by KM Fortune
Willow watched Kit disappear into the night. Kit had been reluctant because she was worried about everyone but in the end, she understood they needed to get Raven back. Raven is the key to something, Willow thought as she settled down by the small fire. I don’t know what, but in my heart I believe she will change everything for us. Somehow. With a sigh, she looked at Blaze lying next to her. He was asleep and his breathing wheezed a little but she thought he would fully recover from the punch to his throat. Laying her hand on his shoulder, she was thankful the young man was still alive. It was not clear to her why the cat mutant had spared him, but she was grateful. Losing him would have been hard to bear and she was suffering enough already. So many dead, she thought and felt movement beside her. Looking up, she saw the soldier. Matthew, she reminded herself and realized Raven had begun to change things already. Never in a million lifetimes did Willow think she would be fireside with a man from the Great Cave. Or at least not without being in restraints. Matthew cleared his throat.
“May I sit down beside you?” he asked. “I think it is important we do what we can to stay warm and if we are close enough, the combined body heat would serve us both.” Willow barked out a laugh.
“Seriously. You want to cuddle?” she asked. In the flickering firelight, she saw the man actually blush a little. If things were not so dire, the look would have made her laugh. Instead she just waved him toward her. “Fine,” she said. “I’m freezing so whatever you think will help.” Willow had insisted Kit take back her cloak before she went after Raven. There had been a short, very quiet argument but when Willow refused to put the cloak back on, Kit took it reluctantly. It was the right decision, but now Willow had almost no protection from the weather and she shivered uncontrollably.
Matthew sat down and wrapped his arms around Willow. She stiffened. Oh you have got to be kidding me, she thought. Across the fire, she saw Twig watching, ready to jump to her defense. Willow waved him off and relaxed into Matthew. He really was warm actually. They sat quietly for a moment, each in their own thoughts until Matthew asked her quietly, “Do you really think Kit can find her?” Willow paused. It was a tough question. Kit was a great tracker and there was no one more resourceful, but mutants were dangerous. Especially ones mutated from the large predatory animals. A wildcat or mountain lion crossed with a man would be a dangerous combination. Willow knew the breed existed, and in fact were rumored to have a den to the northeast, but she had never met one. Suddenly she remembered Kit telling her not long ago she had encountered a cat mutant and been in a fight where she was burned but lucky enough to escape. It must be the same beast, she thought. It made sense. Kit had not acted especially surprised to hear a cat mutant kidnapped Raven. They had met before.
“I think Kit will find her and get her back safely,” Willow finally answered. “I believe she’s had a run in with this beast in the past and it will give her an advantage.” She felt Matthew nod his head.
“And in the morning we will follow Kit’s tracks to help when she finds Raven?” Matthew asked. Willow almost laughed.
“Matthew,” she said. “Kit doesn’t leave tracks.”
CHAPTER 3
The Creator watched Samuel lead the small girl down the long aisle of the Great Chamber toward where he sat on the dais. It gave him the opportunity to study her although his eyesight was not what it used to be. It was true, as the divine spirit among the brothers in the colony, he was all seeing and all knowing, however, the smaller details eluded him more and more with every generation. I will have to speak to the science corps and arrange for another optic surgery, he thought while he waited.
The dark-haired child became more in focus as she walked and The Creator wondered where they would have found a white robe small enough for her so quickly. He guessed the colony tailor was called on to work overtime as they could not very well have the child wearing her ragged clothes from the wasteland beyond the colony’s walls. The risk of disease alone from the animal skins would be motivation enough to do something. I imagine Samuel had her attire incinerated within minutes, he thought. In fact, The Creator knew the arrival of the girl child had Samuel running around doing a number of things. It was unheard of to capture a female human so young. Although they would never let her know it, the little girl was invaluable. The opportunity to have a well maintained breeder in Eden was beyond measure. She must have the best of everything and I will remind Samuel again that it will be so.
At last, Samuel and the girl stood before him. Samuel turned to the child. “Kneel,” he said. The child looked up at him and paused. For a moment The Creator was alarmed the female was mentally unable to comprehend the order. Perhaps she is damaged after all, he worried but then the girl looked back at The Creator and sank to her knees. The Creator smiled. His lipless mouth was ghastly against the translucent skin of this face and he waited for the child to recoil, yet she did not. Instead she held his gaze.
“What’s wrong with your face?” she asked. The Creator was completely caught off guard and Samuel whirled on the girl.
“Do not speak,” he demanded. This time the girl looked surprised.
“Sorry,” she said. “But he looks weird.” The Creator watched Samuel’s face turn scarlet. Samuel raised his hand and was certainly going to strike the girl. The Creator held up his thin, almost skeletal looking arm.
“Halt,” he ordered while not taking his eyes off the child. “Her questions are genuine. It is a long time since I have heard someone speak to me with such forthrightness. Frankly, it is refreshing.”
“But, My Lord, you—” Samuel started. The Creator waved him to silence.
“You may go, Brother Samuel,” he instructed. “The child and I have much to discuss.” Samuel’s mouth fell open and then he clapped it shut and simply nodded.
