Footprints

by Alex Archer

  Annja sighed. She felt terrible about what she'd done. It didn't ease her mind that Cheehawk had been badly mauled and was dying, anyway. She was the one who killed him.

  "You did a good thing," Joey said quietly. "And I know that he appreciated your mercy."

  Annja's eyes welled up. "Whoever did that to him…Such cruelty. Why would they harm him like that?"

  "Because they didn't understand him. And they had no wish to." Joey scooped handfuls of earth into the hole. In a short time, he had covered Cheehawk's body. He kept working until the burial plot was indistinguishable from the rest of the area.

  Annja watched him finish and turned away. Jenny stood a short distance from them, leaning against a tree. As Annja approached, she looked up.

  "You want to tell me where you found a sword like that?"

  "Not particularly."

  Jenny frowned. "You always liked keeping secrets, huh?"

  "Don't be jealous, Jenny."

  Jenny shook her head. "What is with you? You think I'm jealous of everything you have? You've got a sword. Big whoop."

  "And the TV show. I haven't forgotten that bugged the hell out of you when it happened."

  Jenny shrugged. "I'm over it."

  "Are you?"

  "Last I checked, neither one of us had a man."

  Annja smiled. "So if I had a boyfriend, then you'd be even more upset with me?"

  "Definitely," Jenny said with a slight smile.

  Annja leaned against the tree. "I don't need some guy in my life to feel complete. Besides, the more I learn about the male species, the more I realize that truly good men are almost impossible to find."

  "I'd take a half-decent guy," Jenny said. "I haven't been on a date in almost a year."

  "Dry spell, huh?"

  Jenny cracked a grin. "Mojave Desert, Annja. David was supposed to bring on the rainy season and now he's gone and vanished."

  "What if we head into town and see if we can talk to the local sheriff about finding him?"

  Jenny nodded. "I guess."

  "We'll need to be careful. Dawn will be breaking soon. And that means those goons we ran into yesterday will be back patrolling the woods." Annja faced Jenny. "Are you sure you don't know why they'd be out here?"

  "Nope."

  "All right, then. We'll just have to make sure we don't run into them. I don't think they'll be as understanding as they were yesterday if they find me still out here."

  Joey started dismantling what was left of the improvised shelter. Annja frowned. "Don't we still need that?"

  Joey scattered a bunch of branches and looked at her. "I don't know how long Cheehawk's body will remain buried."

  Jenny frowned. "What's that mean?"

  "Predators and scavengers will smell the decomposition starting. They'll come around and dig it up. I don't want to be here when that happens."

  Annja sighed. "It can't be helped, I suppose."

  "It's the way of the natural cycle," Joey said. "But it doesn't mean I have to be here when it goes down. And besides, we each have our own agendas now."

  Annja turned. "Each?"

  Joey nodded. "I'll lead you out to the road so you can find your way back into town. That way you can take care of finding the sheriff and stuff like that. Maybe find that David dude."

  "And what will you be doing?"

  Joey looked up from throwing more branches into the scrub. "I need to find the men who chased us out of here yesterday."

  There was something in his voice that disturbed Annja. It was cold. And the edge to the words made her heart jump. "You can't take them on by yourself, Joey. They've got guns. Let us get the sheriff out here and he'll know what to do. And he has a gun, too."

  "I don't care about whether they have guns or not," Joey said.

  Annja shook her head. "You may not care but the fact that they do have them could make your life a thing of the past. Is that what you want?"

  "They killed my friend," Joey said.

  "I know they did. And believe me, I want them to pay for that just as badly as you do. But chasing after them by yourself isn't the smartest thing to do right now."

  "Why? Because I'm a kid? You think I don't know how to handle myself?"

  "I think anyone would have a hard time handling themselves against three men armed with rifles."

  Joey glared at her. "Cheehawk didn't deserve to die."

  Annja nodded. "We know that. But you rushing off on some suicide mission isn't the way to honor the memory of his spirit."

  "What would you know about honoring the spirit of the dead?" Joey muttered.

  "You think you're the only one who's ever lost someone or something precious to them?" Annja shook her head. "You're not. It just seems like you are because of what has happened. Tragedy is always like that. It feels as if there's no one else in the world who understands the pain and the grief you have swelling in your heart. But everyone knows about tragedy. No one goes through life without feeling pain at some point. That's just the way it is."

  "Then you know that I have to do this."

  "I know you have to do something. And I want to help you get justice. But not this way. You go charging after these guys and they'll just kill you. I don't think they'd even care that you're fourteen years old. Your life wouldn't mean a damn thing to them."

