I glanced at the sky, trying to gauge how much time I had left until the sun was completely set, before turning back to look at the trees ahead. The last hour had been nothing but open space and the odd abandoned vehicle or trailer. I’d rather take my chances in the trees than stop where I had no shelter at all. It may be quiet but I wasn’t going to hold false hope that this was going to be easy. I didn’t know exactly how it was going to be, but I knew easy wasn’t one of the words I’d use later on.
In the last few hours I’d only questioned what I was doing half a dozen times, far better than I thought I’d do. Why was I second-guessing myself? In the city, there were places you could try to run to, hide in, and hope that what you were running from got distracted by a brighter prospect. I’m not just talking about muggings or robberies, the things I was afraid of in the city were much worse than that.
We all knew mutants existed, but not all were invisible or good in any sense of the word. Then again, I had learned there was bad in all species. I had only to see a few bad mutants transforming into something hideous, more evil than I had ever know existed, that was enough for me.
After witnessing what at first I thought was just a disagreement between some young teens, I never wanted to see anything like that again. I’d hid at home for three days afterward. They had been arguing, and then one of them started to change, gradually morphing into something other than the boy he had been. I will hear that boys’ screams inside my head for the rest of my life. Bobby had been the one to find me that time. He took me home and stayed by my side for two days watching over me.
Shortly after that, was when my brothers decided I needed to know how to defend myself. Defend might be a loose description of what they taught me. After a few months of sparring with them and listening to their every instruction, I could probably take down someone three times my size. I’d managed to take all of them down, and often wondered if they let me do it to build my confidence. Thinking back now, I hoped I had won by my own skill, and they hadn’t been placating me.
They had taught me so much. Although I never understood why they’d be so disappointed when I couldn’t remember what a move was called. My thought was as long as I could perform it, did it really matter what it was called? They all had lessons for years, so maybe that was part of it. I was the ripe old age of eight when asked if I too wanted lessons. To a girl who played with dolls—kicking people and knocking them down wasn’t really something I felt I had a need to know for my future. Hindsight is a nasty creature I’ve come to realize.
When they stopped teaching me I could fight on instinct alone; armed with a knife, I could end someone’s existence. Using the gun I could hit a bull’s eye dead on. The only problem with all of this—I didn’t have it in me to kill anyone.
That was almost a year ago. Rigorously, I’d practiced my lessons each day, and hoped the survival instinct Bobby told me I had would kick in—actually kick in and save my ass if I needed it. I hoped that my size would fool others, into thinking that little me couldn’t possibly do any sort of damage.
My mind just kept racing through one thought after another as I rode in the silence. I kept coming back to realize that the world hadn’t just gone crazy, it had gone psycho—and I was placing myself on the doorstep of insanity and hoping like hell I had what it would take to come out on the other side.
If I could figure out exactly what ‘it’ was, I’d be halfway there.
A movement caught the corner of my eye. With my heart in my throat I looked in the fading sunlight to figure out what it was. A large black dog ran parallel to us about fifteen feet away. It didn’t make a sound, just ran at a steady speed in the same direction.
Dog breeds weren’t my specialty; I guessed he was a mix of shepherd and a husky. I watched it for a moment, hoping it was going to turn and head off in another direction, but it continued on. Tremor didn’t seem to be bothered, so I figured it was just doing as we were and relocating.
Dragging my attention back towards the trees, I scanned along them for a spot to stop for the night. I didn’t want to admit it, but my body was starting to object to riding, and it was starting to get dark. The only stop along the way had been when I’d found water. Not knowing when we’d see water again, I stopped long enough to fill the extra containers. If Tremor was going to continue to do all the legwork, the least I could do was offer the animal a drink when we stopped.
We walked slowly along the tree line; the dog stopped and sat watching us. It almost looked like he was waiting for us to check it out; make sure it was somewhere he wanted to be. He was kind of cute in a large gangly sort of way. I rolled my eyes and gave myself a stern internal lecture that I was not going to start adopting every stray we came across. Animals had always been a weakness of mine, to the absolute distraction of my family when I’d drag home a kitten or dog, and even the bird that one time. I couldn’t afford to make any attachments right now. It was going to take everything I had to look after myself, never mind a pet or two.
Tremor paused and stood there, waiting for me to make the decision. It was the first sign that he was tired, and I wasn’t going to ignore it. “All right boy, I can take a hint.” I guided him in the direction of the thickest group of trees I could see. I wanted as much protection around me as I could find.
Getting down out of the saddle was not a moment of gracefulness on my part. I slid over one side, and when I hit the ground, I almost landed on my butt as my legs buckled underneath me. The horse stood patiently as I hung off the saddle and leaned against him until I had my feet under me again.
With stiff limbs, I moved to slowly take the bags and the saddle off. The large Tremor that was now my companion watched as I took my time figuring things out. Two large trees were close enough and seemed a safe enough place for me to stay for the night. Only having to worry about one side to watch seemed like a good idea to me. I certainly wasn’t going to chicken out on the first night alone in the dark, making sure I was situated right was worth the extra time.
Securing a thin rope between one of the larger trees and another that was ten or so feet away, I attached Tremor’s reins so he could move freely between them. I wasn’t sure if I even needed to tie him, but that would not make a good first morning to wake up and find out I lost my horse. He didn’t seem at all bothered by it as he moved to the far end of the line and began checking out the growth on the ground. Filling the basin with water, I set it against the tree so when he decided he might like a drink, there was one. With my back against the tree, I sat down and heaved a loud sigh.
