Time Moves On
A few weeks had passed since he had discovered someone else had been in the area. There had been no sign of anything since. The Traveler began to wonder if maybe the footprints were just another individual just passing through. He hoped that was the case.
If they were traveling, they either froze to death, or they are one hell of a badass. He thought. Either way, he did not want to encounter them. Though he had not seen snow since that day it had still been extremely cold.
It was a couple of weeks longer than he anticipated, but the weather began to warm up again. Ferals it seemed, hibernated. It was the only way he could explain it. This was his second winter since The Turn, and he had not seen ferals when it turned cold, and they showed up again when it warmed. So, he would be on the lookout, because ferals came out looking for food.
With the warming weather, he began preparations to move on.
And Though She Be but Little...
He knew the sounds. It was an encounter between a human and a creature.
"Get back!" A voice shouted. A woman's voice. The Traveler, leaving the town on a small paved road, picked up his pace. The sounds were emanating from just beyond the curve of the road, just a couple of hundred feet away. An unusual sight was unfolding as he rounded the curve. There in front of him, a short distance away, was a woman with a bow and ready to fire, facing three creatures. They seemed to understand the arrow meant business. She was holding them at bay on a road near a curve just ahead of his position.
She screamed at them, which seemed to help in keeping them back. Three ferals had begun to circle her.
"Back! Get back! Now!" She shouted once more, squaring up the arrow at one. It backed off some.
The man knew he might not get there in time. Instead, dropping his pack, he drew an arrow from his quiver. Before he could fire however, one of the creatures moved faster than he anticipated. The middle creature lunged and, in a flash, she turned, fired and hit it square in the chest while it was in mid leap. She dodged its fall as it hit the pavement. She moved quickly to the right, ramming the end of her bow into the creature on her right side, knocking it back. The left creature was charging, but she swung the bow around and caught the creature in the head with the bow, splitting its skull open. The momentum of her swing and the creature dropping in front of her caused her to lose her footing over the dead creature and smash to the ground. She spun around, the creature she hit in the gut approaching with its claws extended, a loud growl and looking for food.
It was looking for her.
She reached for an arrow and the creature started to attack. A sickening 'thump' sounded out. She looked back at the creature. It stood motionless for a second. From its neck the back of an arrow protruded, with the front of it exiting the back of its neck. It dropped to its knees and fell forward.
She glanced over her shoulder at the man approaching her position. She was startled, and began backing away without getting up while watching him. He got to the creature he shot and removed the arrow from its neck. The shaft had snapped.
"Dammit." He muttered as he examined what remained of the arrow.
The Traveler turned to the woman.
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
She backed away, still on the ground and overwrought with fear.
He tried to reassure her, "Hey! It's OK. I'm just here to help."
"Just keep your distance." She said.
The Traveler laughed and took a last look at the damaged arrow before throwing it off to the side.
"What the hell is so funny?" she asked. She had a slight angry sound in her voice. "You think this is a joke?"
He looked up. Laughingly he said "You just kicked ass on three creatures, but you think I'm the one that wants to hurt you? I don't think I'm the threat."
She stared at him.
"You're not the first man who has said that."
He dropped his head. He knew she was right. The world, or what was left of it, had lost most of its civility.
"Fair enough." he said as he raised his hands. "I'll keep my distance. Are you hurt?"
"No." she said. Quickly getting to her feet, she turned, grabbed her bow got up and ran.
He stared in disbelief of what he had just witnessed as she ran off. He got a general sense of the direction she was going. Towards the edge of the small town he had just left. Just to the west of it. He had been in the north side of the town, which is why he had not run into her before. The Traveler was sure of two things now; one, he was sure he had found who was stopping by the food bank, and two, he was sure she was one hell of a badass.
...She is Fierce
He tracked her for a while, which was easy on wet ground. He stopped on a small hill overlooking a flat area where a stream ran through. His eye caught a few clothes that were hanging up and moving in the wind. He moved towards it. Some clothes swaying in the wind were hung out to dry. He stopped just short of the small house. It was rather quaint. Split rail fencing all around it provided some means of protection, and the area around the house was kept. The yard had been well maintained, complete with freshly dug areas where a possible garden was being started. He stood to get a better view.
The Traveler, mesmerized by the well-maintained home, did not realize he had lost awareness of his surroundings until it was too late.
A slight "whoosh" sound and stinging pain on the back of his knees, and The Traveler snapped back to reality. He hit the ground, bouncing and rolling on his side due to his gear.
