“Well, God knows what he wants from us,” Ellis mumbles from behind
me. “If you were to ask me – and I should certainly think you ought to,
for I am renowned as an acute judge of character – I would ascertain that his countenance undoubtedly holds much to be desired.”
I
fight to hide my smile at her tone, ducking my head in the false act
of watching where I step; she’s been grumbling and moaning for a good
part of the afternoon about Johnson, ever since we stopped for lunch at
the Mekoah River, and has managed to keep up her ‘posh voice’ for almost
as long.
Not a minute passes before she starts up again, her voice slightly breathy from exertion, but indignant as ever. “Did you see
the way he looked at Cap? Like she’s a bloody oasis and he’s in the
middle of some godforsaken desert. I’m telling you, the way he acts, one
would be forgiven for thinking that he’s some sort of-of, of sex-crazed
animal!”
I can’t hold back the snort at her description; he looked at me once, and in no such manner.
“Look,
Ellis,” Mylo begins from behind me, a smile evident in his tone. “If
he’s really so” – he pauses as he steps over a cluster of jagged rocks
barring his way while trying to paraphrase her blatant jealousy – “so repellent,
that you manage to complain about him for just short of two hours” –
Ellis lets out an irritated noise but Mylo doesn’t stop – “then surely
you can do something about it.”
“I have half a mind to do exactly that! Of all the imbecilic-“
“Okay, great!” he cuts her off with mock enthusiasm. “You do that.”
“I will.”
“That’s really great.”
A silence follows his words, to my surprise. Oh, thank God, I laugh to myself. She’s finally quiet.
Our
company trudges along in a comfortable silence broken only by the snaps
and rustles of the vegetation we disturb; the countryside is so
beautiful at this time of year and I know that all of us, even Ellis,
can appreciate that.
“Cap?” I hear Mylo murmur from behind me, his steady deep voice blending harmoniously with the quiet.
“Hmm?”
I say, turning my head back to glance at his face for a second; there’s
a light scraping of dried dirt on his right cheek, the left side bathed
in sunlight. His dark hair flops around his face in a sort of fluffy
halo that reminds me of a puppy, this comparison echoed in his brown
deep-set eyes. He catches my gaze and grins, his teeth strikingly white
against what remains of the black camo-paint on his lips.
Turning
back to look in the direction I’m walking in, I take a short step to my
right so we can walk side by side on the narrow dirt path. Mylo falls in
step with me without hesitation, leaving Ellis a good ten feet or so
behind us.
“Should we stop there?” he asks, gesturing ahead with a
bob of his head. I follow his gaze to see a boulder surrounded with
overgrown grass near what seems to be the top of the hill. I nod without
taking my eyes off it, scanning the surroundings for any safety
hazards.
“Seems as good a place as any,” I say to him distractedly, trying to remember exactly where the others said they would meet us.
Half
of me’s dreading meeting up with Johnson’s party; no doubt he’ll commit
some unforgivable crime that’ll leave Ellis floundering again. And,
despite my initial reserves, I really enjoy travelling with just Ellis
and Mylo. They’re easy to get along with and we work so well together,
and it’s been really nice to travel in such a small group.
“Are you gonna signal the others from the top?” I ask.
Mylo
shakes his head, the shaggy mop on his head flying around his face.
“Ellis will. I’ll have to show her the right symbols on the radio
equipment, but…” He shrugs, turning to smile at me cheekily. “I figured
I’d give her a try, see if she’s as blunt when speaking to Johnson as she is about him.”
I
laugh quietly as Mylo turns back to grin at Ellis, who gives him a
confused look. “What?” she calls suspiciously, eyeing him with a caution
so apprehensive I can’t help but laugh harder.
She frowns, and
makes to catch up with us, her rucksack shifting slightly on her
shoulders as she bounds over the clumps of grass. “What?” she pines.
“You’re hiding something.”
I shake my head as she falls into step beside Mylo, who gives her a conspicuous wink. “Nothing, Ellis. It’s nothing.”
“It is something,” she grumbles, still scrutinising Mylo’s amused face. “Wait… Is this about Johnson?”
“No!” I cry through giggles as he bursts into cackles at Ellis’ expense.
Her cheeks colour slightly but she smiles despite herself. “Don’t talk about him, he’s far too dull.”
“B-but… You-..." Mylo struggles to comprehend what she’s just said. I shake my head, at a loss for words.
***
“You have to press the red one!”
“I am pressing the red one!”
“No, not that one, this one; the bright red one!”
“Why the hell are there two red ones?!”
I
can hear Ellis and Mylo arguing over the radio equipment as they’ve
been doing for about twenty minutes now, their innocent signals lesson
verging on becoming a screamfest.
She’s struggling to get the
communicator to switch on, and he’s stressing over the fact that she’s
struggling to switch it on, causing her to stress out that her teacher
is stressed out, which means she struggles even more.
Looking
around to make sure our packs are where we left them, I get up from
where I was seated on the boulder and make my way up the tiny steep
slope to the crest of South Mekoah’s Seat where Mylo’s pacing with his
hands in his hair and Ellis is scowling at the metal contraption on the
ground.
He sees me coming and makes a face. “Ellis broke the communicator,” he whines petulantly.
“I-what?!”
she exclaims angrily, her deep-red hair whipping in the air as she
turns to glare at him. “Mylo’s the one broke it. H-He kicked it, for God’s sake.”
Crouching
down, I examine the equipment. It’s really just a box full of
intertwining wires, its top and front covered in dials, buttons and
sockets for a headset. The antenna’s a little crooked from when we
dropped it while packing up camp a few nights ago, and rust is creeping
along the bottom rims.
“Only because you caused it to go into lock mode! What did you press the shutdown button for?”
“I pressed the red button, you told me to press the red button!”
“Not that red one!”
“How was I to know there were two red buttons?!”
“Oh, I don’t know, by looking at it?!”
Dreading
the headache their bickering could cause me, I tune them out and
instead focus on getting the communicator to work, leaving them to their
arguing.
Twisting the biggest dial in the centre of the lid, I unlock it and, carefully setting it down face up on the grass, peer in.
'Cap isn't used to traveling with Mylo & Ellis, but she likes it.')
