Walking the Ruins

Anna 2

The sudden hiss of a voice behind Anna nearly made her heart stop. A female voice, one she did not recognize. A villager?

She turned her head and saw a young woman. Short, irregularly cut, greasy hair framed a face with a fierce expression and an ugly scar on her cheek.

"Just be quiet," the woman said, moving the tip of her spear towards Anna's nose. "And get up, slowly."

Anna got to her feet, scrutinizing the stranger. "Who are you?" she asked.

"This doesn't matter now". The words were scathing but whispered. She moved her spear in front of Anna's face, much too close for comfort, then pointed it downslope. "Let's move. Down there."

Anna stood frozen, unable to do as requested. The intense stare, the clenched jaw, the urgent words—this woman was not a villager. She was not chipped. She was not from the Reduit either. What was she?

"Go! Move!" she hissed. "I've killed larger things than you."

Whatever she was, she had to be on the edge of madness, or beyond.

"Go!" she repeated, nearly stabbing one of Anna's eyes.

Anna cast a wistful glance towards the trail where her friends had left. They were nowhere to be seen. She was alone, alone with this madwoman who seemed perfectly capable of killing her with that spear.

Slowly, Anna turned and took a step downhill. The slope was steep, much more difficult to walk than the jogging trail. She reached out for some branches to steady herself while her feet sought purchase amid the roots and dirt.

"Keep moving," the madwoman said.

Anna felt a painful stab of the spear tip on her shoulder. What did that woman want? She felt new tears well up in her eyes as she turned her head to look back at her once more.

"Don't whine!" the woman said. "Just move!"

The descent was a nightmare. The ground was slippery, and the roots and plants kept snagging her feet. The woman hissed, cursed or growled whenever Anna slowed down.

Finally, the ground leveled out, but the woman was driving her on. Anna felt like the cattle that the villagers prodded with sticks to move them to the fields.

The trees in this part of the forest were huge, Anna had never seen anything like it. The trunks soared skywards, supporting a roof of greenery incredibly far above. Her eyes kept wandering up, neglecting the tricky ground below her, so she kept stumbling again and again.

"Watch where you go, dammit," said the woman, obviously still in a foul mood.

What did she want from her? Who was she? Anna had no clue. But she did not dare ask. She was afraid of her.

The others must be missing her by now. What would they think? That she had ran off on her own? Would they search for her at all?

She walked on, trying to concentrate on her steps.

They reached a group of decayed buildings, a place where Anna had never been before. She must be further away from the Reduit than ever. Her legs hurt, and her hands were scratched from the plants.

"Sit down there," the woman said.

She was pointing her spear at a block of crumbling concrete that stood at the entrance of one of the buildings. With a sigh of relief, Anna sat. Her legs were trembling. Exhaustion, or fear? Probably both.

The woman's clothes were different from those they wore in the Reduit, but also different from those they had in the village. Colorful, but torn and dirty. Clearly old technology.