Banished To Earth Book Two, Ravaged Earth (37)

Chapter 66

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    “Pra, ah, Cindy,” Silhouette’s voice was uncharacteristically soft and tender. “Girl…”

       She rolled over. Her left arm slid away from her face.

   They jerked back, “Cindy?” Tucker asked. “You’re back, a little, no, a lot…”

   She grabbed her face in hands that were much more human, much less wolf.  Her lips smiled because she had lips. Her upper lip was slightly cleft. And she had a nose that only subtly resembled a snout. There was still fur, a sleek white mat that hid her face and snugly covered her body.

    She slumped back into the soft moss as he stepped up and revealed himself to her and hopefully no one else.

   “Okay,” Silhouette yelled as she saw the recognition and relief in Pry’s face.

   Pry’s smile told them all they needed to know.

      They smiled. Sufficient remnants of her animal persona remained. She was safe, for the moment.

  He helped her up. She was short again, and her long white hair had returned; except this time, it had a friend. Pry still had her bushy white tail, wagging from the back of her new, new duster. It was smaller now. Cute pointy white furred ears still protruded from the top of her head.

   “What was that, that thing? That came out of you?” Tucker said, lightly laying his hand on her right shoulder.

   “The Spirit of my home world.” The words fluttered from Pry’s mouth as if she were simply saying hello. She blinked. They surprised even her. “Yes, it must have been inside me the whole time. I promise, I did not know it was there.

   My home world was a very strange place. But it is gone now.” Her hair whipped up and gently stroked her soft furry cheek. “But I’m still myself.” She said through a broad smile that exposed two surprisingly adorable fangs peeking from beneath her upper lip.

  

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 “Spirit Of what?” Tucker snorted, “Okay, whatever. It scared the snot out of us and almost killed me.”

   “I had no control. Forgive.”

 “Well, it almost killed you too.” Said Tucker, “you don’t need forgivin.’ We’re all just stumblin’ our way through this mess.

      “Looks like the ‘Spirit of ah, your home world’ didn’t draw any monsters.” Silhouette said, “Now what do we do?”

   Silhouette looked back to where Trudy’s house should be. “Better to laugh than cry.”

   Tucker glanced over at Pry, who was stealing glances at Davin. He stood by her but not too close.

     Pry saw Tucker, nodded toward Davin, then looked up. 

      Their eyes were trained on Pry as she watched him disappear into the sky. The fur beneath her green catlike eyes was soon matted flat with tears. Her fingertips went smooth and harmless as their claws sank back into their fingertip sheaths. Her not wanting to be a monster, namely a werewolf, had apparently affected her latest transformation. She even sported delicate living whiskers.

 

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   It was obvious she’d rather be a cat than a dog. Which was odd, considering there were no cats on Phastanar. Hours of TV ‘education’ introduced her to cats, as it had horses. Cats struck her as feminine and dogs masculine. And she loved being a girl.

    A gust of wind whipped from the north. Their exposed skin prickled, then smoothed as they tuned out the cold.

    They were all still Hunters after all. And Davin, he was their secret weapon. His experiment, though fraught with dangerous surprises, had been a great success. It was the win they needed.

      A few silent moments later, Pry dropped her chin, sighed and turned back toward them.                 “It. Is good.” Her voice was weak with regret. Its success meant she may not see him again for a very long time. His being dead should guarantee he would return to her. After all, what could happen to him now? She’d take comfort in that, all the while knowing his goal was to not only free Earth of the Urgis but find a way to reclaim his body, a daunting task to be sure. Returning to Trudy’s farm, even finding it, was another problem she dared not dwell on. There was no answer. Her unchanged family was safe; that would have to be answer enough, for now.

     Moreover, this new Ravaged Earth was a puzzle with no obvious solutions, a boundless landscape of blind corners and dangerous pitfalls. Sadly, Davin’s death had all but ended their psychic link. She could still sense his presence in the world but little else.

    They had no idea what lay beyond the horizon. They could only hope they had not jumped deep into the future.

    The wrecked cars should at least give them a clue. They did look quite old and rusty, not a good sign. That and the thick green overgrowth strongly suggested much more time had passed than they first thought.

   The sun would be setting soon, but that was no problem for them. And this entire area was nothing but a lifeless junkyard, grim but harmless.  

     Being Hunter meant shelter and food were not a problem for them. Still, they already missed Trudy’s four walls, her tasty meals, and ached for Nikki’s hugs and Beth’s sweet smiles.

     “She kissed me.” Said Tucker when Pry turned toward him and forced a smile.

    “What!” Silhouette exclaimed, “I, I mean, great. That’s great. Good, good for you. Both.”

