Creative Writing: Gununa Kawi Temple
Gununa Kawi Temple. Well, it used to be called that. Now it’s known as Gununa Kawi base camp. The world has fallen and these people still insist on doing their monkey chant, sorry “Kecak Dance”, every day without fail. They’re doing it right now. I can hear the faint “cak” sounds from the far end of the camp. They don’t want to get involved. Around me, people duck behind the fallen ruins of the temple, wielding guns in the dark. I’m pretty sure if the monkey dancers in the sky looked down now, they wouldn’t like what they saw.
Vines crawl over the weak stone and ash that has crumbled and decayed. The smell of limestone dust and the moisture that hung on the air near the fountains is gone, replaced with gun powder and the distant roar of exploding …show more content…
terrain. Everyone is terrified.
When the first bomb had gone off we had all hidden, except the Kecak dance people. They, as always, had insisted on doing their chant, believing that they could make it all go away. A part of me hopes that one day they will.
Not too far from our group the last shot of the day is fired and each side retreats. I creep down the ruins with a gun in my back pocket and a rucksack recently stocked with food and water. “How was it?” A low voice greets me from the gloom. “Alright,” I reply, “It’s getting harder to sneak in, but I’ll manage.” I turn to give the voice a hug. “That’s why you’re the best,” It murmurs in my ear. I glance up when we pull back and see Nathan, the leader of our camp.
“Here you go.” I hand back the bag, now full of food and water. Nathan passes me a piece of bread then goes to give out the rest. I follow him. “So how’s the escape looking, Nate?”
“Don’t get me started. We’re surrounded by troops. They’re trying to take back the temple.” Nathan’s eyes sadden as he looks at a young girl playing with her sick baby brother. “And we need more medical supplies, but you just came back. I’ll get Sam to get it”
“No, no, its fine. He can come if he thinks he can keep up.” A laugh rings out from the dimness of the temple ruins. “I’ll try,” says Sam, treading into the light of Nathan’s torch.
Looking at Sam and Nate, you couldn’t tell they were brothers. They have the same cool blue eyes, though Nate’s are greyer, and Sam’s hair is a sandy blonde, while Nate’s is a gentle brown that curls towards his forehead…
“Elena? You with us?” Nate smirks.
“What? Uh. Yes! Uh, no… sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” I blush.
Nate and Sam laugh. “Don’t worry, you and I will go out and get supplies. Sam can stay here and look after the camp.” Sam gives Nate a confused look. Clearly this isn’t the plan they’d decided on. Then he shrugs and we nod our goodbyes, planning to leave at first light tomorrow morning.
***
The amber sun rises as we trek up the hill away from base camp. Nate walks ahead of me, giving me a moment to wake up. “Beautiful Morning isn’t it?” Nate says after a yawn. “Yeah,” I respond, taking a sip of my drink.
“I hope this goes well.” His cheerful tone vanishes, swiftly replaced by concern.
I quicken my pace to catch up to him and place my hand on his left shoulder
“Don’t worry, everything will be alright.” He turns to me with this grey-blue eyes and stares. We hold that gaze for a minute until the moment snaps. He clears his throat and we keep walking in silence.
A few hours later, we are almost at the village. The darkness veils us as we approach. We set up camp a few miles outside the village. Its sad, to see the shell of village that used to be filled with laughing children and the smell of fresh food and flowers. “Ready?” Nate asks, clicking an ammo pack into his gun
“Yep, lets do this.” I place my gun in my back pocket with more ammo.
We start our trek toward the village, keeping close to the tree line and each other. Our boots crunch on the fallen, dehydrated leaves. When we are just out side the village, I stop to shrug off the cloak of the trees, startling when an arm flings out around my waist, making me stop. “Nate?” I whisper, blessed by the fact its dark and I can hide my flushing cheeks.
“Sorry,” he whispers, slowly pulling his arm away. “I saw something move.”
He points to a house. The dim glow of candlelight peeks through its cracked windows, outlining the forms of a woman and a young boy, around eight or nine years old. “People,” I breath.
