Vasilisa the Brave - Chapter Four

She awoke in the train car with a start.

There was a primordial wrongness to waking up in a space that wasn't her home, that wasn't hers, and that wrongness shocked her into wakefulness before the sun had even risen.

The sky was that pale blue of early morning and everything was deathly quiet. There was enough light to see by, at least with eyes that had adjusted to the dark. Vasilisa slowly rose from the spot she'd hidden in, then looked about. There was nothing around, at least, nothing that she could see when carefully sticking her head out from the car.

So she returned to her nook and started to pack, aware the entire time that she was incredibly noisy. The metal underfoot clinked with every shift of her weight and when she set something down, it made a small, echoing noise that had her wincing.

There was nothing for it, however. The space had kept her safe through the night, it had worked.

Vasilisa folded her blanket into a small bundle, then searched her pack for something to eat. There were cans from her apartment, but also some leftovers she'd brought with her. Waste not, and all. This might be the last prepared meal she had for a while, so she sat back and savoured it. The small container she had used was left behind.

Somehow, she had expected to have a difficult time eating, but she had also awoken more hungry than she could remember. Had she eaten the night before?

The sun was rising as she slung her pack on and picked up her grandfather's rifle. It was time to go.

After stepping away from the train cars, she found a compass among her things and stared at the dial pointed north, then immediately shifted to point to a new north, then spun around on itself.

Vasilisa pursed her lips in disappointment and stuffed the compass away. She knew where the city was, and could guess her north from there. It would have to do.

Her father had taught her how to find her way through the forest, and that had been more than enough for her until now. The one thing she knew was that getting lost was almost going to be a certainty if she didn't find a way to track her route.

The trainyard ended at a tall cement wall, the top of which was covered by rolls of barbed wire. There were some openings in that wall, however. Places where the ground had eroded and uncovered the fact that the cement squares that made it up weren't buried at all, but instead hung a handspan over the ground.

Vasilisa found a small rivulet where water had pooled under the wall and made an opening large enough to squeeze through. It was all mud at the moment. She grimaces as she got on all fours and pushed her bag and gun through then she crawled on her belly past the wall.

Now covered in splotches of cold mud, Vasilisa ripped a few tufts of grass from the earth nearby and tried to rub as much of it off as she could.

She didn't waste too much time on it. The sun was coming up, so from now on, she was burning daylight.

The space past the trainyard dipped down towards a small river. The other side rose up, leading to a few warehouses. There was a bridge across the gap to the right, and another further off to the left, but Vasilisa didn't want to cross those.

They were narrow, two-lane bridges for simple car traffic. It would be easy for anyone to stay posted at either bridge and pick off anyone that tried to cross.

So she decided to cross the river.

It wasn't as insane of an idea as it sounded. The river was low at the moment, with large spots of dirt and boulders running across it. Someone had set down a few planks as well, creating small bridges across the still-running water, and there were discarded containers and even a flipped-over car in the middle of the passage.

She'd be out in the open, but only to people along the banks, and once she was on the other side, there were plenty of bushes and such to keep her covered.

Vasilisa nodded, then grabbed her pack again. Moving down the hillside was tough, on account of the steep angle, but it wasn't too bad. She slipped down part of it, but it was controlled, boots digging into the dirt and sending loose rocks tumbling ahead.

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As she came closer, she started to doubt the validity of her plan. The river was moving faster than she had thought from above, and it was loud, water splashing against rocks with a constant susurration. She wouldn't be able to hear anything while crossing.

Swallowing past her fear, Vasilisa jumped onto a large flat stone, then waved her arms for balance. It was slippery on the top, slick with algae, but her boots gripped it well enough.

She jumped onto a wooden beam and felt it sink just a little. Water ran up and over the top of her boots, and she felt some soaking into her socks. She had to hurry. It was one thing to cross safely and slowly, but slowly was dangerous out here.

So she kicked herself to move faster, hopping from rock to rock, onto a container that clunked underfoot, then up onto another rock and--

Vasilisa stopped herself cold, a shot of adrenaline coursing through her even as she waved her arms to keep her balance.

The water just ahead of her was flowing backwards.

It was a spot maybe a metre across, roughly circular. The water there was moving in the wrong direction, splashing back against the incoming water of the river. She might have noticed it sooner, but there were a few large boulders here, some splashing water in the middle of the river wasn't so unordinary that she would have seen it as strange.

Vasilisa took a deep breath and backed away from the edge. She kept calm. She hadn't stepped into the anomaly, she was safe... probably. She had never actually encountered one before, not face-to-face. Her father had spoken of them, often in muted tones.

What would have happened if she had run into this one?

Vasilisa looked around, then backed up some more to try another path. This time, with her nerves still burning from the near run-in with death, she found herself moving a lot more cautiously.

Making it to the other side of the river made her feel like she'd just overcome a great challenge. Vasilisa wanted to pause, to catch her breath, but that wouldn't have been wise, not when she was out in the open.

So she pushed on, climbing the bank on the other side while trying to both move quickly, make as little noise as possible, and ignore the wet squelching of her waterlogged boots.

She paused once she was up and behind a large tree, listening to the sounds around her. Birds were singing, the wind rustled the trees and bushes, and somewhere a little farther off, a crow cawed. No human noises, no monstrous ones. The thin line of forest gave way to a more industrial area, with a large red warehouse sitting just ahead.

She removed her boots, then her socks. She had a few pairs, so there was no harm in changing them now, though she did act quick. It was surprisingly cold out, and she could feel that the most around her feet and ankles where her pants were clinging to her.

After getting dressed, she started to move again. Her pack was on her back, the gun was slung over her shoulder, and her heart was no longer racing quite as much. It was time to plunge in deeper.

It was strange, how she could still see the place she'd woken at, and it had been less than an hour since she left, but it still felt like a day had passed.

Was this just her previous life of dull monotony leaving her unprepared?

Her heart leapt into her throat as she heard voices ahead. Or a voice, at least. A girl's, talking in a high pitch, just over the wall separating the forest from the big red warehouse.

"That didn't feel like it was worth it," the girl was saying. "I mean, we crossed what, fifty metres? It's like going through a horror house in a carnival for a shortcut. Totally not worth it!"

Someone responded, a man. She couldn't hear his reply, but the girl laughed, an honest, happy laugh.

They didn't sound threatening, but she knew better than to poke her head out. Best to wait for them to be past.

"By the way," said another new voice, a girl's. "There's someone spying on us right over there."

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