Experiment X

17 | Sing Sweet Blackbird

Note: Didn't feel like going through indenting all of this, because it's a lot. Next chapter: Expect continuation of Emberly's story...

17 | Sing Sweet Black Bird

There are now thirteen of them, Sera realizes, including herself, and the dog. Couldn’t forget Streak. He counts just as any them do. Over the span of the week that had followed when she first had met Gil, the boy with the fishing pole, Streak had scouted his fair share of food for them all. Mostly rabbit and squirrel meat, but meat nonetheless. Which Manu would roast on the fire for them all to eat. Once or twice, Manu would bring in a deer to feed the group, but that had been rare.

They are all on the move now, and Sera is staring at Gil, who’s walking ahead of her, lanky and his shock of black hair bouncing with the walking. He had told her that he is fourteen, but his face still is roundish, childlike with his bright blue eyes. Strapped to his dark slung backpack is his metallic fishing pole; it jiggles with the movement of his striding. Her mind falls back to when they had first met, that moment at the creek, which seems so long ago.

Her first instinct had been to turn abruptly around and run away, but she didn’t. She had remained frozen, not in fear, but unbelief. Sera remembers he had spoken first:

“Hi…Who are you?”

It had seemed so awkward. So out of place. But, she had answered. “Um…My name is Sera. Yours?”

“It’s Gil,” he had said smiling cheerfully, “like what a fish has…But only one l.”

That’s when she had realized how dorky, yet trustworthy he had been, and is now still, all in that one sentence. She had snickered a bit, before answering, “Oh, really?”

“Yep, that’s it,” he had continued, concentrating then on the water instead. “So, Sera, are you alone? Or—”

“No, there’s five of us, well, with our dog.”

“Dog?” he had chuckled. “Okay.”

“Yeah,” she had said. “His name is Streak.”

“Streak,” Gil had muttered. “Nice name…So…”

“Are you alone?”

“Oh no; there’s lots of us…Well people I’m with, well, actually there’s three with me, my family, three more, and two other guys, who are supposedly leading us…”

“So you’re headed North too?”

“Yeah, I think,” he said. “Isn’t that where everyone’s going?”

She had inclined her head. “I think so. I mean, it’s all we know…I think that well…” Sera had been at a loss of words of what to exactly say, so she fell silent.

“Hm?” he piped, arching his brows.

“Well, I just think we should team up, that’s all…Stick together,” she says with a quieter voice.

At first, his face is expressionless, and then his eyes narrow as if turning the idea over and over in his head, pondering it. He bites his lip. “Hm, maybe…That might be a good idea. But for right now, I’m going to catch breakfast.” He smiles a quirky smile, and then Sera finds herself back in the moving crowd. Her own eyes drift, and she notices abruptly Streak had strayed, sniffing a particular patch of grass in the distance.

Curious, she looks for Manu, who is oblivious to her striding ahead alongside of Teran, who had been strangely enough ignoring her recently, giving her looks that she couldn’t help but make her feel uncomfortable. It’s because of this new guy, Gil, she thinks. He doesn’t like him…for some reason. Maybe, that’s it…Boys are so confusing, Sera thinks to herself.