Two Against the Dead

The wind howled through the trees, branches beating against an inky sky. Da Xiang struggled to keep her eyes open as she and Yu Shan made their way down the mountain. But there was still some distance to go; they needed to find shelter before the storm hit.

"Hold on," he said, pulling her arm over his shoulder, "just a bit farther." He pulled her along with him, holding her close as he led them down the path over rough terrain. She leaned into his chest and listened to his heartbeat as they stumbled down a steep incline. It seemed so loud compared to the silence of the forest around them. She could feel his heart pounding, mirroring her own fears as she thought about what might happen if they got caught in a storm out here alone.

"I can see something up ahead," Yu Shan said, his voice low but excited. "It looks like a cave!" He picked up the pace, almost dragging Da Xiang behind him now. The ground levelled out and they emerged from the trees into an opening in the hillside with a large boulder at its mouth. Da Xiang looked around—for all she knew they were standing in a graveyard—but there didn't seem to be any graves or headstones. Just rocks sticking out of the grass like tombstones. The boulder above them had been split open by time and erosion long ago, revealing a jagged fissure in darkness that stretched back into the hillside.

They ducked inside and Yu Shan pushed aside some of the hanging vines that covered it. Inside was dark, but he found some dried leaves on the ground and used one of them to start a fire while Da Xiang gathered some wood from outside to pile up for fuel. When it was going well enough, she took off her satchel and emptied it out on top of it for more fuel for the fire, then spread her blanket out on top of that as padding for their makeshift bed. As soon as she closed her eyes she was asleep again, but not for long—she was woken by Yu Shan's hand on her shoulder moments later. Shaking off sleepiness, she sat up next to him and watched him pull something from his bag. It was a metal canister with a small spout near its bottom end—the kind you would use to put oil or water into your car's engine compartment instead of using an old tin can or bucket like most people did back home.

"What is that?"

He smiled at her, pulling off his clothes as he answered. "It's called camping! We're gonna have tea tonight instead of eating cold rice." He unscrewed the lid off the canister and began pouring hot water into one of their dented tin cups over some tea leaves floating inside it before adding sugar and stirring it quickly with a spoon until it dissolved properly into a muddy brown liquid that smelled sweet with just a hint of astringency from the tea leaves still bobbing at the top of it.

Da Xiang took one sip and immediately spat it back into her cup before handing it back to him with disgust written across her face. "That tastes like dirt!"

He laughed at this before taking another sip himself, "You're just not used to drinking tea from loose leaves instead of teabags." He handed it back to her again after adding another spoonful of sugar then reached into his bag once more for something else—a piece of roast pork wrapped in paper which he broke off small pieces from and handed to Da Xiang in turn until it was gone between them both along with some plain rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves that he ate as they listened to rainfall pattering against stone outside their doorway entrance before finally dozing off once more beneath their blanket together as they slept through most of the night until morning when they started down their path again under sunny skies once more towards home together after having spent so many nights sleeping apart while worried about each other over these past two months since they had first eloped two weeks ago when they were caught together by Da Xiang's father who had threatened Yu Shan's life if he ever showed his face near their village again after hearing about their wedding plans which were spoiled by that confrontation since even brave Da Xiang would not marry someone who risked staying alive by running away from home only days later because she couldn't bear being apart from him so far away from home in Wuxi city where he went every day after work at a factory where he worked fourteen hour days six days a week making plastic parts for cars while she stayed behind studying at university where she studied English literature while doing extra work every night including web design work for clients she found online at night after finishing homework assignments until one day when everything changed because who could guess that falling asleep at midnight after staying up late to finish grading exams meant waking up four hours later without knowing why without remembering what happened during those missing hours?