In the Panther's Wake

Chapter 14

I stand up and peer out through the slit in the concrete wall behind us. There's no sign of the lions or panther, nor can I hear anything. I sit back down beside Markus, lean against the stone.

"What is this place?"

"I think it's an old bunker," he says. "Maybe snipers used this spot as a lookout point."

I gaze around, my eyes adjusting to the dark. We're in a small round cave, the slit the only way out other than a tunnel leading deep into the mountain opposite us.

"What do you think is down there?" I point ahead.

"No idea, the rest of the bunker? Whatever that means."

I kneel, looking out again. The thin trees stand motionless, hiding anything beyond, obscuring the downward slope we just climbed. At least we're safe.

I stand and Markus rises beside me. He pulls a bottle from his pack and we both drink, the last of our water. My mouth and throat are so dry that even the hot, stale water is smooth, cleansing.

We sit and wait to catch our breaths. I strip off my outer hoody, my head pouring with sweat. The bunker is hot, airless. I lean out, sucking breaths from the open hillside through the slit. Markus stands beside me and does the same.

"I told you it was real," I say.

Markus looks at me, "I don't know what to think anymore."

"I thought you saw it?"

"Well, I saw something. I was scared, running fast. It could have been anything really."

"But it wasn't anything. It was the panther. Why can't you just believe it?"

"All I know is we're safe, but with a long way still to go."

I'm so angry I can't even look at him. But I know to leave it. It's better that way with Markus. He'll make up his own mind when he's ready. But still it's frustrating. The panther is the one thing giving me hope, giving me strength. Why can't Markus accept this gift we've been given?

"Even if it is a black panther, it's just an animal. It's wild. It hunts and kills like everything else," he says.

"Then why did it attack the lion? Why did it appear when we were about to become lion food? That's three times now it's come for us."

"If that's true, then why didn't it warn us about the attack on the station?"

His expression is solemn, but I can tell he isn't expecting an answer.

"Maybe it did," I say. "Only I was too stupid to know what it meant."

I stand up, hating Markus and hating myself—hating everything because the panther first appeared the night before everything changed; before everyone we knew was dead. But I didn't know what it meant then, and Markus still won't believe in it now. So what's the damn point?

The tunnel ahead is dark and down it I go without a word, all that hate I'm feeling plateauing in numbness and a need to keep moving and be alone.

"Wait," Markus calls after me.

I walk on ignoring him, stepping through the dark blindly. I can hear him rustling behind me, packing away his bag, hurrying to follow. I don't wait, just head down the tunnel, holding the sides to guide me through the dark. There's a strange, sweet smell in the air and I sniff as I walk, trying to figure out what it could be. The tunnel starts to grow lighter and soon the rock walls are visible, craggy and dry, the tunnel moving on straight for a while, before seeming to come to an end.