Berries

Night crept across the ground slowly, like thick smoke. Damp darkness enveloped his thin figure, while he, pressed against the damp earth, tried in vain to find at least a grain of warmth in his own body. His breathing, rapid and shallow, barely disturbed the silence.

He was almost beginning to fall into a heavy oblivion, but the man sitting on the log suddenly stood up and walked towards him.

Their footsteps were heavy, like hammer blows on the ground. He was heading straight for him.

The Omega pressed himself deeper into the dirt, his heart beating in panic somewhere in his throat.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The voice was furious and irritated.

He shrank into an even smaller lump, closed his eyes, silently begging the night to hide him.

Maybe this is a dream?

Maybe if he was still enough, he would not be noticed.

But sleep didn't save him.

A rough hand grabbed the collar of his shirt. A sharp tug and the world turned upside down before his eyes.

He cried out, barely holding back a groan of pain, when his back crashed into the nearest tree. The bark tore the skin through the thin fabric. A sharp pain flared up along his spine.

Alpha stood in front of him. His face was a shadow: no anger, no pity - only a demanding heaviness.

"Why did you lie down on the ground?!" -

The voice was so loud that it seemed more terrible than the blow.

Omega trembled, unable to connect the words. His lips opened and closed without a sound.

Alpha turned sharply, pointed his finger towards the bushes.

"Berries." One word.

And only now did Omega notice: around his "secluded shelter", under a spreading bush, among the withered leaves, small berries were turning red. They were sweet, dark blue, hiding from view.

He had to pick them, and not wallow in the mud, not sleep, but work.

Horror filled his chest, mixing with shame. He swallowed a heavy lump in his throat, lowered his gaze and blushed to the tips of his ears.

Staggering from the pain in his side, he dropped to his knees and began to pick berries.

His fingers were trembling. The skin on his palms was torn off, dirt had eaten under his nails. But he picked the berries one by one, carefully putting them in the hem of his shirt, tied in a knot.

He secretly put some berries in his mouth. A small lie against great hunger. They were so tasty and unusual, and burst so pleasantly in the mouth.

He worked silently, without unnecessary movements, without unnecessary glances towards Alpha, who stood motionless and monitored the thoroughness of the work.

At first the changes were barely noticeable: the narrow path, which in the morning had seemed like an ordinary broken road, was now covered with a soft carpet of strange, velvety grass, in which invisible shadows seemed to move at night, and the light wind, which had previously brought the smells of wet earth and rot, now carried notes of something sweet, caustic and envelopingly intoxicating.

Then people began to appear.

At first, just silhouettes on the horizon: rare figures hobbling along the roadsides, hunched over, wrapped in strange torn cloaks, as if hidden from prying eyes, and everything would have been fine if not for those deformities that became more and more obvious with each kilometer, revealing to them a new, alien, frightening appearance of the world they were entering.

One old man, who was walking towards them, smiled at them with his toothless mouth, but above his bald skull, through the thin skin, short, cracked horns sprouted, like those of ancient animals forgotten by the world.

The girl who was running after her mother moved with a strange, springy gait on all fours, as if it were more convenient and natural, and did not seem absurd in this - on the contrary, her movements were light, beautiful, almost predatory.

The young man who ran across the road in front of their cart turned around for a moment, cast a quick glance - and Omega saw: instead of lips, his face was crossed by a sharp, shiny beak, like a black bird, sparkling in the light of the early sun.

And the most terrible thing was not in their physiological deformities, But in their faces.

They were all smiling without exception.

Their eyes, their movements, their smiles were filled with such genuine joy, such complete, inexplicable freedom, that any ugliness became secondary in comparison.

Omega pressed himself into the corner of the cart, squeezing his fingers so hard that his knuckles turned white, and although his eyes were wide open with horror, he did not dare look away. It was as if he was afraid that if he blinked, these happy monsters would come closer.

Time flowed in viscous silence.

Omega nevertheless looked away.

He felt that they were approaching their goal.

Some other heaviness was thickening in the air.

And when Omega was already beginning to fall asleep sitting up, through the hum of his own thoughts he heard Alpha's low, cold voice, which for the first time in many hours broke the silence:

— We'll be there in an hour.

"In an hour."

The words echoed in his head, drowning out everything else.

What if this was the last hour of his life?

What if he became food for predators he wouldn't even have time to see, tearing through bodies faster than a scream could escape?

What if he was sold to an old, rotting bastard with eyes full of greed, who didn't care who he broke, as long as he felt power?

What if this path ended in a cage even tighter than the one he was born in, and there, among the dirt and chains, his name would be forgotten forever?

He bit his lip until it bled, so as not to groan out loud.

Through the noise of the wheels and the wind, he seemed to hear the grinning mouths, the clicking of beaks, the stamping of claws of those waiting for the cart to stop behind every tree.

"In one hour."