Feral Heart Edit - Duron Crejaro (best novels of all time TXT) 📗

that. I had no time to ponder the strangeness of it, as she started to berate Dhamon in a most uncouth way. She ignored the stares her loud voice produced.

 

“Yeah, being an enforcer would be so great huh Dhamon?” she began. “So you can haul off people you’ve known all your life? Just like Gloria? Remember her? To god fucking knows where? So people can experiment on them or whatever it is that happen to them when they taze them unconscious and drag them unwillingly from their friends and family and everything they’ve ever known?” She spat the words at him.

 

A dark side of Cami emerged, one that was never seen, reserved only for the most grievous situations as far as she was concerned. With a disgusted huff, she picked up the small carton of milk and chucked the remains at Dhamon. It clipped him in the head before she stood, and stalked off in a fit.

 

As she stormed off, I heard a muffled retort from Dhamon. “Crazy much?”

 

I however paid him no attention. I watched Cami. Rather the area around her. I rubbed my eyes, and thought maybe I was seeing things, but no, it remained. Around Cami, something flitted around. It caused the air to shimmer, fluctuate. It darted to and fro around her, never staying in place long. No one else seemed to notice it, and I was confused, unsure if what I saw was real. So caught off guard by the apparition, I stood to follow and make sure everything was okay. The school had other ideas, for just then the lunch bell rang. I was forced to return my tray, and prepare for my next class.

 

The next class happened to be physical education. Which as I may have mentioned, I hate. I preferred to call it combatives, because aside from the strenuous exercise at the start, the class was nothing more than a trumped up foray into the world of injuring another person. I think the main thing I hated about this class, was that it followed lunch. Doing all this crap on a full stomach didn’t sit well with me, more than once I verged on tossing my cookies. Still in as much of a half-assed manner as I could manage, I went through the motions. I gave myself a reminder to ask Cami what was going on with her and her strange outburst in the cafeteria. Maybe something bugged her that she hadn’t told me about, which would be strange I thought, and struck the heavy bag again.

Chapter 5: Eyes in The Dark

Another long dreary week passed. Cami remained tight-lipped about whatever was bothering her, so I let it hit the back burner for a while. Dhamon was oblivious, and allowed himself to be caught up more and more with his studies. For my part, I found myself becoming more and more disinterested with learning. It seemed repetitive as the days went on. I felt like the leaves as they withered and fell from the trees leaving them bare. My mind emptied, a blank slate, though I continued to be an unwitting, unwilling participant. I spent my days this way, in a daze as I moved from class to class.

 

Though I felt as I did, I relished in my free time. I continued to visit the Old World. Perhaps with the silent hope of a glimpse of another Wylder. Today, I explored a building unlike any I had ever seen before. The sign was broken, large chunks had fallen away except for a few letters and a great cartoonish epitaph of a mouse’s head. Inside was strange. Despite the dust, mildew and overall signs of decay, I could tell right away that this had once upon a time been a place of joy and mirth. Strange contraptions littered the entire place; some were like my bicycle, meant to be ridden, in the image of cars, motorbikes and the like. Strange artificial looking guns, in outlandish colors adorned others. A worn rubber mallet stood affixed by a rope to a table covered in small holes. In the corner were several rows of wooden planked lanes, leading up to a small rise of a hill behind which numerous numbered holes had been placed.

 

Then across the way tucked into the corner, was a collection of tube-like things in the form of a maze, the winding turning paths of which culminated in a mesh enclosed put of hollow colored balls representing the entirety of the rainbow. Partitioned off to the side of the game filled arena were several long rows of benches and a stage. Barely clinging to life was a heavy purple curtain, drawn open. Skeletal robotic remains of the mouse that adorned the sign outdoors stood robust on the stage holding an electric guitar. What I assumed was his ragtag band of friends joined him on the stage.

 

I could see it all in my mind; the flashing lights, the whir of machines and the steady hum of music along with the delighted laughter of young children. It made me think of what the world was like back then, when humans could take time out to appreciate fun and enjoy life. Nowadays we were locked behind our walls, fearful of what was left in the world, and hid from that which was new or left behind. I shook my head in regret. We did little more than survive.

