I listen. I hear a crack on the forest to
the right. I see something beige. I hold my breath and narrow my eyes. I see
the tail of a huge cougar. It's a female. I don’t kill cougars. I don’t kill
cats. It's a rule I have.
I wait for it to leave the area. I know
nothing is going to move or make a sound while it's there. It stops and looks
at me for a minute.
It's beautiful eyes meet mine and we
stare for a second. It sees the bow and leaves.
After about a half an hour of just
listening to the forest I hear another noise, beyond the birds that have
returned. I pull the arrow and wait. I see a spike deer. It's more meat than we
can eat but it will be good to bring meat to dry into venison jerky. I focus on
its soft brown eye. When it takes its next step it senses me. It turns its head
and instantly the arrow is let fly. The arrow pierces the eyeball and the deer
drops. I wait a few seconds. Just in case. Nothing moves beyond the odd twitch
of the deer.
I pull my knife out and squat next to it.
I gut it. I split the back tendons and hang the deer from a branch. It's heavy,
even gutted.
"Wow."
I look back at Will standing watching me.
I pull the fur and drag the knife along
it.
"I think I love you."
I laugh, "Good you can carry
it." I have let it bleed and decapitated it. I drop the head and leave the
skin and innards in the pile of blood. I know the cougar is waiting for us to
leave. I cut a huge hunk of the tough meat along the front quarter off and
leave it there too.
He throws it over his shoulder. It's
about seventy-five pounds with meat and bone.
Will carries it like it weighs nothing.
"You are an amazing shot."
I nod, "I know. I practiced for
years. I hunt regularly."
He laughs, "Good to see you're
humble."
I look at him offended, "I am
humble."
He shakes his head. I don’t get the joke.
"What's the plan for the breeder
camps?" He says.
I look at him and know he can read my
face perfectly.
"I don’t know. We have to do
something. They're killing them off for no reason. Healthy women."
"It's not no reason to them. These
women will live long healthy lives and become a burden to society. They will
require help and old age assistance. The New World Order is all about breeding
to succeed not recreating the entire population. They don’t want the women,
just the babies. Grown people are harder to brainwash. They want the new
children to see that what they have done was for the greater good."
I stop "You don’t believe that do
you?"
He frowns, "Christ no. They have
killed billions of people off Emma. They don’t deserve to run the world just
because they're more organized than we are and they were prepared for the
fallout. I'm just saying how they think."
We walk into the camp to see Jake making
the girls laugh. I smile and feel like I brighten up. He makes everything feel
lighter.
He scrunches up his nose, "What the
hell is that?" The girls giggle at him.
"Venison." I say.
He looks relieved, "Oh I actually
like venison."
I roll my eyes at him and Will and I
start taking the deer apart. We cut several small steaks and stew meat. Anna
starts making a stew in the pot and Jake grills the meat. Sarah cuts up some
apples we got from the camp. They seem really small and old but none of us
care. She adds them to the stew. Apples and venison sounds weird but when Anna
adds water it makes a sweet gravy.
Will looks at me and frowns, "Guess
we're in the same boat as last time. Nowhere to wash up."
I shrug and hand him some of the cooking water,
"You clean me and I clean you?"
He nods and grabs a small piece of the
lavender soap Jake still had from my cabin.
We walk to the edge of camp and he pours
a small amount on me. I wash up my arms and hands and face. He pours the water
on me slowly.
When it's his turns he removes his shirt.
I watch him scrubbing his body and feel my stomach knot up the way it does
around him. His skin is soft and strong looking. I want to touch it. Instead I
pour the cold water on him. He strips to his boxers and I pour more water on
him. His tanned skin gets goose pimples. I rinse him off some more and try not
to get lost in the water trickling down his skin.
We walk back over to the camp. He puts
his clothes in a backpack and pulls on the baby blue t-shirt he was wearing
when I met him with a pair of jeans. The shirt stretches across his chest.
"Emma."
I look at Anna smirking at me, "You
want to get the bowls?"
I nod and she giggles. I blush. I know I
got lost in him. I know if I'm not careful I will lose myself to him. I can
feel how big he is to me. He could swallow me up whole.
The old farmhouse sits alone in the
field. I close my eyes and let the wind sway the tree and I. I had feared I
would never see it again and here I am. Nothing moves in the field, the door to
the barn swings with the wind. Everything moves in sync with the wind.
I climb down and take my bow.
Will and I sneak through the field first.
I can hear the others as they enter the field. It's no doubt Jake and his
inability to do anything quietly.
We slink up to the farmhouse and wait in
the hay.
Will gives me a signal for going to look.
I shake my head and creep from the field. I have the bow. I kill quieter than
he does.
My arrow is at the ready. My feet make
their first crunch on the gravel, which starts my heartbeat.
I don’t do circles. I know Will has my
back. It's a nice feeling. I lower the bow and put the arrow back. I unsheathe
my hunting knife.
Sweat lingers on my face. Summer has
started. It comes earlier every year.
I look in the barn first. I hear
footsteps but I know they're Will's. He is walking behind me, watching my six.
Anna is next out of the forest. Hopefully she has left Jake and Sarah in the
field.
The barn is empty. I lift the bunker
cover on the floor and am excited when I see my stuff sitting there.
"We'll clear the house."
I look at Anna as she walks behind him
into the barn, "Don’t forget the basement cellar." She nods. I pick
up my hunting rifle with scope and toss it at her. She beams when she sees it.
