Sun Tail

Chapter One

  Rayna tightened her hand around the girl's arm, pulling her across the cold desert. It extended in all directions, flat and covered with yellow grass and dry bush. In the silent landscape all they could hear were their panting and the gravel dirt beneath their feet.

The moon illuminated the distant mountains in the northeast. The direction they were chasing after. She was going to make as much as distance as she could between the Sun Tail facility and them. Even though she had fooled the security system, it would not be long until the guards figured out they were missing someone. Best to be far away from here, preferably on a train back to Sturgis, the western town she was somewhat welcomed to.

"Keep running, don't look back," Rayna said between breaths. The girl kept stumbling over the sharp bush, red marks shown on her legs and thorns were in her feet. She only had on a simple white dress and slippers. Rayna needed to find her some more appropriate clothes for the wild wasteland. The girl looked up at her with a frightened, dazed look. Rayna had to wonder what caused this girl to be put into a Sun Tail research facility, a place where they experimented on their subjects. Subjects with superhuman abilities. 10 minutes ago this girl was asleep, and now she had been stolen by some mercenary. Only three days ago did Rayna learn of her existence.

In a small town, Ogden, named after some guy long dead. It was near the Great Salt Lake, although the salty waters had receded years ago. She had received a letter three weeks ago to meet at the saloon there on the half moon with the promise of a large down payment. Late that night she met with a stone faced woman with long, white hair and who wore armor decorated with winged cats. A Northan general. She gave her a bag of 200 coin and a silver necklace. Not to sell or wear, but to give to the girl to gain her compliance. It had worked. The girl came along silently, but shaken and tired. She clutched it in other hand, the silver chain winding through her fingers. The Northan general wanted this girl in 40 days at the Devil's Tower, a rock that rose high above the plains in Wyoming, alive and well. Rayna would also receive much more than 200 coin there, so she was to protect her until then.

The research facility was long out of their sight now. Those sterile rooms and hallways always gave Rayna chills. The road came into view. The road was a line of jagged black concrete that ran north and south. In the north it ended at a train station where the crew switched out, where Rayna and her companion would catch a ride through the far away mountains known as the Black Hills.

Her boots landed on the hard, still warm concrete and Rayna stopped. The girl was beside her, panting heavily. She looked up at Rayna, and now she could see in the moonlight that the girl had two different colored eyes. Blue and brown, and filled with confusion. Her hair, a fiery red, was pulled in a low ponytail that reached to her legs. Rayna let go of her arm, a red mark left around her wrist like a fleshy bracelet. She swung her black backpack onto the ground and took out a metal canteen of water, holding it out for the girl to take. The girl hesitated, still on the side of the road. Rayna looked behind her and shook the canteen, the girl slowly coming closer and then carefully taking it from Rayna's hand.

Shuffling through her backpack, now almost empty at the end of her three week adventure, Rayna took out the pair of children's shoes. After that Northan general showed her the picture of the girl and told her it was Sun Tail, she knew that she'd need something to walk on the rocky ground and road.

"Here. Those slippers already have holes in them," Rayna lightly tossed the shoes at the girl which landed at her feet. The girl finished drinking and handed the canteen back to Rayna. She sat down and switched out her white slippers for something more practical.

Rayna slid down her white face cloth, taking a quick gulp from the purified water, allowing herself to rest for a moment. She looked out across the bushy desert which was silent. No wind blew nor coyotes howled. She felt the pistol on her hip beneath her black trenchcoat. Her sharp green eyes stared lazily at the distant mountains, her face framed by two strands of choppy, dark red hair kept together by black triangle beads. The rest she had cut short long ago and kept it that way. No need to have long hair anymore.