The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 32

The sun was setting now, and Olive and I were still searching for Sketch in the deep woods. We hadn't been able to catch his scent, so we had no idea if we were even close or not. He could be on the other side of the city for all we knew.

I muttered to myself, "His name should be Weasel at this rate."

Olive snickered from a few trees away, "You calling him spineless? I know he didn't even talk to the other Crawlers, but come on!"

I huffed in mock annoyance, "Oh, shut it, you know what I meant."

"Yeah yeah. In all seriousness though, he lived in the woods for what, four years? The most wild you've been is living in a disheveled city for a few months. He probably knows how to survive better than the both of us combined."

I nodded from the top of a young pine tree, "Fair enough. Not to mention my survival skills are pretty rusty at this point."

Several more minutes passed, with the two of us having no better luck. We had seen several eagles, and even a large bear, but no sign of Sketch. Animals that aren't even supposed to be here right now are showing up, but we can't find this guy?!

Olive tapped me on the shoulder, I turned to look at her. She pointed back behind us. I craned my neck to see what she had decided to note, when I spotted it. One of the taller trees in this area had a figure laying across one of it's many thick branches.

How the hell he got out here without us catching his scent was beyond me, we had been traveling in the trees and on the ground to try and find him. It didn't matter too much though, all that mattered was that we finally found him. I cautiously jogged towards the cluster of trees, if he was still in a bad mood he may just run off again, and we didn't need to spend another few hours looking for him, especially once it got dark.

I retracted my Crawler legs and walked up to the tree, before gently tapping on the bark with one finger. He jumped slightly and looked down at me below, and Olive approaching, thankfully he didn't seem to be about to run at the sight of us. He sat up on the branch, and with a faint smile, waved us up. I was surprised, I had expected him to just ignore us for the most part. I jumped to reach the lowest branch on this tree that would support my weight, and slowly but surely scaled the tree. I was several branches away from Sketch, and kept my voice level, "You okay?"

He slowly nodded whilst stretching, looking back towards the bright spot of clouds where the sun hid, "Yeah. I'm glad it's dealt with to be honest, I'm almost relieved to know I didn't have to find this out on my own. I just don't want to think about it anymore."

Olive had also climbed into the web of branches, and leaned against the rough bark, fiddling with the blue butterfly charm on her necklace, "Small mercies."

The three of us simply looked over the snow-coated woods, that stretched for miles. It was calm, for once. The view from up in this tree, of the silent woods and clouded sky, reminded me of the weeks after I had just turned, the difference this time was that I was not alone.

All the way back then, I had no choice but to be on my own, secluded in this apocalyptic ghost town. My friends and other humans were nowhere to be found, or if I did encounter them they would react with a gun. Crawlers saw me as an easy target, being a young and newly turned Crawler with no allies or territory. Animals would do all they could to get away from me, though I couldn't blame them for that.

I turned my head to look at Olive. Two years ago, she snuck into her father's museum with two friends, simply wanting to be a rule breaker and see the creepy place at night when no one would be the wiser. Ironically, they were none the wiser of me. I thought it was funny that back then, my first instinct when seeing them was to mess around and terrify them. In my defence, I had been bored out of my mind for a week straight.

Sketch and I weren't even aware of each other's existence until several days ago, when we still thought the other was Feral. Technically, if Olive's father hadn't created the Lurkers back then, we never would have found the fifth member of their pack when he lost his mind, and we never would have even thought to look for this pack, not knowing it existed. This meant Sketch would likely still be getting manipulated by those he thought were his family, eventually making him think that what they were doing was okay.

Something was still on my mind though, it wasn't that important, but it was still itching at the back of my brain. I looked up at him, "Hey Sketch?"

He turned around to meet my gaze, slight confusion on his face, "Yeah?"

"What's your real name?"

He paused, as if weighing the pros and cons of telling me and Olive, who had been so curious previously. After several minutes without an answer, I let the subject drop and just turned back to the horizon. He probably had his reasons for not saying, I would imagine he saw whatever it was as his old human name, from a life that was over and dead. Sketch was his Crawler name, for the life he lived now, his new self.

I have to admit, I'm not exactly the same person I was when I was thirteen. No one ever could have imagined this is what my life would end up like.

The quiet voice above me was hesitant, but in a way, sounded relieved, "My name is Skye."

I smiled to myself. I guess we have a new pack now, don't we?

It felt like a pretty good outcome to me.