Prologue
The stars shone upon the dark, thick forest and the moon's crescent hang from the night sky like a curved, fiery bright scimitar. The air was filled with the stench of wet and rotting autumn leaves, mixed with the aroma of resin and pine needles. Over the woods flew a distant sound of waves, crashing onto the rocky shore.
Christopher Kratz cared not much about the surrounding environment as long as it did not block his dash through the somber woods. He ran at the peak of his limits. He could feel the rising temperature of his brain, yet he could not afford to stop even for a second. Not now. Not when he was running for his life.
The moist foliage under his feet, the moss covered rocks, the dark beech trees, stretching crooked branches towards him – everything was blurred. His weary lungs began to perplex his breathing. His heart skipping a beat every time he hears the gut-wrenching growl behind.
The wolves were getting closer, now twenty meters behind him. Eight deadly shadows rushing through the woods. Their white fangs glittered on the moon light, their eyes anticipating the triumph.
Yet it was not the wolves Christopher Kratz tried to escape. He ran from something else. From someone else.
When the forest abruptly ended up to a little clearing surrounded by a wall of huge rocks, he immediately felt his heart shrinking in his thorax to the size of a bean. This was the end for him, he knew immediately. There was no road forward. He turned around toward the rushing beasts and pressed his back against the cold stone. Seeing him halt, the wolves slowed down and formed a semi-circle. Their eyes flickering in the darkness. Their growl deep and low, paralyzing.
The old scavenger lost control of his body. He was shaking. Every fiber of his flesh, every cell, every tissue, every muscle, they all shivered like a windblown leaf. His teeth chattered faster than a woodpecker. He knew his pursuer was nearby.
The wolves, however, stayed oblivious.
The tense silence was broken by the sudden sound of ruptured sinews and crushed bones. Followed by the sound of cut veins and splashed blood. Howling. The sonorous echo of a hacked flesh again. Kratz saw a gleam from the moonshined steel, splitting the darkness with a tremendous velocity.
When the third bulk of slashed fur slumped against the ground, the other five wolves retreated back to the forest, whimpering. The man bothered not to wipe the dripping blood off his peculiar machete, but instead, he turned towards Kratz and advanced in a slow, yet determined pace. Something followed his feet. A dog?
Although the little clearing was lit by the moon, the shadow his cowboy hat cast on the face, prevented recognition. Kratz did no need of one, though. He knew painfully well who this man was.
Still pressing the cold stone with his back, the terrified scavenger raised his shaking hands. His whole body surrendered now, including his bladder. When he opened mouth, it was a just soft squeak that came out. "Wait! I didn't know, I swear! I didn't know… Please! Mercy!"
Did you like the prologue? Check out the first chapter of the series in my blog:
dayz of redemption. blogspot .no
It's completely free!