Fic: Etiäinen

[rusakko]

Emil has heard that the Silent world can drive people mad, of course. He just hadn’t thought he’d be one of those people.

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The faint scratching reaches Emil’s ears through layers of sleep and the soft snoring around him. Lalli’s back. Emil buries his head in his pillow, wanting to rest for just one more minute before Mikkel gets up to decontaminate the scout and wakes everyone else. It’s still dark in the tank. Lalli must be back early today.

The scratching gets more insistent, but strangely, there is no change in the slow, steady rhythm of Mikkel’s breathing, and no movement in the other bunks, either. Emil envies the others for sleeping so soundly. Reluctantly, he sits up and swings his bare feet onto the cold floor. Someone needs to let the scout in, after all.

He stumbles over Reynir’s long legs in the darkness. The Icelander doesn’t react to Emil’s foot hitting him in the shin, but Sigrun snaps awake at Emil’s quiet cursing.

“What are you doing, Emil?” she whispers.

“Lalli’s at the door,” Emil whispers back.

“What? No he isn’t, the alarm didn’t go off.”

That’s true, Emil realizes. But he can still hear the scratching, getting louder as Lalli becomes more impatient.

“He’s scratching at the door, though. Maybe the alarm’s broken,” he whispers, fumbling his way towards the door. He hears Sigrun yawn and climb out of her bunk behind him.

“Calm down, Lalli, I’m coming,” Emil mutters as he presses his eye to the peephole, expecting to see the scout’s narrow face peering impatiently at him. But he doesn’t. In the pale light of the tank’s floodlight, he can only see the snowy little clearing they’ve stopped in for the night, and the dark shadows of the trees surrounding it. No sign of Lalli.

So what’s making the scratching sound?

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Sigrun asks impatiently, coming up behind him. “Let the little guy in.”

“He… he isn’t there,” Emil stammers. Sigrun glares at him in the half-darkness.

“Well, I told you he wasn’t, the alarm didn’t go off. So you woke me up at five in the morning because you dreamed that the scout was back?”

“I didn’t dream anything, I heard something scratching at the door and thought it was him,” Emil hisses. “Shouldn’t we be worrying about what’s making this noise if it’s not Lalli?”

“What noise?” Mikkel appears in the doorway behind Sigrun.

“That scratching!” Emil gestures impatiently at the door.

Sigrun and Mikkel glance at each other.

“Can you hear anything?” Sigrun asks the Dane. Mikkel shakes his head.

Emil stares at them. Sure, they’re both pretty old, but he didn’t think they were that deaf yet. He can distinctly hear something scrabbling at the metal hull of the tank.

“The kitten hasn’t reacted,” Mikkel says to Sigrun. The captain seems to deliberate for a moment. Emil can’t see her expression properly in the darkness. Finally, she sighs.

“I suppose we’d better take a look outside, just in case. Maybe the kid has better hearing than us.” She slaps Emil on the shoulder. “Put some clothes on and grab your weapons.”

They circle the tank in a tense silence, gripping their knives in one hand while shining their flashlights on the sides and roof of the vehicle. Sigrun even gets down on her hands and knees to point her light underneath the hull of the tank. They find nothing.

“Happy?” Sigrun asks grumpily, sheathing her knife and brushing snow off her gloves. “I’m pretty sure this is the least troll-infested tank in the entire Silent world.”

Emil stares at her miserably, not knowing what to say.

Sigrun’s expression softens slightly. She puts a hand on his shoulder. “Look, I know there’s been a lot going on lately. Sometimes people think they see or hear stuff when they’re on edge. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’ll feel better when the sun rises and we get something to eat. All right?”

Emil just nods, mutely. He can’t bring himself to tell her that he can still hear the noise, even more clearly than before. And it’s not just scratching anymore. It’s a loud, clanging noise, as if someone was slamming the door with their fists, desperate to get in.

He throws one last glance around the empty clearing before following Sigrun inside. Just glittering snow and some footprints from last night. Except for the clanging in his ears, everything is still and quiet. He’s heard that the Silent world can drive people mad, of course. He just hadn’t thought he’d be one of those people.

Mercifully, Sigrun doesn’t tell Mikkel that her right-hand warrior is a wimp who’s having a nervous breakdown.

“We didn’t find anything. Might’ve been a vermin beast that was scared away by the flashlights,” she says, yawning. “Oh well, we might as well get an early start today, since we’re already awake. Make us some breakfast, will you? And no candles!”

“You won’t even notice the taste!” Mikkel assures her.

And so it happens that everyone has finished eating, Mikkel and Reynir have packed up the camp and Sigrun and Tuuri are poring over the map, discussing possible book-hunting targets, when Lalli bursts into the clearing at full speed and slams against the door of the tank, pounding it desperately with his fists.

“Hei, hei, mikä sulla on?” Tuuri exclaims in Finnish, pulling her mask over her mouth as the scout evades Mikkel’s hands and rushes into the driver’s cab. Lalli chokes out a breathless reply, jabbing his gloved index finger at the map. Judging by Tuuri’s panicked expression, what he’s saying is extremely worrying.

“He says he ran into some weird things a few kilometres away, and he doesn’t know what they are but they’re fast and he doesn’t like them. He tried to shake them off but he thinks they might still be following him.”

Sigrun takes one look at the scout, who is leaning against the wall, panting for breath, and turns back towards the little skald. “What’re you waiting for? Drive!” she yells. “Emil, get to a window, be ready to shoot anything that tries to catch up with us! It’s still more than an hour to sunrise and this tank thing is a lot slower than the scout, we’re in trouble if something’s following him.”

Emil is about to follow the captain’s orders when she stops him with a hand on his arm.

“Hey, maybe it’s a good thing you decided to wake us up early today,” she says, flashing him a quick encouraging grin before turning to shout more orders at Tuuri. Emil scrambles to the window and tries to find a stable shooting position as the tank lurches forward.

Something nudges his shoulder. He looks around and finds himself face to face with Lalli. For a moment, the scout’s eyes seem to glow with an unnaturally blue light. Emil stares back at him, disoriented by the intense gaze. Then Lalli pats Emil on the head, unslings his rifle and settles shoulder to shoulder with the cleanser, staring into the darkness behind the tracks left by the tank.

And somehow, Emil feels that he may have done something right this morning, after all.