Hope II

Welcome to Vertuga

It's been about a month now. Each day is colder than the last, and just as dark and bitter. I haven't seen sunshine in about four days now, the days are getting shorter one after the other. A clear sign that winter is coming. It must be October, late September maybe... god knows it could still be early September. The date doesn't bother me anymore, I don't count the days of survival, I only count the days to my death, hoping I don't have to count much further. 

My beard kept my face warm, and my hood insulated my hair. The peak of my hat stuck out, protecting my eyes from the harsh gulfs of the cold, downward wind.

Hmm... Maybe if I fell I'd break my neck... I don't have the balls to put the gun to my head and pull the trigger. Only three bullets left in my damn pistol, only three and I'm on my own. 

With every step I took, the withering sole of my left boot flapped, allowing the entry of the puddles into my already damp feet. But I ignored the feeling of it all... comfort is a word I don't know anymore.

I try to listen to the tweeting birds... there are none. 

I try to listen to the barking dogs. There are none. 

I open my ears to the sound of wolves footsteps... nothing. 

I wait to hear anything, anything to let me know I am not alone in this world... even the sound of a hungry bear, something to keep me company... there is nothing on this desolate path. I am alone. Alone on the path to death, wondering where it will take me and when it will end. Hoping and praying every day when I wake up, that the next time I sleep it will be a long one... a continuous one... a sleep that never ends. 

The road is dead like the air I inhale. A long straight path covered in moss and grass leading into the distance to go knows where. Behind me is another long stretch of country road, all the way back to the shack I slept in last night. 

I'll be spending tonight on the side of the road, and the time is fast approaching. The sun going down on the horizon and the moon rising on the mirror side. 

My ears were listening to nothing but the sweeping air, waiting and waiting to hear something, anything. A snapping twig would be delightful right now, let me know I'm not alone... I spoke too soon. My tracks stopped right after the twig snapped from behind. I wanted to know I wasn't alone... but now I wish I was. Slowly I turn around and heard the growling coming from the prone pranced lone wolf standing on the road, staring at me with open eyes and saliva running teeth, hungry for my flesh. His eyes were red, his teeth dripping in hunger, hairs falling from his vicious body as it stared to me, it's food. 

'You can have it' I said to him 'All of it'. 

The white furred creature watched me for a moment, slowly moving forward like a predator with long strides towards me. 

And then a bang, the pistol in my hand fresh of a fired bullet. 

I stepped over the corpse of the wolf and continued my trek down the road. Maybe I am not ready to die just yet.

He had his chance to kill me and he didn't take it. I couldn't keep him, I couldn't care for him. I barely have enough to feed my own mouth... maybe he would have been a good boy. Some company at night. 

I don't think of it as killing an animal, I think of it as saving him. Keeping him would be killing him, killing him would be saving him. 

Just when I thought the sounds were through, another met my ears from behind, one I thought to have mistaken until I turned around and saw it approach. 

A jeep, a jeep driving down the lonely road. 

I didn't know what to do, didn't know how to act... so I slowly raised my thumb to hitchhike the ride.