Finding the Fallen

Chapter 17

It was starting to rain. Logan scanned the road ahead and behind as far as he could manage. It was hard to tell, but he didn't think it was raining back in town. He contemplated his choices...stand in the cool rain and get drenched, clothing and all...or head back into the woods just far enough to stay out of it...for now. It was a tough choice after the night he had just had...

Deciding he preferred dry clothing, he spun on his heel to step back into the woods. Merik was standing at the edge of the forest, not 20 feet from him. He nodded in Logan's direction and then looked up at the cloud above them. "Too bad I've already had my bath for the day. Looks refreshing," he said, walking past Logan to the road. Stopping at the edge of the highway, he looked back toward Charleston.

Logan stood rooted in place and simply watched Merik walk by him. The man moved like he didn't have a care in the world...odd behavior for someone who had been on his deathbed not two hours earlier. "Are you alright, man?" Logan asked as Merik situated himself alongside the road and stared silently southward. The steady rain slowly fizzled, small drops falling in arrhythmic patterns around him until only silence remained.

"Never better," Merik answered finally after the last drop had fallen. He didn't even bother to look in Logan's direction. "Kala's very good at what she does," he offered up in explanation. "Very good..."

"Yea, apparently so," Logan replied skeptically. "Where is she?" he asked, turning back to the forest.

"Not far behind," Merik said. "We need to keep moving...get to that settlement you mentioned last night. Tannish is probably broiling right about now. It won't be long before he sends an army up this road looking for us."

At that moment, Kala stepped out of the woods to join them. Logan could see tear tracks on her slightly dirty cheeks, the only part of her that hadn't been washed clean in the stream. He gave her a questioning look, but she just shook her head sadly as if to tell him to let it go. She looked up as a single large rain drop fell on her already glistening hair. A shadow passed across her features.

"Kala?" he began, only to have her cut him off.

"We should go, Logan," was all she said.

She stepped past him hurriedly, but paused when she realized she was heading directly toward Merik. Whatever happened between them back in that forest would have to wait. For now, they were both right. They needed to disappear.

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Merik felt different. He couldn't explain it, but he knew something had changed...he just didn't know what. It was odd because he had survived near death experiences before during his career in the Army, but this was...well...different. He had no other word to describe it. 

As they walked north along the highway and the mist left behind by the brief downpour began to dissipate, he took the time to revisit the events of the past evening in more detail. He knew there was something he was missing...some detail that would explain why he was still walking upright. Kala was obviously powerful, and she seemed to have become even more so over the past couple weeks, but he sensed she had not been wholly responsible for his survival. He couldn't explain why, but he knew there was more to the story. Even more importantly, something was telling him that the rest of this mystery was actually locked somewhere in the recesses of his own mind. He had the answers he sought; he just couldn't access them yet.

Frustrated, he decided to focus on a new subject...Tannish. Leaving the mental pain of his brother's death, the physical pain of his injury, and the emotional pain of his tender encounter with Kala behind, he allowed his military training to take over. They needed a plan of defense. If Tannish decided to hunt them, and it sounded like the Mayor would be motivated to do just that, it would be best if they saw him coming. If they didn't, their chances of survival would likely take a dramatic nosedive.