was her thirst, which by now had become a smouldering fire in her belly, slowly creeping out towards her arms and legs. She had tried to eat some dried berries a while ago, but they had caught in her throat and she had choked, as though her mouth were full of sand.
It was fetid and still amidst the forest’s vastness, the air close and old, so humid that moisture seemed ready to bleed onto every surface. She had been licking leaves for a while now, but the scant drops were nothing compared to the torrential slicks of sweat pouring from her skin every minute. Her head was buzzing and an odd ringing had taken hold in her ears, while her muscles ached and her feet grew clumsy.
She was afraid, but what scared her more than her weakness was the fact that she wasn’t as afraid as she should have been. Some part of her was already beyond the point of computing the severity of her situation.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! she thought. Daddy always told me New Land was dangerous. I should have stayed with him. He needs me.
She had left Daddy all alone back in the cabin where they had been hiding the last few weeks. He had been sick since they had left home and come across the ocean to New Land, but now he was stuck in bed all day. Most of the time he slept, and it was all she could do to get him to wake him long enough to get some food and water into him. They had been hiding from the monsters who had attacked them and taken Grandpa.
Billy had thought they had gotten away, too. The old cabin they had found was perched on a cliff by the sea, and she hadn’t seen a single sign of another person in all the miles she had covered searching for scraps of food. But then she had come across an encampment of travellers, and found a secret copse to watch them as the days dripped by, and Daddy grew weaker. Though Daddy had warned her to stay close to the cabin, and to run if she saw anyone, she had been drawn to them. They hadn’t seemed so bad, and they had had food, lots of it.
She had been on the verge of walking into their camp the morning she had come to her copse, and saw the place had been burned to the ground. The travellers had disappeared, along with all their food. Her last chance had vanished along with them.
And then Panda Man had appeared. Before, she had been alone, and the next moment, there he had been, standing in the grass beside her. The man from Daddy’s nightmares, and one of the faces Billy had been seeing in her dreams since coming to New Land. Daddy had told her he hadn’t been real, he was just imaginary, a boogie man they made up.
But there he had been. He promised that unless she did what he said, Daddy would die.
She had been scared, but she had listened, and though she hadn’t believed he was really there—Daddy had warned her that as they got hungrier and thirstier, their eyes might start playing tricks—he had hauled her up out of the grass and set her on her feet. There had been no mistaking that he was there after that. He had been strong, too strong. He had thrown her around as though she had been a leaf.
Standing over her in his long dark coat, his beautiful yet pale young face blemished by two dark streaks under each eye, he had spoken strangely. She could hear his words echo even now. “Something is brewing on the horizon, something you’re a part of, something that will decide the fate of not only this world, but many. Maybe all. There will be time for answers later. Right now I need you to find some people.”
He hadn’t needed to say any more, not really. Because she had already known who she had to find: the other faces from her dreams. Two men, one old and one young: dark haired and blond.
When she had asked where to go, she had received a final reply from the Panda Man. “It’ll come to you. Find them, Billy. Find them.”
Then he had been gone.
She had stood there in the copse for a long time after that, confused, wondering whether her mind really had been playing tricks. Daddy would have said so, but he was