MARK OF THE BEAST IV: FRONTIER
Under the all the bug bites and river muck, all I could feel was exhaustion. Every fiber of muscle in my body screamed out in agony as I dragged myself out of the reeds behind my brothers, flopping onto the riverbank like a gasping catfish. Mutant or not, we were still reptile enough to swim longer and faster than the average human, but far too out of practice to be anything but wasted after a whole day fighting the current. Other than momentarily surfacing to fill our lungs, this was our first time freely breathing the air in hours, and I savored it like every breath was a mouthful of caviar.
Up above, the abstract smattering of stars looked so unfamiliar to the tepid nighttime glow around the city. I could make out the shape of the galaxy, viewing whole constellations I'd never laid eyes on before.
"Are they gonna find us here, Don?" Mike panted.
"Eventually."
"Then we can't stop moving." Leo breathed, peeling himself off the ground. "Where is 'here', anyways?"
I sensed their eyes shift to me, but no answer came. With no technology and no knowledge of the area, I felt blind.
"All I know is, we passed that 'Welcome to Vermont' sign on the side of the road about an hour ago." Raph huffed. "Which puts us smack-dab in the middle of fucking nowhere." Turning my head slowly to take in the panorama, I saw he was right; no houses, streets, or any signs of habitation at all could be seen through the dense trees. This far upstream, the river practically narrowed into a creek barely deep enough to cover our shells, which meant we'd have to stick to dry land if we were to carry on.
Raph brushed a slimy strand of seaweed off his shoulder as he straightened his back with a groan.
"I don't think we're going anywhere tonight." Mike sighed, rolling onto his stomach and revealing a coat of pine needles stuck to his shell. "I can't even feel my toes."
"So, what, we're camping out here in the sticks?" Raph snapped back. "What do I look like to you, an Indian?"
"What, you've got reservations to a bed and breakfast out here? In the middle of peak leaf-peeping season?" Mike's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Lead the way, prima donna."
"We're not going anywhere near a road or a human until the Foot's been dealt with." Leo said curtly.
"What's your plan, then?" Raph steamed. "We're lost God knows where in the Green Mountains, hungry and tired as hell, with no food or beds around in the whole county, probably. I don't know about, you, but I haven't eaten since last night, and…"
"Shut the fuck up, Raph." Leo snorted a shot of river water out of his nostrils. "I don't have a plan. None of us have a plan. And none of us will live to make one if your bitching wakes up every bear and coyote in the forest." Raph grumbled under his breath, not meeting Leo's stern glare.
"Well, for now, let's plan on sleeping." Mike yawned from the ground. "Then we keep moving in the morning, so the Foot don't crash our little campout."
"Good luck getting any sleep with all these fucking creepy-crawlies around." Raph stomped on a spider that threatened to crawl up his toes.
"If it were Central America, I'd say a fire will keep them away." Leo remembered. "The bugs were way bigger down there, and poisonous, too. But we don't know how deep these woods are; any smoke or light could bring attention. Our next best bet is sleeping in the trees."
A grueling climb and several scrapes from branches later, I found myself in a notch between tree limbs, nervously hearing the wood creak and bend beneath my weight. Under the blanket of darkness, I could barely make out my brothers' silhouettes in the three trees next to my own. Rotating myself gingerly to find some semblance of comfort, the ability to fall asleep eluded me. Leo murmured from his perch a few yards away.
"Donnie…if the Foot could find us underground, and at the farmhouse…there's no where we can hide, is there?"
"Not while their eye's still in the sky. It's a NASA satellite; all we did was hack its data output. The only way to get into its data input is from a military computer, no doubt behind miles of barbed wire and cameras."
"If the Foot's really working with the government to track us down, an Army base is the last place I want to be. So where are we supposed to go?"
"Wherever you lead us."
"That's sweet, Don, but I don't even…" he held his breath as a muffled crunch came from leaves in the distance. Growing from practically nothing, it gradually sounded closer and closer.
"Two of them." Leo breathed almost inaudibly, ear turned to the source of the sound. "Don't move."
As he finished speaking, the noise stopped in its tracks, just short of where the forest canopy opened to let moonlight in. Clearly from nearby, I could make out a sniffing noise. My first thought was a bear, but did bears ever travel in groups of two? Maybe a mother and its cub. Did the gray wolf's range still reach into Vermont? In the roaring silence, my mind ran wild as I wondered what was coming toward us, and how we'd escape it. Leo didn't need to worry about me moving; my fear paralyzed me between the branches.
Out of the darkness, a sinewy twang resounded, and in a flash, I felt something sharp and fast bury itself in the branch supporting my back. The limb splintered where it was struck, and crashing down to the earth I went, caught too unaware to even attempt landing on my feet. I couldn't make out the form of my attackers in the shadows, but I saw three more arrows spinning through the leaves, knocking my brothers to the ground too. We struggled to hop upright as the leaves parted cautiously, one hulking human-sized silhouette and a gargantuan, demonic-looking horned one stepped into the fringe of visibility.
"They sure aren't turkeys, Steele." A thunderous voice murmured curiously.
"I can see 'em myself, Russ." A smaller voice hissed. "But what are they?"
Sorry for the (relatively) infrequent updates, I have some days off next week where I plan on marathon writing!
