The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 11

I stirred slightly as I slowly woke up. I couldn't remember falling asleep, and I had no idea how I did. Maybe it was just me blacking out...

I lifted my head from the cold ground, to realize not only had my sight returned, but I had been woken by the moon. The moment the moon became visible in the night sky, a Crawler would be drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Sleep truly was impossible unless the individual was heavily wounded, or thick clouds blocked the sky. Tonight, neither were the case, as my wounds were very minor for a Crawler, and the sky was clear as it could be.

I hissed faintly at the resurfacing throbbing from the back of my mind, but getting off the frigid snow was a more pressing matter in my opinion. I had been out here for at the very least six hours - including my time at the park - so I was amazed I wasn't much, much colder.

I sat up on my knees and simply stared at the starry sky. This far out, so many stars were visible. I was probably looking at several well known constellations above me, but I couldn't recognize a single one of them. My grieving thoughts stilled as I stared up at the world above me made of tiny white dots.

A snap from the trees around me caused my head to whip around towards it. Getting to my feet, I stood in a half crouched position, studying the foliage around me. A bulky shape came out of the shadows, lumbering towards me. I growled lowly at the bear, wondering why he was not hibernating.

The growl threw him off slightly, but only slightly. He wouldn't likely know what a Crawler was, and thought he was just going after a stupid human that had decided to wander into the woods. I knew I was hardly a match for a hungry bear, and he likely knew it too. What he didn't take into account was just how good I was at climbing.

The brown bear huffed at me, and I took that as my que to begin swiftly ascending a nearby tree. Once I had climbed a sufficient height, I started to travel from tree to tree, hoping to put some distance between myself and the massive animal behind me.

An idea struck me. It was impossible, right? I was travelling between trees, thus making my scent almost impossible to track. I left very minimal contact with the actual trees, and I was not in a straight line. A scent from up here was incredibly difficult for a Crawler to pick up from the ground as well.

No Feral would ever attempt to travel this way though, their one track mind didn't think of strategy or tricks, only what was right in front of them. If the Feral had come this way, they wouldn't have used the trees. Though on the off chance they had, that would have explained why I was unable to track them by scent, and why I had lost sight of them so fast.

I shook my head harshly, causing my pulse to become very loud from inside my skull. It hadn't traveled through the canopy. It was impossible for the Feral.

I looked ahead again and continued to climb through the leafless branches. Maybe I'll find something nearby...

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I had to be honest, I had not expected to find anything this far in the woods. The place seemed as though it had never been traversed in the past few centuries, and the foliage was dense enough that the ground was nearly untouched by snow. If I had been thrown here from a plane, or otherwise was taken here without knowing where I was, I would almost think I had been stranded in some otherworldly jungle.

I muttered to myself aloud, knowing nothing was in the immediate area to hear my incoherent ramblings, "How long until I run into a dragon guarding his horde, or a centaur ready to shoot a knife through my chest."

There was only one sign of human life around for hundreds of miles. A very old and abandoned semi. It was quite clearly here from the apocalypse, though I had no idea how it got here. The frame was rusted so much I worried it would crumble to dust in the wind, and the massive holes in the side of the trailer surely were not there as a design feature.

It had been here so long that ivy and vines wrapped around the dead vehicle, and under that was a thick layer of moss and rotting leaf litter. Several small trees had even somehow taken root within the cab and now grew out the shattered windows. I had to admit, it was a strangely beautiful sight, though I couldn't quite place why it struck me as such.

I looked up at the steadily brightening sky, as the faintest hints of dawn pushed away the moonlight. Very few birds were even around at this time, yet some still managed to chirp at this ungodly hour. I sighed slowly, knowing I was as vulnerable as a firefly in a pond of frogs during the day, especially without my glasses. That, and it would be agonizing.

I looked back at the semi, it was my only shelter for miles, and I only had a few minutes before the sky would be unbearably bright. I walked over to the back of the trailer, careful around a fallen tree and several small bushes. Only a few firm tugs caused the heavily damaged latch to snap like a twig. The trailer was laying on its side, and the half of the door that was against the ground swung down fairly easily. I was amazed to find no animals had made this container their home. It should have been impossible, as it was a large, and very enclosed, space with holes and gaps just big enough for most small animals to fit through. I knew if I had been a fox, I would eagerly take this as a hiding space.

The inside of the trailer, though, was filled with dozens of different kinds of small plants, and the cargo that was supposed to be held was missing. I had a feeling it had been looted of anything useful when it had first crashed.

I carefully climbed inside the open space, before pulling the door up with a Crawler leg, and using a sturdy branch to bar it in place so it wouldn't fall back open.

I had a long day ahead of me, one that would be spent in a very uncomfortable trailer with no way to safely leave. One thing was for certain, the only way I was leaving before nightfall was if any large predator decided to try breaking in. Coyotes were one thing - a thing I ate very regularly - but bears and cougars were another story entirely.