“As you wish, of course,” Samuel said, and with a last hostile look at the girl, turned to go. Once they were alone, The Creator smiled at the girl again. Like before, she did not waiver.
“Stand up,” he said. “Do you have a name?” The girl stood.
“Of course I do,” she replied. “My name is Mouse.” The Creator tapped his boney finger on the arm of his wheelchair and was thoughtful. The name would never do.
“No,” he said. “That is not what we will call you here. From now on you will always be Hannah.” Mouse seemed to ponder what he said before nodding.
“Hannah,” she said. “It’s pretty. Okay, I will be Hannah.” The Creator laughed. He already knew this girl child would be prefect for his plan for the future.
Matthew picked up a piece of wood jutting from the snow and shook it off. He added it to the pile in his arm and kept walking. After a few more steps, he came to a patch of tamped down snow. There were scuffle marks in the dirt and he knew it was where the cat mutant must have attacked Blaze and taken Raven. Matthew instinctively scanned the horizon. A thin line of daylight showed in the sky, but dark clouds loomed in the distance. Footprints led away from the spot and, ignoring the warning of a storm which was surely coming, he followed them. After only a few yards, they were lost in the rocks. Still he considered going after Raven. I had only just found her again, he thought. A sense of loss and sadness filled him. If only I hadn’t let her go after Blaze. I should have watched over her. Then he smiled a little. Raven was not someone who would take well to being watched over, he was sure. She was a free spirit through and through. Matthew could only hope her resourcefulness would guide her during this latest bit of peril. With a last look in the direction he thought she must have gone, he turned back to the camp.
When he arrived, everyone was still asleep. Willow and Blaze were tucked up into a single ball under Blaze’s coat. Dawn and her son were doing much the same. He worried they were all going to suffer hypothermia, which was why he went for firewood. He had spent the night feeding the fire with stuff he found around the perimeter. The flames were feeble as they sputtered from the frozen wood but better than no heat. He put the armful he was carrying on the fire
and sat down. Willow stirred and opened her eyes. She looked at him and then around at the makeshift camp. “Is everyone still alive?” she asked quietly. Matthew nodded. Willow sighed and closed her eyes again. “We need to get up. The Patrols will come again soon.” Matthew knew she was right but hated it. These people did not deserve to be hunted like dogs. He wished he could make it up to them and resolved to do whatever Willow asked of him if he could.
“I hate to bring more bad news, but a storm is coming. We need to move,” he said. She opened her eyes and looked at him again.
“We?” she asked. “You’ll be lucky if Blaze or Twig don’t try to kill you let alone allow you to come with us.”
Matthew had not considered this. In his mind, they were now all in this predicament together. “You need my help. The four of you will struggle but I am still strong and can do things. Like find wood and keep the fire going,” he said and motioned toward where the small flames licked the smoldering sticks he found.
With a snort of derision, Willow sat up. “I hardly call that a fire,” she said. “But I see your point.” Blaze woke up when Willow shifted. He bolted upright and appeared ready to leap to his feet. Willow laid a hand on his leg. “Settle, Blaze. We are okay for the moment,” she said. Blaze blinked and looked all around.
“Kit?” he asked with a croak. He reached up, rubbed his bruised throat, and winched.
“She’s okay,” Willow answered. “I sent her after Raven. You were unconscious. Do you remember what happened?”
Blaze nodded. “A cat mutant. Big one. He jumped us and insisted on Raven leaving with him,” he said. “I tried to stop him...” His voice trailed off. Matthew frowned. He did not understand why Blaze had not done more. After all, Raven knew nothing about how to protect herself and Blaze was a seasoned survivor of the desert plains.
“Why didn’t you try to use your knife at least?” Matthew asked. Blaze turned on him and Matthew saw fury in his eyes. For a second he thought the man was about to attack but Willow stopped him. In a way, Matthew wished she had not. For once, he would have welcomed violence if it meant he could take out the pain he was feeling on someone else. Especially if it could be Blaze.
“No,” Willow said holding up a hand. “We don’t have time for you two to get into it. Matthew, please wake up Twig and Dawn. There are angry clouds to the east. We need to move now if we are going to survive the day.” Blaze looked in the direction Willow indicated and his face fell.
“This is not good,” Blaze whispered. Matthew had to agree.
RAVEN WAS RIDING ON the cat mutant’s back. He loped along the snowy landscape at an impressive pace. They had already traveled miles and the beast did not show signs of tiring. She had no idea where they were going, but it was clear the cat mutant had a location in mind. Even though Raven was yet unfamiliar with the landscape of the high desert plains, she was confident they were headed east as the sun was starting to rise against the dark clouds forming over the horizon ahead of them. Further and further from the others, she thought with concern. She had no idea if her new friends would make a choice to try and come after her. For a moment she felt a flutter of panic, but she refused to let it take hold. There’s a reason for all of this. I need to let it play out. Still, her resolution did not mean she would not try to escape the first time she saw an opening. I just need to be patient.
