ROAD - Renegades, Over, Animal, Dawn

We walked side by side in silence. She obviously didn't want to talk to me, at least, that's what I thought. She was proabaly mad about woman-shit. Angry that I'd had a Martini. Ha-ha. I wanted to ask her what they'd done to her. I didn't think they'd done anything, but I felt obligated to ask. 

"You alright?" I asked. 

"Yeah. I'm fine." I looked at her. She seemed fine. A bit quiet. Usually people aren't fine when they're quiet. But I guessed that she was just in shock. Everybody eventually realizes that they can die, that they aren't shielded by a force some people like to call...It didn't matter anyway.  "Our trip started out great." She said sarcastically. I agreed. 

"It could have been worse." I pointed out. She nodded.

"I guess. Yeah, it could have." 

"Did you ever fight a Nart?"

"No, why?"

"You're going to have to learn how to fight, Abby. Otherwise you might as well go back to the club."

"Alright. I'll learn." 

"Good."

"Good." 

The sun began to set. I should have been smart about it and asked the Mafia if we could stay the night at the gas station. But the thought hadn't crossed my mind. 

We ventured off to the right of the road where a cluster of trees provided the necessary safety to spend the night. I did the classic thing; one of us would sleep and the other would keep watch. Abby seemed restless, probably still riled up from her near death experience. So I offered to sleep first. She seemed surprised. I didn't explain myself. She was smart enough to realize that it would still take her hours to fall asleep. I got knocked out the secocnd I rested my head on the backpack. 

I awoke to Abby shaking me out of my dreamless sleep. I swatted her hand away. What she did next surprised me and caused me to sit up faster than a cobra strikes. She slapped me across the face. "What the fuck?" She then pressed her sweaty palm over my mouth. 

"Mack, something's here. And it's getting closer."

My blood ran cold. I turned around, peering into the darkness. Thankfully the sky was almost cloudless. I couldn't make out any unusual shadows but then again, there were so many bushes and trees, how could we have been able to tell if something was lurking behind them.

When I was eleven I'd read a story that had chilled my spine. It happened sometimes, my Mom had told me. In Africa people used to sometimes get taken by lions. There'd been this one safari trip wher the tourists had gone camping outside. They'd slept in their sleeping bags. One of the eleven guys had been taken at night. There'd been no scream nothing, just a small trail of blood. The lions will bite you in the neck, they're silent, and once they got you,  you can't scream. 

The unpleasant thought resurfaced. What if Abby had fallen asleep and whatever it was had just snatched me, bounding away into the night, leaving me an unsolved riddle. 

I heard it too. The rustling. It was still a ways away. I just stared in it's direction. Maybe if it came closer I'd be able to make out what it was. 

"It could be a mountain lion, right?" Abby asked calmly. 

"Yeah. I hope so. We could easily fight it off." Unless it was mutated.

"Maybe we should try to climb up the trees?" Abby proposed. She seemed a bit forlorn. It wasn't a bad idea and the trees were possible to climb. 

"Yeah maybe..." I stood up slowly. If it was a mountain lion I might be able to scare it away just by seeming big. As if on cue, the rustling stopped. We stared into the darkness for at least a quarter of an hour. Whatever it was refused to show itself. Either it had slinked away or it was still there. "You know what Abby, get some rest. I'll keep a look out." She didn't refuse. I think it took her about half an hour to fall asleep. 

I have to admit, I thought of Joline. I wondered what she was doing. Was she up feeding her cats? Was she in bed with one of the neighbors? Was he becoming her plus one? It didn't matter anymore. I would never see her again. I hoped that she'd find someone. Someone who'd also step up to her love more than by just carving their names into a tree. I made a promise to myself; if I found a car that still ran and if I had the gas, I'd drive into NYC and go back to my old apartement to pay her a visit. And if I found her, I'd invite her to the farm. 

Once I heard rustling. It was further away again. But it could have just been a hare or some other little critter. I woke Abby up a few hours before dawn. She sent me off to bed again and kept watch. I told her to wake me up in about one and a half hours, but she didn't. 

When I got up it was already dawn. Time to keep going. I was about to scold Abby and tell her that even if she'd lost sleep we'd still walk the twenty miles today. But by the look on her face it seemed she already knew that. 

We hit the road. Heading north-west as always. In approximately three days we'd reach the farm. That meant two more nights outdoors.