Life and Death
Excerpt from 'Plimgar to Luminar'
by Mandy Donne-Lee
By noon, the rumblings and grumblings of the Hugbidtha finally worked their
way into the minds of the man sleeping closest to the tunnel entrance. He was not generally a deep sleeper, but the injuries he had sustained had tired him to the point of exhaustion and he struggled to wake. When he finally forced his eyes open, he saw that some of his fellows were partly awake and groaning or mumbling as the pain of their injuries brought them slowly to full awareness.
“Gorn!” he whispered urgently to the man next to him. “Gorn, wake up!”
There was no response, so Balph pulled his shoulder until Gorn rolled onto his back. Balph cringed at the sight of Gorn’s exposed chest, marred by deep wounds from which a huge amount of blood had flowed staining his tattered clothing and the cave floor a rusty brown. Taking in the wounds, the mess and Gorn’s staring bluish face, Balph knew Gorn was dead. Gorn was dead. The comrade he had grown up with, adventured with, followed the Commander with; his rival and companion; his partner in crime; the closest to a friend that he had ever known, now lay beside him an empty shell. Pulling himself to a kneel, Balph gazed in horror and tried to swallow the bile that rose in his throat. He felt fear in the face of this overwhelming change. Gorn was his own age, still young. He was strong and cunning. How could death have taken him so easily and silently? Last night they had sworn at each other and argued over who should sleep nearest the tunnel mouth until the Commander had pointed at Balph and then the Hugbidtha. “You.” he’d said and that had been it. Maybe the commander had seen how badly Gorn was wounded. Why had he, Balph, not realised that the weakness of Gorn’s voice and the way he collapsed to the ground and fell instantly to sleep was more than tiredness.
He looked around at the other waking men. Kade looked well enough, a few scrapes and bruises and a bit of stiffness seemed to be all that was wrong with him. Dion obviously could not stand. His leg looked like it had taken a serious gash from the grivor. It was certainly causing him significant pain.