by Teresa Grabs
Echo cried thinking of how much they cared for and loved each other. It reminded her of how she felt about Charlie. She had done him wrong, leaving him like that, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that now.
“Echo,” Mary said gently, “look over there.”
Echo looked through blurry eyes to where Mary pointed and nearly fainted. “Charlie?”
“He’s only visiting,” Mary said as Charlie started barking and wagging his tail.
“Come here, boy!” Echo shook so bad she couldn’t pick him up. He leaped into her waiting arms where he belonged.
As she apologized and made amends with herself over surviving when he did not, Mary and Henry smiled and held each other. Time has a way of healing all wounds, and as Echo regained her composure, Charlie caught sight of his favorite prey and returned to the woods to play.
“Goodbye, Charlie!” Echo called after him. “I will always remember and love you!”
“You have someone new to care for and love now, don’t you?” Mary asked.
“Um,” Echo thought about how Scout. “Yes, Premier Steiner and his agents killed his mother when they left. I adopted him today.”
“It’s always nice to have someone to love and care for, isn’t it, Henry?”
When Echo turned away from looking where Charlie had left her again, the campfire and couple were dissipating. “Thank you.”
◆◆◆
Scout woke Echo up licking her face. The morning sun had risen, and life on the outskirts of Hope was quiet. A few greeners were out foraging, and Scout was now happily rolling around in the young plants. Echo slung the backpack on and picked up her spear.
“Come on, Scout! Let’s go find that cabin. Then we’ll find Henry and Mary in the woods.”
The sun was warm on her face and seeing Charlie, even if it was only in a dream, made her heart feel whole again. As she and Scout walked slowly out into the sandy plains, she told Scout of all her adventures so far. A year had passed since her exile. A year. Jodi, Ansel, and Megan had moved on with their lives, and she wondered how Johnny got along as a second-year, but she knew he would be fine. That wasn’t her life anymore, but it didn’t stop her from telling Scout all about it.
Walking in the Austero Plains had become easier over the past year. Her stamina had improved, and she was now able to travel twenty or thirty miles a day. Knowing what the anghenbeast were capable of helped her pace, but whatever happened, she would face it as a free agent. No longer bound to Bakerton, she was her own person.
Scout rambled on ahead of her like Charlie used to do, which made her feel like she was supposed to meet Scout. It was Charlie’s way of giving her another companion. One she gladly accepted. They had not walked far, but Hope had dropped below the horizon by the time they came to their first oasis. This one was exactly like all the others.
Knowing what she knew about Premier Steiner now, she nervously approached it. What if he had cameras at the oasis? Had he been watching her the whole time? She hadn’t seen any electronics in the burnt remains of her old home, but now she was walking the path he took. Her stomach grumbled. She knew she had no choice. They needed food and water. Scout gladly hopped in the water while Echo scavenged every strawberry and carrot the oasis offered before she joined him.
The mid-afternoon sun was to their left as they pressed on into the unknown. Premier Steiner bragged that his path had been a straight shot from the cabin to Hope, and she hoped she would make it there by nightfall. Scout was still too young to defend himself, and she would not survive an anghenbeast attack in the open. As the sun fell lower in the sky, their pace quickened.
“Scout, do you see that?” She paused and stared toward the horizon.
On the horizon, and slightly to the right, was a small building. As they altered their direction and broke into a run, the building grew into a two-story cabin made of logs and stones. Scout ran ahead and ignored Echo’s cries to stop in case there was danger. From the outside, it appeared the cabin had not been touched in years. The darkening sky filled with howls of nearby anghenbeast. Echo tried the doorknob and found it unlocked.
“Guess this is home for the night, Scout.”
Nineteen
As the last hint of the setting sun filtered through the walls of the cabin, Echo turned her lantern on and held it high above her head. The cabin was in disarray, but it looked vacant and unused and smelled of dirt and stale air. The main floor of the cabin was open with a kitchen, wooden table with six chairs, stairs that led up, and a fireplace. Scout sniffed around, then headed for the kitchen. The silence was both welcoming and deafening, but Echo was certain they were alone in the cabin. She closed the door and braced it with a chair.