“Yeah,” he says in a hush. “We could try approach them…”
“It’s worth a try.”
We draw closer to the house. Nate moves ahead of me and goes to open the door, signalling at me to get my gun ready. I take it out of my back pocket and point its barrel at the floor, keeping it ready. The door swings open and we enter, trying to avoid the creaking floorboards. We round the corner and fall upon the boy and the woman in the centre of the room, huddling for warmth by the dying candle. They look up at us. Nate and I stash our guns hastily.
“Mama?” The boy’s voice is sweet and scared. The woman whispers something to him in Balinese and then turns on us. “Uh… We aren’t from around here.” Nate cuts her off. She nods in understanding. “Neither are we.” Her tone mirrors the boy’s, though it wavers with an added layer of thinly-veiled worry.
“Oh. Hi, I’m Nate, and this is Elena.” I give a small wave.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Karina and this is Osbert.” She nods to the boy.
“We have a camp at the temple near the top. You could join us?” Nate’s voice is kind and gentle. “Will the leader mind?” she asks in a soft whisper.
“Well, I’m the leader, so I don’t think he’ll mind one bit,” he says with a half chuckle and a smile.
I finally speak up. “You’re more than welcome to join us. We’ll head back first thing tomorrow morning after we are done here.” I beam. It’s been such along time since I’ve seen people, and it’s given me a new hope.
“Thank you.” Karina rises to her feet giving us a hug, then continues to talk to Nate.
I look at her properly now. She is frail, with fair hair tumbling around her blood and mud stained shoulders. Her skin is pale and her bones are showing. It looks like she hasn’t eaten in days. Her boy, Osbert, looks only slightly better than she does. He has mud-covered dirty blonde hair and a little more meat on him, but I can still see his bones.
Eventually we leave Karina and Osbert’s refuge, walking through the rest of the village and collecting all the medical supplies we can get our hands on. Then we head back to our makeshift camp on the outskirts of the village, sticking close to the tree line and letting its leafy shroud shield us from any lurking enemies.
***
The early hours of the morning fill the sky with pinkish-orange clouds. Nate is already awake when I fall out of my dazed sleep, while Karina and Osbert still doze next to the dying embers of a fire. Nate and I are just about done packing everything away when they wake up. “Mornin’,” Nate says, rolling up his sleeping bag. Karina yawns in reply. “Good Morning.” Osbert gives an annoyed grumble at having been woken up.
“We are leaving soon,” Nate informs them, shoving the sleeping bag out of the way and doing a final check of all the supplies. Karina nods.
After a couple more minutes, we’re off and walking the path back up to Base Camp. We’re just starting our ascent when Nate pulls up next to me, slowing his pace to match mine. “Hey.” He smiles.
“Hi.”
“I heard that the war might end soon.” He slips his hand into mine.
“That would be amazing.
It’s been years.” I try to hide my reddening cheeks.
“It hasn’t been that long.”
“Yeah, I know, but * ***
We’re almost to the base camp when metal rains down on us from above. Bullets fly and we scramble for cover behind fallen tree trunks and withering vines.
“We must get back to the base camp!” I yell over the noise “its not far!”
I take a breath and start looking around for an exit, I catch my breath as my eyes rest on Nate. He is wounded, just under his rib on the left side. His hands stained with blood
I scramble over to him, the sound of gun fire has been drowned out and replaced with my quicken pulse.
“Nate?” I manage to choke out, between dry tears his breathing is shallow and inconstant. He must of lost lots of blood. I touch his wrist to get his pulse. Nate’s eye lids fly open, his big blue-grey eyes resting on my face.
“E…Elena?” he croaks
“I’m going to need help taking you back to camp” i say with a half-heart laugh
“Elena” he takes my hand in his “I don’t think I’m going to make it” he lifts the hand on top of his wound. Scarlet pools around it, further staining his shirt. The hand is back on top of the wound again. Tears are fighting their way up to the surface. “You need to leave me
here”
Tears cascade down my cheeks “I can’t” I choke
The fighting around us intensifies, the sounds of blowing up terrain draws closer.
