Chapter 5: Into the Badlands
1198 Words
The black jeep disappears at the boundary line, abandoning me on this empty highway. My fingers clench around the wheel so tight they've gone pale. The tears have run dry. There's no point in them now.
"You can handle this," I murmur, remembering mom's voice in my head. Back when we lived on the pack's edges, she'd shown me how to survive.
Hours blur together as I drive deeper into the badlands. The landscape transforms into a harsh wasteland - cracked earth, sparse vegetation, and jagged rock formations that cast long shadows in the fading light. No signs of civilization anywhere.
The fuel gauge needle dips dangerously low, each tick downward making my heart race faster. I tap the gauge, hoping it's wrong, but the orange warning light only confirms my fears.
"Think, Raina, think." The last gas station was miles ago, and I didn't dare stop while the guards were following. Now I wish I had risked it.
The sun sinks toward the horizon, painting the barren landscape in shades of blood red. My headlights cut through the growing darkness, illuminating nothing but endless road and desert scrub. The temperature drops rapidly - I forgot how cold these badlands get at night.
The car sputters. I press the gas pedal harder, willing it to keep going. "Please, just a little further." But begging won't create fuel where there is none.
I scan the roadside for anything resembling shelter. The stories of rogues who didn't survive their first night alone flash through my mind. No. I refuse to become another cautionary tale told around pack firesides.
My mom's voice comes back to me: "Nature always provides, if you know where to look." She taught me which plants were edible, how to find water, how to make shelter from almost nothing. I never thought I'd need those skills again after joining the pack.
The engine coughs and stutters. I ease off the gas, trying to conserve what little fuel remains. Each mile might be the last before I'm forced to continue on foot.
Shadows encroach from every direction, heavy and suffocating. The desert road extends infinitely before me, a dark strand slicing through emptiness. I continue pressing onward, because halting means confronting the truth - that I'm isolated, severed from all I've ever recognized, without any genuine strategy for staying alive.
But I'm still breathing. Still moving forward. And maybe that's enough for now. One mile at a time, one moment at a time, until I figure out what comes next.
* * *
Through my rearview mirror, a single headlight pierces the darkness. A dune buggy bounces over the uneven terrain, its open roof revealing dark silhouettes against the night sky.
My heart pounds. I press the gas pedal harder, but the engine protests with a weak sputter. The buggy gains ground, closing the distance between us.
The howls hit me first - deep, guttural sounds that send ice through my veins. "ROGUES!" The word tears from my throat as two figures leap from the moving vehicle. Their bodies contort mid-air, bones cracking and reforming as fur erupts across their skin. They hit the ground running on four legs, muscles rippling beneath midnight-black pelts.
I jerk the wheel left, then right, using the winding road to my advantage. The car fishtails around a sharp bend, tires spraying gravel. But these wolves know the badlands. They split up, one taking each side of the road, closing in like a pincer.
The larger wolf slams into my passenger side. Metal screams against the impact. I counter-steer, barely keeping control as the second wolf rams the driver's side. Massive claws rake across my side mirror, ripping it clean off in a shower of sparks.
"Get away!" I scream, but my voice is lost in the chaos of squealing tires and snarling wolves. The steering wheel bucks in my hands as they hit again and again, herding me toward the edge of the road.
The car's dying engine gives one final gasp. In that split second of hesitation, both wolves strike. The world spins - a violent ballet of metal and fur and stars wheeling overhead. I'm weightless, then slammed back to earth as the car flips.
Glass shatters. Metal crunches. The wolves yelp as they tumble with the wreckage. Everything goes black for a moment before the world rights itself, leaving me hanging upside down in my seatbelt, tasting blood and dust.
Through the cracked windshield, I see the wolves sprawled motionless on the road. The dune buggy's headlight sweeps closer, illuminating the wreckage in harsh relief.
* * *
My body screams in agony as I hang upside down, blood rushing to my head. Glass shards bite into my palms as I wrestle with the jammed seatbelt. The buckle finally gives and I crash onto the roof of the overturned car.
Pain shoots through my ribs. Each breath feels like swallowing fire. I drag myself toward the shattered window, jagged edges tearing at my clothes.
The cool night air hits my face as I emerge from the wreckage. My legs shake as I force myself to stand. Run. I have to run.
I make it three steps before a high-pitched voice cuts through the darkness. "And where do you think you're going?"
Something massive barrels into me from behind. White-hot pain explodes across my back as claws tear through flesh and fabric. I scream, stumbling forward before collapsing face-first into the dirt.
I feel warm blood soaking what's left of my dress. Four sets of footsteps approach as the world spins around me. The wolves c***k and reform their bones as they shift back to human form.
"This one's weak," a gruff voice says.
"No wonder they didn't want her." Another laughs.
Rough hands grab my throat, lifting me off the ground. I stare into cold eyes as the one with the squeaky voice sneers. "Well, it makes our job a lot easier."
His grip tightens. Black spots dance across my vision as my lungs burn for air. This is it. After everything - the betrayal, the rejection, the banishment - this is how I die. Alone in the badlands at the hands of rogues.
My body goes limp as I accept my fate. Just as consciousness starts to fade, the pressure vanishes. I crumple to the ground, gasping.
Snarls and thuds erupt around me. Through blurry vision, I make out shapes wrestling in the darkness. The metallic scent of blood - mine and others - fills the air.
Why are they fighting each other? My thoughts swim as more growls join the fray. The sounds of combat grow, like there are more wolves now.
A face appears above me, blocking out the stars. I try to focus but my vision won't cooperate. Everything's too dark, too hazy.
"We should leave her here to die," a harsh voice cuts through the chaos. "There is no saving her if she can't heal from that."
"No." This new voice is different - gentle yet powerful. "We'll take her to the healer."
The face above me says something else, but I can't make it out. Darkness claims me as I slip into unconsciousness.
- Writer
