“Fuck. Fuck. Shit. God Fucking Shit.” Tripping over another branch, I skinned my knee and twisted my ankle. “Holy shit I am going to die.”
I looked around the dim forest, it was difficult to see when the rising sun created so many shadows. Not to mention the roots of every other tree that I crossed decided to reach up and grab me. I turned around when I heard the racking of another shell and the crunch of leaves under his boots. “Where’d you go? You little fucking prick.”
I got up and attempted to run again, my ankle was definitely twisted. That crazy fucking psychopath was right behind me, hunting me like an injured deer. “What kind of sick fuck hunts people for fun?”
Matthew Adams, that’s who. A dude that looked like someone tried to roll a tub of lard on a barber shop floor. Some white asshole who probably owned white bedsheets if you catch my drift. And by my drift, I mean some KKK member that believes he is somehow better than everyone else. He bragged to anyone who would listen about how his family had been here first, some Protestants that came over to set up land. How slaughtering the Native people and forcing slaves to do all your labor means you are better than everyone else I don’t know.
The guy’s family hadn’t worked in nearly three generations, granted what used to be a successful family of landowning wannabe aristocrats. Was now just some white trash that happened to own enough land that everyone else in town needed to rent it out.
“This ain't been your land in centuries you red-skinned Indian fuck.” Being a quarter Native American apparently meant I was immediately categorized as less than human. So when the guy and his friends saw me hiking through the trails on my own, I was deemed open season.
“Cat was right, I am going to be shot in the back by a bear. Damn, she is always right.” I tripped again and fell right on my chin. Dazed and exhausted already I stared up at the figure in front of me. It didn’t look exactly like Matthews, but who else would be all the way out here at this time. I pushed back off the ground but stumbled and fell on my ass, trying to gain some distance by scraping my ass on the ground.
That was when I bumped into the actual Matthews behind me, it was easy to tell since I could feel the cold metal of his shotgun pushed against my skull.
“What do you think you are doing?” I looked up at the strange mountain man standing in front of me. He seemed like an average guy although he was shirtless, he had slightly tanned skin, he was on the short side and had not shaved in months.
Although he looked solid like a rock, carrying a dull white ax in one hand and dragging a tree in the other. He dropped the tree with a thud that echoed through the quiet forest. “I asked you what the hell do you think you are doing?”
“None of your business prick, so why don’t you go back to fucking a squirrel or whatever the fuck you do out here. And leave me the hell alone.” Matthews pumped the shotgun in his hands and raised the barrel to point directly at the guy's chest.
The man with the ax had eyes like a light rain, calm and cool, but hiding the anger and wrath of a distant storm. He gripped the ax tighter in his hand then looked at me with a steely gaze of teal eyes. “Is this what I think it is?”
His voice echoed through my skull, it sounded like the breeze of the forest carried my own voice through my ears. I questioned if I was still even conscious or if that hit to the chin knocked me out. I whimpered and tried to look small, but he was also my only hope of getting out of this alive. He had an ax and I had a twisted ankle, but at least two on one we had a chance to get the gun out of his hands. “He is trying to kill me.”
I winced as Matthew shoved the barrel back into my neck. “Shut the fuck up. We are just playing a little game, so fuck off unless you wanna join it.”
The man looked at me, then at the gun, then directly at Matthew.
“Piece of shit.” With a white flash, and the sound of crunching leaves, I closed my eyes hoping to just wake up in my bed.
I felt warmth soak my pants and down my leg. I can’t believe that I pissed myself before I died. When the seconds passed and the forest remained quiet, I looked up to see that the strange man was looking down at me. I glanced at the warm spot on my pants, seeing that I hadn’t pissed myself, it was just a pool of blood. “Oh thank God.”
“Are you alright?” He held out an open hand, his eyes were gentle and caring as if he just found a stray puppy on the side of the road. I took his hand without even thinking about it, he pulled on my arm till I was standing. Wincing at the pain in my ankle I eased up off my foot, leaning against a nearby tree. “Do you need help getting back to town?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I can’t go back to town.” I stated, more out of remorse than actually answering his question. Matthew may have been the last one following me, but it had started out with nearly half a dozen of his buddies. They had left, tired or unwilling to hunt a person through the dark woods for nearly eight hours. Whatever the reason, if I went back to town and Matthew didn’t, they would kill me. “I need to leave the state, you gotta help me get to a road man.”
“Well for starters call me John, secondly you won’t be able to get anywhere on that foot, it is not a lot but I have a little shack you can stay till your foot is a little better. Then I can give you a few bucks for a bus, at least to get some distance away from town.”
Who the hell was this guy? I was cautious to go deeper into the woods with a stranger who was offering me money and a way out. Not even knowing what my situation was, or why I was running away from some random guy in the woods.
