6 | Birth of The Hunter

2022

Ally woke up slowly to the gentle breeze and the hum of the bog. Light streaks through the treetops. If she wasn't so hungry she might have considered it almost a pretty scene. She chastises herself for forgetting her backpack back at the campsite. Nothing to do about it now—the man certainly must have doubled back and saw she was gone. She couldn't go back for it. It was lucky enough that he hadn't found her while she slept.

She stretched and looked up to the sky above her—it held a faint red tinge to it—now that she was fully able to take it in. It was ominous. It ruined the scene the greenery portrayed. But, she had to live with it. If she fights it she thinks she'll go mad.

Continuing on her way, she reached the end of the treeline—opening out into a clearing. She stopped as soon as she gets a clearer look at the sky—the sun...isn't the normal color either. It's a noticeable red—a lighter tint than the sky itself, but red all the same.

"I have a bad feeling about all of this," Jace said, fading in by her side.

She doesn't turn to him, but nodded solemnly. "Not much is right these days it seems."

"We need to find you some food. You're looking pale."

"I'm always pale."

"Paler," Jace said, the joke in his tone, but not in his face. "You've not come this far to starve now."

"Ha, isn't there something like that that people tell you not to think like? Like when you're gambling?"

"The Sunk Cost Fallacy. I'm surprised you've heard of it," Jace said.

"You're not surprised. You know I've spent too much time on the internet."

"A fair counter-argument, but that kind of thinking is the only thing that will keep you alive right now," Jace said. "And I'd like to keep existing if that's all right with you."

"My, how charming," she said.

"What would you do without me?" He smiled and faded.

She smiled smally of her own. "Probably be that guy's fuckdoll."

She crosses the clearing with little difficulty—and is almost walking on autopilot until the blur of movement dashes across the grasslands in front of her. She freezes in place as her eyes track the small creature hopping in and out of the grass. It looked like a cross between a spider and a gopher—a tiny brown body with extended, disjointed legs struggling to make its way.

"You know what you're going to have to do," Jace said.

Her stomach started to rumble and she knew too.

"I don't think you'll have a second chance. You know how long it took for you to find this one."

Ally rubs her hands over her eyes and took in a deep breath. It caught in her throat and she lowered them slowly. Her eyes caught a glance of a branch lying in the grass. It wasn't much, but it looked like it would have to do.

~...~

It was a messy affair. Any hunter would have been ashamed of the meat wasted, but she didn't care. She needed anything she could get.

She cobbles together a campfire as the sun threatens to set.

"You could probably get an hour or so further along the road if you wanted to," Jace said.

"And build the fire at night? That doesn't sound like a good idea."

"You're going to need to find water soon. And a way to purify it."

"Purify it?"

"You didn't think you'd be drinking it straight from the source, did you?"

"I mean..."

"If you want to get cholera and die, sure."

"Okay then, how do I purify water?"

Jace is quiet for a moment.

"See, not so easy is it?" Ally said, petulant.

"Thinking of your available resources, you could probably boil it if you can find a...container to keep it in."

"That's...there's no other way?"

"There are, but you don't have any filters on you or anything like that. It'll be easier for you to find a container than something like that."

"Hmm..."

"I'll keep track of time if you keep going. I have a bad feeling about staying here."

"Okay, you're the boss," Ally said.

"We both know that's not true."

This made her smile. She clumped dirt in her hands and threw it over the small fire, consuming it until nothing but the smoke remained. She kicked at the branches to settle it down, and then began walking into the distance some more.

"Soon as it starts getting dark I'm making another one."

"Fine by me. That spot gave me unsettling feelings."

"Anything specific?"

Jace pondered this as she climbed up a rock formation to overlook the hills. He seemed like he was going to answer, but they both caught sight of the makeshift houses and it took them both off guard.

About fifty yards in the distance looked to be a collection of huts strung together with mud and clay with straw roofs.

"A...village," Ally said.

She saw a figure in the distance who stopped and turned toward her. She freezes in place and her fight or flight response is triggered. She's about to book it until she saw the figure raise an arm in a long, waving arc. In that moment, something inside her breaks down and she starts crying. She still can't move, she's still so hungry and thirsty. She falls to the ground and falls unconscious.

~...~

A soft light cascades down from the crudely made opening that was supposed to be a window. Dust carries along the soft breeze to right in front of Ally's face. It took a moment for the panic to set in, but when it does she bolts upright like a rod was jammed up her spine. Where am I? Am I dead? Am I going to be? She jumps up to her feet and nearly falls over—the blood rushes to her head and she's got to hold herself up against the wooden door frame to keep from fully toppling over. She calls out for Jace, but he doesn't answer. Her brain is panicking—thinking of all the ways it could go wrong.

