Existing (under editing)

Chapter 16*

We made it to the top of the mountain by sunset making good time as we all walked silently. Alma's tears had dried in the heat but all of us poured with sweat. We managed to find a build-up of water from the summer storms at the base of the mountain and had turns to wash quickly and change or clothes, letting them to dry in the sunset hanging from our bags as we tracked up the slope of the mountain.

I watched as Alma walked, listening to the lazy sparrow as it chirped on her shoulder. From what I could hear he was informing her of what life used to be like, rumours of things such as supermarkets and cattle farming. Stuff I had only heard of from before the Dark Times.

Alma had stopped at the top of the hill in a little dip in the ground. The wind blowing her loose top as she looked out over how far we had journeyed. I joined her as she re-adjusted her shorts from the long walk. Then as we got to the top we looked out.

"So that's it?" She asked. "The place from your picture?"

"Yeah."

The city looked even more destroyed then before. A great sky scraper stood tall above the rest but the top looked like it had been blown off. Other buildings lay crumbling and broken with smoke wafting up all over the place. Greenery growing along lots of the structures. Networks, thick enough plants to be seen from this distance. Camps of people in what looked like tiny clusters in the west and east sides of the city, surrounded by the great wall that seemed to glow a slight fluorescent blue in the dimming light. The light was even darker now and I could barely see my hand in front of my face but the mighty shield glowed blue around the city. Alma started to roll out her sleeping bag.

"Do you want me to start the fire" I asked.

"No." she shook her head. Shivering in the cold. "It's too windy up here and we don't want people to see the light."

"Oh." I said, taking off my pack to unravel my own. Alma proceeded to remove it from my hands, "What are you doing?"

"With this weather it will be too cold without a fire so I thought we should sleep together tonight." she explained. Memories of the first night I had met her played in my mind, how her body had been so small next to mine. She started blushing. "F-for body heat and all, you know?"

I nodded, keeping my mind on track as the animals started settling in to their own sleeping places. Hunter and Pepper curled up together and Morin sitting on top. Alma unzipped both sleeping bags then combined them together. We managed to fit together tightly. My legs reaching a couple of feet deeper in then hers. She snuggled in and I welcomed her, breathing in her permanent scent of lavender that I had been conditioned to love.

"Your heart is beating really fast." she said, yawning.

My cheeks flushed a little, happy she couldn't see.

I looked up at the stars. Millions upon millions had become visible in the sky. It was breath taking.

"Hey Alma? Do you want to know something sad?" I asked.

"yeah." she yawned from my chest.

"When I lived in the city that shield would constantly glowing at night and meant you could never see the stars. So back when everyone one had electricity going with lights and everything, wouldn't that mean a lot of people never got to see them then either?" I rambled.

"Yeah, actually, that is really sad." she breathed. "I guess in a way the dark times did us some good. With the world kind of fighting back with the floods and natural disasters, it's like Mother Nature's message or clean-up or... I don't know I'm actually so tired I can't think straight."

I chuckled. "No it's alright I get what you're saying. Sleep now; we have a big day tomorrow."