The Human Experiment by Kevin McLaughlin & Craig Martelle

Author:Kevin McLaughlin & Craig Martelle [McLaughlin, Kevin & Martelle, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-14T23:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Five

John knelt by the riverbank, scarcely paying attention to Dana as he cupped water into his palms and greedily drank his fill. He’d never felt so dry before, like his entire body was screaming, crying out for the taste of water! That must have been what being buried alive did to one. His thirst reminded him of the dust in his throat, preventing him from taking a breath.

How had he lived? The memories remained as fragmented and fuzzy as they had been when he first awoke. Had he somehow struggled free, barely conscious but still able to make his way out of the tunnel?

That had to be the answer. If Dana was telling the truth about finding him unconscious, then he must have saved himself. Even if he couldn't remember it. There was the niggling detail of thinking he saw the deer jumbled into those fragmented memories, but John chalked that up to his air-starved body. There was no way an animal as small as the deer could have pulled him out.

There was only one problem with his story, and that was Dana. Somehow, she’d appeared. If she was telling the truth, she hadn't just wandered in. She’d fallen asleep in her world and awoke in his. She could be lying, but John didn't think that was the case.

Which meant there was someone else here. Someone—or something—capable of moving her from one world to another, who might also be capable of saving him from the cave-in. The question then was: why?

John didn't think he was going to get answers anytime soon.

He glanced up at Dana, who was looking anxiously about. There had to be something he could do to put her at ease. He’d be just as freaked out if he woke up in a place he’d never seen before with a stranger he didn’t know. John looked down at the mud and dirt covering his body. A grubby stranger, at that. He felt oddly uncomfortable with his state in front of the woman. Washing would help. There was a deep pool in the river where he could immerse most of his body at one time and scrub off with sand.

John undid the knot holding up his clothing and started to shift them down. He’d need to wash them, later. The clothes were as dirty as his body. Grit would tear the delicate grass fibers apart if he didn’t clean them. He was started to drop the clothes from his body when he heard Dana gasp. John froze.

“What are you doing?” Dana exclaimed.

“I was going to wash the dirt off,” John said, looking up at her. She’d turned her back to him. Her body stood rigid as a statue.

“Not in front of me!” she replied.

He didn’t understand what the big deal was about, but John redid the knot to secure his clothing again. Washing later would do if it was going to upset her.

“All set,” John said. “Mind if I ask what that was about?”

Dana turned to face him. “You know perfectly well!”

“No,” John said, honestly confused.

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