Z Slayer

Z Slayer

A Novella

By Jay Mouton

Copyright 2017 Jay Mouton

Jay Mouton Distributed Edition

Z Slayer

A Novella

By

Jay Mouton

Elizabeth Blue Skye nestled inside her sleeping bag. She felt the gentle swaying of her camping hammock as she marveled at the starry show above her. Elizabeth, Elle Blue as her father always called her, had seen shooting stars over the twelve short years of her life, but nothing could have prepared her for the show going on in the heavens tonight. Flashing across the wide expanse of the indigo sky were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of meteors raining down from on high.

"It's something, ain't it Elle Blue?" her father whispered just loud enough for his soft voice to carry over the few feet between where he rested in his own hammock to his daughter's ears.

Elle turned, ever so slightly, toward her father. But she kept her eyes glued to the stars.

"It's beautiful, daddy," she answered, her own voice in the hushed tone she tended to reserve only for the church pew on Sunday mornings.

They continued to watch the marvel in silence. Other than the rustle of pine limbs brushing against each other, as a gentle wind played with the treetops, the only sound was their relaxed and measured breathing as they lay under the dark canvas of a northeastern Florida night.

It was late February, and the evenings could still deliver up a formidable chill. But the daughter and her father, each bundled in the cocoon of a snug sleeping bag, didn't seem to notice the cold. And, besides, the lightshow far above them seemed to kindle a spark of wonder in Elle and her father, Elton.

As she continued to follow the random paths of the meteors, streaming by at the speed of light, she felt like she was the luckiest girl in the entire world. Here she was, camping out under the stars, in the wilds of northern Florida. And, she reminded herself, she was only twelve years old. Only twelve, but OMG, she thought as she began to make a mental list of all the things that she already knew how to do.

Her eyes remained riveted on the meteor shower, but her thoughts roamed as if they were dancing with the very stars above her.

She could build a fire with just her flint stick and a little bit of lint from the dryer at home. She knew how to drive the little John Deere riding mower at home, and it had been her responsibility to mow the front and back yards on their property since she had turned twelve, almost a year ago. She knew Morse code, of all things. One of her best friends from just down the road from her family's place, Gavin Kingsley, had been teaching her. She smiled when she remembered how Gavin said she was, "a lot more fun than most of the other girls at school."

Elle's father had, only a few weeks earlier, taken her up to Moccasin Creek Circle and let her drive three times around the worn and rutted dirt paved road. Most of the time, she was only allowed to practice her driving skills in the driveway at home. Still, she was getting so good that her daddy allowed more and more practice. It had been a birthday gift promise that her daddy had made the year before she'd turned twelve. She loved him even more than usual on that particular morning, as she recalled.