18.
They woke up at dawn, under a clear sky, packed up and started to climb the path that veered between the trees. Nola stopped abruptly and breathed deeply. It had taken her a few minutes to notice that she couldn't differentiate Oliver's scent from the forest's. It was his own private Hell, but it was also his home.
« Come on. We have about three more miles before we arrive at the plane. »
« Another plane ? »
« Sort of. »
She took a sip of water from the can he tossed her and they started again. But again Nola stopped suddenly, sniffing around her.
« What is it now ? »
« The smell is wrong. Metal, and… motor oil ? »
Oliver also stopped, looking alarmed.
« Landmine. Don't move. »
« What ? We're walking through a minefield ? »
« The Japanese put them here during World War Two. There are quite a lot left. »
« Well, you mentioned Hell, why am I surprised ? »
Oliver started to look around carefully. Nola watched him for a few seconds and pointed on the opposite side.
« If you're looking for it, it's over there. »
She closed her eyes and sniffed again.
« I'd say between three and five feet. »
Oliver approached the place she was indicating and crouched. He started digging with his hands and revealed the mine.
« You could smell it. »
« Yes, it doesn't belong in a forest. I can smell animals, trees and dirt. Metal and motor oil don't fit. »
« Good job. Let's go. »
« You're leaving it here ? »
« Yes. If I try to move it, it will detonate. »
« Oh… »
« But now it's uncovered, we won't step on it. »
« True. »
Twice more they stopped to dig up mines before Nola noticed the smell. Another metallic smell, but this one just looked grey, not the dirty beige of the landmines. Oliver had mentioned a plane, so that must be it, but she didn't see how there could be a landing strip in a terrain that was everything but even.
As they entered the glade, Nola understood what Oliver meant when he’d say “sort of”. The carcass of the plane stood in the clearing like a broken toy abandoned by a spiteful child. Oliver got right inside the fuselage and Nola followed, curious but cautious. It had been organized as a living space, she could see what could pass for beds, but she couldn’t figure out why there were military-type crates.
She sat on one of the seats that was still attached to the wall, put her backpack down and took her shoe off. Her artificial foot was not used to this kind of abuse, and she had never tested her hiking blade.
« You’re okay ? »
« Yeah, just a bit sore. »
« I’m gonna go back to the beach, bring back the other crate. »
« All right. »
« Make yourself at home ! »
One of the best things her mother had done for her was sign her up into a girl scout unit. And this group had been more interested in living outdoors than selling cookies, so she'd learned a number of useful skills that were finally coming in handy.
She didn't know where Oliver was planning to sleep so she decided to wait on making a bed. She got out all her camping equipment and wondered how to organize everything. She also wondered about the big plastic crates, and since Oliver told her to make herself at home, she decided to open them.
She wished she hadn't.
The box was filled with guns and rifles, and not the small kind, they were weapone of war. The second box she opened contained blades of different kinds, two sword, and a machete she thought might be useful. Oliver had never spoken about what happened here, but it was time he did.
When he came back a couple of hours later, Nola had built a fire, made some noodle soup and left the crate open for him to see. Oliver took one look at the weapons, turned on his heels and headed out again. She sighed and ate her lunch.
After caring for her stump, and putting on her new hiking blade, she took the machete and decided to explore the surroundings. On one side of the plane there was the meadow they had walked through from the beach, on the other a dense forest. She cut some dead wood for the fire and followed the bland scent of water to a little creek. Once she smelled the dirty beige of a landmine and carefully dug around it to mark the spot. She thought about how happy she was of her exacerbated sense of smell because she could find her way back to the hideout so easily. Her prosthesis was weird and the sensations new, and she explored until the sun started to set.
Back at what she supposed she could call home for the foreseeable future, she put some water to heat on the fire and brewed a pot of tea. The noodle soup was still there, cold and soggy, meaning Oliver hadn't been back. She sighed and looked at it with disgust. She was going to have to find another kind of nourishment very soon.
Oliver came in as she was finishing and prepared his own soup.
