He screamed in pain and shoved himself away from the cool tunnel wall. He gripped at his body. No blood. His arms were still in place. His legs, though drenched in sweat, were fine and he moved them gently to test for damage. He felt at his face. His nose wasn’t broken, and his eyes were not oozing anything. He took several deep breaths and looked out of the tunnel at the rapidly darkening sky. It was quickly becoming night. He saw the she-wolf. She was still at the mouth of the tunnel but she had lain down to sleep as well. His scream must have woken her because she was looking right at him. She didn’t’ get up but looked at him with her head cocked to one side. Do wolves know what nightmares are? He rubbed at his face and his strained eyes. He ran his hands over the whole of his body as he took deep breaths the calm down.
His mind came back to reality, and he slowly made himself remember that he was still inside the tunnel that the she-wolf had led him to. He had been traveling with a black and white she-wolf for a few days now. He had escaped that briar patch when the she-wolf had heard the helicopter blades and dug a way for them to escape even though he had insulted her a few hours before. That brought an uncomfortable twinge of guilt upon him that he didn’t like. She had forgiven him but there was something in the way that she had forgiven him that made him slightly uneasy. She wanted something other than a simple apology but what? As he watched the she-wolf get up and stretch her body he tried to remember what exactly he had said to offend her so badly.
His heart was still racing, and he clutched at his chest and forced his heart rate to slow. He was still shaken by the nightmare, and he had trouble concentrating. His eyes adjusted to the darkening tunnel as the world prepared for night. He sighed deeply and wiped at his face and eyes. His breathing was ragged and uneven. He tried to calm down, but the images of his pack mangled and dying danced in front of his vision with no sign of relenting.
He shook his head and stood up. Stifling a yawn, he turned around and pressed his head against the cool stone. What had caused him to dream of that? In the time he had lived in the wild he hadn’t had one nightmare. So why had he been having them so regularly as of late and why did he have to experience one now that was such a horrible vision that no man should have to witness.
His mind turned back to his pack. They had survived without me for years. I only led them on the nights of full moons. The old grey would take care of them. ‘Usurper’ they had called him. Because he had defeated the old grey in combat did that mean the grey saw himself as no longer fit to lead the pack? He shook his head. There was nothing he could do about that now. He was being hunted; they were not. If he went back to his valley, it would accomplish nothing except put his pack in danger.
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The visions would not get out of his head and he growled loudly building into a scream. The she-wolf raised her head at the sudden sound. She looked concerned but also angry. That look screamed at him. Are you crazy? For the first time in a long time, he was scared. Scared for his pack and scared for himself and his companion. What if the cops did do something horrible to his pack while he was away? Now he knew what Luke Skywalker felt like on Dagobah. “I can’t get these visions out of my head. They’re my friends I’ve got to help them.” And look what happened to him, he lost his hand and he wasn’t able to save Han anyway. He knew that it was a dream but something had felt terrible and he knew that there was something different about this dream than normal dreams. There really was nothing for him to do. He had to keep following his guide. She had been in the dream too and there was a meaning behind all of it.
He put his hands up on the rock wall and stretched his legs and body. His mouth cracked a huge yawn. His nap had done very little to refresh him but that couldn’t be helped. His method of waking up hadn’t pleased his companion but they both knew that they had been in this place for too long.
He turned back toward his companion, who was already moving toward the far end of the tunnel. The sun’s light was all but gone from the world and the tunnel was already pitch black. He followed his guide more by sound and feel than by sight. His time in nature had refined both senses; even so he moved his feet out in front of him. He couldn’t hear his guide as she walked, but he could hear the sounds of the tunnel and a slight whistling sound as wind moved through the tunnel.
The light at the end of the tunnel was nothing more now, than a slight smudge of lesser black against the void of darkness that they were now walking. He wished he could move faster. The floor of the tunnel was relatively even and he tried to make his feet and legs move more quickly. He didn’t know where his guide was. For all he knew she could be at the other end of the tunnel by now. Would she leave him here, alone in the darkness? Would she leave him to fend for himself? His mind started to panic and he begged his body for more speed. His body stubbornly remained moving at same slow pace.
He knew to ensure his health and safety he couldn’t move any faster but that didn’t stop him from wanting to break out in a dead run toward that smudge of darkness that was the tunnel exit. His breathing was getting shorter and shallower. His vision blurred as a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He was afraid. The nightmare had awakened fears in him that he hadn’t even realized he had. He was afraid for his pack. He was afraid for his companion. If those agents caught them, she would probably be shot on sight as he was taken into custody. He was afraid that he had slept too long, and those agents would be waiting for them outside the tunnel. He would have traversed this hellish void only to be blinded by that helicopter flood light as it drowned him in its bright artificial light. Then agents with dogs would surround him and order him to the ground. The she-wolf wouldn’t go down without a fight and she would lunge at the nearest dog tearing into its neck. An agent would shove a shotgun barrel under her neck and pull the trigger spraying her life blood and guts all over the surrounding rock.
He wanted to scream.