“That should hold for tonight,” she said, tugging on the door handle. “Hopefully, they find other prey tonight.”
Scout pawed at a cabinet door, trying to wrench it open. Echo hurried over and nudged Scout of out the way before he could rip the entire kitchen apart. Inside the cabinet was a large supply of protein bars from Bakerton. She opened one and smelled it. Echo was instantly at home sitting across the table from Johnny and listening to him complain about his day. Tears flowed down her cheeks as Scout stood on his hind legs to eat from her hand.
“Oh, sorry, boy.” Echo unwrapped a few more bars and threw them into the center of the cabin for Scout.
She took a protein bar for herself and sat at the table. Echo replayed what Premier Steiner told her in the City Hall about his experience. He had left with five others, but one returned to the city. Unless the anghenbeast caught them, what happened to the other four? He said it had taken him nearly a week to find the City Hall, but it had only taken her the day to walk there. With the lantern lighting up the room, Echo pulled out her journal and started drawing a crude map of where she thought everything was. She could not see the lights of Bakerton from the cabin and guessed she was at least a hundred miles away, maybe more. The cabin was probably fifteen to twenty miles away from Hope. How long did they stay in the cabin? What happened to the others? Her mind raced, and she rubbed her hands together. It might have been spring, but the nights were still chilly without a fire. There were stacks of logs next to the fireplace and an ignitor. Maybe he really did mean for me to come here first. The cabin looked different in the faint glow of the fire. Scout was tucked in a corner snoring, and it reminded her of her dreams. Different, but somewhat familiar. She picked up the lantern and a spear and went upstairs.
Five beds lined one wall and closets lined the other. Thin blankets were neatly folded on three of the beds. He did expect them to come here, but why? Why make it easy? She continued looking around the upstairs for clues or any signs of others that may have stayed in the cabin. All she found were old yellowed notes that were illegible or crumbled as she touched them and a bathroom. An honest to goodness bathroom. She turned on the tap and nearly shouted for joy as the water ran over her hands. There was a bathtub, a sink, and a toilet. She had never been so happy to see a bathtub in her life. The library had toilets, of course, but no bathtubs. She couldn’t wait to fill it up and relax in warm water. There would be time for that in the morning, though as she shivered in the lamplight. Her thoughts returned to Premier Baker and his story. He left with five, but he was the only one found. What happened to the others? Wrapped in one of Bakerton’s blankets, Echo went back downstairs to rest by the fire. Moonlight filled the room, and distant howls of anghenbeast made her smile. It was nice to be in a house again. A proper house. She was more tired than she thought and soon she was sound asleep with her head on the table.
When the early morning rays shone through the cabin, Scout was the first one awake. He wanted more protein bars. The racket he made in the kitchen woke Echo up and immediately made her laugh. He had figured out how to open the cabinet and was more inside than out. Johnny used to climb into the kitchen cabinets and bang on pans or knock cans together. It was nice to have a home again. The embers were still glowing in the fireplace, and s
he was warm, safe, and if Scout didn’t eat everything yet, she had food. Yes, this would make a lovely home.
In the warm morning sun outside, Echo stretched and looked around. There were trees in the distance and two marked pathways. The road. She didn’t want to think about him, or what he said, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the others that he started out with.
“I have to find out, don’t I?” She walked back inside, determined to find out the truth. “But first, a bath.”
Echo went upstairs, turned on the hot water and started dancing. She had hot water and a bathtub. Curious, she opened the cabinet under the sink where she always kept soap.
“Soap!” She squealed and danced again. “Real soap!”
Without a moment of warm water goodness to lose, she grabbed a bar of soap, striped out of her old, dirty clothes, and jumped into the water. As soon as the water turned mucky, she drained the bathtub and filled it up again. Four baths later, the sun peeked through the cabin’s skylight and made her smile as she put on her old clothes. It felt good to be a human again.
