Kennedy Hoss of Musket

Chapter 21: Snakes and Spiders

Song: Black Fog

We head to the north west corner of Musket and reach the invisible wall in under two hours. By then the sun is going down, and it's getting colder. We stop to change into warmer clothes, me into a woven white pull over shirt and jeans, and Crow into a red zip up sweatshirt.

"So who wants to try going through it first?" Crow asks, staring at me. I step up and hesitatingly poke my left arm through it, before yanking it back. There's the sound of a malfunction and the wall begins to make weird noises, before seeming to disappear. The leaves slide down, and we can freely walk on.

"That was a little weird," Ana says.

Just then, there's a loud bang a giant mass of fire goes shooting through the air. It collides with a tree than snaps in half like a twig.

"Run!" I scream, grabbing Crow by the wrist. More explosions and Ana goes flying forward, smacking her forehead on the ground. Crow and I break apart to hold Ana by the sides and run on. When I turn back, I see Cat run up to us. The ground trembles and Musket erupts in a thick gray cloud.

"Move!" I yell, urging my stunned companion forward. "Hurry up, let's go!"

The four of us break through the tree line just as we hear the familiar buzzing of another invisible barrier. It rises just inches behind us and I can feel a small tug on the end of my braid. More blasts sound behind us.

We drag Ana through a large grassy expanse, heading for a little fenced in dirt lot littered with little structures. It's as if I have stepped through a mirror. Almost.

My foot hits a hole and we go flying down. Crow gasps and hits the ground after me, leaving Ana to take the blunt of the impact. When I tilt her head to the side, I can see a trickle of blood running down her forehead. I look back at the forest, where billowy smoke begins to arise from. It's disheartening. I look over at Crow, panting and staring back through the trees. His entire body is shaking, twitching and random spasms that make him flinch.

We gather our composure and slowly rise from the grass, lifting Ana with us. I take her under the arms and Crow takes her feet and we run towards the little cluster of houses growing bigger and bigger before us as we get closer. Somehow we manage to make it over the fence in two strides before landing back down in the dirt and yelling.

"Help us!" We scream, "Help! Get help, someone's hurt!"

Like fireflies appearing on a summer night, pale faces appear in the doorways and windows of the little buildings on stilts, each face emerging with a faint chorus of inaudible voices.

A man and a women from a larger structure climb down, and we silently allow them to lift Ana from our arms. They take her and return as quickly as they came. We try to follow, but they close the small opening as we're about to reach the ladder. So we stand below, alone and exhausted. Just above, the setting sun is shrouded in an intense haze.

"Hey!" Crow walks over to another structure, waving an arm above his head. I watch as the pale faces back away from in the darkness, and wooden slabs drop over the windows and door. He walks from structure to structure, growing more desperate and more desperate with every crisp thunk of more wooden slabs dropping down.

"What the hell!" He yells.

A distance away from where we stand, I spot a large boxy building. Around that are a few little buildings that I can only guess are stores and other little service buildings. Behind those, what appear to be the silhouettes of a bunch of small houses. Off to the side theres a silo standing in front of a many rows of corn and other crops. Then my eyes fall on a shape sitting a few meters away a from where Crow stands. If not for the small flick of red, I wouldn't have caught that the shape was actually alive.