Echo

by H Waters

  Lucy walked ahead. The dark, silent woods did not seem to scare her one bit. Our footsteps crunching on the leaves broke the uncomfortable silence, but now there was a bigger problem: the sun was almost gone and we still had to find a safe place to settle down for the night.

  The light faded and the darkness grew thicker with every step we took deeper into the woods. After we had walked until the light was almost completely gone, we stumbled upon a half rotted-out tree stump. I decided we were not going to find any place better before we could no longer see, so I crawled inside and Lucy followed. It was tight, but cozy, it made me feel safer. Lucy’s stomach growled. “I’m sorry we didn’t have time to stop and eat. I promise we will eat at first light,” I said, but she didn’t seem to care.

  It was hard to doze off, but I needed to get as much rest as possible if I planned on making it all the way to Redwood. The comfort of the small dead stump helped — it felt like nothing could touch us in here. We were safe.

  Rrrrrrrr.

  I quickly opened my eyes and grabbed for my sword. I couldn’t have been asleep for more than a couple hours. Lucy was looking outside the stump and making a low growling noise. I grabbed her snout and held it shut. “If you make noise they will find us,” I whispered to her in a shaky voice. Acting as brave as possible I peeked out of the stump to see what she was upset about. Standing in the dark clearing, under the little bit of light that shone through from the moon was not a Ghoul but a deer. Lucy looked at me and I laughed a little, whispering, “You’re a good guard dog.”

  I sat and watched the deer for a while. The leaders of our city had told us all wildlife outside the walls had been killed by Ghouls. Why would they lie? Maybe they didn’t know and just assumed. The city had no reason to lie to us, I assured myself.

  Hearing more rustling, we retreated a little farther back into the stump so we couldn’t be seen, but it was just the deer’s baby. It still had white spots on it. The fawn must have been waiting in the brush until the mother deemed it safe to come and graze. The two deer looked at peace.

  Then, faster than I could blink, the mother deer hit the ground and was dragged into the brush. Lucy stood up, ears pointed, listening. The fawn let out a chilling screech, looking for its mother. Out of the brush, completely encircling the fawn, came four large wolves. They had deep and disturbing howls. Their fur was missing in some patches. One walked right past the tree we were hiding in and I could see a large burn on its right hip, almost as if someone had branded it.

  A fifth wolf, the largest by far, dragged the mother’s lifeless body into the clearing. One of the wolves jumped on the screaming fawn and sunk its teeth into the fawn’s neck. With one quick twist the fawn went limp.

  Watching from the safety of the stump, I held my mouth shut, trying not to scream as the wolves ripped into the deer carcasses. My heart sank. How could nature be so beautiful, but also so cruel and unfair? We watched the wolves feed until the deer were nothing but bone and skin. I was shocked at how quiet Lucy was.

  After a while the wolves retreated into the brush, losing interest in the empty carcasses. After perhaps ten minutes I told Lucy, “We have to move. The wolves may come back, and if they find us we would end up just like those deer.” I strapped my sword to my belt, grabbed my backpack and crawled out of the stump. Still very tired, I crawled toward the dead deer. The bones were so clean. How could an animal do something like this? The wolves looked so rough, like they were tearing everything apart.

  I waved for Lucy to come out from the stump. She was hesitant but followed soon enough. “Okay Lucy, the wolves went that way into the brush, so we should go the other way,” I whispered. “We can cut back to the trail when the light comes back.” The other way was a steep slope full of rocks and roots. I unpacked the rope that I had received from the strange monk and tied it around a small but sturdy tree, tying the other end around my waist.

  “Okay, now we have to be as quiet as possible,” I said, looking Lucy in the eyes. I began to descend the rocky slope. Looking down, I could see Lucy already bounding down the mountain like it was no problem. I would probably break my ankle or leg if I tried to descend like that.