I don’t know if it was because he just killed a man that was hunting me for fun or the look in his eyes but I decided to go with him. “Okay, do you have a phone? I need to call my sister.”
After he told me that his phone was at his shack, and a few hobbling steps in the right direction he stopped me. He dropped the tree he was apparently planning on dragging back, hooked the ax to his belt and picked me.
It took nearly an hour of slow walking to get back to a stretch of land that looked like he was trying to start a small town. The ground was clear for nearly an acre of all leaves, twigs and trees, pathways were marked out, a few healthy trees were penned into gardens full of thick grass and flowers, and even a small shelter was built. Clay walls and a fully fleshed out roof, was clearly made from stuff in the woods but it looked sturdy and kind of comfortable.
“What are you building here?”
“Something, like a village, I suppose. I don’t like the outside world so much, so we are starting our own little society here.”
“Cool, how many people are living there?”
“Just me. For now, I don’t have the money to really get it going. However it has only been about a month, I wanted to get a lay of the land before I really started. Once I had a few houses truly built I was going to go out and find some people who shared my ideals. Then from there we would carve out our own little place in this world.”
“Man, that sounds nice.” The thought of having your own little place, not having to live in a society that destroyed the planet and venerated the rich and stupid. “What kind of ideals?”
“I suppose the usual, living lives of freedom. Letting people be who they were and not having to be judged for it. One that sought to make the world a better place, together. Everyone is working towards a common goal, where we live in nature rather than just burning it down. A kind of utopia, that's the idea anyway.”
“Yeah how are you going to do that?” It sounded nice on paper, although a lot of things did. I was trying not to get sucked into the whole peace, love, and harmony thing. But having just ran from a man trying to hunt me for fun made the whole idea a lot more appealing.
“Through interconnectedness, knowing and understanding each other. Empathizing with your fellow man kinda thing.” He looked over his shoulder to look me in the eyes. And it was like I understood what he meant, it was hard to describe really.
All the words held meaning sure but it was more than that, like I got a glimpse into this vision. I knew what he meant without having to translate it through my own head. It was a society that had purpose and content and I could see myself being a part of it. I could see myself living there in a world without conflict, it was peaceful and beautiful and…
“Oof.” I was suddenly dropped on a small log, I snapped out of the weird haze that I fell in.
The log I was sitting on was carved out into a comfortable stool, I leaned back against the wall of the shack. While he went over to a backpack that was thrown into a corner and looked like it hadn’t been touched in months.
Rummaging through till he pulled out a little burner phone and turned it on. It blinked, then buzzed to life and with a slight smile he handed it over to me. “Here you go, the reception is spotty so far out, but you should still be able to get a call through.”
“Thanks.” I grabbed the phone and dialed in the one number I had memorized. The burner only had one bar and the battery was low, but it was good enough as the ringing stopped and Cat’s voice echoed through the phone. “Hey, Cat it's me.”
“Nate, where the hell are you? I've been trying to call you all night. Are you alright?” She sounded concerned, it was just in her nature. After our parents died, she took care of me. We tried to go to our grandpa’s tribe, it was why we lived in the little town but we never fit in, we weren’t raised with any Native American people or traditions. So although they were willing to accept us as part of the tribe, we both never felt like we belonged there. We still visited on occasion, Cat thought it was important to stick with our roots even if we never really joined the tribe.
“I’m fine, I was walking the trail when Matthew and his goons found me. I…”
“Are you alright? What happened? Where are you, I’ll pick you up?” She was scared, that was obvious. Everyone knew Matthew and his gang in town, they tranced around the place like they owned it and made a mess wherever they went. Unfortunately the mayor was a ‘friend’ of his and Matthew was a big campaign contributor.
So the cops let them do whatever they wanted. As long as it wasn’t anything too serious they got away with it. But everyone knew not to go out of town with them, ever since the ‘hunting incident’ a few years ago.
“I’m fine, but I…well like I said Matthew and his friends, you see…” I didn’t know how to tell her I couldn’t go back to town, I watched a stranger kill a man in front of me, that I was covered in his blood and had to go on the run. I started to panic, and just before I thought I was going to pass out, John grabbed the phone from my ear.
“There was an accident, your brother is fine but he twisted his leg. Follow the little ‘Bear Creek’ all the south till you see a little pond, I’ll be there and bring you to him. You can come and talk to him face to face, and figure out what you two are going to do next.” He hung up the phone and threw it back into the backpack in the corner.
He stood up and looked at me with the same gentle gaze. “I need to go take care of the problem in the woods. Try to keep off the foot, there is some food in the basket if you are hungry. Don’t touch anything else, once I’m done I will wait for your sister by the pond and will bring her back here so you two can talk.”
He placed the basket on the little table next to me and walked to the entrance. He looked back at me, then to the little cooler sitting in the corner, before walking out the door and back to the corpse lying in the forest.