It was dark by this time. I debated whether I wanted to light a small fire or find somewhere to go to the bathroom. My heart did this little stutter as I realized the first thing I was going to really miss was a washroom.
My body ached, and despite the nerves, I was tired. Digging in the smallest bag, I found the battery-free flashlight, one of my father’s hoarded treasures, and gave it a shake to light the direction I was looking. I didn’t want a giant bonfire, but a small one would give me comfort, rather than sitting here in the pitch black trying not to freak out.
I didn’t remember the trees and forest making the noises this one was. Of course, all the other times I had always been with someone. That scurrying sound that I kept hearing, logically a branch or leaves brushing against each other. The not so logical girly part of me screamed giant rodent. Add that to the various creaking sounds the trees were making, and I’d be lucky if I didn’t have a nervous breakdown by the time daylight returned.
Ignoring the way my body objected, I got up to look for some small dry branches to light a fire with. I had paper and fire starters packed, but why waste those when I was surrounded by wood dry enough to do the same thing?
Tremor made a soft whinny, and I froze where I was, listening. The snapping and crunching of branches told me something was moving through the trees. Turning the flashlight off, I hunched down to be as small and invisible as possible. I listened in the darkness for anything that would let me know where the noise had come from and what had made it. Voices were carried to me in the dark, a man and a woman. I moved slowly back towards my things and sat with my back against the tree straining to see in the dark.
Time stopped as I waited to see if the voices kept moving or came closer. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if they did come closer. I touched the handle of the knife inside my coat, hoping this wasn’t when I find out if I could use it. Leaves rustled from behind me. I held my breath and pushed back against the tree, waiting. When I heard a low growl coming from around the tree, I think my heart even paused.
I had strangers coming closer on one side of me and an animal voicing a warning behind me. Tremor shook his head and pranced a few times, and the growling got louder. I sat there trying to gauge what was the most important and decided there was no way I was going to let something happen to my horse. Sliding up the tree as quietly as I could, while focusing on the voices, I tried to recall every skill instilled in me, drawing more blanks than anything useful.
Pulling the knife from the pocket, I prayed it was sharp enough to cut the rope I’d tied Tremor to. I guessed I had about fifteen seconds to cut it and get to the horse before whatever was growling took a bite off one of my legs or other body parts. Chewing my lip, I hoped I could still get on his back without the saddle. The plan was to ride like hell and come back later for my stuff—if we could find it again.
I drew a deep breath in through my nose and squatted down ready to bolt towards him. Before I could move something flew by me, close enough I felt fur against my cheek. Trying not to make any sound, I lifted the flashlight; I couldn’t stand the dark any longer. I shone it towards the growling; it was the dog that had been running with us; it was facing away from me, growling in the direction of the fading voices. I checked on Tremor, eyes wide, he looked as shocked as I did by the dog's behavior and moved closer to me. For a brief moment of weakness I wished the horse had arms so he could hug me, I was definitely in need of one right now.
Backing up until I hit the tree again, my legs quit at that moment, and I found my body sliding back down it. Tremor moved closer and stood over me. I reached up and rubbed my hand against his chest. He nuzzled my hair and then looked back over at the dog, which was sitting down, looking at us. I couldn’t hear the people anymore, but now I had to figure out if this furry creature was friend or foe. Shining the light close, but not in its eyes, I tried to get a good look at it. In the darkness, it looked black and big. That was all I could conclude at this point.
Tremor moved against me, almost as if he was trying to protect me. I’m the one with a knife, but have an equine protector and a canine guard, apparently. Neither one were really helping boost my ego. I patted Tremor, to get him to back up so I could stand again. He rubbed against me trying to prevent me from stepping out into the open. “It’s okay, boy." If it was planning on eating me, it would have by now. I moved, with him practically attached to my shoulder, towards the bags I’d set by the saddle. Without taking my eyes off the dog, I mentally ran through everything I’d placed in the pack and hoped I’d be able to differentiate how dehydrated fruit and dehydrated meat felt in the sealed packets. Hungry or not, I was pretty sure this creature wouldn’t get a happy tail over fruit.
This was probably going to end up being the stupidest thing I’d done in my life, so far, but I moved towards the scruffy creature with my shaking hand held out. I knew it could smell the jerky I held because even I could. It lowered to crouch and moved forward a few inches. Careful and keeping my movements slow, I knelt down in front of it. The knife was in my other hand behind my back, I wasn’t completely insane. Its eyes flicked from me to the fragrant meat in my hand. Holding my breath, I stayed completely still as it crept close enough that it could pull the food from my fingers. Retreating quickly ate it fast enough that I knew it had been starving.
I smiled and reached in my pocket for the package. Pulling out the second piece I tossed it over and watched it vanish in one bite. “Now you have to either go away or stop being scary,” I whispered and stood up, placing one foot behind the other until my back was against Tremor again.
Sitting down, I looked over at the dog and then up to Tremor. “You two have guard duty.” I didn’t have any plans on actually sleeping, I just wanted to lie down and rest my sore back muscles for a few minutes. Reaching over, I pulled the saddle closer, and flipped open the small pouch that held the gun. With a gun in one hand and a knife in the other I leaned back against the saddle and rested my head in the seat.
There was a possibility I had lost part of my sanity, leaving a wild dog with my horse in the dark while I rested, but my brain just didn’t want to delve into that kind of reasoning right now. Was I safer out here than I had been in the city? I honestly didn’t know but there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to find out in the immediate future.