  Slowly one hand let go and grabbed below the other hand. Bit by bit I lowered myself down, trying not to slip and fall. The backs of my arms and my shoulders were on fire, as I tried to keep my weight balanced and prevent the rope from starting to swing. This is crazy, I never thought I would be doing anything like this, I proudly thought to myself. If only Dallas could see me now! A loud howl echoed from above me, breaking the silence of the sleeping forest. Atop the rocks I could swear I had seen the large head and glaring eyes of one of the wolves quickly look at me, then disappear.

  Fear overtook me and I began to descend faster. With the increased speed the rope began to move back and forth along the rocks above. I tried to move even faster down the rope, but this just made the rubbing worse. I watched the rope fray more and more, until finally it snapped. I fell, still clinging to the torn rope like it would somehow help me.

  My head was throbbing, I could barely open my eyes. I forced them open a little bit. Lucy was baring her teeth, standing in between me and the large wolf with the burn we saw earlier. My arm was covered in blood. My eyelids fell shut again, feeling like they were made of concrete. My eyes fluttered back open to the sounds of fighting, and immediately the large wolf was on the ground beside me, lifeless, pierced by three wooden arrows. A girl with blonde hair was swinging a torch and my sword at the other wolves, yelling “Go back to your master!” followed by a long list of curse words. My vision became blurry, and I drifted in and out of consciousness. I couldn’t see, but I felt a rope under my arms. I was being lifted, someone was carrying me, I heard the distant cry of angered wolves.

  “Hey, come look at this!” Dallas excitedly yelled, from the front porch. I was standing in the kitchen of our old home just outside the walls of Kata.

  “Coming!” I replied, setting the knife and the potato I was peeling down on the butcher block countertop. I pushed through the screen door to see Dallas sitting back in his large deck chair. “I had the strangest daydream,” I began to say, but he cut me off.

  “Look,” he said, smiling, as he pointed to the small creek beside our house. In the creek swam four-year-old Jake with a small border collie puppy.

  “Don’t you think they are a little young to be playing in the water?” I laughed.

  “Don’t worry, I’m keeping a close eye,” he replied, grabbing my hand.

  I woke up in a cold sweat. The air was warm and musky. “You took a pretty big fall,” said an unfamiliar female voice behind me. Turning my head I saw a young blonde-haired women sitting on a wooden chair, sharpening my sword. She wore dirty blue jeans and a faded black tank top.

  “Where am I?” I said, my head still throbbing.

  “Well, after saving you and your mutt from being ripped apart by Seekers, I carried you to my little piece of paradise.”

  Sitting up I saw Lucy eating the rabbit in the corner. “Well, at least that worked out,” I laughed to myself.

  “The name’s Scarlet,” she said, standing up to shake my hand.

  “Thanks for saving my life,” I replied. “You can call me Echo. If you don’t mind me asking, what are Seekers?”

  She rolled her eyes like it was a stupid question. “Well, the short answer is that they were wolves, and then they were twisted by some dark form of magic and now they are Seekers. They are created for one purpose — to hunt down and kill whoever their master wishes. In this case they hunt prey for a group of demonic scum known as the Black Bloods.”

  “Uh … did you say magic?” I questioned.

  “Yes, and not the good kind,” Scarlet replied. “This is twisted and evil, only used for wreaking havoc and death. Do they not teach you anything in your walled city?”

  “Not much,” I answered. “Did you kill them all, or are they still out there?”

  “You’re safe for now. Creatures
like that don’t survive very long in the daylight. The dark magic kills the host by trying to bury itself deeper in the mind. It’s quite a painful and messy process and I don’t recommend it.”

  “Why would they not tell us such things?” I asked, confused.

  She began to pack a bag with food, clothes and other supplies. “Yes,” she said calmly. “The people running the city likely thought it would just add to the confusion and fear, or they themselves just didn’t know any better. A lot of people didn’t believe in the Saints and Black Bloods. They tried to find medical cures for the Ghouls instead of fighting back and look how that turned out for them.”

  “Wait, so what are the Ghouls then? Who are the Black Bloods and Saints?” I asked.