Light flooded the entire cabin, and Scout was asleep in their corner. Echo sat at the bottom of the stairs and smiled. I could live here. We could live here. After a few minutes of peaceful silence, she started to get up and noticed the sun glinting off someone on the floor under the table.
The sound of the small table scraping across the floor woke Scout, and as Echo opened the trapdoor, a gust of musty, acrid air made Scout sneeze. Echo waved her hand around and waited for the air to clear, then lowered her lantern into the darkness slowly revealing a small, unfinished room. What if they never left the cabin? From the smell, she already knew what was down there, but she tested the short four step ladder and went below. She owed it to them to try to find out what happened.
Under the floor of the cabin, in a small hand dug chamber sat three skeletons. Each of them had a crushed skull. He killed them! He really killed them! Tears dripped off her chin as waves of long-forgotten emotions crashed over her. Sadness that their lives were cut short because of a madman. Anger that her life had been manipulated by him. Confusion as to how others did not ask about them. Didn’t they have parents who missed them? Didn’t they have friends that wanted to know what happened? Do I?
The last question drove Echo back up the short ladder and outside where she screamed until she could not scream anymore. Scout didn’t understand and ran away to hide until she was done. He was not Charlie and could never be Charlie. She knew that and didn’t hold it against him when he returned hours later. That night, she promised to make things right. For her, for them, for everyone.
In the morning, she removed the skeletons from their prison and buried them properly. She never thought about how Bakerton cared for their dead before, but now it seemed so important. It was respectful to give them somewhere safe and cared for after they died. It was a way to be remembered. Even if they never did anything in their lives, they existed. They mattered, and so did she.
She had just returned from burying the last skeleton under the amber sky and sat on the bottom stair of the staircase eating a protein bar when the door to the cabin burst open with such force that it flung off its hinges. She covered her head and ducked to avoid the debris. There was no time to get a spear.
“Did you really think you could say no?” Premier Steiner asked, stepping over the broken door. “You will do as I say!”
Echo stared at him in horror. She should have known he would not let her leave. “I don’t think so! I know what you did!”
Premier Steiner kicked Scout into the wall and knocked him unconscious when he tried defending his home. Maniacal laughter filled the room as Echo envisioned an anghenbeast entering the room, forcing her to retreat. She couldn’t reach her spears that were now on the other side of Premier Steiner, nor could she retreat into the cellar, so she turned to run upstairs.
“I know every inch of this cabin, Miss Monat. There is no escape!”
Upstairs at least she had a chance. She overturned the bed nearest the stairs to make a barrier, but he was stronger than she was and made quick work of her barrier. Fear gripped her as his evil sneer sent shivers up her spine.
“Why did you do it? What did they do to you?” Echo asked, trying to keep something between him and her.
“You know the answer to that already,” he said, crossing the room toward her. “I thought you were smarter than this.”
Echo kept him in front of her. Always face to face. If she turned her back on him, she would die. She was sure of that. He killed without a thought at eighteen, and she didn’t even want to think about how many murders he had ordered or committed himself as Premier. She gulped as he inched closer. Slowly. He was enjoying this. The more afraid she was, the more he grinned.
“I’m not going back to Bakerton. I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be,” he whispered.
Outside, snarls and growls from a pack of anghenbeast heading out for a long night of hunting gave her an idea. Premier Steiner heard them too, but he visibly shook. He’s afraid of them. That’s right, they’re one thing you never conquered. I have. I know how they hunt, how they live, how they died, and how they love fear. Think, Echo, think!
She stopped looking at Premier Steiner for a brief moment, cocked her head, and forced herself to shiver. “At least we don’t have to worry about them at home, do we?” she whimpered. Take the bait, you idiot.
“There are a lot of things you don’t need to fear at home.” He smiled and held out his arms as if he wanted a hug.
