On a sparrow's wings

Chapter 20 - The road awaits

  A couple days went by. Anastasia found herself enjoying the time she had at the village quite a lot. She had chores to do but it was a lot better than traversing the dangerous world outside, fighting for her life, having to escape from the grasps of greys, struggling for food and water. And they had beds here and it was warm. And children, Anastasia found herself loving them a lot. She spent a lot of the time she wasn’t helping around the village playing with them. They were still better at it than her but she enjoyed it nonetheless. But after having some practice she managed to even score a few points, she felt proud about it, even though they were half her height.

  The rest of her free time she spent with the leaders of the village. Winston and Jane were considered the elders of the village and had the last say in any decision that was made. Mark wasn’t considered to be at that level yet but they still valued his opinion at the gatherings they had, or that was what Mark told her at least. The few times Anastasia went scouting with him he would always speak about them and how he had better ideas on how the village should be run and how they could optimise food and water gathering. Mark was milacious with his bow, always pulling the string over just the right amount and taking sandpaper to the bow to fix any bumps that would form. He rarely got the chance to use it apart from a few rabbits that came across their way. Mark almost always managed to hit them. A few rabbits did get away and Mark acted as if it hadn’t happened.

  The food was also pretty good, compared to the canned stuff she was used to. And the deer stew that they made every few days, they made it with onions and peppers which gave it that taste. The little farm they had was limited and they tried their best to not overuse the small amount of vegetables that grew there. But their use always managed to help boost the morale of the village. Anastasia had to shower with the other woman of the village though, every second day the whole village went in groups to the spring to bathe, Anastasia felt embarrassed at first but eventually she found herself comfortable in the company of the women of the village.

  The chores she had to do weren’t much different than what she had to do to survive before. Gather wood and twigs for fires, go scouting with Mark and taking care of the babies of the village. She found herself there most of the time, the babies were so cute and she always managed to make them laugh and put them to sleep with ease. The hunting was left to Michael and Ava, Anastasia was thankful for that. She felt bad when she killed animals and that made her a burden on hunts. She also tried to skin them but gagging a few other times they decided it was best for her to spend time doing something else. Ethan had always hunted and skinned the animals when they had to and Anastasia never go used to doing it.

  Anastasia found herself walking around the village this morning. She spied Michael standing at the edge of the village, looking through the opening of the net at the city. Anastasia went over to talk to him.

“Hi Michael!”, she said with a bright smile on her face.

He turned around, his face was sour and bitter, that killed Anastasia’s smile, “We have to go.”, he pulled the flap away and showed the city to Anastasia.

She looked through and saw the small figures moving on and around the buildings in the distance, people, Red Fist men looking for them judging by the red color of their armor.

“Can’t we stay a bit longer?”, Anastasia wanted to believe that they weren’t here for them and that they would go away and they could stay here.

“No.”, Michael closed the flap and headed off.

  Anastasia followed after. They found Ava helping a few villagers carry wood to the campfires. Once she noticed them she threw the wood into the fire, clapped the timber and dust of her hands and walked over to them.

“What’s up?”, she asked with her hands crossed.

“We have to go. The Red Fist are at the edge of the city.”, Michael rumbled.

Ava nodded solemnly and they headed for their tent. She won’t even argue! Anastasia though but still followed after. Even though she complained along the way she found no response to her complaints apart from Michael’s occasional scoffs.

  Once they got to their tent Michael and Ava quickly gathered their things in their backpacks which found its way to their backs.

“I don’t want to go.”, Anastasia crossed her arms at them, “It’s nice here! And we can survive here! And… they might not be looking for us at all!”

“Grow up kid. And besides we are in this mess because of you. Or have you forgotten about your brother?”, Michael scolded her.

She had forgotten about Ethan. She quickly went off to gather her things, patting her head and calling herself stupid when they weren’t looking.

  Before they hit the road again they went to say their goodbyes to the villagers or at least Anastasia did. Michael didn’t care and Ava decided it was best for her not to talk to them.

“We will miss you Ani!”, Jane said as she hugged her.

“And your rabbit skinning skills could use some work.”, joked Winston as he shook her hand.

“Try and take care of yourself Ani.”, Mark said, “And watch out for that one.”, Mark pointed at Michael.

“Are you sure I can’t give you anything? You have been so hospitable!”, Anastasia asked.

“You pulled your way. You don’t owe us a thing.”, Winston smiled at her.

Anastasia waved back at them as she went over to Ava and Michael and they hit the road again in search of her brother.

  They followed the edge of the forest north to the Chicago Executive Airport where Ava told them Ethan would be. Hiding in between trees and running when there were none, trying their best to hide from the eyes of the Red Fist. And they succeeded, the Red Fist ignored them and moved on to search other places. There were more herds of greys scattered among the woods. They had no choice but to take them out or they would’ve had to come out of the woods and that wasn’t an option. It took them some time to clear all of them out as they kept appearing in front of them, unsettling them with their screeching and clicking.

“Where are all this herds coming from?”, Ava asked as she cleaned the grey blood from her knife.

“Must be more food here.”, Michael was crouched, pulling his knife from one of the grey’s head.

Nevertheless it made going through the woods more difficult.

  When they eventually made camp for the night they were far enough not to see the village or the Red Fist men that searched the city. Michael made camp and they sat around it.

“Will the villagers be alright?”, the thought came into Anastasia’s mind and she couldn’t help but ask.

“Don’t know.”, Michael rumbled.

“I am sure they’ll be alright.”, Ava rubbed Anastasia’s shoulder.

  The gunshots came flying into the sky, the noise covered the distant woods. Ava and Anastasia quickly turned to face the noise and gunfire. Michael kindled the fire with a small stick, his face expressionless.

“What is happening there?”, Anastasia asked.

“It must be the Red Fist, they found the village.”, Ava said.

“We have to go help!”, Anastasia rose to her feet.

“Three don’t help. Three people die.”, Michael threw the stick into the fire and it hissed.

“We can’t stand up to the Red Fist’s firepower.”, Ava looked at her feet.

“Ava! You can’t be serious! They helped us and now the need help! We owe it to them to help.”, Anastasia pace around for a short while, “You never even told them the truth about who you are.”, she muttered under her breath.

That managed to hit Ava harder than Anastasia thought it would, “Okay f**k it. I am in.”, she stood to stand next to Anastasia.

They gave one hard stare at Michael and he also rose with a loud sigh and complaints under his nose. And the three set off to help the village.