Karina yells from behind “They’re getting closer! We have to move”
I take a moment to study Nate’s face, I take in all the detail I can. Suddenly Karina is behind me pulling me away, I cry out for Nate as terrain blows up near him knocking the life out.
Vines crawl over the weak stone and ash that has crumbled and decayed. The smell of limestone dust and the moisture that hung on the air near the fountains is gone, replaced with gun powder and the distant roar of exploding …show more content…
terrain. Everyone is terrified.
When the first bomb had gone off we had all hidden, except the Kecak dance people. They, as always, had insisted on doing their chant, believing that they could make it all go away. A part of me hopes that one day they will.
Not too far from our group the last shot of the day is fired and each side retreats. I creep down the ruins with a gun in my back pocket and a rucksack recently stocked with food and water. “How was it?” A low voice greets me from the gloom. “Alright,” I reply, “It’s getting harder to sneak in, but I’ll manage.” I turn to give the voice a hug. “That’s why you’re the best,” It murmurs in my ear. I glance up when we pull back and see Nathan, the leader of our camp.
“Here you go.” I hand back the bag, now full of food and water. Nathan passes me a piece of bread then goes to give out the rest. I follow him. “So how’s the escape looking, Nate?”
“Don’t get me started. We’re surrounded by troops. They’re trying to take back the temple.” Nathan’s eyes sadden as he looks at a young girl playing with her sick baby brother. “And we need more medical supplies, but you just came back. I’ll get Sam to get it”
“No, no, its fine. He can come if he thinks he can keep up.” A laugh rings out from the dimness of the temple ruins. “I’ll try,” says Sam, treading into the light of Nathan’s torch.
Looking at Sam and Nate, you couldn’t tell they were brothers. They have the same cool blue eyes, though Nate’s are greyer, and Sam’s hair is a sandy blonde, while Nate’s is a gentle brown that curls towards his forehead…
“Elena? You with us?” Nate smirks.
“What? Uh. Yes! Uh, no… sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” I blush.
Nate and Sam laugh. “Don’t worry, you and I will go out and get supplies. Sam can stay here and look after the camp.” Sam gives Nate a confused look. Clearly this isn’t the plan they’d decided on. Then he shrugs and we nod our goodbyes, planning to leave at first light tomorrow morning.
***
The amber sun rises as we trek up the hill away from base camp. Nate walks ahead of me, giving me a moment to wake up. “Beautiful Morning isn’t it?” Nate says after a yawn. “Yeah,” I respond, taking a sip of my drink.
“I hope this goes well.” His cheerful tone vanishes, swiftly replaced by concern.
I quicken my pace to catch up to him and place my hand on his left shoulder
“Don’t worry, everything will be alright.” He turns to me with this grey-blue eyes and stares. We hold that gaze for a minute until the moment snaps. He clears his throat and we keep walking in silence.
A few hours later, we are almost at the village. The darkness veils us as we approach. We set up camp a few miles outside the village. Its sad, to see the shell of village that used to be filled with laughing children and the smell of fresh food and flowers. “Ready?” Nate asks, clicking an ammo pack into his gun
“Yep, lets do this.” I place my gun in my back pocket with more ammo.
We start our trek toward the village, keeping close to the tree line and each other. Our boots crunch on the fallen, dehydrated leaves. When we are just out side the village, I stop to shrug off the cloak of the trees, startling when an arm flings out around my waist, making me stop. “Nate?” I whisper, blessed by the fact its dark and I can hide my flushing cheeks.
“Sorry,” he whispers, slowly pulling his arm away. “I saw something move.”
He points to a house. The dim glow of candlelight peeks through its cracked windows, outlining the forms of a woman and a young boy, around eight or nine years old. “People,” I breath.
“Yeah,” he says in a hush. “We could try approach them…”
“It’s worth a try.”
