Awaken (6 page)

“
You can put your knife
away,” he says.

Didn’t even realize I was still holding
it out in front of me. I hesitate…look from the knife to the devil
cat, then put it back in its sheath. I reckon if the beast was
going to eat me it would have done so by now. The boy continues to
scratch the animals belly but his eyes don’t leave my face. He’s on
the losing side of scrawny with unkempt matted red hair hanging to
his shoulders and a smattering of freckles cross his nose and
cheeks. Least I think its freckles, could be just dirt. He don’t
look like he’s had a proper washin’ in months. Or a decent meal for
that matter. His tunic and trousers are mud caked and hanging from
his tiny frame like they weren’t even his. I’m thinking that I must
look just as strange to him with my own clothes so dirty they could
probably stand on their own and my wet hair hanging in strings
about my face. We stand in silence for a bit just sizing each other
up. Finally, my curiosity gets the better of me and I nod at the
beast.

“
How come it lets you do
that and don’t bite your hand off?” I say.

He smiles then, a big ol’ gap toothed
grin, and scratches the beasts belly even harder and I swear the
critter actually starts to purr.

“
I reared Cat since she was
a cub, going on four years now. She would never hurt
me.”

“
You reared up a devil cat?”
I say, still not believing what I’m seeing.

“
Already told you that,” he
says.

“
And you named it
Cat?”

“
Aye, was a fittin’ name as
any,” he says.

Cain’t argue that.

“
What’s your name?” I
ask.

He stops scratching and the black beast
nimbly gets to its feet. It’s just as tall as the boy, could
probably snap him in half in one bite if it had a mind to. I still
cain’t help but be terrified by it.

“
Finn,” he says.

“
Nice to meet you Finn….I’m
Tara…of Rivercross.” I look around. “What’s the name of this
place?”

He looks at me strangely.

“
Ain’t got no name.... just
the homestead I guess. At least that’s all ma and pa ever called
it,” he says

“
Oh,” I say. “And where is
your ma and pa?”

I regret asking right away. His face
gets all scrunched up like he’s trying real hard not to cry. I
watch him struggle, but he’s tough…the tears don’t come.

“
Dead,” he finally says, but
his voice is quivering. “‘Bout four weeks now since the monsters on
wheels came and killed ‘em…all of ‘em. I buried ‘em over
yonder.”

He points with his chin out past the
rise we’re standing on. I can see disturbed ground marked by
cairns. There are five of them from what I can tell. I can feel
that familiar pain blossoming in my chest.

“
I’m real sorry,” I say
quietly. “They came to Rivercross and killed my kin
too.”

He nods as if talking about your dead
kin was normal conversation. We both fall quiet for a bit, each
lost in our own painful memories. Then a thought strikes
me.

“
How you bury ‘em by
yourself?” He wasn’t no bigger than a twig! He shrugs his skinny
shoulders at me.

“
I done the digging and Cat
helped me…move ‘em. She’s real smart…does what I tell her to,” he
says. About two weeks ago I would have thought that to be real
strange. But between the metal monsters on wheels and a tame devil
cat…well I reckon anything could be possible. Ben would be tickled
pink by my new beliefs.

The beast, Cat, is getting restless now
and starts moving towards me, its head level with my chest. It gets
so close I can see the dirt stuck in its black matted fur and feel
the heat rising off of it. It starts sniffing my hand, its nose is
cold and wet. It keeps sniffing, moving up my arm, my neck. I’m too
terrified to move! I watch, frozen, as a long blue tongue escapes
from its mouth and slowly licks my face, leaving a slimy trail
cross my cheek, my lips.

Shizen! It’s gonna eat me, I think. I
look to the boy, my eyes pleading for help but he’s just laughing
his fool head off.

“
I think she likes you!” he
says, bent over with laughter.

“
Call…her…off…please!” I say
through clenched lips. I don’t want to open my mouth for fear that
blue tongue will find its way inside. He’s still laughing but calls
her name and she backs off.