She looked to her left and saw a dirt road that leads to two larger buildings—a woman outside in a red blazer and thinned jeans is washing some clothes in an old fashioned tub. Allison's brain screams at her to hide back in the building she woke up in, but she locks eyes with the woman and instantly she knows the jig is up.

She freezes up like a deer in headlights.

Move! Shout! Scream! Do anything other than just sit there and wait to die!

But she waited. Frozen there like she did before she passed out. She felt a sudden lightheaded feeling again and pushed through everything inside her to stay conscious.

"Oh, you're awake finally," The woman said, cocking her head, concerned. "But you seem so frightened...it's okay—we're not going to hurt you or anything like that."

Ally did not respond—she was wary of anybody who wore false fronts.

The woman noticed she was not calming, so she stopped walking closer and held her arms up. "It's okay. I think you could beat me up if it came down to it," and then she gave a nervous sort of smile. "My name's Elaine. My father said when you're scared of someone new you should give them your name, because it made you seem more human in their eyes—they're less likely to kill or hurt you."

"You're...scared of...me?" Ally worked out. It was the first thing she's said since…

"Well, I'm scared of just about anything I don't know in this new place, dear." She said, a noticeable southern twang in her accent.

"Then why'd you save me? You could have left me where I was..."

A sad look crosses her eyes, almost as if she understands a history behind that single question. "Well, that wouldn't be very human of me, would it?"

"Even if I killed you right when I woke up?"

She looked at Ally hard, her sorrowful look turning into a slight smirk—she knew Ally didn't mean her any harm. There was something inside her that just knew.

"I figure I'm lucky enough to have made it this far in life. If I survive by casting others aside I deserve to be struck down with 'em."

Ally thought about this, thought about how everyone she met that was still alive...was the exact opposite. Everyone was looking out for themselves so much...and the ones that were looking for more weren't strong enough to help the ones like…

The ones like me.

"My name's Ally...Er...Allison. You can call me Ally though. I don't know how much last names really matter now, though..."

"Well, that depends, are you proud of it?"

She thought on this and bit her lip. Was she proud of her last last name…? Her final...last name? Fae?

Yes, she thinks she is. She's proud of the effort George and Jaclyn gave into helping her. Even if it wasn't what she needed, they tried. They cared. She was a Fae.

"Allison Fae." And for the first time in a long while...she smiled.

"Well, Ally, it's nice to meet you," Elaine said. "My last name's not really something I'm proud of, but I bet it was tough reconciling yours, so I guess I should return the favor. Mine's Trent."

"Is that a name I should be familiar with?" Ally asked.

"My father was a politician in 'round these parts. Tennessee called him their shining star, but really he wasn't anything but a bigot in the end."

"Yeah, I've never been," Ally said.

"Well, technically you are, now. Or, at least what used to be," Elaine said. "This here area used to be a few dozen miles away from Nashville itself."

"Wait, you serious?"

"What?"

"I...I was in Maine..."

"Before the..."

Ally nodded slowly.

"I think the world got messed up a lot more than we realized. I don't even know if I could call this Tennessee anymore."

"I guess...not. This is so much different than it was before. It's like everything started over."

Elaine thinks on this, but gives an unfulfilled look. "I don't know if I'd say started over necessarily. Maybe something like..I don't know, combined. Merged."

Ally furrows her brow at this, "Merged? With what, exactly?"

"I think it might be easier if I give you some examples," Elaine said. "There are some other people like us here—but they came from different places than I did."

Ally is about to ask, but she held a moment. The thought of a merged world swims in her head like a fish fighting hard to keep up with the current. "Places...like other worlds?"

Elaine smiled smally, "You're quick at the wit, aintcha? They're from different worlds, yes. Ones similar to the one I came from, and I am assuming similar to the one you came from, but now we've been brought here to this one, single world, but that is something I would like to talk with you more around the others. We're all trying to piece together ourselves here and find some sense of community here."

"I...would like to meet the others," Ally said, the idea of multiple worlds still holding her attention.

Elaine nodded and gestures her to follow.

They arrive at what Ally assumes to be the communal square. The huts she had previously seen in the distance were now all here gathered in a small circle. Up close they looked like nothing more than clay kept together with weaved branches and mud. It was more than she could have ever managed, but still they looked sort of...sad. Like a statement on their current condition.

