ROAD - Rabid, Oddity, Aches, Dark

I stood in front of Abby's room. I didn't want to enter without permission and she hadn't called me in when I'd knockd a minute before. I just didn't want her to go out, for the animal still to be there and to grab her. 

All of a sudden her door swung open with so much gusto I thought I'd be knocked off my feet. "Mack!" She shouted. "What are you doing here?"

"I knocked but you didn't let me in." I grumbled. "And I didn't want you to leave the house. Last night the little motherfucker was outside again." 

"You think it was the same one?"

"I think so. I don't know if it is." 

"Oookay." She said, still standing in the doorway with her hand on the door. "Do you still want to leave?"

"Of course. I just think we should be very careful."

"Well. You don't have to lurk outside of my room. You could have just come in."

"I think you would have kicked me out." I replied with a grin. Abby rolled her eyes at me. 

I peered out of every window of the house to check if the coast was clear before we walked out onto the street. I felt a bit uneasy, but I was sure that it was just a feeling and that there wasn't more to it. It wasn't anything like the feeling I'd got at the grocery store back in NYC. I shuddered at the thought of it. I realized that maybe Abby might know something, she might have encountered something similiar. It wasn't impossible considering she was also in an urban area and had obviously had to search for food as well. 

"You guys had to go out and find food and drink too, right?" I asked, just to be on the safe side. Not that I pitched her my idea and she couldn't relate at all. 

"Yeah. I was usually the one who went because the other girl's either got too scared or only wanted to go in groups."

"Going in groups in smarter." I pointed out.

"Yeah. But they took way to long." She said with a sigh. "I didn't mind going, we didn't really go on walks otherwise so, I liked the fresh air."

"You know, recently when I went to this store back in NYC I ran into a group of strange people...." My voice was flat and held a defeated tone. Abby regarded me strangely. "They were kind of weird. It seemed like...their bodies weren't really the same...they had yellow eyes but they were cloudy, almost like a blind persons?" I was looking at her when I talked. Searching for her expression to tell me she'd seen something alike. "And they kind of shuffled when they walked." I added. "The store I went in was at least half-full. I don't know if they killed anyone who went in or just scared them away, there weren't any traces of blood or anything..." I'd begun to rant. Abby could sense my nervosity. She reached out and touched my shoulder. 

"Hey, Mack. I never saw anything like that. I'm guessing they were either sick or mutated. I don't think you have to worry about it." She was being sincere, which calmed me down a bit. "Statistically, you're much more likely to die at a Nart's feet or because of an infected injury than because of other people."

"The truth isn't in the statistic, Abby, it's in the numbers." She knew exactly what I meant. A statistic is only as good as the numbers are. Numbers can be manipulated or forgotten which makes everything seem different than it is. 

"I still don't think you should worry about it, Mack." She said kindly. I smiled at her, my way of saying thank-you. 

We made good progress up until noon. We stopped to eat lunch in the grass by the road. I opened the can of fried rice and red beans with my knife. The smell wafted up into my nose, making my stomache grumble. "I have not had fried beans and rice in ages." I said. Abby laughed. I opened her can of canned thi khi masala. She'd found some pretty tasty shit back in the dynamite town.

The smell didn't only make us realize how hungry we were. It also lured something back onto us. 

We heard the low growl before we saw the animal emitting it. I jumped up, instinctivly trying to act large and dangerous. Abby joined me. We still couldn't see the thing, but it made the same rustling noises as it had that first night. If it wasn't the same fucker it was the same type of animal.

"Is it just me or do you think it's the same one...?" Abby whispered. 

"Yeah, I do too." I answered quietly. "Maybe we should shout?" A second later we were shouting and waving out arms around like maniacs. Would it help scare whatever it was away or at least give it the message that we would hold our ground? 

And then it appeared, slinking out of the bush in front of us. If I'd thought Narts or yellow-eyed people were scary, than this was a nightmare. 

It looked like a lion but was at least twice the size. It walked like an alligator, with his arms spread out, and on it's paws were lizard-like hands. It was foaming at the mouth, but I didn't think it looked sick. It just looked deprived. It's fur was darker, almost grey, and stood up along the spine. It's eyes were black.

The scariest thing to me was it's aura. It had lost all majestic energy, it wasn't the king of the jungle anymore. The fact that a mutated mountain lion that used to have little to fear stood before me like a house-cat, spitting and flashing it's teeth in a rabid way, that scared the living fuck out of me. 

Evolution fucks over quite a few species. I could tell it wouldn't live much longer; because of the way it was walking towards us. Snaking around, the vertebra in it's backbone were painfully twisted and cracking under it's skin. This mutation wasn't going to make it, all of them would die out, that was for sure. And the animal knew it too. It's eyes were almost begging; let me live. Help me. Turn me back to how I used to be. 

I realized Abby was looking at me. I didn't know what to do. If I'd have had a gun I would have shot it on the spot. But I didn't. And then as it was about fifteen feet away, a flock of birds eruppted from a nearby bush. It's head swiveled around and staired into their direction. Then it lopsididly bounded off after them. They were easier prey. 

"I feel almost sorry for it." Abby said, voicing my exact thoughts. 

"Yeah same." I agreed. The thought that had been nagging at the back of my brain now pushed itself to the front. Were people doomed like this pathetic creature was?