I sat in the same stool that the strange forest man put me down in, I had eaten through half the basket of sour fruit, plain nuts, and I think some wild roots. It had been nearly three hours since he brought me back here, and I was getting bored. Even if Cat rushed down here, she was all the way in town, it would take a while to get here. “Uhh there is nothing to do.”
I know I should have been shocked or crying, but I was reluctant to turn around after ‘the incident’. So I never actually saw the body, and the blood was on the back of my pants, I was also in denial. So there was that.
The adrenaline was still coursing through my veins even now, I was mentally tired but my body was awake. Being hunted by another person, and then saved by a random mountain man would do that to a guy. So I sat there twiddling my fingers and looking through the little hut for something to distract me.
That was when the cooler caught my eye, it was a simple little thing. Although, unlike the backpack, the cooler was out in the open and unlike the backpack wasn’t covered in dust. Like he had been going in and out of it regularly, so obviously not wanting to piss off my ax wielding savior I didn’t look in it.
When I opened the lid a puff of frost drifted into my face, I backed off as the cold air hit my lungs, making me cough. “This guy lives in the middle of the forest but keeps a cooler full of ice?”
When my lungs stopped pushing out the last of the cold vapor, I peeked inside to see only two things. Two identical things, two small nearly identical dark metal, pill shaped ‘canisters’. Reaching in to get a better look I grasped one of the containers by a shard that was sticking out. “Ow, fuck. Why are these so cold?”
It felt like I just touched dry ice with my bare hands, the two little canisters were below freezing. Getting a better look in the cooler revealed that there was nothing in it, no ice pack, no dry ice, it was just the two canisters. “What the hell are these things?”
“What did I say about touching my things?”
“Shit.” Shutting the little cooler and turning back revealed John was standing tall in the entrance of the shelter. While my sister was staring at him with an uneasy look. That was till she saw me and pushed him aside to crush me in a hug.
“Oh thank god you are alright. I was so worried. What happened?” She turned to look at John still standing with his arms crossed in the doorway and whispered to me. “What is this guy's deal? He didn’t say anything to me on the way here?”
“He, uh, well he saved my life.” I was nervous and still unsure of how to tell her about what happened. Truthfully I was hoping he would tell Cat on the walk here and I could just sit there embarrassed about the whole situation before we could go home and forget about it.
But that couldn’t happen, a man had died today, and I doubt I would be able to go back into town without risking the ire of Matthew’s gang. Hell they would probably tell the police and I would be a wanted fugitive.
I would be forced to leave town, Cat would insist on going with me. We would be forced out of the one place that is the closest thing to a home we had. All because some asshole had an ego big enough to override any sense of logic or reason. “I’m sorry Cat.”
I told her what happened, about Matthew and his buddies following me onto the trail. About running through the woods all night, tripping and twisting my ankle. Then I stalled when I got to the part about John, truthfully I wasn’t even sure what happened. I was also reluctant to snitch on the guy as he still had his matte white ax hanging from the same hook on his belt. “Well I tripped, that’s when I saw John here. And well, well Matthew was there and he had a gun and he was pointing it at both of us. And well, we uhh, well actually John uhh, well he…”
“Matthew is dead.”
“Yeah.” I stared at John, trying my best to not see what was going on through Cat’s mind. She would probably be scared, worried about what to do next. If we were going to be safe with an ax wielding murderer was standing in the only exit. That we were out in the middle of the woods where no one would hear us being hacked to pieces. “I’m sorry Cat.”
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“It’s okay Nate, it wasn’t your fault.” She looked at me like when my mom used to, equal parts caring and sadness. Then her face turned stern and unwavering, she got up and turned to John. “What the hell is your problem?”
“I’m sorry?” John was surprised at the question. I’m guessing it's because my sister was probably half his weight and several inches shorter than him. So when my 150 pound, 5’ 8” sister stood up to this ax carrying mountain of a man. Wait, was he always that tall, anyway I’m guessing he was as surprised by her reaction as I was unsurprised.
“What the hell do you think you were doing? You think you have any right to do that to us, in front of him? You think that you can just kill someone and get away with it?”
“I was protecting your brother from a deranged parasite. Since I saved him, you are both unwilling to turn me in. The body won’t be found so no one can connect it back to this place.”