Forget it! Echo heard the pack coming closer, but Premier Steiner was too occupied with thoughts of her becoming his trophy to notice. Gotcha!
“Please don’t let them get me,” she cried, as she broke down in tears.
“Will you come home with me? Will you live with me? We can rule together.”
What! Live with you? Excuse me! Echo swallowed hard trying not to vomit. “Yes, just please don’t let them get me.”
Premier Steiner smiled and held out his arms more. “I won’t.”
If this doesn’t work, I will kill myself for this. Slowly, she walked over to him and allowed him to hug her, to comfort her, to kiss her cheek. Together, they walked back down the stairs and toward the front door. Echo tried to stop and get her backpack, but he stopped her and pushed her forward.
“You won’t need anything from now on,” Premier Steiner said in a fatherly and lover voice that made Echo gag. “I will take care of you.”
What have I done! Echo glanced at Scout still laying on the ground and hoped her plan would work. As soon as the two stepped outside, she saw the Premier’s agent and car. How did I not hear it drive up? Howls from the anghenbeast announced their hunt. Birds screeched in the evening sky. Time to see if this will work. Echo wailed loudly in fear. Premier Steiner wrapped his arms around her more tightly.
“You’re safe now,” he whispered in her ear.
You’re not. Echo cried louder. The Premier’s agent didn’t know what to do. The anghenbeast heard her cries and howled. Premier Steiner gripped her so tight she was sure he would break something. You’re more scared than I am. She had him, and she knew it. I’m ready to die, are you? Echo stomped on his foot and started screaming as loudly as she could to attract the pack.
“You, stupid brat!” Premier Steiner screamed and released his grip on her.
Echo turned and ran toward the sound of the approaching pack. When she was a short distance away from the cabin, she stopped and sat in the sand. I know you won’t let your trophy go. Come get me. She crossed her legs, closed her eyes, and thought of Charlie, Henry, and Mary all together at the camp. Premier Steiner and his agent tugged on her arms, screaming at her to move, but she was not going to budge.
“Pick her up,” Premier Steiner ordered. His hands were shaking too much to get a good grip. He wasn’t counting on his agent being more terrified than he was. “I said to pick her up!”
Echo was calm, relax
ed, and most importantly unafraid. As the agent tried to lift, push, and drag her to their car, Premier Steiner’s racket drew the attention of the approaching pack. As the anghenbeast rushed past her to catch their fleeing prey, she imagined it was nothing more than a cool, summer breeze brushing her cheek while she relaxed in front of the old stone well. A few stopped to sniff but smelt no fear or aggression and joined the hunt. Screams morphed into songbirds rejoicing in their freedom.
After a few minutes, it was all over. The pack of anghenbeast moved on with full bellies, and Premier Steiner found long-overdue justice. Echo continued to sit with her eyes closed remembering happier times. She must have fallen asleep because when Echo opened her eyes, the morning sun was warm and inviting. She walked past the bloody scene of retribution and found Scout awake, disoriented, but unharmed. Echo filled her backpack with protein bars, took a long drink, made sure Scout had food and water. With her backpack secured to her back and spear in hand, they left the cabin.
“You were right about one thing, Premier Steiner,” she said, looking at the carnage by the car. “It is time to go home.”
Twenty
Many weeks passed while Echo and Scout wandered northward in the Austero Plains. In the open this time, without fear of the unknown. Their lives were not bound to finding shelter, though they gladly accepted it when they found some. Eventually, the sandy plains gave way to grass, bushes, and small trees. Scout found edible berries that Echo was brave enough to try after seeing they had no effect on him. Scout had grown over the weeks from small cub to young adult, now as tall as her waist. Echo’s hair had grown out and was now touching her shoulders again. She was older than when she left, but more importantly, she felt older. Life with Scout had changed her. She never took anything for granted, and never took more than she needed. Hunger was a part of life, and she had grown accustomed to the feeling more than ever before.
