Well if it isn't the person who promises more frequent uploads and then never delivers. Yes, it's me. I have no excuse for the lateness of this chapter other than I've been busy, but I hope you enjoy this one nonetheless.
I drove on the highway until the sun came down and I was feeling too tired to drive. Instead of following a direct path to Indianapolis using my GPS, I had been driving around the outskirts of small towns or near woodlands, that's where I figured Matthew would most likely be traveling. I had made sure to keep a keen eye out for any signs of him while I was driving, but so far I've seen none. I took a minute to take one more quick observation of the surrounding area before I decided to find a place to stay for the night. I drove for a couple more minutes longer until I reached a little motel with peeling paint and a blinking sign. I drove into the parking lot and walked into the lobby hesitantly. This place seemed kind of shady, but I was dressed in my police uniform and I had my weapons on me, so I figured that would be enough to keep any creeps or burglars away from me and my stuff.
As I stepped up to the counter I noticed the poor conditions of the floors and walls and the slightly ripped pieces of furniture. This motel was in the middle of nowhere, so I guess I shouldn't have had high standards, but I was thoroughly disappointed since this probably meant I was going to have an uncomfortable bed tonight, but it was only for a couple hours, I could handle it. I looked forward towards the young girl who was working at the front desk who didn't seem to notice my appearance as she had her nose stuffed into a rather large book. She seemed genuinely intrigued by the words she was reading, and I couldn't help but wonder what she was doing working for this kind of place. Nonetheless, I waited a bit longer for her to notice me until I finally faked a cough into my hands.
The girl whipped her head up in surprise and threw her book off to the side once she realized I was here. She seemed to stiffen when she saw my uniform, but I didn't try to look further into it, I just wanted a place to sleep so I could leave first thing in the morning.
"Sorry…officer, we just don't get many customers. I figure you're wanting a room?"
"Yes," I replied, "one person for one night." She nodded her head and wrote some things down on a paper before she walked over to the wall and grabbed one of the sets of keys that was hanging there. She handed me a sheet to sign and asked for twenty dollars. I gave up the cash and she daintily dropped the keys into my open palms and bid be goodnight. I chuckled at her obvious awkwardness and searched for the room number that I was given. Once I found it I opened the door and observed the room. As expected, the room had a beat up old mattress with a small table holding up a lamp and a window on the wall that didn't quit close completely sending a light breeze through the room. I sighed and walked over to the little bathroom and took a nice warm shower.
I stood in the shower for a bit longer than I had anticipated. I kept my head under the warm spray of the shower head as I closed my eyes and thought about…well, everything. It seemed like just a few days ago I was complaining about the usual boring assignments that Chief Anderson would always give me, and now I was on a journey to America to find a birdman on the run. After a while I had noticed that I had somehow ended up sitting on the floor of the bath instead of standing. I wanted to stay under the warm stream for longer and just have some more time to relax, but I figured it wouldn't be good for this place to put too much on their water bill, so I quickly washed my hair and my body and walked out of the shower. I put on a towel and bought a toothbrush and toothpaste from the front desk, causing the girl to become even more awkward due to my state of undress, then brushed my teeth and put on some underwear to go to bed.
Lying under the sheets with my head resting on the flat pillow, I couldn't help but ask myself some questions. Why are you going out of your way to find a man who doesn't want to be found? Why do you have to be the one to find him? Don't you think you owe it to your family and friends to put them ahead of your work? But perhaps the biggest question, why is Matthew so important?
Well, because he's a birdman!, I thought. How could that not be important? But I knew there was something more to him. I mean, it's not like I was ordered to go find him by the Chief or anyone, and if I did find Matthew i obviously couldn't bring him back to the station. They would just send him away like they had originally planned, and I could see from Matthew's escape that that was the last thing the poor man wanted. Then why are you even trying to find him? You should just let him be free like he wants!
But I couldn't help but feel compelled to do this. I had to find Matthew no matter what. I just couldn't put a finger on why.
I slowly opened my eyes as I found myself staring up at the sun. I groaned as my body ached everywhere, and I tried to shift my position when I suddenly felt my body starting to fall off of an edge. I groggily pulled myself back up onto whatever ledge I was sleeping on and rubbed at my eyes. As the world became more focused, I remembered that I had spent the night on a treetop. I watched as the sun shined bright up in the sky and I scolded myself for sleeping for the whole night. I could only fly in the dark without being detected, and now it was too bright to do that. I will have to continue to travel by foot today.
I sighed as I prepared myself to jump down to the ground when I glanced under me and saw the large bear lying at the bottom of the trunk. Damn! This thing was relentless! I thought it would have left by now. Well, if flying isn't an option and walking wasn't either, what am I going to do? I sit down on the tree branch hanging my feet off the edge and try to think up a plan of action. After several minutes with no safe solution, I narrowed it down to flying. All I had to do was discretely fly off over the trees far enough from the bear and then slip back down into the woods. If I could manage that, I can just continue on my course. After all, I haven't seen any people walking around here so there really shouldn't be a problem.
