September 2030

Dirt

The guy is gone.

As I left and ran towards the barn I focused on the sniper, but now my entire focus is on finding him.

Ignoring my ankle I start to jog. It's hard to tell where he could have went because of the asphalt, but I think I can distinguish small pieces of dirt on the road. I don't have much other things to follow, so I show down my pace as my eyes and brain work hard to find the minimal pieces of dirt. There's dirt all over the road, but these small pieces are slightly different, maybe because of his shoes being placed there.

After several minutes I reach the other side of the highway, slightly left of where it seemed like we were supposed to go. Clever. He probably didn't think that a random girl like me would think he went the way we were from the beginning. Normally people would run the opposite direction, so my suspicion towards him grows a bit as I get to study his pretty advanced techniques. Except the unbalanced knife, everything seems to be so thought through, so that I'm not able to understand. Maybe it has a sentimental attachment.

The ground goes from asphalt to dry grass, and here it's a lot easier to see that he actually went this way. Even if he seemed to be careful to make it hard to see, there's places where the yellow grass lays pressed to the ground. Footsteps. I start to jog again as I follow them towards the edge of a small forest. It's dead like the rest of them, with dark and friable leafs covering the grass and gray colors instead of what used to be green and colorful this time a year a while ago. It barely rains during the autumn anymore, and even less right now, during the beginning of summer. The weather here now could be compared to the weather close to the equator a couple of years ago, so it must be terrible to live in those places now. A living hell to be exact.

The footprints he left behind disappear behind a large rock and I drag my knife before I get closer. The weak sound of dry leafs crushing makes me notice his awareness, and by now he probably noticed mine as well. It's basically impossible to walk hear without touching any leafs. You would need baby feet.

The second I get around the corner of the enormous stone a quick movement and a flash of iron makes me jump back. The guy is standing in front of me, panting hard, with the large knife in on of his hands. It looks like it's hard for him to stand up straight. He's staring at me with a look of disgust, surprise and even hate. He's furious. At me? I hope not, since I was the one that made sure we didn't get shoot at anymore. At least for now.

Even if he at first looked fine, I quickly identify the cause of his unstableness and rapid breathing. A tiny circular mark on the bottom of his right leg, close to the foot. The horrible sniper seemed to be okay at shooting after all. The guy is still looking at me, in complete rage.
"What did you do?" He roars at me.
"Nothing."
As he tries to get closer I easily back off. The potion is working fast.
"Nothing! You call this nothing?"
"I didn't do anything! Well actually yes I did, I went to stop the shooting! Sorry for saving you!" I yell back, still calm but angry at him for accusing me.
"I helped you!"
It's obvious that he doesn't trust me, and he blinks hard to focus before he yells again:
"This is why this thing is messed up! This whole damn situation is messed up!"
Angrily, he throws his fist at the closest tree, causing wooden pieces to explode in all direction from the impressively hard hit based on the condition he's in. I need to keep that in mind. He lowers his arm, fist still hardly clenched, and it doesn't look like he really care about the blood running down his knuckles. Anger issues. Check. I really messed up my choice of person. But it does seem like he can make some serious damage, so it could've been worse. I'm standing put, just letting him calm down while studying him. Memorizing details that might come to use, like how long his body will be able to fight the potion. It probably seems pretty cruel, but I'm really not able to do anything, so I might as well learn from it. He must be in incredible condition since his still standing.
"You should probably lay down." I tell him.
I can clearly see how badly he wants to throw that knife at me, and how much it irritates him that he's not able to. He's barely able to stand anymore, so knife throwing is definitely a challenge. I'm starting to get why he wants to kill me. The most likely reason is that he thinks I tried to get him killed. Planned the shooting on him or something. Pathetic. If I wanted him dead he would be dead.

I back off as he makes a try to hit me in my stomach, and finally he falls. There's no reason to fight the potion, he's just being stubborn. It's like babysitting a huge kid.