Wanted

#4 | A Fresh Journey

Sly was the first to wake in the morning. He took the liberty of preparing everyone's rations before nudging Mabel awake. He had tried to wake Curtis first, opting to give the young girl more time to sleep, but Curtis refused to get up.

Sly sat down by the remains of their fire from the night before and shoveled spoonfuls of beans, dried meat and fruits, and biscuits into his mouth. Mabel dragged her feet along the sandy ground as she made her way to Sly to collect her breakfast. She thanked the Ranger and sat opposite the burnt branches, her head still fuzzy from the early wake. The two of them were quiet as they ate. Curtis still slept soundly with his back to his new companions.

***

Curtis rolled his knapsack and tied it to the side of his horse's saddle. Sly stretched and prepared for the long walk to the next town over. Mabel was bouncing excitedly in anticipation of the journey ahead of her. She was just happy to be off the streets of Coyote Run.

"How 'bout Shooter?" Mabel suggested. She had been tossing out names for Curtis's horse all morning, none of which Curtis took a particular liking to. "Dusk? Crash. Dazzle. Oh, Silver!" Curtis groaned at each one.

"No, no," Sly added. "It needs to be something fierce! Something to strike real fear in anyone who opposes us. Like...Fury! Or, Shadow! Meteorite!"

Curtis shook his head and pull some parchment from his pack. He drew a small stick of charcoal from his bag, as well, and laid the sheet on the ground.

"Here's the plan," Curtis said as he drew a crude map on the sheet of parchment. "If you're to be travelin' with me, y'ought to know what's ahead."

Curtis flipped the parchment around for Mabel and Sly to view it right-side-up. He pointed with the charcoal at the lowest point on the drawing, saying "That's Sunnyville, where I first ran in to Sly." He gestured to below the map and added, "Down there's the Southern Slick, where I spent most of the 18 months after leaving Midnight's ranch. I'd hoped that's where he'd have escaped to since it's hardly even considered government territory, but I saw no sign of 'im."

"What's down there?" Mabel asked.

"Only the grimiest, filthiest lot in all the Valley Strip," Sly answered. "Not even Rangers go that far south. Just not worth the hassle."

"If we're lucky," Curtis said, "we won't need t'go back there." He drew an imaginary circle around the main map. "If we can stick here in the Mesa Frontier, that'd be ideal. I'd like to avoid going to the Big City if we don't have to."

"But if Midnight isn't in the Mesa Frontier anymore..." Mabel trailed off.

"That's my territory," Sly boasted. "I could guide us through the Big City, no problem. That's where I want to end up, anyway."

Curtis nodded.

"If you're serious about what you said last night, Sly," Curtis said, looking at the Ranger. "Then your knowledge will come in real handy as we head north. We'll zigzag across the Valley as we make our way up. Here we are between Coyote Run and Onyxlanding." Curtis pointed to the lower-middle of the page. "Once we reach Onyxlanding, we'll continue east toward Proudkeep, then north to Tangate, and back west to Yellowtusk, so on and so forth.

"Contrary to what you might think, as we get closer to the Big City, in other words, where the Government and Ranger HQs are, the concentration of Outlaws'll become denser, up to a certain point. Then, there won't be any Outlaws in or immediately 'round the Big City—none stupid enough to make their presences known, anyway."