Silent Horizons

Chapter 2

3 Days Ago

They walked in silence along a beaten dirt road. Each step wearing heavily on their exhausted bodies. Days without food had become strenuous, the fatigue relentless. It was with fervent hope that they trekked on, hoping to find food or shelter to rest their weary bodies. Their faces weathered and worn, whipped by weather and time, they walked with the simple goal of survival. The key was to keep going. Never staying in the same place. To remain was to be a sitting duck. An easy target for predators, some old and some new. Ever since the Others landed one was never safe. Not to mention the cruel humans which now roamed the Earth seeking to inflict suffering upon their fellow species. He would never understand why a destroyed world would lead the common man to become the evil. He had encountered this too much along his journey. Probably weren't common men before then, he reminded himself for the hundredth time. Nothing like a lack of societal structure to allow peoples true nature to emerge. He sighed. There was no sense in dwelling.

It was Fall, the leaves yellow and orange blowing in the wind. The trees had just begun to drop their foliage which crunched under their feet as they continued their march, their packs heavy with supplies. The seasons dried grass somehow comforting in its predictability. One could not underestimate the importance of certainty when it came to survival. For now, it would be Fall, later it would be Winter. The cold would come, and with-it life would continue.

With the change of weather came different challenges and for this they would be prepared. It was the new environmental threats that They posed that was the true challenge. The wind biting through his jacket, he shivered. What he wouldn't give for a warm coat. He always felt like he was damp and chilled. Pulling his jacket in tighter, he hurried to catch up to her.

The woman walked ahead; her shoulders hiked up to her ears. Her hair whipping around furiously with the wind. As he caught up to her, she looked at him, acknowledging his presence. Her cracked lips forming a stern line.

Had they been in the Before, one might've perceived them as friends or even more as these two companions walked side by side down the path. The truth was, even though they'd been together for a few months, they didn't really know each other. Although they ate, slept, and bathed together, few details of who they were had been shared. They had both silently agreed that sharing details formed attachments and that those attachments were messy. One did not need mess in this new life. Most certainly not. Life was already complicated enough. In that sense, neither of them had particularly been looking for a companion on their journeys. Instead, like many instances in the world in which they now lived, it was chance that brought them together and kept them this way since.

***

The day they met, he had been crouched on the side of a stream, skittish as a hunted deer filling up his water canteen. Looking over his shoulder every couple of seconds he had been hurriedly going about his business when he heard the first scream. It wasn't a fearful or hurt voice. No, it was a crazed scream. A pure ferally angry and tortured screech accompanied by running footsteps. He spun around in his crouch as fast as his legs would allow him to see a naked man running towards him with ferocious speed.

A knife was raised high above the man's head, gleaming in his hands. Covered in scratches, bruises, and scabs the madman raced towards him. His assailant was half missing one nipple off his chest, the wound raw and bleeding as it hung by a thread of flesh. He barely had time to absorb what was happening before the foe was nearly upon him.

He rolled out of the way just in time for the man to miss him, the knife slashing wildly so close to his ear he heard the air parting next to his cheek. The canteen clattered on the rocks, instantly forgotten in the heat of the moment.