« You're gonna have to talk about it eventually. I understand you have bad memories of this place. And you think that talking will only make you relive what happened to you. But believe me when I say you need to. I've talked about my own experience more times than I can count, and each and every time I feel the shot in the part of my foot that's no longer there. What you've been through has probably been a hundred times more horrible than what I experienced, but I promise you, sharing it, even once, will lift your pain. If only a little. »
Oliver took his bowl and left her alone inside the shelter again. Nola was afraid she had pushed him too far, opening wounds that weren't yet healed. She prepared her bed in the farthest part of the plane and settled for the night.
She didn't hear him come back in, and his whisper broke the silence and the night.
« The first thing I did here was bury my father. »
Nola stayed immobile, barely breathing, listening to Oliver's story.
« After that a man named Yao Fei rescued me, taught me how to survive, but not before shooting me with an arrow. »
He rubbed the scar on his shoulder unconsciously.
« Made me kill a bird so I'd learn how to eat. Showed me the plants that would heal, the ones you shouldn't use. And then… »
He paused, lost in his memories.
« Terrorists had made their base here, planning to shoot down a plane. I was taken prisoner, tortured, I escaped, got captured again. A cat and mouse game where the loser was hurt in the most horrible ways possible. »
Nola had thought she was ready to hear him reveal his nightmare, but she wasn't. Tears filled her eyes and she closed them to prevent them from falling down.
« The first time I killed a man, it was by accident. We were fighting and we fell down a cliff. He didn't make it. The leader of the group kidnapped Yao Fei's daughter Shado so he would cooperate. He was working with them but he tried to save me by sending me to Slade Wilson, a man from the Australian Special Forces. He planned to take the airfield from Fyers' men to leave, but he couldnt do it alone, so he trained me. »
Oliver had a small derisive laughter.
« God, I was so green. I had been in a scuffle or two, some bar brawls, but that was something else. Long story short, we were captured again, tortured again, we escaped again, this time with Shado. Yao Fei was killed once his usefulness had come to an end. We managed to foil Fyers' plan and make it out of it alive, but we had no way to get off the island so we settled here until we could come up with something. I kept training with Slade, Shado taught me how to shoot arrows. We became… close. »
Oliver was reliving all he had survived on Lian Yu. The pains and the miseries, the joys too.
« A few months later, a ship came by, looking for a miracle drug that was supposed to be here. A crazy scientist thought it could make a universal cure, so he took prisoners, made horrific experiences on them on that ship. Once again I was captured, tortured. And I found… »
A pause. Nola's heart was breaking with every word. He was talking about torture like he would talk about an inconvenient. That alone showed how much he'd suffered.
« I found Sara. »
Nola remembered Sara was Laurel's little sister and she'd disappear along with Oliver and his dad.
« Sara had been rescued by Ivo, the mad doctor. He had convinced her he could save the world. She only realized he was crazy after he took it too far. The drug was hidden on a sunk Japanese submarine. We were able to free most of the prisoners, and we were planning on escaping with the sub, but things didn't exactly work out as we'd planned, as always. Slade became crazy because of the Mirakuru drug. And Ivo… Ivo killed Shado. »
The tone of Oliver's voice made Nola think there was more to Shado's death than he was telling, but she didn't want to break his recollection.
« There weren't many of us left in the end. The sub left with one man on board, the ship sunk, Sara… Sara drowned. I thought I died. After that I spent over a year in Hong Kong. This… shadow organization thought they could use me since everyone thought I was dead. And my last mission for them was coming back here to prevent yet another madman to find and use an idol with magical powers. »
There was a longer pause.
« This island is called Purgatory for a reason. You either die or change. I didn't want you to come because I'm afraid of what can happen here. »
Nola finally spoke but her voice was broken by emotion.
« Every new experience changes us. But it's up to us to decide how much of the old self we want to keep. »
« Sometimes nothing remains of the old self. »
« Yes. Because the old self was too weak to hold under the weight of the experience. »
« You didn't break. »
« I had a number of hard experiences before I was shot. »
He didn't answer. Nola heard movement on the other side of the plane, assumed he was arranging a bunk for the night. She fell asleep in the scent of rainforest.
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