  "If it's my time to die in battle, then so be it."

  "Don't dishonor your grandfather with that kind of talk," Annja said. "You think he spent all those years teaching you how to become one with the woods, how to stalk and track, entrusting the secrets of your people to you, just so you could run off recklessly and get killed?"

  Joey fell silent. Annja could see the rage coursing through him and she felt awful that someone so young should have to battle the conflicting emotions he must have been feeling.

  "Annja," Jenny said. "Maybe we should just let him go."

  "Are you nuts? He'll get killed."

  Jenny nodded. "Perhaps. But maybe he's made up his mind. Maybe he won't listen to reason."

  "He's just a child—"

  "I am not a child," Joey said. "I'm growing into manhood."

  Annja glanced at him. "Not by doing something stupid, you aren't. You run off now and do what you want to do, you'll just die some stupid kid. Sorry to have to say that to you, Joey. I have a lot of respect for you and your skills, but show me that you've got a mind upstairs. Show me you can think like a man. Show me you know there will be a time and a place to get justice for Cheehawk."

  Joey looked at her for a moment and Annja could see the tears starting to flow. He looked away and busied himself with scattering more of the shelter.

  Annja gave him his space and turned back to Jenny. "That wasn't a very smart thing to say," she said angrily.

  "Who's to say what our individual destinies are? Maybe it's his to die out here in the woods with his wolf."

  "I'd like to think that whoever's in charge upstairs had a grander plan than letting such a gifted young man run off to die needlessly."

  "Tell that to everyone who's known the death of a child. Or the death of someone lost in a useless war."

  "Now you're getting political."

  "Nah, I'm just showing my cynical side."

  Annja shook her head. "We can be as cynical as we want to be. But I won't see Joey go off to die if I can help it."

  "And just how do you think you're going to prevent that from happening? He's not some baby you can stow on your back and take with you. He knows his way around here better than either of us."

  "I was hoping to use reason to get through to him."

  Jenny smirked. "Sometimes I think you're even more naive than I am."

  "Who's being naive?"

  "You are, girl. You think you can use reason to get through to Joey? That's being naive."

  "Why so? He's an intelligent kid."

  Jenny shook her head. "Doesn't matter if he's intelligent. You're forgetting he's also a teenager. That means reason takes a backseat to raging
hormones and overwrought emotions."

  Annja sighed. "Regardless, there's no way I'm going to simply let him walk off into the woods on some vendetta mission."

  "So he takes us out to the main road and then leaves."

  "He's not leaving," Annja insisted.

  "And just how do you propose to stop him?"

  Annja chewed her lip. Through the trees, she could see the first streaks of light starting to break over the horizon. Pale colors began to show themselves as the last of the storm clouds faded away. It might be a nice day, after all.

  "I guess we'll handle that when we get there."

  "I suppose."

  Annja turned around. Joey had done a remarkable job of scattering the shelter. It was difficult for Annja to even tell where they'd been holed up forty minutes earlier.

  Near Cheehawk's burial plot she saw a pile of stones. Annja walked over and knelt down near it.

  Jenny came over, as well. "What is that?"

  "I think it's a cairn. But I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean."

  "Maybe it's a burial marker? You know, so Joey remembers where he buried Cheehawk?"

  Annja frowned. The pile of smooth stones branched off to the right. She glanced in that direction and saw something else near the base of a large oak tree. "Over there."

  She and Jenny rose and walked to the tree. Jenny squatted. "Another cairn?"

  "Looks to be, yeah. But what's it mean?"

  Jenny shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you ask Joey to explain it to us?"

  Annja nodded. "Joey?"

  A breeze blew through the woods. Joey didn't respond. Annja raised her voice a little louder. "Joey!"

  But she heard nothing in response. And Annja got a bad feeling.

  Jenny came up next to her. "Looks like the kid has made his decision."

  Annja nodded. "I just hope it isn't his last."

  Chapter 13

  "Well, that's just great," Annja said. "Our guide has gone and deserted us, leaving us alone in these woods."

  Jenny sighed. "We probably shouldn't have been talking about him like we were, huh?"

  Annja glanced around. "He wouldn't have just left us. That would be cruel. And it wouldn't be in his spirit to do something like that. Those piles of stones must mean something. We just have to figure it out. And then, hopefully, we can get the hell out of here."

  Jenny pointed out into the woods. "We're not going after him?"

  Annja shook her head. "You know your way around here?"

  "Not really."

  "Me, neither. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if we took off to find him, we'd end up getting even more lost than we are right now."

  "We're lost?"

  Annja sighed. "Hopefully not."

