Cristelle Comby - Alone Together

Finally, I knew Sweden and Finland joined in the North, leaving no room for a body of salt water to sit. But in the west… I did some more rough calculations in my head. The Norwegian coast wasn’t that far away in the west, was it? After putting all that I knew with all I’d observed, I realised this open-horizon could only mean one of two things. We were looking at either the Norwegian Sea or the Gulf of Bothnia. While I had no way of knowing which it was, we were totally off-course either way.

Since there was nothing more for us at the cove, we headed back to the tail. I worried some about the woman’s leg, but since the trek back and forth had been a short one, she seemed capable of enduring one more.

This time, I chose to go in the opposite direction, through the trees left of the gaping maw of the plane’s carcass. As long as we kept the sun at our back, it’d be easy to go in a straight line. Plus, it’d also keep the sun out of our eyes, letting us move faster than if we’d been blinded by it.

I’d taken but two steps when the woman suddenly reached out to me, her fingers sneaking around my arm to stop me. I turned in surprise. She’d never come this close before, save for when she’d held me back to give me the water bottle in the plane. This time, though, her touch was calm, her manner measured and reassuring. Figuring it was important, I waited to see what she wanted.

She looked up at me, before shaking her head; the motion slow and deliberate.

“We have to try other directions, lass ,” I said. “Why not this one, eh?”

Releasing my arm, she looked like she wanted to say something before thinking better of it. With a sigh, she reached both hands up, pressing the tips of her fingers together to form a triangle.

I had no bloody idea what she meant by that. “We don’t have time to play Pictionary now,” I said, my displeasure easy to hear. “Make an effort to be more plain.”

Huffing a breath, she pointed at the direction I’d chosen, then shook her head again, before making the triangle shape once more.

I still had no clue what she meant by that gesture. But it was obvious that she thought it was a bad idea. So why not make a cross if she didn’t want us to go that way? Wasn’t that the universal sign for it? Or did she not even know that much? Besides, how could she have known that it was the wrong path to follow? Had she been that way yet?

“Whatever,” I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration. “We can keep that one for last.” I gestured with my pointer. “Left or right, then. The choice is yours, lassie .”

In response, she brought both of her hands back down to her sides and took a step back. It was obvious from her confused expression that she had no idea what I’d just said.

“Just my luck isn’t it.” I turned left and started marching. “Stuck at the corner of ‘no’ and ‘where’ with what has to be the only passenger in the whole plane that can’t understand a damned word I’m saying.” Behind me, I heard the woman following. “I mean, I’ve spent months in Switzerland, and everyone I met there spoke some English—even if it was just a few words. Everyone!”

If the woman had any thoughts on my rant, she kept them to herself.

Less than ten minutes later, the forest cleared again and we came upon a larger beach. Aside there being pebbles, this was nothing like the cliffs and the cove we’d seen earlier. The incline from the woods to the ocean was soft, making the beach flat. The pebbles here shared the space with light grey earthy sand, spread as far as my eye could see.

Naturally, there wasn’t a soul in sight. No signs of any recent visitors either. Everything was as pristine as the rest of the land we’d walked. No markings, no litter, nothing that’d been displaced or shaped by anything other than nature. All that meant one thing: no humans.

I walked closer to the dying waves, straying from the trees to favour the newer ground. Looking back, I could see the tall birch trees we’d just walked through. On the right, the beach continued for another couple of yards before morphing into a collection of rocks and boulders. Further ahead, those rocks and boulders gave way to what looked like the start of a mountain. The rocks at the base of it were jagged and wicked looking… almost sinister, I’d say.

It was a tall, imposing monolith, one that we’d never be able to climb over—a total dead-end for us. “A big fuckin’ triangle,” I muttered, as understanding settled in. I mused that if she’d angled it a bit more, I might have taken her meaning.

That only left one direction to explore. I turned to the left, facing the beach that curved inward and whatever secrets it might have held. I waved my hand in that direction. “I guess we’ve got to go that way.”

Turning back, I saw that my companion had sat down at the edge of the forest. Both of her hands were wrapped around her injured thigh, massaging the sore limb. Treated or not, it still had to hurt. Remembering the blood from earlier, I realised it was a minor miracle she had got this far.

I let my hand fall. “Fine, you can stay here. I’ll go.”

Turning my back to her, I chose a path to walk the length of the beach, close enough to the surf so that the sand was hard under my shoes while high enough to stay out of the waves’ reach. A perfect balance acquired and kept—the mark of a successful enterprise.

There has to be someone , somewhere , I thought, feeling desperation start to set in. All it would take would be just one helicopter , one aircraft hovering over us . Then we’d be saved . Or a boat. Aye , a boat would do . Don’t care if it’s a dinghy … Yet no matter how hard I looked and hoped, the open water at my right stayed as empty as the forest behind the sandy stretch of ground.

A light breeze came in from the sea. It wasn’t too cold or too warm. In fact, it felt wonderful after those long weeks of the wet heatwave I’d been forced to endure in Switzerland. Truth be told, most of central Europe had been stuck in that too-warm-for-comfort sweaty cesspool night and day for a month. Anyone who didn’t have AC in their homes and offices walked around like sleepwalking comatose patients.

I didn’t look back once as I made my way along the shore. I knew the woman would be well out of sight by now, what with the way the beach curved inward. I’d have disappeared on the horizon within minutes. That left me alone and in a quiet place. The corners of my lips curled up at that thought as I came to a halt. When was the last time such a circumstance had happened to me ? Ever ? Never …? The only times I could recall such was when I slept, so it may as well have been never.

I started walking again, noticing how my feet didn’t sink in the sand as much as before. The beach was shrinking while the sand felt more and more solid beneath me. Small rocks started darting up through the ground while I kept walking forward. I could see them getting bigger ahead of me, up to the point where a large boulder some five feet high hid the horizon from my sight.

It looked easy enough to climb up close, making me wonder at what lay on the other side and what I’d discover perched on its highest point. Smaller rocks made me some handy footholds up its side and soon enough, I found myself on all fours climbing up the uneven surface.

After several long minutes of trying my best to keep my balance, I reached the top. I turned to face the new expanse of horizon ahead of me. The wind caught in my breath at the sight. For an agonising moment, what I saw kept me from breathing.