Trying to relax, she closed her eyes. The rhythm of the cat mutant’s stride was monotonous. The days and nights since her climb down from the mountain cabin where she first hid from the Patrols had been hard and with almost no sleep. I think I’ll just rest for a minute, she thought, laying her head on the cat mutant’s thick shoulder and then drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER 4
Gabriel walked the cobblestone path through the colony garden and appreciated the greenery around him. Through the use of sophisticated grow lights, vegetables grew year round to feed the hundreds of residents of Eden. Fruit trees of a dozen different varieties lined the perimeter of the giant underground room. It was quiet but for the soft buzz of a bank of honey bee hives not far from where he walked. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His shoulders relaxed, and he felt his heart rate slow a little. The stress of the last month was impacting him more than he realized. The lack of success and overall frustration around the hunt for the female weighed on him heavily. The report of her sighting by soldiers fleeing in one of the Patrol’s own trucks had not sat well with the leaders of the colony. There were rumblings around Gabriel’s inability to get the job done. I wonder if they will demote me? he thought. He had been the leader of the Patrols for a decade and assumed he would be so until he died, yet nothing was ever for certain. Especially if Samuel has his way. The historian was exceptionally clear in his disappointment over the woman escaping again. It did not help that the human nomads working with her mounted a rescue and were able to take the two female captives away with them. Add in the crazy report of a mutant of some kind mowing down a group of his soldiers with a combat rifle, and the day was the worst in Gabriel’s career. By far.
He looked around the room at the fields and sighed. I should have been a farmer, he thought. His eyes landed on two figures walking up the path toward him. One was a child, and it could only be the little girl nomad the patrol officer and his assistant had taken from the prairie. As they drew nearer, Gabriel could see the other person was the traitor. The nomad who bargained with us for free passage if he gave up the location of the witch, Gabriel thought. The idea left a bad taste in his mouth. Even though the man walking toward him was one of the unannointed Waste People and therefore did not deserve respect from a brother of the colony, Gabriel saw this one as even worse than the others. He had no stomach for anyone who would give up their own people. In fact, he was not sure why the coward was still alive. If Gabriel had his way, there would be no hesitation. The girl though, she was a different story.
Gabriel watched as the child darted ahead and tried to catch a butterfly flitting among the Echinacea flowers. It dawned on him the girl would have never seen a butterfly before. They could not live on the outside in the cold climate. He smiled as he saw her jump for it. This is a free spirit, he thought. How else can her lack of terror of where she is be explained? The child stopped when she reached him and looked up with dark eyes. “Hello,” she said. “Did you see the colorful flying thing?”
Gabriel nodded. “I did. It is called a butterfly,” he answered.
“Butterfly,” the girl said, testing out the word. “Well, I want to find more of them. They are beautiful.”
Gabriel found himself smiling as he considered what she said. He did not recall ever truly looking at a butterfly before and never appreciating its colors. Another flitted in their direction, and he saw for once the fragile splendor the tiny creature represented. “Yes, I suppose they are,” he said and watched the girl carry on her chase.
Raven opened her eyes. Sitting up quickly, she looked around and realized she was in some kind of structure. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, it dawned on her what she was seeing. She was inside a railroad boxcar with the door open. It was not moving that she could tell and was in battered condition, but the space was relatively warm. A fire crackled in a short, metal barrel near her and the heat felt good. The persistent cold of the winter landscape took its toll after day upon day. She rubbed her hands together and wondered where the cat mutant was hiding. She had no doubt he was close. He didn’t carry me for miles to leave me to escape, she thought. Still, she got up to look around anyway. As she approached the car’s exit, the beast appeared out of the gloom, a dusting of snow on his shoulders, carrying a dead jackrabbit.
“Ah, sleeping beauty awakens,” he said and climbed into the car. “I brought breakfast. Figure you want yours cooked.”
Raven could only nod. The creature standing before her was huge. He was at least seven feet tall and broad shouldered. The muscles of his chest and arms bulged under the thin layer of tawny fur which appeared to cover all of
him, although he wore pants and boots. The hair on his head was long and hung down his back in a mane. Yet it was his face which was most striking to Raven. She could not help but stare at the molding of human features with animal. What has made this? she wondered. The creature snapped his fingers in her face. “Hello?” he said. “Anybody ever tell you it’s rude to stare?” Raven blinked and was taken aback. She had been surprised when it talked, but the obvious sarcasm in the beast’s words caught her off guard.
“I’m sorry,” she stammered. The cat mutant shrugged.
“It’s okay. I am getting the idea you’re not from around here,” he said, walking to the fire and quickly gutting the rabbit. Ripping off the fur, he put the dead animal on a spit fashioned out of a couple of pieces of wire. “Never seen a cat mutant before?”
Raven shook her head and walked toward the fire to stand on the other side of it away from him. “I’ve never seen any mutant, to be honest,” she admitted.
“Really?” the cat mutant said surprised. “I guess that makes me special then.” He held out a paw toward her. Raven looked at it and saw a bizarre combination of fingers webbed together. She wondered where the claws she saw earlier were and then realized they would be retracted. Like a cat, she thought. Finally, she reached out and shook the hand. It engulfed hers. The cat mutant chuckled. “I’m Hector,” he said and gave her hand a curt shake.
“I’m Raven,” she said. “Where are we?”
