Shelter

Nile wasn't psychologically equipped to care for a dumb six year old. Sure, he had looked after his little brother when momma went to work plenty of times, but all Angelo needed was TV and Cheetos. The forest was something different. He had packed a waterproof coat for himself - it was at the top of his pack along with the torch and refilled mineral water bottle - but he had nothing to keep little Gretchen dry. He had learned her name when, after she had stopped her silent crying, it became clear that she couldn't, or wouldn't, talk. She chewed sloppily on the cube of chocolate he had given her when no amount of cooing would stem her tears. With her hysterics at an end, Nile resumed his questioning to no avail. Sensing his hopelessness, she placed her right index finger over her lips and shook her head. And, as if in payment for the candy, she pointed to the little stitched name-tag in the striped pink and white sock half covering her right ankle. 

GRETCHEN MA----- 

It looked to Nile as though the threading of the last name had been time consumingly unpicked. He had gone to check the other sock, but had only found a bare ankle sticking out of a matching purple Croc. This far out into the woods, she had to have gotten separated from her family, Nile told himself. Strange though, that he could hear nothing in the surrounding vastness of the hinterland other than the stuffy breeze torturing the desiccated leaves. 

He had no idea what to do with her, but there was an earnestness in her eyes that made leaving her behind an impossibility. Her tiny white hand had found its way into his within seconds of their encounter and it hadn't left since. And so Nile trudged on, secretly bitter than his progress was being impeded by Gretchen's short, shuffling legs, while also plagued with concern for her. Would her family come for her, or would he be responsible for getting her to safety? Whatever the outcome, he would be forced to explain his own situation. And that was not part of the plan. 

As promised by the weather announcer that morning, the rains broke just after two pm. The ground was hard and hot from weeks of drought; it hissed with relief as liquid bombs canvased its surface. Nile tried to encourage Gretchen to walk with urgency, then run as the downpour grew in ferocity. Seeing her blue liquid eyes threatening more tears, he scooped her into his arms and broke into a sprint. The sky beyond the trees turned a dirty brown grey, and a growl shook the air. It was going to rain. And rain. And rain. Nile repeated the words in his head like a mantra as he scoured the endless forest floor for shelter. Within minutes the dirt beneath his feet had turned to slop, causing him to slip with each frantic stride. The body in his arms shuddered violently as the air, saturated with cold water, took on a menacing chill. A further eruption of thunder compounded his desperation. The light was fading as quickly as his footsteps, which disintegrated in channels of water as soon as they were cast. 

Skidding into a clearing, Nile hesitated momentarily at the sight of an enormous pipe outlet. Incongruous as it was, jutting from a ridge of forest earth miles from civilisation, it would certainly provide the shelter they needed. As he neared the entrance, which was around four feet in diameter, Gretchen began to struggle in his arms. Nile noted that a steady flow of water trickled from the edge, and a slurry of branches and decaying leaves lined its base, but otherwise the pipe looked like a good enough place to hold up. He climbed in with Gretchen still thrashing her limbs - he presumed from an urgent desire to escape the rain. But once inside and free from nature's onslaught, she began frenziedly clawing at his face. She scratched his left eye with her fingernails; the shock causing him to relinquish his hold. As he hissed in pain, covering his eye with his hand, the girl threw herself into the mud below and fell flat on her face with a sickening slap. He watched in horror as blood curled into the blonde strands of hair that floated in the ochre ooze. Snapping from his daze, Nile climbed down from the pipe and turned Gretchen's tiny body over as gently as he could. Her nose was smashed. Blood and snot seeped from inflamed nostrils and mingled with the mud covering her face. Her body was limp, but breath wheezed from her mouth, which bubbled with dirty water. 

Once more, he placed her in the pipe entrance - this time carefully laying her on her back. Climbing further into the pipe to allow himself more room, he took off his drenched backpack and began rifling through his stash of runaway items. Turning on his torch, he withdrew the plastic tub in which he had stuffed a handful of stolen first aid items and flung his backpack behind him. Ignoring the band-aids and disinfectant cream for now, he unwrapped a bandage roll. Seeing her filthy face, he paused. She needed to be cleaned first. Remembering he had packed a hand-towel, he turned to retrieve it, only to see his pack disappear into darkness, dragged along the pipe like a pebble falling into a bottomless well. He felt fear of another kind tangle itself around his spine, and shone his torch into the abyss before him. A nightmare of giant crustacean limbs, some seemingly hundreds of feet in length, reached out from the darkness. Clicking and clacking against the concrete tube, they probed and scraped in a juddering, scouring tangle. Throat constricted and eyes bulging, he instinctively scrambled over Gretchen and leapt into the sea of mud beyond. He pushed himself up in the quagmire as soon as he landed, but cried in agony as pain shot through his ankle, causing him to instantly collapse on his front. Rolling on his back, looking down through rain and tears, he could see that his left foot stuck out to the side unnaturally, having been destroyed in the fall. The sound of a thousand guttural moans drowned out the relentless rain, and Nile's pain was replaced with terror. Enormous, multi jointed protuberances unfurled from the pipe, countless pincers and pleopods suspending Gretchen's lifeless body in crucifixion high above him. A sense of regret such as Nile had never known washed over him. He wished to be, more than anything, back home. With his momma.

"We are Gretchen" the voice from the pipe boomed in shrill authority. With a clap of thunder, Gretchen's red eyes flashed open.