Blazen

Tracks

Last night was a blur for Thomas.
But it was as clear as day to me.

I had seen Thomas get up and put on the wolf hat. I watched him stroke it. It made me uncomfortable as hell. I heard him get knocked out by the girl. And I had met her in the middle of he night. Later, we had both seen Thomas thrash around in his sleep, and then we watched him get up and sleep walk. And we had seen him wander off into the desert. I wanted to wake him but the girl stopped me. She wanted to see where he went. So I let him wander off.

We watched him walk down the valley and disappear into the dark. I was worried but the girl told me to let him leave. We sat around the fire in silence for a while. I had a million questions for this girl, but I couldn't break the silence. Something felt... Off...

I was dead tired of course and ended falling asleep next to the fire. The girl stayed and watched for Thomas for a while. I woke up later to find the girl gone. I got up myself and went to look for Thomas. The sun was just coming up over the horizon, and I could see a figure laying in the sand, spread out, about 200 yards downhill from our camp in the Hollywood sign.

It was Thomas.

He was face down in the sand, wolf hat and gloves on, covered in ashes and soot and his shirt and shorts were torn.

The girl ended up coming back and she helped me drag Thomas back up to the camp. We weren't sure if he was awake or not, so we were quiet.

But it wasn't like we were being loud. In fact, we hadn't talked the whole time. The only thing she had said the whole night was "oh shit!" And that was after knocking Thomas out.

After we managed to get Tom back to camp, the girl took some charcoal and a map and began to write on the back of it. She left it in my tent and disappeared over the hill behind the Hollywood sign.

I expected her to come back, but after an hour or so I gave up hope. I was curious about the map but I knew I should wait for Thomas.

That was what happened that night.

That's what we remember.

But as far as Thomas could recall, there was no girl. He said he never put on the hat, and he didn't sleep walk. When I questioned him further about it, he got defensive and grumbly. When he woke up, he was panting and sweating and looking around all confused.

I asked about his sleep. I asked if he dreamed. He seemed a bit nervous when I did. I explained how he had thrashed around in the sand, and made weird noises. He didn't answer any of my questions. He just stared down at the sand.

Then after about a minute I asked again,
"Where'd you go last night?"

Thomas turned to me and shook his head.

"I don't know what you mean, man. I was here the whole night, wasn't I?" Thomas said smiling nervously.

I shook my head.

Thomas' smile turned into a scowl.
"Oh really. How would you know? Your lazy ass was asleep in the tent while I was out here keeping watch. I was the one sacrificing my sleep..."

I sighed loudly. Great. I made the little nerdling mad. And his rant was far from over. This is just what I needed early in the morning after a rough night.

"...I stayed up paranoid and sleep starved. And what did you do? You slept. And threw a rock at me thinking you'd be funny and mess with me. And don't make up stupid shit about me "wandering off" because I didn't. Maybe I fell asleep but I was tired and I over did my watch schedule. You were supposed to watch while I-"

"Thomas," I had to cut him off, "Thomas, last night you were freaking out in your sleep after the girl hit you with the rock. After a while you got up and wandered away. This morning we found you passed out in the sand."

Thomas just looked at me, his scowl still in full force.

"If anything you should be thankful we found you and helped you and watched you. I don't need this crap from you right now." I finished, rubbing my rumple with one hand. I had a killer headache.

Thomas exhaled loudly and clapped his hands together once then looked at me smugly.
"Well if all that's true, which it's not, then where is this girl I have to thank for saving me?"

I didn't have the patience for his sarcasm right now.

I shook my head. "Thomas..."

But he didn't let me finish.

"No you know what? I know what happened to me because I'm me. I know me better than you know me so trust me when I say I was here all night."

I opened my mouth to reply but was cut off again.

"Then explain those," came a voice from the tent.

We both turned and saw the girl standing with several water canteens and an armful of fruit. She was pointing at some tracks in the sand. There were two pairs of them.

One track was made by us when we dragged Thomas up the sandy hill. It was our footprints and drag marks. The second I couldn't see from where I was sitting.

Thomas and I both got up to look at them. Thomas seemed a little more anxious than I, and he seems suspicious of the girl.

Upon reaching the tracks I saw they were human tracks, walking away from camp. Thomas standing beside me sighed.

"Oh, they're just your tracks Josh..." But he trailed off as he followed the footprints with his eyes and saw them change from human footprints, to elongated wolf-like-tracks.

I saw him take a few steps back and cover his mouth. I was a bit shocked too and I didn't really understand it.

All three of us just stood there in the awkward silence for about 3 minutes when finally the girl spoke.

"Well, this may not be the most ideal time for introductions... But I'm Samantha. Call me Sam."

Thomas and I both looked at the girl a little baffled.

The girl sighed and dropped the fruit from her arms and proceeded to cross them.

"Fine, how about we sit down, have something to drink, and some fruit to eat, and we sort this out? And we can all get to know each other... Okay?"

I nodded. I looked at Thomas to see what he would say.

He was still sitting hugging himself with his arms, looking confused and sickly.

"Okay."

The girl smiled.
"Okay then! Dips on getting the first fruit!"