In the Panther's Wake

Chapter 13

There is no moon in the sky, blocked off by the thick haze above us. I can barely see Markus beside me. He's just a dark shape. But I can hear our footsteps padding along in the dust. The grains of sand crunch against each other and the wind drives over the plain.

"How much further?" I ask in a whisper.

"I have no idea. I don't even know how long we've been walking."

"Feels like forever."

"I wish we could see the moon. Then we'd know," Markus says, gazing up at the black sky.

"Is it just clouds, the haze?"

"I hope so, because if the moon is gone, the end of the world is closer than we think."

I stare at Markus, but can't see his face. I don't know whether it's just his bleak sense of humour or if he really is worried.

He pats me on the back, "You know how thick it is sometimes. We didn't see the sun for almost a week last year, and that was way after the rain clouds had cleared. It's rubble and dust, it comes and goes."

"I know. But it's nice to be reminded. Everything feels different now, since...," I breathe out slowly, hold it in. "It feels like we're in another world, again. New rules."

Markus puts his arm around my shoulder as we walk on, "I know little brother. But it's the same world, and we know how it works. We know how to survive."

As I stare out in the darkness, I feel the panther's emerald fire igniting in my heart and mind.

**

It doesn't grow lighter nor darker. There is nothing to guide us, no clues, just darkness and desert, cold wind scattering over our forms. We stop and put on our new hoodies, to protect us from the sands. I pull the hood up over my head to shield my neck and the side of my face, and on we move, further into nothing.

I start to lose all sense of self in the dark. We try to keep going in a straight line, but I worry that we are turned around already, heading in the wrong direction. Then we hear it in the distance, dead ahead, but a long way off. The unmistakable sound of gunfire. It's far away but the bullets echo in my head, and I hear screams from before; screams bouncing off the metro station walls; screams of our family; people we knew.

Markus pulls me to the ground and I snap out of it. As we lie beside each other in the sand, lights flicker in the distance as weapons crack and blow. Machine guns and pistols light up the sky to reveal black clouds roaming over and under each other.

"Is it soldiers?" I ask.

"I sort of hope it is," he says.

"Why?"

"Would you prefer two groups of bad guys with guns hunting us?"

"They might be good guys," I say.

"They might also be space mutants or walking, talking armadillos," he says.

I grunt and fight the urge to hit him. "If they are soldiers, what are they doing all the way out here?"

"I don't know. But I'm starting to think they're going to be everywhere," Markus says.

"I thought they stayed in old cities, where they could hunt people."

"Maybe there aren't enough people left in the cities to hunt."

Things have gone quiet; the gunfire at an end. I rise to my feet, help Markus to his.

"It's far off," he says. "We can't turn around, we'll get lost."