We draw closer to the house. Nate moves ahead of me and goes to open the door, signalling at me to get my gun ready. I take it out of my back pocket and point its barrel at the floor, keeping it ready. The door swings open and we enter, trying to avoid the creaking floorboards. We round the corner and fall upon the boy and the woman in the centre of the room, huddling for warmth by the dying candle. They look up at us. Nate and I stash our guns hastily.
“Mama?” The boy’s voice is sweet and scared. The woman whispers something to him in Balinese and then turns on us. “Uh… We aren’t from around here.” Nate cuts her off. She nods in understanding. “Neither are we.” Her tone mirrors the boy’s, though it wavers with an added layer of thinly-veiled worry.
“Oh. Hi, I’m Nate, and this is Elena.” I give a small wave.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Karina and this is Osbert.” She nods to the boy.
“We have a camp at the temple near the top. You could join us?” Nate’s voice is kind and gentle. “Will the leader mind?” she asks in a soft whisper.
“Well, I’m the leader, so I don’t think he’ll mind one bit,” he says with a half chuckle and a smile.
I finally speak up. “You’re more than welcome to join us. We’ll head back first thing tomorrow morning after we are done here.” I beam. It’s been such along time since I’ve seen people, and it’s given me a new hope.
“Thank you.” Karina rises to her feet giving us a hug, then continues to talk to Nate.
I look at her properly now. She is frail, with fair hair tumbling around her blood and mud stained shoulders. Her skin is pale and her bones are showing. It looks like she hasn’t eaten in days. Her boy, Osbert, looks only slightly better than she does. He has mud-covered dirty blonde hair and a little more meat on him, but I can still see his bones.
Eventually we leave Karina and Osbert’s refuge, walking through the rest of the village and collecting all the medical supplies we can get our hands on. Then we head back to our makeshift camp on the outskirts of the village, sticking close to the tree line and letting its leafy shroud shield us from any lurking enemies.
***
The early hours of the morning fill the sky with pinkish-orange clouds. Nate is already awake when I fall out of my dazed sleep, while Karina and Osbert still doze next to the dying embers of a fire. Nate and I are just about done packing everything away when they wake up. “Mornin’,” Nate says, rolling up his sleeping bag. Karina yawns in reply. “Good Morning.” Osbert gives an annoyed grumble at having been woken up.
“We are leaving soon,” Nate informs them, shoving the sleeping bag out of the way and doing a final check of all the supplies. Karina nods.
After a couple more minutes, we’re off and walking the path back up to Base Camp. We’re just starting our ascent when Nate pulls up next to me, slowing his pace to match mine. “Hey.” He smiles.
“Hi.”
“I heard that the war might end soon.” He slips his hand into mine.
“That would be amazing.
It’s been years.” I try to hide my reddening cheeks.
“It hasn’t been that long.”
“Yeah, I know, but * ***
We’re almost to the base camp when metal rains down on us from above. Bullets fly and we scramble for cover behind fallen tree trunks and withering vines.
“We must get back to the base camp!” I yell over the noise “its not far!”
I take a breath and start looking around for an exit, I catch my breath as my eyes rest on Nate. He is wounded, just under his rib on the left side. His hands stained with blood
I scramble over to him, the sound of gun fire has been drowned out and replaced with my quicken pulse.
“Nate?” I manage to choke out, between dry tears his breathing is shallow and inconstant. He must of lost lots of blood. I touch his wrist to get his pulse. Nate’s eye lids fly open, his big blue-grey eyes resting on my face.
“E…Elena?” he croaks
“I’m going to need help taking you back to camp” i say with a half-heart laugh
“Elena” he takes my hand in his “I don’t think I’m going to make it” he lifts the hand on top of his wound. Scarlet pools around it, further staining his shirt. The hand is back on top of the wound again. Tears are fighting their way up to the surface. “You need to leave me
here”
Tears cascade down my cheeks “I can’t” I choke
The fighting around us intensifies, the sounds of blowing up terrain draws closer.
Karina yells from behind “They’re getting closer! We have to move”
I take a moment to study Nate’s face, I take in all the detail I can. Suddenly Karina is behind me pulling me away, I cry out for Nate as terrain blows up near him knocking the life out.