Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV by Borthwick, Finlay (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗

the entire discovery. However, in her heart, she could feel that this just wasn’t true.

From up ahead in the woods, Natalie heard a twig snap.

After all she had been through, she wasn’t willing to take any chances. With quick reflexes, she dropped to the ground and flattened herself against it, glaring through the gently breezing past leaves like a predator ready to pounce.

Then, from in the same direction, another twig snapped.

Carefully, Natalie gripped her holstered knife.

And then, the source of the noise emerged from the bushes; it was a lonesome fox.

Slowly, Natalie released her grip from her knife. Instead, her face filled with awe and wonder as she looked up the mystical creature.

The fox had beautiful and silky red fur along with beady brown eyes and beguiling pointy ears; it was a rare yet beautiful sight that made all the hard times of this apocalyptic world worth living through.

Natalie, wanting to pet the creature, had absent-mindedly decided to jump up to her standing position.

Instantly noticing her, the fox darted back into the bushes.

“No, wait! Come back!” Natalie cried out as she gave chase to the animal. “Please don’t go! I’m sorry!” She was desperate to call the animal back to her, for she had not seen even the slightest signs of life since the last survivors departed from the refugee camp.

Flailing her arms about wildly, Natalie brushed all the leaves and bushes out of her path, desperate to catch up with the fox still.

But then…

‘PING!’

Something had been set off up ahead.

‘YELP! YELP!’

Moments later, the fox was desperately crying out for help.

“Oh my God!” Natalie proclaimed.

She had found the fox in a small opening deep within the forest; it had an arrow sticking out of its’ bleeding leg, as it desperately tried to scramble off of the ground and onto its’ feet.

“It’s alright! I’ve got you!” Natalie dropped to her knees at the foxes side, quickly examining the wound to see what she could do. “It would really help if you stopped flailing about like that.” She flippantly remarked to the animal.

Noticing the direction from which the arrow had been fired, Natalie traced her eyes across the opening; there was a loose tripwire skewed across the ground from where the fox had unknowingly stumbled over it.

Then, Natalie saw what the tripwire had been connected to; there was a makeshift contraption hidden within the bushes that strongly resembled the system of a basic bow & arrow.

“Bugger.” She commented to herself as she looked back over the poor animal’s wound.

The fox was continuing to mindlessly flail around, which in turn, was causing it to lose even more blood.

“No, don’t do that!” Natalie held the animal down firmly, causing it to wince even louder. Instinctively, she retracted her hands from it, “Sorry, sorry! I’m just trying to help!”

As a breeze came through the opening, the air had shifted the arrow ever so slightly – less than a quarter of an inch, in fact – which had enlarged the wound and caused the fox to lose even more blood.

“Oh God! Oh God!” Natalie cursed aloud in desperation as she hurried herself to think of a solution.

OCTOBER 2031

 

Natalie was growing up rather fast. When her father had left her to avenge her mother, she was deep within her teen years. Now, she would soon be old enough to go to university – In the old days, that is.

She had a large, sharp, and double-ended wooden spear slung over her back. She also had a utility belt strapped around her waist in order to carry a water canteen, a knife, a handgun, and a pouch of treats.

No longer haunted by her ghosts, Natalie fearlessly walked the roads of France. She didn’t live in one particular place, but rather, she would set up camp in a new location every night as she moved around the country in search of any lost souls who needed her assistance; but so far, she had not encountered anybody that needed saving.

A pitter-patter of footsteps came running out from an old and decaying building on the roadside; it was the fox.

“Find anything, Xavi?” Natalie asked the fox, whom she had named after her deceased father.

As Xavi came running over to her, the poor fox looked up at her with ‘puppy’ eyes as if to tell her that he had found nothing.

Natalie smiled down at her companion, “Well, you tried.” She told him with a smile as she reached into the treat pouch.

Instantly, Xavi darted around rather excitedly in circles.

“Here you go, buddy.” Natalie threw several strips of beef jerky onto the ground.

Not being a fussy eater for a single second, Xavi gobbled the treats up. As he ate them, Natalie crouched down and stroked him lightly.

OCTOBER 2032

 

Three years after the group had left for Prague, and by extension three years after her father’s death, Natalie had still not found out what exactly had happened to rest of her allies.

Currently, she was on her third lap around the entirety of France, still vowing to assist any lost souls whom she would encounter along the way.

But just as was the case in the previous year, Natalie had found nobody. The closest thing she had found to a person who may have needed help was an old coffee-stained note written by a poor sister to her deceased brother. Though given how old the note was, Natalie had assumed that the two had been reunited elsewhere by this point.

Xavi whined at Natalie’s feet.

Rolling her eyes, she reached into her treat pouch. “You’re gonna have to wait a while after this lot I’m afraid,” Natalie forewarned her companion, having now run out of treats for him, “Alright, here you go.” She threw him the last pile of bacon trimmings that she had left,