Wish's Folly

Chapter One: Trek to Disaster

The stars were glowing tonight. They glowed every night, but it was rare to have a night as cloudless as this. Two blood-red eyes scrutinized a derelict gas station. It had dust-caked walls, brick that was nearly prepared to collapse into the ground itself from the slightest gust of wind... And yet it stayed standing, refusing even the strongest waves of air that crashed against its walls.

Well, she could only guess. The female picked up her pack. It would take quite some time to make it to her destination, and while she had not enjoyed it... Well, she wouldn't call it 'robbing', not quite... Was it really robbing when one wasn't seen in the slightest by the owner of the place or the cameras?

She would so much rather call it 'commandeering', anyway.- It wasn't her fault she needed the supplies- well it was- but not entirely. She was tempted to drop the thought entirely. The night was just beginning, and she had a long way to travel. A long..... Long....

Her vision shot towards the road. Traveling along it would be a matter of hiding in the proper places. Where it led she could only guess, but her welcome was long overstayed at present.Far too long. Far too easily tracked. She breathed in the night air, faintly salty with the slightest sting of smoke. Maybe she would be able to stay away from the cities... Although it would be nice to see how these strangers lived in a complicated place.

The thought was immediately tossed aside. She stood up, eyes reflecting the moon's ticking light. She only had so much time before her worst torturer would reveal itself, echoing its wrath across her skin if she was stupid enough to get caught.

".... C'mon, Liv..." Her words were nearly silent, cracked and dry. There were few voices she heard anymore outside of her own. Even when she did hear others, she made it a point to veer away, to run and let the ticking slow until she was safe. There was nothing quite like the lull brought to her by the resting forests, the shifting plains... It all rang with what little peace Liv could find in this world.

She took a step forward. It was followed by another, and another... And by and large, she had begun her nightly travel. Liv pulled her hood over her head. The white fabric was coated in grime and would have long-been tossed by any normal individual... She clung to it all the tighter. Wind swirled in from before her. It clung to her skin, leeching every last drop of warmth it could before moving on. She barely blinked.

A car drove down the road. Liv pulled further into the woods as it passed, words dragging behind it like a smoke screen. She dragged her feet just a hint. Sure it was a useless endeavor, but it helped her to feel like the car was getting away from her faster. The dirt under her shoes was light and crumbled, crackling ever so slightly with each step. The noise was a gunshot compared to the quiet hisses and murmurs of the rest of the woods. The car's lights swung around a corner ahead, and vanished from sight.

She let her shoes stop dragging. It was time to actually start catching back up. Well... 'Catching back up'. It was more like trailing after the car until she couldn't see it whenever she turned anymore. The plan was discarded. The road diverged two ways up ahead, and the car had taken a left turn. Liv opted to take the right turn, momentarily bumping her pack to make sure it had enough supplies in case she got lost.

The candy bars, chip bags, and small sodas she had stolen clinked and clicked against one another. Satisfied, she cast her red orbs to the t-section. To the left was the highway... There was no way she was going anywhere near a highway, not if she could help it.- The other way was labeled quite depressingly, with the sign rusted and broken beyond legibility. The faintest trace of a smile crossed her face at that.

If the sign was that far beyond repair, then there was no way that anyone lived out that way. Without a second thought, Liv turned right. Less sentient beings would be better. She cast her eyes left and right, searching for any hint of others... Finding none, she continued on. Her journey had spanned so many nights that being suspicious and paranoid came to her like second nature. She didn't enjoy the intrusive worry that invaded her every waking thought, but it was better to be nervous than to be caught, or worse, dead.