“That doesn’t mean that you can just kill someone, we have laws for a reason. They protect people, they were made to help…” The gentle look in John’s eye faded as my sister attempted to push her moral ideas on the guy. There was anger in his eyes. The calm rain from before turned into a storm, I could almost feel the heavy rain pelting against my skin.
“Laws are stupid human rules made to protect who and what they please. They do not dictate morality, they are made by the rich and powerful. Your laws are the very reason your brother was hunted down like an animal! So don’t tell us that your human laws are there to help!” his voice thundered.
My sister stood strong, I could see her hands shaking at the thought that she may have poked a gentle bear. She knew better than most that the laws could hurt as much as they could help. We had heard stories from the tribe about how all the laws did was push them off their land and kill their people.
The Trail of Tears may have happened nearly two hundred years ago. But, something that tragic is never forgotten by the people it happened too.
However, Cat was a principled person, she believed that although people made bad laws. It was also people that could change those laws to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.
“Let’s go Nate.” Cat reached up to grab my hand, pulling me from my seat. But I pulled back, unwilling to just leave the man who saved my life.
“Cat, wait.” I tried to stand tall, when the pain in my leg made me hold onto the clay half wall. “He saved my life, Matthew was going to gun me down like an animal.” I had never stood up to my sister before, she was usually right about most things. This however, was the one time, she was wrong. “John is kind, he could have left me out there. Look at what he is doing here, even if we leave, where will we go? We can’t go back to town, we barely have enough money to get by and you wanna move to God knows where.”
“Nate, stop. Whatever this teenage rebellion is, it is not the time. We are not staying in some little startup that a crazy man is building in the middle of the woods.” She looked at me like I was a child, like any decision I made was simply an act.
“Stop Catherine. We can’t go back into town, we don’t have any money to make it a week. I’m sorry that this happened but I am not being ‘rebellious’, where are we going to go. There is nowhere for us out there, but John is obviously building something here. Something better than the shit show out there, that lets people like Matthew get away with anything.”
“Nate. A single person living in the middle of the woods, can’t start a society. I get that this seems like a nice idea, living in nature and not having to deal with assholes. But it is not realistic, this is just the dreams of a sick man that probably hasn’t talked to another person in years.” She looked between me and John, she was a realist only when it suited her.
While John sat there listening to the conversation with the same stoic expression, although his eyes seemed to calm. The rain was still heavy but it was big globs, splashing in puddles compared to the downpour it was before. “I’m sorry Cat.”
I looked to John, unsure if it was the lack of sleep, the near death experience, or just pure hope but I didn’t want to leave. “John, if you will let me, I want to stay. I want to help build this little place with you.”
“Fine.” Then he got up and left, grabbing the ax that was still sitting on his belt and went back out. Going over to a pile of logs and grabbing two before heading over to a little plot of sectioned off and cleared land. I turned back to Cat, giving me the same disapproving glare.
“Cat, I’m staying. I know that it seems impossible, and maybe it is, but I think we could build something here. Something real. But you can go back home, Matthew’s friends will think we got eaten by bears. You can go back and live your life without having to take care of me, you can go to school.” I didn’t want her to go, leaving the only family I had left would be terrible.
But, I didn’t want to go back. Moving to another town, having to deal with the same people in a different place, I would prefer being hunted for sport again. Maybe it was teenage rebellion, living in the woods with a stranger so I didn’t have to deal with the real world. But I wasn’t willing to not give it a try, the worst thing to happen would be a few weeks roughing it in the woods. Or getting hacked into pieces and eaten by a madman either or.
“I am not going to leave you out here all alone. Dammit fine. I will stay, at least until this phase or whatever this is blows over. I doubt you will last two weeks out here, no running water, no electricity. Having to eat whatever you can find and no privacy. The only two people to talk to are your sister and some weird mountain man.”
“I’ll take that bet. If I still want to stay here after a month, then you have to…hmmm.” I looked over to John, he was measuring the log, cutting grooves every few feet. He was still using the long white ax, looking at it closer it kind of looked like it was made of bone. “Ooo, you have to ask John why he never lets go of that crazy looking ax.”
“Fine. Deal” We shook hands, it would be the start of a very strange life with a man who was far more interesting than either of us would have ever guessed.