  “Jeez, you sure ask a lot of questions, are you sure you want to know?”

  “Of course!”

  “Humans. Ghouls, Black Bloods — they’re human, or were,” she answered, laughing a little when she corrected herself.

  “So, all those dead Ghouls in Kata were people?” I asked, completely dumbfounded and sick to the stomach.

  “Were,” she confirmed, zipping up her bag.

  “Why are you packing?” I quickly asked. “Where are you going?”

  “Holy shit, you do not know how to shut up. I’m going north,” she replied. “There is someone I have to meet.”

  “I need to head west,” I said. “My son is on a train heading for Redwood and I told him I would meet him there. I will never make it on my own, not with creatures like those Seekers running around. Is there any way you could help me, even just get me out of this godforsaken forest?” I begged.

  “There is no God,” she laughed and then added, “Well, I’m heading north first, there’s no way around that, but I guess from the north we could follow the mountains back to the dunes and head to Redwood from there. It will add several days to your travel, though.”

  “Fine by me!” I happily shrieked as I jumped to my feet. Feeling dizzy, I leaned against the closest wall.

  “You better take it easy,” Scarlet scolded. “Don’t forget you hit your head pretty hard.”

  Regaining my normal non-dizzy mind, I grabbed my backpack and slung it over shoulders. Scarlet tossed me my sword and I strapped it back on my hip. “Well, I’m ready to go,” I said smiling, happy to have help finding my way to Redwood.

  “Yeah, I’m ready too, but if you or your mutt fall behind, you will probably not survive the first night, and I won’t be stopping to find you,” Scarlet said, walking out the door. “I’m not a babysitter.”

  Well, someone did not get enough hugs as a child, I thought to myself. I passed through the door into the broken sunlight of the forest. “Lucy, come along!” I hollered.

  V

  The light pushed through the trees, reflecting off the fresh morning dew and giving the vegetation of the forest a shimmering glint. Leaves of all colors were falling from the sky. It was hard to believe things like the Seekers lurked in the shadows here. Compared to the concrete and metal of the city the forest seemed like paradise, something you would only find in dreams — but anything seemed good compared to the city of Kata.

  Walking down a worn path I asked with much curiosity, “Who uses these paths? I thought they would all be overgrown and gone.”

  “There are still many merchants and hunters living outside the city walls,” Scarlet said, walking a few feet in front of me. She wore a pack with a quiver attached to the side holding about a dozen arrows. Her bow was fastened to the top of the pack. I never noticed how blonde her hair really was in the dimly lit cabin. With the sun reflecting off it, it was almost gold. She walked with a wooden staff almost as tall as she was. The majority of the staff was made from a dark black wood and covered in markings that looked more like they were burned into the wood than carved. The last six inches of the staff was white and bent at the top, almost like it was some sort of bone or claw.

  After a few hours of walking I was beginning to understand why she would not want to come and find Lucy or me if we fell behind. As beautiful as the forest was with the colors and the chirping birds, it all looked the same — one big maze of twisting trees and strange noises. Without Scarlet guiding the way we would be walking in circles until we dropped dead.

  “FWEEEEEEET,” I whistled at Lucy to catch up. She was such a good a dog, but she still got distracted by small animals and new smells.

  “Can we take a break?” I wheezed, trying to show how out of breath I was.

  “Fine, but this is our last one if we want to make it to the cathedral before nightfall.”

  After unscrewing the cap to my canteen and taking the most enjoyable gulp of water I had ever had, I sat down on a nearby stump and asked, “If there is no God, why are there so many churches and why do you want to stay in one overnight?”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re like a walking talk show?” she replied.

  “What’s a talk show?” I asked.

  “Never mind,” she replied. “I guess they don’t have time for shows like that in the cities anymore. It’s from the old world.”

  “But wh—” I started to say before she cut in to answer my previous question.

  “The ‘churches’ were built by the Saints and have absolutely no religious purpose. They operated more like safe houses during the war. Places to store weapon and food caches.”