Right away I start wiping my face with
my sleeve. Ugh! Disgusting!

“
Don’t worry, Cat don’t eat
people,” he says as if he was reading my mind. The beast is now
back sitting meekly at his side licking its paws and cleaning its
whiskers like it were just some tame village cat and not a killing
machine. I keep eyeballing it…I don’t trust it.

“
Well excepting for the bad
man from the metal monsters. She caught him before he could escape
back into his machine. They rest of ‘em, they got away but he
never. Aye, she caught him and ate him up real good. There weren’t
nuthin’ left except his weapon and boots.”

Finn sounds pleased as anything by this
but it makes my stomach heave and I scrub my face even harder! Ugh!
The boy don’t seem to notice my disgust.

“
I kept his weapon, but I
never seen nuthin like it before. I ain’t got no idea what it is.
You wanna see it?” he asks.

I wipe the remaining foul traces of the
cat’s slobber off my face before I shrug…why not? I was real
surprised at hearing from the boy that there were actual men in
those metal monsters. Maybe seeing this weapon will help me
understand better what they are. He grins at my acceptance and
scurries off to the shanty with the hanging door. I follow behind,
making sure to keep distance between me and the beast. I cain’t
help but feel it’s going to pounce on me when I least expect
it.

The shanty is still the same as when I
first inspected it but now I notice the signs of the boy living
here. The wood stacked in the hearth ready for the evening fire,
the full water jug and cooking pot. I should have seen all that
earlier, I think. I was going to have to pay attention from now on
so as not to get caught unawares again. I might not be as lucky the
next time.

The boy goes to the wood chest at the
foot of the only bed in the one roomed shanty. He opens it and
pulls out a long metal and wood object and I know it right away. An
iron shooter. He turns and starts waving it at me and my heart
jumps into my throat!

“
Shizen! Give me that!” I
say and yank it out of his hand before he can shoot it at me. “You
gotta be careful with these things boy…don’t you know
anything?”

“
What is it?” he asks,
ignoring my harsh words.

“
It’s called an iron
shooter,” I say, looking it over. It’s in much better shape than
gra’das. It was oiled up real nice and not a bit of rust on it. I
check to see if there are any slugs and sure enough it’s missing
just one.

“
See here, these are lead
slugs…they’re what come out of the shooter and does gods awful
damage to critters…and people.”

He nods, solemnly. “Aye, I seen what it
done…to my ma and pa and the others.”

His eyes drop down to stare at the
floor and I can feel his pain in my own heart. Judging from my past
couple of weeks I reckon Finn’s had his share of night terrors
too.

“
So the man you said Cat
killed…you sure it was a real man? For sure?”

He nods at my question. “I seen ‘em,
they were men all right. Was only luck me and Cat weren’t here when
they showed. We were out exploring. I heard what I figured to be a
storm coming. Next thing I hear yelling and…well funny popping
sounds. Cat knew something was wrong, she started hightailing it
back here. I ran after her… I did! But then I saw the metal
monsters…and I …”

He goes real quiet and hangs his head
ashamedly. “I hid. I could see my pa and Unk fighting ‘em…ma, she
was screaming. I wanted to help! I did…but...”

He don’t even try to stop his tears
this time. They run down his face leaving twin streaks through the
dirt and drip from his chin. I feel real bad for his hurtin’ and I
lay my hand on his shoulder.

“
Hey, it’s okay! Don’t be
ashamed ‘cause you hid. There weren’t nuthin you could have done.
You would have been killed…or taken! You did right by hiding…that’s
what your folks would have wanted you to do,” I say.

He looks up at me through his tears.
His eyes are all red and swollen and his pale face is covered in
rosy blotches.

“
You being truthful?” he
asks.

“
Aye,” I say. “Cross my
heart. And if it makes you feel any better I hid from ‘em
too.”

I figured I wouldn’t mention it was
‘cause of gra’da knocking me out with the cooking pot and throwing
me in the cellar. He didn’t need to know that. He sniffs for a bit,
wipes his nose with his sleeve. He sniffs again but don’t cry no
more.

