Fortitude Part Five
“Who do you think he is?” Teddy whispered.
I shook my head. “No idea. He’s not completely wild, though.
He wasn’t born out here.”
Teddy frowned. “How do you know? Oh wait”—he held up one hand—“no
one can survive out here, much less a baby.”
“Clearly they can, Teddy, or he’d not be here.” Sometimes
Teddy’s slower thought processes annoyed me. I found myself explaining a lot to
him, which was often frustrating. “He’s seen bread; he knew it was edible. He’s
not seen food preserved, hence his inability to open the cheese. Did you hear
the alarm go off?”
“No.” Teddy still looked confused.
“So he avoided the perimeter alarms—as if he knew they were
at least a threat to his surveillance. He also wasn’t scared off by either the
light from the lantern or the shot like a wild creature would. He’s rough, and
only semi-coherent, but he’s no savage.” I pursed my lips.
“Who he is and where he comes from is of great interest to
me, however.” The wildman, for lack of a better name for him, had bitten the
cheese, through the wrapper, and busily licked at the hole he’d made, before he
shoved one finger inside the package and tore it open.
I kept the lantern light low, and peered into the shadows
outside the perimeter. Was he alone? What was he so scared of? I could only
learn so much through observation.
“Are there more, with you?” I pointed out into the darkness.
The wildman cocked his head as he licked his fingers. I shuddered to think of
where they’d been. “More people, like us”—I gestured at myself and Teddy—“or
like you?”
“More?” The cheese was gone, though he searched through the
leftover plastic for any morsel uneaten. His eyes lasered in on my pack. He
crept closer.
I reached inside and tore off a small bite of bread. “Are
there more people?” I asked slowly. He looked at my face and then at my hand
holding the bread. I waited.
“No more.” He patted his chest. “Me.” He narrowed his eyes,
looking beyond me and Teddy into the trees. “Bad here.”
Did he mean here in the woods specifically? Or outside the
city in general?
“More?” he asked plaintively. I could hear his stomach
growling. It meant eating into our stores, but I’d calculated a buffer of
provisions, so I wasn’t too concerned. Besides, he was a half-starved wretch—he
wouldn’t be able to eat much. I threw him the bread.
He was about to stuff it into his mouth when he froze. “No
light. No light.” He leapt forward, knocking the lantern out of my hand before
I realized he was coming for us. The night fell darker around us for the
absence, lit only by the thin laser beams.
“What?” Teddy gasped and choked with the wildman jumped over
me and onto him, knocking both of us over. I went for my sword, drawing it
partway from its sheath, but all he did was slap a hand over Teddy’s mouth.
Teddy bucked wildly but couldn’t dislodge his attacker.
“Shh,” he hissed. “No sound. No move.”
Then we heard it. Wings, flapping through the air, above us.
A dark shape blotted out the stars above us, its wingspan so great I could
scarcely believe it. It was black as pitch and the only way we could see it was
by the absence of the starlight. What the hell was that? I’d never heard of any
flying beast so large, nor had one ever flown over the city.
It circled the clearing, its wide wings outstretched as it
banked in a circle. I could only imagine the size of the mouth on something
that large, and I assumed it would easily be able to swallow a man whole. My
heart raced as I searched for my gun, for all the good that would do if it
dove.
The wildman didn’t get off Teddy until it stopped circling,
and we lost the sound of the creature’s flight as it left in search of other
prey. Teddy rolled over, gagging. He scrubbed his face with the front tail of
his shirt. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
I wouldn’t have wanted those filthy hands on my skin either.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Bad. Swallow up all. Nighttime quiet. No sound, no light or
bad.”
Perhaps the creature didn’t have a name. But if it were
drawn to light and sound, why didn’t they approach the city? The council….
Clearly the condition of the outside was not what the council claimed.
Teddy crawled over to me, leaning against me, wiping the
back of his hand over his mouth. “Will….”
I put my arm around him. “It’s okay. You’re fine.”
He shuddered. “I hate the dark.”
“I know.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Is there a safe place to
go? To make light and sound?”
“Safe?” the wildman repeated. He narrowed his eyes. He
pointed behind us. “You go. Safe there. You go now.” He curled his lip.
Did he think I would let something like one gigantic flying
bird deter me from my mission? Besides, if the city was so safe, and he knew
where it was, why hadn’t he gone there? I shook my head. “No. We won’t go back
to the city. Where do you come from? Is there safe?”
“No stay.” Then he jumped straight through one of the
highest gaps in the laser grid surrounding our camp. He’d made other leaps, but
nothing like that.
“Amazing.”
How had he learned to do that?
“Are we going to follow him?”
“With who knows what out there? No.” I wanted to find the
wildman again, but we had a mission to complete. “The codex is more important.”
“So we aren’t going home?”
“No, Teddy. Besides, I have a feeling our visitor won’t go
too far. I want to talk to him again.” I smiled. Another mystery….
TBC
More to come next week on the strange world outside the city!!
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