His gaze fell on the woman he had followed, who was pointing a long, sharpened piece of wood at his chest.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" She asked.
The Traveler looked at her. "I told you I'm not a threat."
She sneered at him. "Well why are you spying on me?!"
"I'm not 'spying' on you. I just wanted to find out a little more about you." He said.
She still stared at him.
He thought a moment. "OK...yeah I guess that does qualify as spying on you."
He laughed. She rolled her eyes in response. Taking advantage of her broken concentration, he spun and kicked the back of her heels, sweeping her feet out and sending her on her back, next to him.
"Ouch! Dammit!" She said in frustration. The Traveler grabbed the sharpened stick to neutralize any counter-attack and quickly sat up.
"I'm not here to hurt you!" He shouted.
She struggled with the stick but he maintained his grip. Finally, she relented, and he took the stick and tossed it to the side.
"Truce?" he asked.
"Whatever." She replied, then got up, picked up the stick and started walking away.
He dropped his head to the ground and laughed.
She went back in the fenced area, and he walked towards the area where the fence lead to the stream. The stream was much bigger than it first appeared, and he was pondering whether it should be considered a large stream or small river.
"What do you want?" he heard from behind him.
He turned to see her standing on her front porch with a bow, not drawn on him, but at the ready in case she saw him as a threat.
The Traveler smiled. "I only wanted to make sure you were not hurt, and talk if possible. It's been a long time since anyone did not want to kill me immediately."
She remained emotionless. "The day is still young." She said as she held up an arrow in front of her and waved it at him.
He laughed again. "Look ma'am. I'm only passing through. I really am concerned for you. I'm not looking for anything except somewhere to rest, somewhere to get some food, and possibly a small amount of conversation."
"Ma'am? How old do you think I am?" She seemed to be slightly taken aback.
"Don't read anything into that, ma'am. I was raised that way. My uncle taught me to always say ma'am to a lady regardless of age. 3, 21, 50 or 80. It's always ma'am."
"So, you think I'm 80?" Her sarcasm began to show.
"No ma'am. I would have guesse
d no more than 75."
She couldn't help but to laugh. "I'm 28. And you're an ass."
"Well ma'am, you're not the first woman that's told me that."
They both burst into laughter.
They talked for a while, and she finally relaxed, although she did keep her distance. After a lot of small talk, he began to get a clearer image of who she was as a person. She had lived here most of her life. The small town had provided everything she needed. Having grown up with very little family, she never had felt the need to go anywhere else. The countryside was beautiful, the waters clear, wildlife abounded, and access to the small town was always nice when needed.
She had inherited the land and house from her mother who had passed away a few years ago. She had attended a few classes in a neighboring city on ecology and green living. Once, on a weekend conference on sustainable living, she had met a well-mannered man about the same age as herself. He was well-spoken and articulate, very knowledgeable on ecological systems and how they worked. Later, she found he had a degree in environmental science. Within six months they had plans to marry.
"It was kind of a whirlwind thing. But we connected on every level." She admitted to The Traveler that she had never shared the story of how she had met the man she had fell in love with.
The Traveler listened to her stories of their life. He began to admire her fiancé and his idea of living. She told him that while her fiancé was not a prepper or doomsday kind of guy, he did have a love of nature and homesteading. He was a big believer in sustainable lifestyle and growing and raising their own food as much as possible. Together they had learned meat preservation, candle making, how to can their own food and numerous other skills that had carried her over into present life as it existed now.
But their story didn't end like a fairy tale. Her fiancé had succumbed to the virus very quickly during The Turn. Unlike most, she said, he was gone in a matter of hours from the onset of his first symptom.
"I think there may have been another medical issue he didn't know about." She said as she stared off in the hills. "He was gone so damn fast."
The town had already been decimated by the time he came down with the virus. There was no use in calling anyone. She had buried him just a short walk down the riverbank in a small clearing. She said they used to picnic there; it was his favorite place in the world.
The Traveler, seeing her expression of a deep sadness inside her, changed the subject. "If I get us a couple of decent fish would you eat with me?"
Her gaze picked up to his eye level. He could sense a welcome change of subject matter within her.
"If you get a couple of decent fish, I'll cook them. In fact, I have a wood burning stove that I will get ready. I expect nothing less than two."
He smiled and said, "Deal!"
After an hour or so, he came back with three medium size fish. A decent haul she told him. He prepared them while she got out a can of stewed tomatoes. She had a couple of items that he found to be exciting. Flour, and a can of lard, of all things.
