Tooth and Nail (Draft In Progress - Book One)

Chapter 27 - Gods Among Men

So Dragon Nation has been freed. The Command Sergeant Major has been kicked out, along with her companions. The Red Zone has been abandoned. Haven is empty. The Bone City is maybe the only official place left standing. If I can find a time that I can be sure that neither the Dragons nor Cornwallis's legion will hear, I need to know where I can find the Havens. I should never have left their sides. I learned nothing by following around the Reds, I could have been so much more help to the team I've been silently a part of for weeks. They need their angel, after all, if they want such a holy name as "The Havens". I know I need to help out the Dragon Nation first. They'll be in anarchy by now, having lost their dictatorship. I can practically smell the testosterone in the air, besides the flies and death and stuff.

Its not a long way, I know I could make it in a day. But I feel I shouldn't try to push it. It's a five and a half hour walk, in the blazing sun, and I need a CB, or at least somewhere to duck into for a break from the direct heat. Stopping at Haven would break that time in to parts. So that's where I'm going.

Seven miles to Haven, two hours. Easy.

Okay, I lied, its not fucking easy. Texas is way to fucking hot for this shit. The road is burning. The grass is burning. My feet are burning. Everything is fucking burning and I will be lucky if I don't get lost walking down this straight road. God damn it, I should have picked up a map. It can't be much further now, I've gone through the fork in the road and I've passed the billboard that advertises the neighborhood school for where Haven is, I walked through the tollbooth and across the median and under the highway where a plane supposedly landed, according to Tamerlyn's nightly report.

I try not to listen, but she's so alluring. She never sounds sure of herself, and yet she is evidence of her own capability. She always stammers and stutters, as if she is looking for a script she never wrote, but she's made it so far so well, I know they'll be okay for a couple days while I'm off saving the world. The Havens can wait, their hero will return shortly. I'm sure. They wouldn't do anything stupid. Surely they can feel that something is missing without me there to watch their backs. And they couldn't have gone far. Most buses don't keep full tanks and Tamerlyn didn't say anything about them leaving Austin. They just keep running from Cornwallis, and all of those fucking pointless murders. They practically killed a whole family. Well, I guess half of one. Taking out Newt and Foster, that was really lame of them. I can't say I blame 'em, though. If someone tried eating me, I guess I'd have a little prejudice. And I think they thought if they were going across the city with a kid, that would be a suicide mission. I know they love each other, so they're not heartless, but come on, would they be cruel enough to defend themselves instead of Newt if a Walker tried coming at them on their way to the Bus Farm?

Okay Haven is in... Falcon Ridge... And I know what it looks like, but it's on some little side street. Maybe if I just turn here and walk for a while, I'll recognize  the area I got so used to when I was running between Haven and Canterwood so much. 

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It was noon when I found Haven, and the sun was beating directly down on the Bubble. Haven's lawn was starting to brown, and the shade given by the small tree in the front yard was not nearly enough to cool the ground beneath it. Even my shoes felt tired when I stepped up on to the front porch, for the first time intending to actually walk in. Many a nights I had stood here just keeping watch. This time, I was only protecting myself. I rested my hand on the top of my head, and it was burning. It almost stung to feel my hair against my palm. The air was thick as it was hot, and I had no means to enter the house. They didn't have a key under the door mat - I'd checked a few times when they were still here. They didn't have a loose stone in the short garden barrier. There wasn't a secret pocket in the wall, or anything hanging in the rose bushes. In fact, the only place that there could be a key on this Goddamned porch would be in the light fixture!