Fog by Annelie Wendeberg Read Free Book Online

honey, and nuts.
    ‘We’ll hunt tomorrow. I don’t want to touch our provisions unless it’s absolutely necessary,’ he says.
    ‘What do you want to shoot? Deer?’ I’m trying to picture a bird the size of a quail, shot with Runner’s .50 caliber rifle. I wonder if the bird would be recognisable or if it would disintegrate into a spray of blood and feathers.
    ‘My air rifle is in my rucksack.’
    ‘Oh. Okay. Can we make a fire?’
    ‘In the daytime, yes. I’ll spread a tarp up high over it and we’ll be fine. Uh, another thing. Hygiene is paramount here—’
    ‘Do I stink?’ I sniff at my hand and wrist.
    ‘What? No! What I mean is, as long as we are below one thousand five hundred metres elevation, the forest here is full of biting and stinging insects, as you’ve noticed.’
    I have. And I’ve slapped at the buggers a million times already. It hasn’t helped at all.  
    ‘They can give you nasty infections,’ he continues. ‘Combined with this heat and humidity, you won’t last long. It’s not a problem on Itbayat because the stiff breeze blows mosquitos away from our camp. But here, it is. In the morning, I want you to check your clothing for inhabitants, make sure every scratch and every mosquito bite is clean and healing well. Make sure you do that daily.’
    ‘Now, I’m itching.’
    He grunts a laugh, ties his hammock between two trees, and spreads the mosquito net over it. I set up mine between one of his trees and the one next to it. He’s talked about Dengue fever before. Although the disease is life-threatening in only a small portion of infected people, it would render me vulnerable in combat. You just can’t aim well when you run a high fever.
    ‘We’ll have to pack up before sunrise,’ I mumble when I roll up in my suspended bed and take off my night vision goggles.
    ‘I’ll wake you. Sleep now.’
    Runner and his quiet commands, they work better than anything. I slow my breathing, and imagine the wiggling of leaves in the breeze high above me, and then I drift off.

    ———

    When I wake up, he’s already sipping water from his canteen and re-analysing the images Kat transferred to his SatPad before we left.  
    ‘Here, I found these next to the stream.’ Runner holds out two yellow fruits. I’ve never seen this kind.
    ‘You sure they are edible?’
    ‘Yes. I also refilled your canteen. Give me a minute, then I’ll brief you.’
    I drink the cold water and watch Runner.  
    ‘Jin-Shui Observatory.’ He points to the map on his SatPad. ‘This is where the last BSA attack was reported before we lost contact with our Taiwanese Sequencers. Fifteen kilometres away as the crow flies. The difficult terrain will make it an eight to twelve hour hike.’
    ‘How many Taiwanese did they kill?’
    ‘Approximately three thousand Taiwanese, Chinese, Philippinos, and Japanese lived here before the BSA arrived. Ben and Yi-Ting didn’t scan the entire south half of the island, so there might be people left. But we can’t be sure.’
    My teeth pierce the skin of the fruit and sweetness explodes in my mouth. ‘Do you have a theory why the observatory appears undamaged?’ I ask, wiping my chin.
    ‘There’s nothing on the footage, which doesn’t mean it’s perfectly untouched. Damage of the structure seems minimal, though.’
    I drink the last sip of water and sit down next to him.  
    ‘We’ll follow this ravine until we reach an elevation of at least one thousand five hundred metres,’ Runner says, his index finger trailing across a greyish river bed that winds up along green mountains. He stuffs the SatPad into his ruck and stands. ‘We’ll leave in thirty minutes. I’ll prepare camouflage while you wash. One hundred metres down the river, a group of large trees protects you from view.’ He nods up at the sky. ‘Never forget the satellites. We’re safe only when the cloud cover is thick.’
    When I make to leave, he adds, ‘Collect a few handfuls of chestnuts from