Aftermath of the Reckoning

Chapter 27

Patch walked outside and breathed deeply. Feeling uncharacteristically tired, he secretly wanted to get some fresh air without revealing his full intentions to Zoey. She worried too much already and he didn’t want to add to that.

Walking to the back yard, he passed a rusty push reel lawn mower entangled in grass and weeds that sprouted around it. A small rotting shed, the roof missing, resided further to the right.

Heading into the trees, he sighed at the sight of the pond. Lilly pads floated on a layer of greenish scum covering the top.

Patch knelt and cleared away some of the top layer with his hand. He dipped the jar and filled it with a brownish liquid swimming with particles of dirt.

Zoey isn’t going to like this.

Patch lifted his head and a fiery light reflecting from the surface of pond stole his attention. A smiling small boy perched on a flaming wolf-shaped animal on the other side of the pond.

As Patch stood motionless, watching, a vague memory tugged at his mind. Had he seen these creatures before? And the boy, something about the boy...

Slowly, as if in a dream, the wolf moved forward and dipped its front paws into the pond. Steam erupted, occluding his visibility of the far side. When it died down a few seconds later, the boy and wolf had vanished.

Patch walked over to the location though he found no trace of their presence, no singed grass or burned trees. However, the pond now sparkled vibrantly in the afternoon sun, the muddy bottom clearly visible without a trace of scum or other plant life previously floating on top.

Patch stuck one finger in the pond, feeling the cool wetness. Perplexed, he emptied the dirty water in the grass and dipped the jar into the pond, filling it with clear water. Somehow he could just feel the water would be safe to drink without even boiling it.

Patch returned to the house and found Zoey scooping beans into a couple of bowls. “You’re not going to believe what happened out there.”

Zoey looked up. “What happened?”

“Well, I was getting water from the pond, very dirty water mind you, and out of nowhere comes this kid on a flaming wolf and — “

“Wait, what? You saw an ember? Patch that is the thing that attacked me before I met you! Are you hurt?”

Patch shook his head. “Quite the opposite. As I was saying, the wolf stepped into the pond and suddenly there was a lot of steam and it vanished. The remaining pond water became crystal clear, see…” He held out the jar for her to examine.

“Patch, we’ve got to get out of here. If the embers have already found us, then —”

“Zoey, calm down! Let’s finish eating first. I believe you when you said they attacked you earlier, but I have a feeling we’ll be ok, at least until we reach Nex.”

Though he could tell she wasn’t convinced, he didn’t hear another objection as by now, both of them were quite hungry. They quickly ate the beans and decided not to cook the rice, mostly because Zoey didn’t want to remain in the house longer. She did eventually drink some of the water after Patch insisted it would be safe.

Afterwards, they placed some of the remaining food in a trash bag and headed out toward the east. Zoey didn’t mention the embers to Patch again but he could tell she seemed increasingly uncomfortable as they walked further and dusk approached. Neither of them were looking forward to sleeping out in the open, especially when Nex surely knew now of their presence in the area.

***

On the morning of the following day, September 24th 2025, Zoey awoke to the sound of snoring in the dark interior of an old van. The Ford E350, originally designed for refrigerated cargo, had apparently been used by others for sleeping in the past. Blankets strewn about the interior provided them a much more peaceful night of rest than the cooler outdoors.