"Why the excitement over lard?" She asked.
He smiled and said "Because I know how to make tortillas from scratch."
She stopped and said "Show me."
So, he did. He took the flour and some lard, began blending it. He was careful to show her the consistency it needed to be before he added the water, how to mix it into the dough, rolling it out and letting it sit before taking a rolling pin to flatten it out. She took a cast iron skillet and put it on top of the wood burning stove to heat it up. Then he threw the first tortilla into the skillet and it sizzled slightly. The scent of it was almost heavenly.
In no time, the table was set with roast fish, stewed tomatoes, a jar of pickles and tortillas. They ate across from each other and shared a few stories and laughs. He found that it had been her that had been visiting the food bank sporadically. She said that it was a good place to pick up supplies during the colder months. She had taken many self-defense classes in her teens, so she was fairly capable of taking care of herself. And right she was, because making it this far into The Turn was no small feat. She had also fortified the fence around the house as another protective measure and explained to him that it was an ongoing process.
Sharing with her some experiences and encounters with others while on the road, he described some horrors he had seen, along with the beauty he had seen. He filled her in on JB's group and Max's stubbornness to keep coming after him.
The Traveler told her about the weird relationship he had with Miss, the feral.
"That has to the strangest thing I've heard." She said.
"It was quite weird." He said. "Oddly enough, I often wonder how she's doing."
Finally, she said, "I am tired, and it's late. I will offer you a guest room. But, you still gotta keep your distance." She waved a knife at him. Although her gesture was somewhat in jest, he knew she still meant business if need be. He held up his hands as a peace offering.
"Yes ma'am."
It was an older but very sturdy house. The doors were solid wood. The walls were not sheetrock like some quick built cheap homes he had seen, but more like solid pine boards. He admired it. True craftsmanship seemed to have waned in the last days before The Turn. The ones who did this kind of work were, to him, true artists. They would be missed.
His room was small but comfortable. He finally settled. Sleep came very easy to him that night.
The Stay
Over the next few days The Traveler volunteered to help with a few things. He helped fortify her fence. He assisted in preparing her garden.
One of the first things he asked was, "How do you keep your yard looking nice?"
She brought him to her tool shed, pointing at the reel style lawn mower. Reminiscent of the old-style manual mowers from the fifties, although this one was definitely a modern version.
"Sustainable living, remember?" She smiled at him as she said it. "If you start early in the spring like it is now, you can keep the lawn trimmed pretty good with it. You certainly do not want to try to cut a thick overgrown lawn with one of those."
The Traveler didn't say anything at first.
She studied his quietness. "Surprised I use a manual mower?"
"I'm actually shocked." He said. "The world has gone to hell and you still cut the grass."
She laughed and walked back to the house.
Later that afternoon, as she looked out the window, she saw him.
He was cutting the grass.
Decision Part 2
"Are you sure?" She asked him.
His announcement of moving on was not surprising to her, but came about sooner than she anticipated.
"I figured you would be moving on sometime."
"You know you can join me." He remarked as he gathered his things.
"While I do appreciate the offer," she looked around inside the home, "I doubt I will ever leave this place. It means too much to me."
"I thought as much. However, I did want to extend the offer. Trust me. I completely understand what you mean."
She peered out the window. "You could stay here longer if you like. I don't mind. Although, you would still have to keep your distance."
He laughed. "Ma'am, that is a mighty tempting offer. My heart is calling me elsewhere."
She smirked. "Two of kind."
He shouldered up his pack and with a quick hand gesture and a nod he just said,
"Yes ma'am."
The Traveler turned and looked upwards, took a deep breath, and continued on his journey.
Intuition
He walked a couple of miles out and stopped by the small river. He got out his small water filtration system and drank his fill. It wasn't hot, as it was still early spring; nevertheless, staying hydrated remained a priority. He made a small camp to rest. He planned to put some miles behind him in the next few weeks.
Life had not been easy. He was much thinner than when he had started out. Not too bad, and he was still in good shape. He attri
buted it to his training he had been given in his lifetime. He thought he might nap a little before going anywhere. The sun felt good, and the sound of the river was very soothing to his senses.
He awoke with a start. It was still daylight. Not a dream or a nightmare. Something else. Fear. Something was wrong. He could sense it.
He quickly stashed his bag. Grabbing his bow and his staff he began to run.
Right back to her house.
Out of Favor: The Traveler Page 5
