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.She wasn t used to having to dependon anybody else for anything.She hated it.She despised feeling helpless and she was uncomfortablefeeling like she owed anyone anything.It wasn t that she minded helping anyone else.She just didn t likefeeling indebted.Like she was to the Hirachi even for breathing.The worst of it was that she didn t think there was anyway she could pay her debt certainly not anytime soon.Actually, the worst of it was that she didn t see anyway she could keep from accumulating debt in theforeseeable future.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlChapter SevenIt rained.It would ve been bad enough if it was just a sprinkling.It did in fact start out that way, just afew drops splattering on her arm and cheek to rouse Miranda enough to make her wonder if somebodywas standing over her spattering her with water drops to annoy her.She d barely opened her eyesenough to peer around for the culprit when the sky lit blindingly with a bolt of lightning.The light showwas followed almost instantly with an explosion of sound that brought everybody wide awake,screaming.And then the sky opened and rain poured down on them in heavy, bone chilling sheets.The first two nights had been pure hell.Sleeping under the stars wasn t something Miranda had everaspired to, and evidently she wasn t alone in that lack of interest in getting closer to nature.Everyone elsehated it far more vocally.It wasn t just the constant, damp breeze blowing off the water at night that chilled their sunburned skinand made them shiver no matter how tightly they huddled together.There were biting insects that feastedoff of them at night when the wind wasn t stiff enough to blow them away and the sounds of animals inthe jungle outside the compound made them feel even more vulnerable and exposed.The rain was the last straw.The screams of fright turned to outraged squeals, but although most of them jumped up, there was nowhere to run, no shelter beyond the little bit provided by the vertical wall at their backs.After surveyingthe empty compound in hopes something would suddenly appear, most of them simply flopped on theground again and wept with a mixture of hopelessness and anger.Miranda drew her arms inside her gown and, when she discovered that it actually seemed to repel thewater, pulled the neck of it over her head like a hood.There wasn t a sign of the Hirachi, she discoveredwhen lightning lit the sky again.It puzzled her as much as it alarmed her to discover there was no one inthe compound with them no stalwart warriors to beat the beasts from the jungle off of them if oneshould happen to scale the wall that protected them.Surely to god the men weren tworking ?They had to restsometime , didn t they?She hadn t seen them either of the two previous nights since they d arrived, but she d just assumed theywere all sleeping near the far wall and it was too dark to actually see them.Unable to sleep with the rain pouring down on them anyway, she sat for a long while staring at the waterwhere the men usually came and went, watched a good while after the rain stopped, but eventually shefell asleep again.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlSounds of activity woke her a few hours later.Considering she d been awake most of the night and itwas overcast for a change, she thought she might have slept a good while longer if not for the sounds ofmovement and the faint thuds as the men emptied their nets into the bins.She d been listening forindications of the Hirachi, though, she realized, even after she d finally given up watching for them.They d been forced to designate the closest corner of the beach/water as their sandbox.As little as anyof them had wanted to and as disgusting as they found it to be, they had needs that couldn t be ignoredfor very long.No one could quite get up the nerve to brave the forest to squat and there wasn t anyplace, besides the water, inside the compound that gave them even a modicum of privacy or dignity.None of them were comfortable about making use of their latrine when the Hirachi were anywherearound, though.Deciding to ignore that particular discomfort, Miranda got up a little stiffly when she saw Khan andbegan the arduous task of hobbling over to talk to him.She didn t particularly relish it, but somebody hadto and it didn t look like anybody else was going to volunteer.He noticed that she was headed his way, thankfully, and, after studying her for several moments, left theothers and strode to meet her.His expression wasn t particularly welcoming.It made it that much harderto gather the nerve to ask and she struggled for a few minutes trying to think of a way to start.Finally, with an inward shrug, she just plunged in. I was wondering if we could borrow something to cutwith?Something flickered in his eyes, suspicion, she thought. What do you want to cut?Miranda frowned.Unfortunately, she didn t have a clue of how to go about making any kind of shelterand she doubted any of the others had any better idea than she did.She just knew she they couldn tstand much more of being so completely exposed to the elements.Her head was stuffy today from havingto sit in the rain half the night and it was obviously the height of summer.They were all going to die ofpneumonia if they had no way to protect themselves by the time the weather began to cool and sheassumed it would [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]