Damage & Decay

Chapter 31

Part Three: Lost Girls

"Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope."

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They rode hard all morning, pushing the horses to the edge of endurance. Several times the thunder of their hooves attracted zoms, but all the horses shied away from zoms and were trained to alert their riders. Besides, the shuffling zoms could not catch up to the fast mounts, and even if they did, the carpet coats each horse wore kept the animals safe while Armin and Eren used their swords to chop the monsters down.

It was all terrifying to Eren, but the dread of what could be happening to Nix was far worse, and he ground his teeth together and kept pace with Armin.

At first, in the coolness of the dawn, the horses could manage the grueling pace, but as the sun rose, the temperature soared, and the horses began blowing and wheezing. Foam flecked their mouths, and under the lightweight carpet coats, their flanks were streaked with sweat. Finally Armin slowed their pace to a walk and then dismounted. Chief, the big Appaloosa, almost visibly sighed in relief.

"What are you doing?" demanded Eren. "We have to keep going."

"If we keep this pace, we'll kill these animals and then where would we be? We have to give them some water and then walk them for a while. Then they'll be ready for another run."

It was maddening to Eren, but he knew Armin was right. He slid from Apache's saddle, secretly grateful, because his legs felt like they were stretched out of shape. With every step it felt like there was sandpaper on the inside of his pants. Riding ponies around town was no kind of preparation for riding a big horse. His hips felt like his thighs had been forcibly unscrewed, and after all the awkward bouncing in the saddle, he was pretty sure there was no chance he'd ever father children. He tried not to squeak when he spoke.

They took a bowl from Armin's pack, filled it from one of the canteens, and let the horses drink. Then they walked on, the horses following along as the sun became an inferno overhead.

On foot it was easier to follow the trail, too. At first the footprints were easy to spot, since they ran in a line from the gate into the foothills, but the  higher they climbed, the more obscure the prints became. At one point Armin dropped prostrate on the hard ground, and peered sideways at some marks that didn't look like they were anything at all--at least not to Eren. Armin kept frowning and squinting and grunting.

Eren stared at him, annoyed. He was exhausted from total lack of sleep, and flies were threatening to pick him up and carry him off. And every time the wind blew through the trees, he swore he could here Nix calling out to him.

"Are you actually doing anything down there?" Eren asked.

"No," Armin muttered. "I'm just screwing around to piss you off."

Eren gave that a minute, then said, "Sorry."

Armin said, "I'm looking at the footprints to see if there's a clear direction."

Footprints?  Eren thought. All he could see was dried mud and bare patches of rock. He looked from the ground, off into the direction they had been following; a twisted course through empty foothills that wandered south by southeast. The heavy rains of the previous night had soaked all of the ground, and Armin had been able to follow the foot trails leading from Mountainside. But as the morning wore on, Armin became less certain.

Armin got to his feet and slapped dust from his clothes. Even after the rains, the top dirt had dried to powder in a matter of hours.

"What's wrong?" Eren asked.