  "But what about Joey?"

  Annja looked into the woods. He had a head start on them. And knowing what he knew, he could be a mile away already. Joey knew how to vanish into the shadows, and he was driven to do whatever it was he was going to do.

  "We can't go after him. Our best bet right now is to figure out the stones and then go for help. If we find the sheriff, we can get him out here, and that's how we'll help Joey. Otherwise, it's not going to be good."

  "It's just that after what you said a few minutes ago, I thought you'd be a lot more driven to search for him."

  Annja looked at her. "Jenny, I am driven. But I'm also a realist. We don't know which way is up around here. Hell, Joey led me around this place a few hours back when we were looking for you and I still don't know if I could find my way around without him. The fact of the matter is I'm worried about Joey and hope he doesn't do anything stupid. But that can't be helped right now."

  "So instead we try to get back to town?"

  "Yes. We find the sheriff and explain it to him. Maybe he'll be able to help us out. And he might even have a cute deputy for you to swoon over."

  Jenny perked up. "You think?"

  Annja turned back to the stone cairn and studied it. "I don't know. I don't really care, to be honest. Just help me with this and let's get going."

  Jenny knelt next to her. "I never studied cairns. Did you?"

  "Not really, I'm ashamed to say. Here we are, both archaeologists, and yet something as simple as this is a bit befuddling."

  Jenny looked at her. "Befuddling?"

  "What?"

  "You just sounded like my old aunt there for a second."

  Annja frowned. "Sorry. Maybe my age is starting to show."

  "Either that or the age of that sword you're carrying around with you. It's pretty old, isn't it?"

  "What makes you say that?"

  "I took a course on European weapons one time. If I recall correctly, the sword you have looks like something made around five to six hundred years ago."

  Annja shrugged. "I guess that's about right."

  "Really?"

  Annja shook her head. "Can we study the rocks, please? Trust me, there are times when the sword is much more of a pain in the ass than an asset."

  "But where did it come from and where did it go? How do you do that?"

  Annja took a breath. "Jenny, I really don't know everything about it or why it came to me. I'd rather not talk about the sword right now. We have more important things to worry about."

  "Okay, okay, I'm just amazed by it, is all."

  "More amazed than your hunt for big foot?"

  "Well…"

  "All right, then." Annja turned back to the stone cairn. "The one over by the burial mound seemed to point this way because of how the rocks were stacked. This one seems to point over to the left there, which would make it sort of a southerly direction. You think?"

  Jenny followed where Annja pointed and nodded. "Seems to be. The sun's coming up from over in that direction, so, yeah, south it is."

  Annja got up. "Good." She kicked over the cairn.

  "What are you doing now?"

  "Making sure that whoever those guys are we don't leave them a clear trail to follow us. I don't want to have to think about them being behind us as we try to find our way out of here."

  "Well, I don't think those guys will be worrying about us."

  "Why on earth not?"

  Jenny shrugged. "They'll have Joey to worry about. And trust me, the look in the kid's eyes was pretty mean."

  Annja nodded. "A fourteen-year-old shouldn't have that kind of anger in his heart. Kids today grow up too fast."

  "They have to grow up sometime," Jenny said. "And I think that Joey is convinced his time is at hand."

  Annja frowned. "Killing doesn't make you a grown-up."

  "Maybe he thinks vengeance does."

  "A lot of people do," Annja said. "I'm not convinced that it's the best way to go, but that's neither here nor there. Joey's gone and it's up to us to get back to town."

  Jenny unzipped her jacket. "At least he left us the cairns."

  "Speaking of which…" Annja said. She tracked from the position of the rocks she'd kicked over and walked about twenty paces in a southerly direction. By the base of a blueberry bush, she saw another small pile of stones.

  "Over here."

  Annja peered closer at the cairn. This time the stones didn't veer off in one direction or another, but seemed equal on all sides.

  Annja sat back. "There's no directional indicator here."

  Jenny leaned closer. "Suppose it means this is the direction to go in?

  "Just stay on this course?"

  "Why not?"

  Annja looked at the stones again. Jenny had a good point. "You might just be right.

  "All right, then, we stay on this heading."

  "It looks pretty clear, actually," Jenny said.

  Annja had to agree. From the blueberry bush, there seemed to be a small track running through the woods. "Maybe it's an animal run."

  "So animals would use it?"

  "Sure."

  "Like big animals?"

  Annja sighed. "I don't think we're going to run into your Sasquatch hiking down this tr
ail."

  "Never know."

  "Let's get going. If we can find the main road, it's a matter of a few miles back to town. We could be there by noon if we're lucky."