The Phoenix Project

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The Girl

After all that time down in the dark something as simple as the bright blue sky was enough to stun the girl. No longer was she trapped within the whirling shadows and nauseous fumes of the sewer. No longer was she pinned beneath rubble and subjected to omnipresent pain. She almost felt alive again.

She gripped the wolf's back with her legs tightly, her knuckles white as she clung desperately to her savior. She no longer hurt. She no longer felt tied down. The wolf beneath her had lifted her up...up into the warmth of the sunlight and the fresh air. The girl finally had a clear head, free of the murk and taint that only whispered of death.

And...yet...she felt fear, too; the familiar dark bubble at the back of her skull, the familiar heaviness in her limbs, the familiar shallow breathing...

Calm down, girl... she whispered in her mind. The wolf agreed to help...

She sighed, trying to concentrate on breathing evenly. In. Out. In. Out. The thick musk of the fur beneath her permeated into her thoughts, followed by the corrupt scent of decayed flesh and exposed sinew. She watched how the wolf walked in its odd limping gait, favoring the left side heavily. The wolf was balanced mostly on its right legs, using its left foreleg-which was little more than bone being held in place by tendons and skin-as a tool to keep balance.

She found her gaze trailing along the wolf's body once again now that she was in the sunlight. Her eyes slowly moved from the left foreleg to the chest, which was more in-tact than most of the rest of the wolf's body; the thick matted fur which she clung to still had the strong feeling of muscle beneath it. The rest of the legs seemed stable enough to the girl, although parts of the wolf's sides were missing entirely and she could see bones protruding into the open air.

She slowly loosened her grip and lifted her head, her breathing evening out as she focused on the strong muscle beneath her. The wolf was sturdy. The wolf would protect her.

You tell yourself this to stay sane she chastised as her teeth nervously bit down on her lip. She turned her head slowly to take in her surroundings; a road that stretched on forever, debris and rubble blocking sight a few blocks up ahead, and many side roads that divulged away. If they had names, the girl could find no trace of their existence. Rubble and debris littered the landscape, but there were no people-none whatsoever.

Buildings towered up, higher than the girl could ever imagine while down in the hole. Windows shattered, chunks of the buildings missing entirely, and some of them even collapsed over onto their neighbors or reduced into piles of dust and rubble. The girl felt as if the same decay that had been inflicted upon the wolf had plagued the city itself.

The girl felt the fear replaced by something else; smallness. She felt small, as if this giant world around her was not where she belonged. The darkness was familiar, it was welcome-but this giant, open, realm was foreign and strange. It made her feel insignificant. And so she clung to the wolf once again, hugging herself down against it as it walked along.

Where the wolf was taking her, she didn't know. The wolf's steady limp had put the sewer far behind, and after but a few simple turns and twists the girl had given up on trying to remember where she came from.

It's not worth returning to, now is it? She thought bitterly. Her eyes closed, her cheek pressed into the rough fur beneath her. She felt the heaviness in her limbs recede as she lay down and relax.

"Lyall...Do you know where we're going?" she whispered to the wolf, not really expecting much in return. The wolf unceremoniously snorted and picked up its pace somewhat, making the girl's ride all the bumpier. She couldn't have fallen asleep if she tried, so instead she just relaxed and let the wolf carry her on...and on...