#60

Mina decided to take some time to inspect her ankle. It was reddish, and swollen, but it didn't look too serious. That is to say, no bone shards poking out or anything. Even if there was a fracture, she'd had one once while hanging out with Jacob when she was about seven. She had walked all the way from downtown Minneapolis to her home in Saint Paul without feeling too much pain; and the doctor said it was pretty serious. So she could make it to London. She just had to take it easy in these woods.

Why are there so many forests? she wondered, but then she realized that was a stupid question. Trees were everywhere. And she didn't even know what other forests she was referring to.

She started walking, and found that indeed, it wasn't that difficult. If everything failed she could easily just pick up a stick off the ground to lean on. It was just a matter of not, y'know, falling into pits or something. Or finding a bear. Or a bear-army. Army of bears.

Vague humor. The only thing she had left now. Random ridiculousness like notions of bear-armies were relics from Jacob.

Her computer and phone were still in her dorm, but there was no point in going back there; not now. Maybe once she got the U.N. on the line, and coordinated a bombing run on those soldiers, and made everything totally, perfectly alright, then she could worry about electronics.

The walk was unpleasant and silent. She kept a keen eye open for any sort of traps that the soldiers might have left out of in the woods. She wanted to be able to bank on her theory that they were in a hurry, and only destroyed the school to evade discovery. Which reminded her—that bloody accursed cave was around here somewhere. Whatever mysteries it held, she didn't want to know the true nature of. She had no way of going down there even if she wanted to; which meant that it was unlikely Aurel's remains would ever be recovered.

She thought about this unpleasant idea as she continued. As she did, she looked up rather arbitrarily and saw that it was getting dark. That seemed impossible, though. It was pretty light out when she had escaped; she remembered thinking about the sunlight, and how strong it was on this...afternoon. She hadn't been going for that long...

Maybe she could stop and rest for a little bit. She didn't like the idea of camping out in the woods at night by herself, with an injury, but she was now feeling rather tired, as though her biological clock had attuned itself properly despite the time-shift. During this time she could also make a little cairn for Aurel, seeing as she would never see his body again.

She sat down in a small dip in the ground, and found a convenient amount of large rocks scattered about. With these, she began to build the pile that would represent his grave. Later, when everything was totally and absolutely alright, she could come back here and get a more proper marking.

As she was piling up the stones, however, it got darker and darker. Mina had the strangest sensation of being a fly in a web; but that feeling only lasted for a few seconds. Soon afterward, it was pitch black, and she fell forward gently, resting her head against the rocks.