“
Cat tried to stop ‘em, she
chased ‘em, but we were too late,” he says dully. Poor kid. No
doubt he’s been beating himself up over it ever since it happened,
thinking what he could have done to stop it….like me. For the first
time since it all happened I don’t feel so alone in my grief…or my
anger. It was…comforting somehow to know that they were just men
and not monsters like I had first feared. And that they could be
killed, had been killed by the beast. Maybe I had misjudged the
devil cat. Maybe she ain’t so bad after all.

I lay the shooter back in the chest. I
don’t want to look at it or touch it anymore. Just holding it is
making me queasy, thinking about what it done to Finn’s kin and
what others like it had done to mine. Even the touch of it makes me
feel….strange. The boy watches me, his cheeks still wet from his
crying.

“
Are you gonna camp here
tonight?” he says then, unexpectedly, and maybe even
hopefully?

I shrug. “If you like,” I say. “I mean
I wouldn’t mind staying. I gotta hunt though…my food’s all
gone.”

He brightens instantly.

“
No need for hunting. Cat’s
real good at catching rabbits and dirt dogs. We were out hunting
before you showed up. Got us a nice fat rabbit. Only thing is
though you got to give her the innards…that’s her favorite
part.”

I look over at the black beast, who is
now lying halfway in the shanty door so as to keep a watchful eye
on Finn, her head laying on her massive paws.

“
Cat can have whatever she
wants,” I say. I sure ain’t gonna argue with the she
devil.

After stuffing ourselves on boiled
rabbit, we talk long into the evening. I tell Finn all about
Rivercross. About gra’da and Ben and everybody. Feels real good to
talk about ‘em…like somehow they’re still with me. I talk and talk
and talk…I cain’t stop. I talk about me and Ben as young’uns and
growing up together and all the things we done. I tell him about
gra’da finding and rearing me and how he was so good to me. I talk
about Thomas’s spook stories and Miz Emmas berry bread. I don’t
know why but the words just pour out of me. I talk about everything
and anything. Finn just listens and laughs at times but he don’t
interrupt. It’s as if he’s just happy to be listening to another
soul’s voice. Finally I tell him about the monster men coming and
how they took Ben and Jane and young Thomas and how I got to go
find ‘em. He ain’t heard of Littlepass neither. I reckoned as much
him being a young’un and all.

When I’m all talked out it’s Finn’s
turn. He tells me all about his kin that he lost…his ma and pa, his
pa’s brother and wife and his gra’da. They all lived here together.
Unlike my village the monster men didn’t take nobody ‘cause Finn
had been the only young’un here, but they had still killed the
rest. He asks me why they done it.

“
I dunno why,” I say. “Some
men are just born with darkness in their hearts I
guess.”

It’s the only reason I can give him but
he seems to accept it. He goes on to tell me about how he remembers
once living in a bigger village with lots of other young folk to
play with but for some reason his kin up and left that place and
settled out here in the sand lands. He don’t know why, he was never
told the reason. He said he remembers being real lonely ‘til one
day his pa was out hunting and found a dead devil cat. It was tore
up real bad, his pa couldn’t say what had done it but he hears some
gods awful bawling coming from under it. Sure enough the she cat
has a cub, all curled up underneath her and trying to feed from its
dead mama. Finn said his pa had too kind a heart to kill it or
leave it to die so he brought it home. His gra’da had taken one
look at it and wanted to kill it but Finn had a fit he says, and of
course he got his way. The cub was his and….well he reared it ever
since.

“
Me and Cat’s family now,
ain’t we Cat,” he says.

The beast looks up at its name but just
yawns, showing its wicked looking teeth. It still makes me shiver.
But Finn assures me I ain’t got nuthin’ to fret about. He says Cat
is the best protection, better than any crossbow or iron shooter.
For him maybe. For me, well I ain’t so sure. I still didn’t want to
be alone with it. I wasn’t in no hurry to find out how good of a
meal I would make.