Liz thought about a lot of things. For one, she thought that if she had a mirror now, she knew she would see Levey Rosenberg's eyes on hers. The bloodshot trembling eyes of a prey.
She had been hiding into the dark woods ever since. Dead and rotten trees spanned thickly across and hid away any suggestion of light.
She had been running. She fell over overgrown roots and bushes. She hid inside the bowel of oaks when she heard something flashing in the murky canopy. Liz was petrified.
At first there was rumbling of the skies. Hunger clearing its throat. Then loudly they came.
Babies wailing and crying at every direction possible.
Liz ran fast.
The invisible babies mewled, bewailed and howled at the ominous woods, the deceased roots and the coming of a great storm.
The lizard-woman wished she was dead.
They shrieked like bloodcurdling demon babies.
The rain came down pouring in buckets. The heavens were raining red tears made of blood. Everything was drenched comfortably with the turn of climate.
Liz shivered and choked on the bloody rain. She hurriedly pushed her way into hole beneath a big tree. It offered a fragile shelter the size of vile wardrobe.
The blood flooded in fast.
In the dastardly grim of the cave-like hole, she heard the angry infantile prerogative and the sizzling of the rain in freezing comfort.
She heard a queasy cough in the background.
Benny was sitting up against a corner. He was badly sunburned and meaty crust formed his lips and eyes. He was half-naked and he looked dead.
Liz moved over and woke him.
Liz: 'What are you doing here? You alright?'
Benny: 'Am I there yet?'
Liz: 'Okay, I get it. Rest now, I will wake you up when the hell freezes over.'
Benny: 'Get what? You get nothing here.'
Liz: 'Just sleep, will ya?'
Benny: 'Do you know where are we?'
Liz: 'I've got the rough idea. Someone told me we are in a limbo called the Suede.'
Benny: 'The Suede?'
Liz: 'I have the book.'
Liz fished out the encyclopedia and unfolded the map. Babies continued to moan in the storm, in long breaths and sharp pitches.
It was a different map.
Instead of expecting contours of highways over the iron sea, it was now fan of forests and lines of streams making up the Suede.
Liz: 'It change.'
Benny: 'Everything changes.'
Liz: 'No, I mean... It can't be. This is the wrong map.'
Benny: 'Everything changes.'
Liz: 'This place is alive and shape-shifting. What exactly is this place?'
Benny: 'See. You don't get anything here. Everything changes.'
Liz: 'Are you alright?'
Benny: 'I need a drink.'
Liz held out for the rain and cupped the blood back to Benny.
Benny: 'You try them first.'
Liz: 'What are you suggesting?'
Benny: 'Drink.'
Liz tasted the blood with the fetch of her tongue. It tasted sour and she immediately grew thirstier.
Benny: 'You can't drink that shit. You can't drink anything here. I tried my own pee. They just make you even more thirstier.'
Liz: 'You mean...'
Benny: 'We must go to that place.'
Liz: 'The Ultimate Shot?'
Benny managed a weak smile and passed out in the dark.
Liz laid herself down beside Benny and proceed to sleep too.
The cries raged menacingly outside, but they were too threadbare to care.
__________________________________________________________________________
The lizard-woman woke up finding Benny's arms locked around her from the behind. She could felt Benny's heart battered against her back. She was warm from the embrace.
Liz: 'Benny?'
Benny: 'Keep it down.'
Liz: 'Why? Something wrong?'
Benny: 'Something is looking for us.'
Liz: 'What did you see?'
Benny: 'Nothing. But it's not good. Something huge is looking for us.'
Liz: 'It's the walrus, an gargantuan motherfucking killer walrus.'
Benny: 'You saw a walrus too? I saw a grey one on the highway days ago, thing bigger than an SUV.'
Liz: 'And then?
Benny: 'Nothing happened. It just shouted at me. I thought it was trying to tell me something. Why?'
Liz: 'Mine was trying to eat me.'
Benny: 'Well, that's ironic. But whatever it was just now, it was gone.'
Liz: 'Then why are you still holding me?'
Benny: 'I didn't have my shirt on. It was cold.'
Liz: 'Only until the rain stops.'
Benny: 'Only until the rain stops.'
to be continued...
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