Will frowns, "That’s a lot of fire
power for her." He's too serious.
I raise an eyebrow, "She saved my
life with it. She's probably a better shot than you with it."
He snorts. She pushes his arm but it
looks forced. I can see she isn’t as playful or friendly with him yet. She sees
the differences in him. At least she is pushing and teasing him now.
I pull the boots off and rub the bottoms
of my feet. I pull on some socks I have stored and the boots I always stock
piled here. My feet sigh with relief as I tie the laces. I instantly feel
better.
I grab a few sealed bags of jerky and
some water bottles.
Jake and Sarah are standing in the wheat
field. I can see his face.
I wave at him to come.
I am happy. I wish we could live here. I
can see us running this farm.
I don’t hear it until it's too late.
Sarah and Jake are walking across the gravel chatting like blue jays.
A shot echoes through the clear sky.
I see a dust spot rising from the ground
in front of Jake and Sarah.
I hear a scream, "RUN!" My arms
are waving. The jerky drops from my hands and the water bottles roll along the
gravel. I have an arrow out and pulled and am running to where they are
ducking.
Jake picks her up and sprints in his
hobbled way to the side of the house. I see the flash from the scope and let
loose the arrow. I have another pulled and am searching the windy field.
I don’t see anything but a shot rings out
again and a dust spot appears to my right. I run into the field. I duck and run
with the arrow drawn. A dark shape appears through the wheat and leaps me from
the right side. I am surrounded.
My bow drops but I have my hunting knife
out again. I am stabbing but the person taking me to the ground moves faster
than I do. His hands grip my wrists. I see his smile as he takes me to the ground.
He pins my wrists to the ground and I cry
out, "Why?"
He laughs, "I knew you would have
places like this. I knew he would set you up."
Serge has me pinned. His weight is
holding my body to the ground. I try kicking him, but he is too wide between my
legs for me to get a good kick in.
"You sure have gotten pretty Emma
Ray."
I cringe, "Fuck you."
He presses himself into me, "I think
that can be arranged." He whistles. I hear the hay whisper where the other
people are in the field. It sounds like the wheat rustles in about seven
locations.
"I never imagined you would be a
rebel though. When we saw you heading there, I was pretty surprised. Your daddy
would be proud of the woman you've become." His eyes leer. He licks his
chapped lips. I gag.
I expect several outcomes. Will will
fight and probably kill three, Anna will get at least two and Jake will die.
The rest will take us captive and Will will die trying to stop them.
What I don’t expect happens as Serge
lowers his face to mine. His hot breath is an inch from my face, when a dark
shape rolls him from me. I see fur and fangs. He cries out but the huge jaw
tears open his throat.
I reach for the fur. Leo growls at me. He
is scolding me. I know this. I bow my head to him. He snorts and shakes his
head. Blood coats his muzzle.
I hear a gunshot and know the fight has
started.
I lift the bow from the ground and pull
an arrow fast. My hand trembles. I steady my arm and release the arrow hitting
a man with red hair in the throat. It's the man who's nose I broke.
I pull another arrow. Tears start to drip
down my cheeks. I hit a dark haired man who is holding Sarah around the throat
and pointing a gun at Jake. My arrow slices through his temple.
Anna has shot two men and Will is ground
fighting with what I think is the last of them. I don’t see movements. I hear
the sobs in my chest but I can't stop them. It's like my body needs the release
and whether I like it or not I am going to cry. I look down at Leo and drop to
my knees. He doesn’t leap at me like normal. He can sense the differences. He
comes slowly. He nudges me and covers me with his warmth. I cry into him. His
thick dark fur sticks to my tears and spit. He senses the shift in me. I know
he does.
I sense it in him too. I've left him for
too long and he's come looking for me. He's thinner than I remember him being.
How long has he waited in the fields for me to come to him? A moment passes
that contains all of the things that could have happened. I don’t fight the bad
thoughts. I let them pass through me and leave from the other side.
"Jake, it's Leo." Anna is
running to me.
Her footsteps on the gravel scare me. Not
because someone is running to me but because she is making noise in a place
that’s always been quiet. The quiet is gone. I fear for the old farmhouse.
"Goddamn Emma. That was disgusting.
His brains came out the other side. Sarah is throwing up." Jake says
making a gagging sound.
I chuckle. It's soft and probably not a
real laugh but I need something. My father's friend was going to tear my
clothes and tear me the way he probably has a hundred other girls. The world is
upside down now. Nothing has goodness in it except the people we are with.
I hear my father's words in my head,
"Survival means taking from everyone else. It's just you and me Em. It's us
and them."
But my circle of hugs and warmth grows
and it's not just him and me. I feel Anna join and Jake. Then Sarah who is
nervous of the wolf and hugs me only. Will hovers over us.
"You are a deadly shot Anna. You
deserve that rifle."
She looks up at him and smiles,
"Someone had to keep Jake alive."
Jake laughs. Will smiles but I can see
the hurt the comment causes on his face. She doesn’t mean it the way he takes
it.
Leo sits with his eyes closed and his
mouth in his wolf smile. He loves the pets and strokes Anna and I are giving
him.
"I missed you too. I missed you bad.
Where's Meg?"
His eyes open. He whines. I sigh,
"Christ, is she gone?"
He nuzzles into me.
"You speak wolf?"
I laugh at Sarah's bewildered face,
"No I speak Leo. He doesn’t speak wolf either. He speaks me."
I hold his massive face and look into his
yellow wolf eyes, "Buddy is Meg gone?"