breasts, her expression was fierce. But she wasn ’ t immediately hostile. “ This your man? ”
    “ Yes. ” Tula whispered. “ Please don ’ t hurt us. ”
    The man snorted and handed a bundle of leaves to the woman. “ He already dying. ”
    “ He is not dying! ” Tula gritted. “ He ’ s going to be fine. ”
    “ Brin, ” the woman clipped. She nodded at Tula. “ You got the green. You from the flame runnas. How come you up here? ”
    Tula met the woman ’ s eye. “ I ran away. I saved him. ”
    The cannibal man held his spear loosely toward Tula. “ You a healer. ”
    The technicality of a medical doctor versus a psychiatric doctor would be impossible to explain to a cannibal. “ Yes. ”
    “ You got no medicine bag. ” His eyes scanned her near nakedness and Tula fought the urge to cover herself.
    “ My