An Unlikely Alliance

Part 2

I wake up and roll over, stretching on the uncomfortable earth. I get up and push away a rock that's digging into my back, and then lie down again.

8.31 am. 29th August 2056.

Hopefully the day that I find a more permanent home. I smile to myself and push my blanket off of me, and then shake out the earth and dust. I try not to sneeze. I fold it up and put it in my backpack, on top the wooden bullets, and under all the cans of food. I guess it minimises the noise. Trust me; if you're walking round for the whole day, the clanging gets pretty annoying.

I open one of the tins of rice pudding and eat it quickly with my spoon, swallowing a small clove of garlic after. Gross, I know, but necessary. I remind myself to clean the cutlery when I reach the next river, which should be around eight miles away. I chuck the tin into the corner of the hideout, and rinse my mouth out with some water from my flask. I splash some onto my hands dab at my face, trying to wake myself up properly. I slosh it around; it should be enough to last me till the river. I just hope it isn’t that warm today.

Sighing, I take my map out from the front pocket of the bag. I open it up and look for the black X, my current location. I then look for the red X, my destination, and smile, it’s around 20 miles to the northwest, so I should be there by the afternoon. Putting away the map, I get up and brush off my jeans, they look pretty grubby, but hey, I haven't found any clothes in the previous warehouses, so I’ve been wearing these jeans for what, a month now?

I roll back my shoulders, wincing as I hear my back click and pick up that diary I found last night. I’ll take it with me. It should be interesting, this person was around since the beginning, and they left some pretty helpful weapons, maybe they know some secret or something. I slide it into my rucksack, its pretty much full now, and zip it up. I pull on the leg holsters under my jeans and place the loaded guns inside them. They should be pretty useful.

 I grunt as I hoist it onto my back and head up the steep slope of the hideout, holding onto rocks on either side to help me up. Holding onto one side, I push all of the leaves out of the way, and climb out of the hideout, grabbing the two torches I left out the night before. Squinting at the summer sun, I take off my backpack and pull off the jumper I’m wearing, I have a vest on underneath.

9.02 am

I look up at the sky, the sun has risen, I guesstimate where east is, and head in a slightly opposite direction. I'm not worried about getting lost, the river I'm gonna reach is pretty big, and my destination is around 10 miles along it. I start to walk.

12.11 pm.

I climb over a huge log and brush some of the ants that have crawled over my hands. I lean against it and rest for a moment. I spot a willow tree. I should be near the river; I read somewhere that a sign of a water source being nearby is a willow tree. I stand back up and carry on walking.

12.14 pm.

Yep. There you go. I smile as I hear the flow of water and head in that direction. I spot a clearing through the trees and walk through it, holding my hand above my eyes and the sun almost blinds me, and look at the flowing water before me. It glitters in the sunlight. I freeze as I see a deer drinking at it. I’ve only seen one once before. It looks up at me, its giant brown eyes checking if I’m any danger to it. I stand very still. It carries on drinking, coming to the conclusion that I am no danger to it, and I watch it lap up the water. I know its sounds creepy, but how often do you get to see things like that?

I turn my head as I hear voices. The deer runs away, and I do the same, taking cover in the shadow of the trees. They may be human, but we all know that some work for them. Looking for more ‘donors’. Prisoners more like. I’ve killed a fellow human before. Self defence of course. Some of us go crazy, being on the run all the time. Kinda like that deer. Except, well vampires don’t drink deer blood, so they have nothing to worry about really.