I pulled it out in time to see Mama Rosie come crashing toward me. I aimed as best I could, closed my eyes, and fired.
I heard Mama Rosie hit the ground with a thud.
A moment later Vella came running up.
“Oh my god! Are you okay?”
I sat up to see I had shot Mama Rosie between the eyes. Snakes were crawling everywhere.
“Get out of there,” Vella called, lending me a hand.
We closed the door to the van and stood at the side of the road breathing hard.
“You shot her in the head,” Vella said.
I was crying. I nodded, wiping the tears from my eyes. I felt like I was going to throw up.
“No, I mean, she went down when you shot her in the head. Beau, he didn’t feel a thing when you hit him across the chin, but he went down when I bashed him on the head. There is something with the head, the brain.”
I nodded, understanding.
I took a deep breath and looked around. “Where the hell are we?” I asked.
“Falling from the tower,” Vella replied.
I frowned. “Now, none of that. Come on,” I said, pulling myself back together. “We need to get somewhere safe. Let me drive for awhile.”
I backed the Bronco down the road and siphoned the gas from Mama’s van. I hated to leave her there like that, but I wasn’t going back in there with those snakes. We turned down a dirt road, Forest Road 23, and headed into the woods. We drove for hours before we saw anything. Eventually, however, we came across The Hickory Nut Camp Store. We pulled the Bronco in beside the old gas pumps. They looked like antiques more than anything else. The lights were on inside so we headed in.
“Hello?” I called, pushing open the door. I had Mama’s gun and my pipe wrench, and Vella was still carrying the mallet.
We could hear static coming from the T.V. mounted on the wall behind the counter.
The store was full of all kinds of camping gear: tents, lanterns, sleeping bags, and other odds and ends. Most importantly, I spotted guns, ammo, and snacks.
“Anyone here?” Vella called.
Puck was braver than the two of us. He trotted into the store and started poking his nose in the shelves. It wasn’t long before he’d torn into a bag of beef jerky. He sat down on the floor beside the soda cooler and chewed his lunch.
“Let me check the back. Grab some supplies?” I said to Vella who nodded.
I went around the back of the counter toward the store room. “Hello? Anybody home?” I called.
A single light bulb lit the back room. It flickered off and on. Two very dusty old windows also lit the room. The sun was setting so not much light shone in. I decided the place was clear and went to head back to the front when I spotted the toe of a shoe sticking out into the aisle at the end of the row. Someone was sitting on the floor.
“Hello?” I called. When I didn’t get an answer, I feared the worst. I whistled. A moment later Puck appeared. With my Puck at my side, I carefully crossed the store room. Whoever was sitting there didn’t move. When we got close, Puck stopped and sniffed the ground. He barked at the figure.
I raised the gun and stepped sideways to stand in front of whoever was sitting on the floor.
A man, maybe around fifty, was slumped sideways on the floor. A handgun lay beside him. I could see he had shot himself in the head. His brains were splattered all over the boxes.
“Sorry, friend,” I said, lowering my gun. I picked up the dead man’s handgun and headed back to the front.
Vella was just returning from a trip to the Bronco when I came back.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Depends on who you ask,” I replied. “Store owner shot himself. He’s dead in the back.”
Vella looked shocked.
“Can’t say I blame him,” I said.
Vella and I loaded up the Bronco with the supplies, nearly half-emptying the store, and we headed back outside. We had given up on our map. Nothing was where it was supposed to be. By nightfall, we were completely lost. It didn’t help much that Vella had only one head-light and no high-beams. We drove through the woods and sometime around midnight, we emerged at a clearing that overlooked a valley. Something about the place, maybe the glow of the moon on the grass bending in the wind or the moon’s silver light reflected on the small field pond, made the place look almost magical.
I slowed the Bronco and put it into park.
“What now?” Vella asked me.
I looked across the horizon. Suddenly, I saw a very strange blue-green light in the field. At first I thought it was a fire-fly, but the light never went off. The orb of light bounced across the grass. I watched it for a moment. Puck barked.
“You see that?” Vella whispered.
“Yeah, I see it,” I replied.