Sitting on a stool in front of one of the huts were two older women who seemed to be mid-conversation when they approached. The leftmost one—a doddy old woman with bright green eyes and a grin that seemed to never leave her face. The rightmost looked to be more of the passive in the conversation—her hazel eyes intently focused on the other.

"Hey, guess what, we've got another one!" Elaine calls out, grabbing the both of their attention. They turn and each both look directly at Ally.

"Ally, this is Tina and Estelle. Probably the strangest coincidence out of all of us here—they're not related but are both Gartners.

"Oh you're telling this story again," Tina said. "I swear you're hooked on it more than anyone else around here."

"No, I understand," Estelle said. "It does still hang in my mind too."

"Oh nothing hangs in your mind," Tina said.

"They're best of friends, believe me," Elaine whispers to Ally.

"Well, how much does she know?" Estelle asked. "And where's she from?"

"I was going to wait until there were more people around to get to that," Elaine said. "I figured she could speak for herself."

The attention was now on Ally, but it was only for a moment, and she was thankful.

"Well, I s'pose that if you're going to be around here you should know what's what." Tina said. "We seem to each come from a different...flavor of the same world."

"Of all the descriptions you could use, you choose flavor?" Estelle laughed, a hearty sound that transitions into a cough. "Oh, excuse me, I'm so sorry."

"No, you're fine," Ally said, holding up a hand. "I think I get the concept. Alternate realities, right? How did you all like...figure that one out? I wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at you."

"No, I don't suppose you would," Estelle said, wiping her mouth. "It's little things that don't match up with our memories. The two of us noticed it first—we tend to talk a lot on our youth," she offers a small giggle.

"I listen more than talk," Tina said, "but sometimes I pick out points I don't quite remember happening that she's sure happened like it were yesterday.

"And then it goes vice versa. Soon we gathered everyone together and started talking about events big and small, who was president went, who marched for civil rights, who wrote the Great Gatsby. Sure enough, some things changed here and there, and nobody was ever willing to accept that their memories were flawed, and so here we are. The best running theory we have is that the worlds we lived in just...I don't know, collapsed into one single one, and we're the people that got chosen to remain."

Faintly, a voice hung in Ally's mind. It was on the tip of her tongue until it vanished like a ghost.

"I...don't know if I have the energy now to recount my entire history," Allison said, worried now that there was some great expectation to get on the same level as these people.

"No, no, nothing like that," Elaine waved off her concern. "I mean these two would talk for hours if you let them, so I'm sure they wouldn't mind so long as you gave them food every short bit."

"Oh stop," Tina rolls her eyes.

"But that's not how the rest of us really roll," Elaine finishes. "Things come up when they come up. It's not really the most important thing that we know all the differences so long as we know that they exist. If you did want to stay with the rest of us, I'm sure that is something that you'd learn with time."

And there was the question right out on the table. What was her plan? Did she want to stay with these people? So far they seemed nice enough, but wasn't that how most people presented themselves—even the really bad ones?

Lilly had presented herself as...well, she wasn't going to lie and say it was nice enough, and she supposed that was part of what attracted her at first. There was something about her that always kept her on her toes, but she felt like she wouldn't have to do that here. That she wouldn't have to be on such high guard.

"Yes, I'd like that," Ally said.

"There are a few others over here," Elaine said, "I think they should be out playing near the creek."

Ally nodded and follows Elaine past the huts and waves a goodbye off two the two ladies. The trail winds around the back and ends at a small stream that had what must have been the most glistening blue water she's ever seen. Playing in the stream were two kids who couldn't have been older than eight. A boy with disheveled brown hair and a high pitched laugh that rang out as he splashed the girl—blonde—with a handful of water.

"This here's Darren, he's got enough energy to last for days. He's told us a lot about how his father used to take him fishing all the time. You wouldn't guess it, but he loves to talk about his old life—it's like he doesn't separate that it's gone yet."

"Oh to be young," Ally found herself saying.

"Oh you stop that," Elaine chuckled out. "You've got quite a lot of life left in you still. Remind me a bit of my daughter, in fact."

"She's not here, is she?"

Elaine shakes her head. "No, no she didn't make it over as far as I can tell. S'why I bonded with Daisy over there so fast. She's not handling it as well as Darren seems to—I know the both of them have really needed each other through this time, but she really needed something more, and I think I did too. But anyway, that's all adult stuff that—"

Ally shakes her head, "No, I don't think it is."

"No, I suppose not. You're wise for your age, you know that?"

"I don't know if wise is the word I'd use. Hurt is probably closer."

"Well then, Ally, come and join the club."