Creative Writing Piece - Michael and Rachel
Once the ship disappeared from sight, Michael took a deep breath, sighing. He shut his eyes and made another attempt to contact Rachel. “Rachel? Are you there?” There was no reply. ‘I guess I’m out of range’, he thought to himself.
Michael opened his eyes and looked around him. What had happened not more than ten minutes ago was just beginning to sink in; an overwhelming wave of emotion struck him. He was more than happy that David, Petra, and Rosalind were on their way to safety, but he was upset about the way that it had ended. So many innocent people had been killed, it just wasn’t right. He was also stressed about the task at hand; he had no plan yet, except to get Rachel and himself out of Waknuk and to Zealand safely.
Michael looked around him, expecting to find his horse, but to no prevail. His pony had been struck by the spider web-like murder weapon, and was lying somewhere on the ground in the Fringes along with everybody else. Luckily, there was a horse hiding behind one of the tents that wasn’t killed. Slowly, Michael approached the horse and tried to console her, with hopes of mounting her. It was easy; she was terrified and would’ve let anybody come near her just for the feeling of safety. Michael got on the horse and started his journey back to Waknuk.
Darkness started to fall, and Michael was exhausted, so he dismounted the pony, tied her to a tree, and lied down. Before closing his eyes, he tried to contact Rachel again. “Rachel? Can you hear me?” he shape-thought, trying his hardest to reach her. Again, there was no reply.
That night Michael dreamt up a plan to get Rachel out of Waknuk. He woke up with a shock.
“Are you there? Michael? Can you hear me? Where are you, Michael?” It was Rachel. He guessed she was asleep the night before when he was trying to contact her.
“I’m here Rachel, I can hear you. I’m sorry, I was asleep. Are you alright?” he asked
“I’m okay, Michael. Where are you?”
“I should be back in Waknuk in a few hours. When I get there, I’m going to try to get as many supplies as I can. Meet me in the forest outside of town when the sun starts to set. Go as far into the forest as you can without leaving it, but be careful. Let me know when you’re leaving Waknuk, and I’ll be there as soon as I can. While you’re waiting to leave, gather your things, but only the important things. I should be back in Waknuk in four hours,” he told Rachel.
“Okay, Michael. I’ll see you soon. Michael? Thank you for coming back for me”. She cut off.
Michael untied his pony, remounted her, and set off towards town. He hoped nobody at his house was awake when he got there; that would make things harder.
The last four hour stretch felt a lot longer than four hours, but when he got home he knew he had estimated the trip correctly. Michael, while dismounting the pony and tying her to a tree, braced himself for the barrage of questions from his mother. That was not something he wanted to deal with right now, but hopefully if she was awake she would leave him alone for a while.
Thankfully, it seemed that nobody was even home. It was just Michael, his mother and his sister living in the house; his father had passed away when Michael and his sister were very young. Michael called out just to be sure, “Hello? Mother, are you home?” There was no answer. He guessed they were probably at the farm down the road, with the lady whose husband was now lying dead at the Fringes. It didn’t matter; it’d be better if Michael’s mother believed he had died at the Fringes as well.
Michael took items from the kitchen, about two and a half loaves of bread, a six inch thick block of cheese, and a large mutton about two feet long and six inches thick, and placed them in a bag. He ran into his room, put the bag on the floor, and lied down on his bed. Despite it being morning, he fell asleep easily.
He awoke, and it was still fairly light outside. He poked his head out his bedroom door, expecting to hear his mother or sister walking around the house, but oddly enough there was still nobody there. He dressed quickly, and picked up the bag of food. It seemed heavier than earlier, but he didn’t stop to question it. He simply grabbed his quiver of arrows, slung it on his back coupled with his bow, a map and compass, and a canteen. He also grabbed a hunting dagger, as he walked out of the house.
He tried to contact Rachel, who responded quickly. “I’m heading to the outskirts to the woods in the southwest, I’ll meet you there.” She cut off. Michael tied the bag to the horse, untied her from the tree, mounted her and rode off towards Rachel. Once he reached her they stopped to smile at each other, and then continued to ride on, Rachel with a worried look on her face.
“What’s wrong, Rachel? Are you all right?” Michael asked.
“I’m okay, I’m just worried. I can’t stop thinking about the others. I wish I knew what happened to them.”
Michael wasn’t sure of how to respond. He, too, was worried about the others; he, too, was afraid, but he couldn’t let it show. He couldn’t let his emotions get the best of him. He nodded to Rachel, and tried as best as he could to give her a sincere look.
They eventually hit a river. Michael remembered this river; he also remembered seeing a boat on it somewhere. They road until they found the boat, placed their bags in the boat, then sent both of the horses back in the direction of home. Both climbed into the boat, and Rachel sat down. Michael reached into his bag, pulled out the bread and cheese, sat down beside Rachel, and they had lunch.
After they finished eating, Rachel lied down. “Go to sleep,” said Michael. “I’ll take first watch”. Rachel closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep. Michael was left alone with his thoughts. He tried to contact the woman or Petra, but was unable to reach them.
They had probably sailed for about five hours in the dark before the sun had begun to come up. At first light, Michael noticed some noises coming from the distance. He quickly realized that they had come close to another town, and decided to stop to see if they could get some food for the rest of their journey. Before Rachel had a chance to wake up to take a watch shift, Michael had docked the boat. He woke Rachel and helped her, still groggy and half-asleep, to climb out of the boat. They walked together through the town. Michael noticed that there were hardly any people, and the ones that were there were regarding them with some very unfriendly looks. Children had run behind their mothers, and men had started to get their weapons ready. Michael and Rachel kept walking until they found a little shop, and quickly darted inside. While they were looking around the shop, Michael could feel somebody trying to get through to them. He let off his guard and listened carefully.
“Michael, why didn’t you try to contact me? You’re close enough now that we can be there very soon. We left a while ago, we were going to land to wait for you to try to contact us but now you’re close. Go somewhere safe and wait for us”.
Rachel looked at Michael. “What is it?” she asked him.
“It was Rosalind,” he explained. “They’re close! But we need to get back to the boat to meet them.”
Rachel and Michael made their purchase, another block of cheese for their trip to their new home, and left the store.
On their way back to the boat they noticed that all the town people had disappeared, they were nowhere to be seen. Then they heard the sound. Michael recognized it right away to be the helicopter, with Rosalind and the Zealand lady inside of it. “Rachel, run! That’s them, they’re here!”
Rachel and Michael ran back to the boat as the helicopter landed. Rosalind jumped out and ran to hug them both, as a tear fell down her cheek. The happiness she was feeling was just radiating off of her. “Michael, Rachel! I’m so glad to see you! Just wait until you see our new home, you’re going to love it”.
They ran to the helicopter, and the white lady greeted them with a smile. “Are you two ready?” she asked.
“We were ready a long time ago”, Rachel answered.