“What is it?” Vella asked.
“Swamp gas?”
“A wisp?”
I frowned at Vella.
The light bounced playfully in the field.
“I think we should follow it,” Vella said. Her voice was thin and mystical. I didn’t like it a bit.
“I don’t know about that,” I replied.
“Just follow it,” Vella answered.
I sighed. I didn’t really want to follow the light, but I was curious. I turned the Bronco onto the grassy field and followed the glowing blue orb. It bounced over the grass and down a hill. The light went into a thick woods where the Bronco could not follow.
“We should follow it,” Vella said.
“Walk after it? Like hell,” I replied. “You do know it is night? And you do know we are in the middle of nowhere? And you do remember there are freakin’ zombie-lookin’ things creapin’ around everywhere, right?”
Vella watched the light. “We should follow it,” she said again.
I clicked off the Bronco and turned to have a very serious discussion with Vella when Puck, who had been sitting quietly between Vella and me, suddenly crawled across Vella’s lap and jumped out the window.
I saw his tail wagging as he bounded across the grass toward the glowing light.
“Fuck,” I swore and jumped out of the Bronco. I grabbed the pipe wrench and Mama’s pistol and went after the dog.
Vella was hot on my heels.
“Soon as I get the damned dog back we’re goin’ back to the Bronco,” I told her.
Vella said nothing but kept pace with me. The dog and the light disappeared into the thick, dark woods. When I reached the border between the field and the woods, I hesitated.
“Puck,” I called into the woods with scolding authority. “Puck!” I realized then that if I went around screaming I was inviting trouble. “God damned dog,” I grumbled, and stepping into the forest, I went after him. Vella followed.
We wove through the woods. Ahead I could see the blue light and a shadow of Puck following behind it. Suddenly, however, the light bounced up and then dropped out of view. In the darkness, I spotted Puck sitting on a rise. The moonlight was shining down on him. “There he is,” I said pointing, and Vella and I ran toward him. When we got close, I called him again: “Puck, come here you bad dog.”
Puck rose, wagging his tail, and jogged toward me.
Vella walked toward the rise where Puck had been sitting. No matter what, I was done following weird lights. “Let’s head back,” I said and turned to go, grabbing Puck by the collar.
“Cricket,” Vella called.
“Oh no. I’m not chasing any more lights in the woods. Come on.”
“No, wait. Look,” she said.
With a sigh, I walked toward the rise where Puck had been sitting. Down across the valley below us we saw the twinkle of light.
“What is it? A town?”
Vella shook her head. “I don’t know. Looks like some kind of building.”
We both stood there considering.
I looked down at Puck. He whimpered excitedly. “Well, guess we better go check it out. Could be help or we could get eaten alive. No way to kn
ow unless we go find out. You agree?” I asked Vella.
She had a strange, faraway look on her face and was smiling serenely.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Look, on the top of the building.”
I squinted. “A star?” It looked like there was a shining silver star on top of the building. “Maybe it’s a Holiday Inn.”
She shook her head. “No. It’s the Star,” she replied.
“What do you mean, the Star?”
“In the Tarot deck. The Star follows the Tower.”
“If you say so. But lights can also mean a soft bed and a hot meal,” I replied with a shrug. I looked down at Puck who wagged his tail. I stuck the pistol in the back of my jeans, and keeping a tight grip on my pipe wrench, we headed off through the darkness and toward the Star.
###
About the Author
Melanie Karsak, steampunk connoisseur, white elephant collector, and caffeine junkie, resides in Florida with her husband and two children. Visit Melanie at her blog, melaniekarsak.blogspot.com, to learn more about upcoming projects, book signings, and other fun things.
Keep in touch with Melanie on the internet:
Blog: http://melaniekarsak.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MelanieKarsak
Email: [email protected]
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About The Harvesting
The Harvesting is the first book of The Harvesting trilogy which explores the question Peryn poses to Layla in the first novel of the series: “Mankind has finally consumed itself. Can any spark of humanity survive?” The second book of the series, The Shadow Aspect, will be released in the spring of 2013. Please see the author’s blog for details.
The Harvesting Page 22