  “Well, if the Black Bloods knew of this why didn’t they destroy them all?” I asked.

  “From what I’ve heard the churches were used somehow to ward Black Bloods away.”

  As I lifted myself off of the stump, every muscle in my legs and back began to tighten and ache. “I don’t understand how she isn’t even tired yet,” I complained to Lucy. “I think I’m going to pass out dead.”

  “If you are going to keep complaining then turn around,” Scarlet snipped at me.

  “I wasn’t talking to you!” I snipped back.

  She muttered under her breath, “Jeez, talking to a dog, she must be insane.”

  “Are you sure you know where we’re heading?” I asked. “It all kind of looks the same to me.”

  “Of course, I know where I’m going! I have lived in these woods for years,” she barked back. “While you were sitting in your safe little walled city with your feet up, I was hunting for my food and killing off stragglers from the Ghoul hordes who found themselves getting a little too close to my cabin.”

  “Okay, no need to be so rude,” I said, shifting the weight of my bag to my right shoulder. “Life in the city wasn’t a cakewalk either.”

  We walked in a cloud of uncomfortable silence for a while until Scarlet finally came to a frustrated halt. “Fine, you’re right, we may have lost our way a little bit,” she admitted.

  “We?” I laughed. She stared at me like she was going to rip me apart. “You do not take criticism well, noted,” I muttered to myself. “Well instead of following the path, let’s look for a landmark you recognize,” I suggested.

  Scarlet nodded in agreement. She began looking around, eyeing every tree and rock. “Ah, hear that?” she excitedly asked.

  “The wind?” I replied, confused.

  “No, it’s running water! We can follow that!” Scarlet declared, marching off the path and into the forest. She disappeared into the thick brush.

  “Well, this should be fun,” I told Lucy, petting her on the head, then quickly following Scarlet into the wilderness.

  After only a few minutes of walking we were beside a large stream flowing in the direction Scarlet was walking. Fish occasionally rustled around in the water or broke the surface to catch a bug.

  “We likely will not make it to the cathedral before nightfall, but I know a place we can crash for the night,” Scarlet hollered from in front of me.

  We followed the river until the sun was beginning to find its way down. The river forked into two, one continuing along the level ground while the other seemed to flow downhill. Scarlet followed the downhill-flowing river with
out hesitation. The banks on the left side of the river began to grow taller, with roots and jagged rocks protruding from the dirt.

  By now the bank was at least thirty feet tall. We rounded a corner and came face to face with a small but beautiful waterfall. “That is where the other river ends up,” Scarlet said, pointing to the top of the cascade at the top of the bank. Scarlet jumped onto a small rock sticking out of the water. Once she was securely on it, she bounded to another, and then another, until she was completely across the river, standing on a small ledge beside the waterfall.

  “Should I follow?” I asked.

  “Not yet just, stay there.” She began to look around the wall, occasionally pulling on random rocks. Eventually one of the rocks came free and fell into the water. In the hole left by the rock was a short, thick rope.

  Scarlet put her feet against the wall and pulled the rope down with all her weight. A piece of the stone wall lifted up and blocked the flow of water that was coming from above us.

  “How did you know to do that?” I asked.

  “I built this place years ago when I went into hiding,” she explained. “It’s safe, no one can get in.”

  “Years ago? You look like you’re in your twenties! How could you have possibly built this as a teenager?” I asked, very confused.

  “I am older than I look,” she said with an uneasy smile.

  I followed her into the cave, carrying Lucy so she didn’t get trapped outside by the giant stone door. It was a very large circular room whose only entrance was the door we came through. Torches lit the walls, but most of the light came from a giant glowing blue pool of water in the middle of the cave. The water was clear enough that you could see hundreds of colorful fish swimming around in it.

  “What do they feed on?” I asked Scarlet. “Can they get outside of this cave?”

  “No, I put a few here and let them breed so I would never run out of food. I had no idea how long I would be stuck in here, and they feed off the minerals and algae in the water, that’s why they’re such bright colors.”