Steel Ethereal

Ch. 5 Meetings

Rob

Gina's gun is a bulge at my backside. Wearing it so informally for such a long walk has already made my back hurt. But I still felt a sense of clarity come to me in waves. I think back briefly on how careless I had been before departing and feel a sense of cringe.

Gina would want me to keep a third eye peeled in an environment as hostile as this.

Could it be hostile though? I haven't heard so much as a bird chirp. The grass rustles in the wind that's been blasting in my face and sides for the past few hours.

Had it really been several hours? Or minutes?

I look to my wrist, feeling dread as I pull it to my face. My wrist feels light and I find it bare. The kinetic watch Gina had gotten me. It was probably left on the counter in my bathroom. It would have been so reliable, not needing a battery...

"Fuck," I hiss in anguish. I bring my hands to my face, wondering if I'd keep making mistakes until I was deep underground.

The wind continued to whistle while I contemplated lying down in the grass and letting nature take me. It calms me as I choke down a sob and keep focus on my steps.

My feet shift, one over the other. The ground in these fields are uneven and treacherous. One misstep and I could break my ankle. It didn't help that most of the ground was muddy from the rain before. My feet, up to my knees were soaked and almost freezing. There were no roads, structures, nothing as far as the eye could see.

The road, or what I'm assuming was left of it, was town from the ground by the people of my settlement. They followed that road for the best of two years. Yanking the asphalt from the ground. Hiding it. I know why they did it. It led to our home. Somewhere out there was a greater road. And if someone could follow that road, trace it back this way...

Our settlement had been all about secrecy. Keeping to the people we knew and bred with. Almost occasionally did we let someone in if they proved themselves handy with a gun or tools. Women were let in if they weren't homely almost instantly.

I'm distracted from how secluded and closed minded my former home was by the sun peeking through the clouds. It reminds me that remnants of summer still linger.

A mild humid warmth comes with the sun. It's comforting when I remember that I'd been shivering for the past thirty minutes thanks to my once again mud soaked legs. It was a heat obliged to come after a harsh rain.

As I stumble over the ground making slow progress, I sneeze and feel an ache in the back of my head. It thuds from possible dehydration and having slept in a puddle overnight.

I sneeze again and look to the wind with watery eyes. A brush of dust slaps across my face, blinding me in my right eye.

I groan and reach to rub my eyelid furiously.

While I'm trying to clear my eye, I hear the rusty creak of hinges moan and four slaps of wooden slats slap against wet mud. The perfectly tall grass had hidden the entrances holes dug into the ground.

There are roars of glee and the click of safeties on weapons.

In addition to having an irritated eye tearing from having dirt embedded in it, I was frozen to do anything to alleviate it. Fear seized me. It compelled me to stay as perfectly still as possible. Though they would certainly kill me if I made one move out of place. My body would be riddled with bullets as Gina was.

They looked ragged, but finely armed. With assault rifles, side arms, hatchets, and bandoliers full of bullets geared to pierce through the front of a skull and exit out the other side.