(Previous)
The
two groups didn't waste time. We moved
out of the area as quickly as we could.
Trouble would try to find us. No
one doubted it would happen, least of all me.
I was
tired.
"Hey,"
Maggie said and put a hand on my shoulder.
"You look like hell, cousin."
"I've
had better vacations." I tried to
smile. "Next time we go to the
beach."
"Yeah!"
She agreed enthusiastically and I thought it might really happen.
"Can
we go home, Maggie? I mean all the way
back?"
"It
isn't the same if you do." She
kicked at a little rock. "Or maybe
it wouldn't be so different for you, but I had a real reason to leave. I don't want to feel petty, but I'm glad my
parents finally went to prison. They got
what they deserved."
"They
did. It was karma. You got a better world -- well sometimes --
and they got what they deserved."
"You
have something to go home to, though."
She gave me an oddly worried look.
"I
no longer belonged, you know. I was
looking at moving out. Mom
remarried. She's happy. I wanted to find my own life." I looked around and shook my head. "I am not finding it here."
"No
one finds it here," Maggie said.
"What about Elsewhere?"
"I
don't remember a time in Elsewhere when someone wasn't chasing me or trying to
kill me," I replied. Her eyes went
wind and then she nodded. "I
suspect I might like it if I could just sit down there for a little while. Get a feel for it."
For
some reason, Maggie thought that was funny.
Lord
Snow lead us towards the hill where we had descended into the city. I wanted to complain about backtracking, but
at least we were moving and maybe towards something positive. Lord Snow and Edmond were deep in conversation
and I tried -- really tried -- to take that as a good sign.
"Do
you really think we should leave the planning up to the two cats?" I asked
softly.
Both
cats' ears swiveled back my way, though they didn't look, slow or show any
other sign of having heard. Oh but they
were listening. I knew it. Maggie knew it, too.
"Do
you have some ideas?"
"Ummm
. . . No."
"Then
we go with the cats. How much worse can
it get?"
I
wanted to yell at her for being crazy and saying something like that. How much worse could it get? I looked up, literally expecting the sky to
be falling on us, or at least the city.
Was
my father up there? Did he know I was
here? I needed to spend some time with
Lord Snow. I would have liked a private
talk, but that seemed unlikely. I
glanced over my shoulder and nearly tripped at the sight of all the people --
whether human or not -- who were following us.
Beth,
who was just behind us, moved up to put a hand on my arm. "Pretty impressive, isn't it? It seems like a few more join us every few
steps. You're the first hope we've had,
Mark."
They
were all there because of me. The
thought made me lightheaded, but that came from a surge of fear like I'd never
felt before. I had their lives in my
hands and I hadn't a clue what to do. My
plan at the moment was to follow the cats.
"Maggie
--" I said, turning to her in panic.
"You're
fine." She looked past me to
Beth. "He's new at this
stuff."
"And
doing a fine job. Maybe being new has
helped," she said. "The rest
of us have been here a long time and come to accept that this is simply the way
things are. I never thought to escape
after a while. I simply went into hiding
and hoped no one found us."
"Did
you ever hear rumors about ways out?" I asked. I wanted some clue about what to expect.
"Not
often. Mostly we heard about people
disappearing up to the city. That might
have been an enticement if their bodies didn't turn up a few months
later."
I
looked up. I had noticed that Beth did
not, as though looking at the place would draw attention to us. I figured if they hadn't noticed the several
hundred followers by now, they were pretty much blind anyway.
Something
moved. I looked away before I tripped
and then back up again. A bit of dark
darted up by a window. Probably a bird.
A very
big bird.
I
didn't say anything, but I was starting to glance around to see what cover we
had in the area. The ruins of buildings
were still around us, but there were fewer of them here, but some were in
better shape.
"Beth,
start spreading the word that we might need to take cover. Everyone should keep an eye on some building
close to wherever they are and be prepared to head for it."
"Trouble?"
she said with a sigh.
"I
saw something flying up there."
"Damned
wyverns," she mumbled. "Well,
not a surprise. I'll start spreading the
word."
She
didn't ask where they were going, which he thought rather brave. He hadn't exactly asked either, though. When Edmond and Lord Snow stopped and waited
for him, he knew that they might have some sort of answer.
"Two
paths," Edmond said with a dip of his head
ahead. There were more than two
paths there, but obviously Snow and Edmond could sense two in particular that
held interest. "I want to explore
both, but we don't have time. So this is
where you make a decision, human."
"I
need to know about the choices," I said.
"We don't have a lot of time.
I have the feeling something is going to come for us soon."
Edmond
looked upward. "Yeah, real
soon."
I
looked up. A dozen of the wyverns were
sweeping in circles above us. And more
were joining them.
To be continued. . . .
998 Words
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