 

I forced myself to turn away from the scene, and made my way back outside, I knew right away that I had loitered to long within my thoughts. Dusk approached me in haste. It reached out its wraithlike fingers to take hold of the carcass of the Old World in its grasp. A sigh escaped me, I would arrive home late I knew, and questions would be asked. I always hated to lie to my parents, but they would have a conniption fit if they knew the truth.

 

I increased my pace, and tried to make up time. My mind was raced, trying to come up with a story that would be believable enough that my parents wouldn’t question it much. I think this is the reason I got lost, I was distracted. At least this is what I told myself when I looked around and didn’t have a clue where I was. I could also blame it on the encroaching darkness. Everything always looks so different at night, it’s almost as if you’ve entered another world. With a mild groan I stopped, looking around. I tried to get my bearings, and decide where I was when it happened. A baleful howl reverberated around me. It echoed off the decayed walls of the buildings around me. Fear coursed through me, rolled through my body in a thick wave, soul crushing in its certainty. The sound filled my stomach with a tepid pool of nausea, and paralyzed my mind and body.

 

I spotted it almost right away, easily twice the size of the largest dog I had ever seen, not that I’ve seen many, except in old pictures. Though it looked alone, I knew others were sure to be with it, a pack animal they called it. My skin crawled, hairs rising at the nape of my neck; I knew the ones I couldn’t see were watching me. I attempted to ignore the fear, and swallow the lump in my throat. I forced my legs to propel me forward, despite them feeling like jelly. I Based my travel on the deepened twilight, and headed off towards the fence which I knew lay somewhere to the south of me. Soon however I just strived to keep moving, without thought to the direction I was headed. A low guttural growl whispered though the darkness, and a tremble rode it up my spine. Keep moving I thought, and turned down an alley. Halfway down it I looked up mortified. I had cornered myself.

 

Ahead lay a rusted yet intact chain link fence. It blocked the alleyway between the two buildings. I almost laughed at myself as I turned around. Almost. I backed up towards the rusted remains. I looked to the razor wire atop the fence. It mocked me with a bloodied grin. Two more of the pack joined the huge one, and confirmed that I was indeed stuck between a rock and a sharp place. I was sure that more must be nearby. The foremost, the largest, and I guessed the leader, growled in a low menacing tone. As they approached me ever so slow and licked their jowls in anticipation, no doubt they tasted the fear with each breath. I eyes closed, and wondered why I hadn’t listened to my parent’s warnings about the Old World. Now, just like the cat, curiosity was about to end me.

 

Terrified, eyes shut, and on the verge of hyperventilating, I waited. My entire body shook with abject fear. After several tense seconds nothing happened, and I dared to open my eyes just enough to see the pack leader spring from his crouched position, its maw of jagged fangs opened, ready, waiting. I think I screamed. I’m not sure though. I do know that in that one instant, time slowed down to a crawl. The entire scene played out like some vague faded stop motion film before my eyes.

 

The creature lunged, a deep, chesty roar echoed in my ears. A reddish brown blur, caught the large dog midair. Claws and teeth latched onto it, riding it sideways with the momentum of the collision. The two bodies struck the wall of the building, and caused small bits of rock and debris to shower them. The new combatant leapt off its prey and stood between me and the other pack members. This thing was twice the size of the wild dogs, which were themselves of mutant proportions. I stared in disbelief at a cat. No, cat is the wrong word, this thing was far larger and sinister in appareance than the cats I had seen photos of. This thing was huge, sleek, its broad shoulder and muscles rippled with tense rage. Its dark spotted pattern started at the head in close-knit blackish brown spots, only to widen out into larger rosette-shapes along its midsection. Its ears were tucked back, with hackles raised all along its backside as it hissed and swatted an oversized paw at the remaining mutts. The beauty of the scene remained with me. So did the realization that the creatures could be fighting over which had claim to this meal. I shrank back further into the corner or tried to at least. The dogs bayed at the great feline before shrinking back. Their leader struggled to its feet and limped back to his uninjured comrades, and they all began to back out of the alley with purpose. They never took nervous gazes from the beast that had interrupted their meal.

 

My brain was overloaded, and still I thought that the end might be at hand. I could feel the darkness as it closed in around me, as if someone had turned the television off and the blackness faded into the center of the screen from the outer edges. The last thing I remembered before the lights went out was the beast turning towards