The Mercury Wars: The Clearing

Chapter 1 - Link

There's a moment when you sometimes wake up, where things feel new and the unfamiliarity causes confusion. You see the light of the room even before you open your eyes like it is the thing that has triggered you to wake. It's pushing through closed eyelids, forcing its way into your world, demanding you end your sleep.

In a hut made from a mixture of log walls and corrugated metal, deep inside an open clearing within a forest, this very thing is happening to someone. A young man, in his mid-twenties, is waking from the longest sleep of his life.

He takes time to adjust to the new surroundings as his vision finally comes to him. Amongst the lessening blur, he sees the sun's rays, breaking into the hut through the thin hessian roofing.

He lays in a hospital bed, metal framing and thin mattress, feeling the warmth against his cheeks for what feels like the first time. He can almost feel the springs of the mattress with how thin the pillow beneath his head is and the itchiness of the green blanket that is covering him from the neck down provides just as little comfort.

Placing his weight on his elbows, he tries to sit upright but stumbles on the first attempt. His body is weak and malnourished and he tries to understand why his mouth feels so dry.

Trying again, this time going slower, he manages to move into a sitting position, allowing him to take in the rest of the room around him. From the dirt-covered floor that looks like it once belonged in a patch of grass to the thick ropes that are holding the structure together.

He can smell the outdoors. The trees and the fresh aroma they bring, alongside the sounds of the wind gently brushing through them. He can hear a faint sound of a river in the distance, water babbling over small rocks as it flows. He makes out voices, slightly muffled due to the hessian blanket that is creating a swaying doorway at the entrance to the hut.

One sound, in particular, feels louder. To his right, he can hear a gentle snore so he turns his head to see who it is coming from.

Past the fridge beside his bed and the stainless steel trolley that sits next to it is another bed. This one has somebody on it as well. Laying on top of the blanket is a man who looks to be in his early twenties, sprawled out. His upper half lay diagonally on the bed as his legs bend to hang over the edge. He has an open book lying face-down on his chest, gently rising and falling as his breath goes in and out of his open mouth. His glasses still sit upon his face, the thin frames showing he passed out whilst reading.

He's wearing a white t-shirt underneath a denim jacket with a light grey fabric hood. His darker jeans sit snuggly upon his legs as his grey trainers show the dirt from the ground marked across them.

The confusion of where he is comes to him as the man doesn't recognise the sleeping youngster in the bed across from him. He glances down at his pale-skinned hands and turns them over, something catching his eye as it connects with the top of his right hand. A tube is inserted into his skin and he follows the clear plastic up to a drip that is hanging off a metal pole beside his bed.

Panic consumes him as he rips out the feed to his hand and instantly hisses at the pain. The first noise to leave his parched lips causes him to start coughing uncontrollably, ensuring that the boy across the room is woken from his rest.

The dark-haired boy across the room shoots upright on his bed and his grey eyes go wide behind his glasses as he takes in the sight before him.

"Oh my god," he whispers in shock. "You're awake."

He leaps from his bed, his book long-forgotten as he stumbles rapidly across the room to grab a cup off of the metal trolley.

He stops before the other man, placing a hand on his back as he brings the cup up to his lips to help him drink the water within. Gently rubbing his back as the water slides down the man's throat like an ice-cold beverage on a hot summer's day.