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 Tucker blinked and was about to say something when Pry leapt at him, like a playful puppy, and hugged his neck, almost knocking him down. “That makes me very happy. She loves you, Tucker.” Pry just blurted it out, not the first time. She glanced back at Silhouette, who wore a weak smile that looked as if it would fall off her face at any moment.

     Tucker buried his eyes in Pry’s fur-cushioned shoulder.  Silhouette’s smile dropped. Turning away from them, she hid her disappointment and slapped her eyes dry. Trudy deserved Tucker. They would be good together. And that was that. Why would she ever want anything else?

   Her gaze fell on the rusty vine -encrusted cars. She would focus her attention on them. Not as good as a shot of whiskey, but she knew that productive distraction was a far better sedative than drunkenness, just not as much fun. As luck would have it, she hooked up with a bunch of ‘dry’ goody two-shoes.

   No booze at Trudy’s house, just far more sobriety than she ever thought she could endure

    Maybe somewhere out there she’d find a liquor store not buried in Godzilla crap. For some reason she suddenly wanted to get roaring drunk, a truly stupid thing to want, considering where and who knows when, they were.

 But first the cars…

  

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      Not looking back, she eased her way over the thick unpredictable carpet of vines and mushy moss. Feet sinking, ankles twisting, she stumbled and kicked her way through until she finally fell face-first on the nearest vehicle, hitting her head against the side of a white SUV. It lay at a forty-five-degree angle, leaning toward her and blocking the driver's door.

     It was not actually white anymore.  A slick sheet of green slime and moss completely encased it, robbing her of traction and leverage.

   “Guys!” She yelled, “Help me get this thing open.”

   They shifted to her side in an eye blink. “Oh, took the easy way, huh?”

  “You didn’t?” Tucker asked.

   “Felt like walking. Okay.”

    “Sure, why not. Maybe the going will get easier further from here.”

    Now they were struggling through the springy clingy mess. Plucking their feet up only to have them swallowed again, they slowly made their way to the other side of the SUV.

   “What you thinking Sil?”  Tucker asked.

   She looked up at the rusty vehicle’s underside. “There might be people- well, remains inside. Their condition should give us a better idea of just how much time has passed. Or we could just sit and wait for,” she started to say wait for Davin to come back but caught herself.

   “It is fine” Pry said. “We should stay here. But we should also examine these machines. They carried people. That makes them valuable, worthy of study.” She glanced up, leapt to the passenger side door, whipped out her claws, and ripped into the metal. It screeched as if in agony. She snatched the door off and tossed it aside, feather-light cardboard in her claws.  

    “Very nice,” said Silhouette, “and you didn’t even slide off.”

 Pry tilted her head down. Claws had sprung from her toes and bit deep into the metal.

    “You know there are some cars, not too far away.’ Said Tucker. “We could have just looked inside.

   “This one was the most intact and the closest, and their windshields are probably just as caked with green as this,” Sil said as she hopped up beside Pry and took her hand to keep from sliding off.

    He shrugged and let it go, seeing tension and pain in her eyes.

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  “Let me go first, uh, Cindy. You can help me in and out, since I don’t come fully equipped with my own set of can openers.

    “Of course.” With that, she pulled Silhouette up to the opening and eased her inside.

   “Oh, God.” They heard her groan. “It’s a family. Four. Two big. Two little. Bones, rags, brittle.” She coughed. “The big one’s just crumbling bone. I touched it and it, uh, he, just fell apart. Get me out of here. Now!”

    Pry snatched her up with no effort at all. Silhouette’s face was white. Tucker reached up and helped her down.

   “I could have jumped down, but thanks.”

   “It should have been me.” He said when she pulled away. “You didn’t need to see that.”

   “And you did, cause you’re a man and all.”

   “No, Sil, you've been through enough.”

   She glared at him. “Stop being so friggin’ nice!”

     Pry’s features clouded with confusion just before she jumped down and joined Sil. “Silhouette, what is wrong?”

   “Oh, I don’t know. Looks like we might be, who knows, decades, centuries into the future, and I just saw the most sobering thing I ever saw. And I want to be blind drunk, so drunk I can’t see. This!…” She looked back at the empty ground that should be Trudy’s house. “That I want to see. But that’s gone. Sorry, Tucker, but you’re never going to see her again…”

    Pry took her in her arms. Silhouette wept and cursed. They listened. Helpless. But there.

  After a long while, she finally released Pry, wiped her eyes and looked up at Tucker, her face slick and red. “I, I shouldn’t have said,” she paused, “all that…” She tossed him a sheepish smile.

   He smiled back at her and said, “You’re more of a girl than I am.”

   “Glad you finally noticed.”