I hoist my supply bag over my shoulder and under my wings. I take a short moment to preen my feathers for flight, and then I make sure no one's around before I shoot up into the sky. As I soar higher and higher I notice the beauty of daylight. I've never flown during the bright hours of the day time, and I never really knew just how much I can see when I'm in the air. Everything seems so peaceful when you look at the whole landscape, you can't see any of the people who are hurting others or causing trouble, everyone's just a little dot compared to the vast land. I could feel my attention start to waver as I focus on the beauty of the forest.
I shouldn't have let myself become distracted like that, because a few seconds later I see out of the corner of my eye someone holding up a gun towards me from down below. I must have flown higher and longer than I anticipated, and now I've caught the eye of a human. Luckily, I was able to dart over in a different direction by the time I hear the gun go off. I could feel the bullet graze my leg just barely, but I didn't look where I was going, so I ended up hitting by back against a large tree. I screamed out in pain as I could feel by right wing breaking and crumbling in on itself, and soon enough I was falling swiftly down towards the hard ground.
One of the bird like features the Professor gave me was very light bones, I can't fly with dense ones, but that caused my bones to break very easily. I had already broken my wing and if I let myself crash into the earth I was going to break my legs too. I decided to force my arms out in all directions in order to try and grab onto a branch before I made impact. I thankfully was able to feel a tree nearby and after clawing at the bark and pulling myself closer I finally got a grip on a thin branch and I whipped my legs around the trunk. My body stopped falling just a few feet away from the ground.
I jumped off and landed wobbly on my bare feet and winced at the pain in my wing and on my bloodied fingers. I had ripped up my skin and nails trying to grab onto the bark. I wanted to check on my wounds, but I could hear a rushed sound coming from my left. I figured it was the person who shot at me, so my best option was just to run as fast as I could and hope for the best. I sprinted off and tried not to look back and only focus on the path ahead. My skin was given new cuts by the thorns and tree limbs that I pushed by and my old cuts were riddled with the dirt of the plants I passed, causing them to sting. I could feel my eyes start to water due to the pain and my general distress. I now started to hear shouts as well and I knew the hunter was gaining on me somehow.
If I kept running like I was, I was just going to make too much noise and lead the person right towards me. I needed to hide. I stopped in my tracks abruptly and surveyed the area. I saw a rather large pile of bush and forest debris off to my right and I knew that was the best I was going to get. I ran as quietly as I could over to it and pushed my body under the pile. I curled into a ball and covered all of my limbs, hissing at the weight being put on my broken wing, and formed a small whole for me to look out of. I tried to quiet my breathing as the noise grew closer and closer by the second.
Suddenly the hunter burst threw the brush and stopped right in front of my hiding pile. I could feel by body start to shiver in fear and my heart accelerate when the man looked around. He was an old man with a long beard speckled with white hairs. He wore plain colored clothes but held a giant gun on his side. He was carrying a large backpack on him no doubt full of even more hunting supplies. I watched as he eyed the area in confusion.
"Where did that thing go?", he asked himself as he rubbed at his chin. He narrowed his eyes in a skeptical expression when he laid them on my hiding spot. I held my breath as he inched closer. A creepy grin grew on his face as he had no doubt narrowed down on my location. I started to panic, so as soon as I could see his ankles right in front of me, I threw out my arms, latched onto his legs, and pulled as hard as I possibly could. I mustered all of my strength to pull him down and then jump out of the bush to bash my elbow into his gut. As he lay on the floor I swiped the gun off of him and hit his head with the end of it. I could hear him moan and I turned the gun around so it was aiming towards him.
"Please…don't," he begged as I stared into his eyes with fear in my own. I didn't want to hurt him, I could just run away, but I could see his arm inching its way towards his backpack, no doubt trying to grab another weapon. I wasn't going to let myself be taken out that easily, not when I had my enemy pinned down right in front of me.
From all the encounters I've had in my life, I think everyone has made a point to prove to me that I'm not human. I'm an animal. Animals don't live by mercy and what's right or wrong, it's survival of the fittest. I took shaky, hesitant breaths as I locked eyes with the hunter. I had a life that I wanted to start living, I had a destination. I couldn't let this one man take all that away from me for whatever reason he shot at me for. I felt myself become ridden with feeling of hatred and spite over how humans have treated me, there was no reason to spare this one. I pointed the heavy gun right between his eyes and held it as still as I could. I felt my face form into an expression of malice as I kept our gaze strong and watched the terror and dread build up in his old wrinkled eyes. I took one final breath and held it as I pulled the trigger.
I never realized just how animal I really was until felt his warm blood envelope my face.
Author's Note
So that's what took me almost three weeks to write. Pretty anticlimactic, I know. I'm genuinely sorry about that, but luckily summer break is approaching. (Even though it's the middle of April and it's STILL SNOWING OUTSIDE!) I am determined to finish this story as long as people are reading it, and I don't want to let anyone down. I hope you guys enjoyed the little added bit of action in this chapter, and I'll see you next time! :)
