Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
“Quicker you find her, the faster you’ll get dry,” I told myself as I pulled the rifle from its scabbard and stepped carefully through the opening. The toe of my boot caught on a loop of wire and I was very glad I’d left Zephyr behind. It took another few minutes to push through the limbs of the fallen tree. I stopped to listen every couple dozen steps. The rain was still falling but I concentrated on picking out anything other than the sound of its splatter against leaves and earth.
With a start, I turned toward a sound that definitely wasn’t being sung. It wasn’t a gentle lowing either. I’d recognize that bellow anywhere. It was one that indicated distress. Direction decided, I quickened my pace, praying I’d not be too late. The last thing I needed was to discover the momma lying in some gulch with a broken leg or worse after she’d tripped over some log or rock. This land had been vacant for years and even back when it had been occupied I didn’t recall it being cultivated this far up. It would be difficult enough to traverse in the daylight. In the dark during a downpour, it was just plain dangerous.
Then who is moving around?
That thought had me pausing mid-step. Since when had a missing cow become a who? A who was a person. A cow was an animal.
Really? Wow, thanks for clearing that up.
I shook my head. I’d been up since before dawn—make that yesterday’s dawn—and was tired and hungry and wet. Throw in the fact I’d just been thinking about Old Hairy and it was no wonder I was hearing things.
And talking to yourself.
I draped the sling of the rifle over my shoulder to carefully traverse yet another log, this one spanning a slight depression. Though not a long distance, the fallen tree was slick enough to have me planting my boots solidly and crossing about as fast as a snail would if going full speed. I was no longer concerned about cougars. The cats were probably snug and dry in some damn den laughing their feline asses off while cows and men tromped around the woods like the lesser species we were.
“Where the hell are you, girl?” I called out.
The tremendous boom that shook the ground had me ducking while a spear of lightning pierced the air far too close for comfort. The intense flash of light seared my retinas and illuminated a sight which had everything I’d ever believed brought into question.
Holy Hell!
Turned out those stories might not have stretched the truth all that far after all as I witnessed a white shape, mouth wide open, huge eyes rolling flying straight at me.
Chapter Two
Livvy
Today was the day I’d scheduled to assess the garden. Of course to do that, I’d first have to find it, which was proving far harder than one would believe. How did one forget such a huge place that used to have row upon row of growing veggies? Thankfully, the question became moot when I spotted the weathered walls of what had to be the shed. A shed that held garden tools, which meant the garden had to be right about…
“Ooof!” I shouted as I found myself no longer on my feet, but on my hands and knees. “Oww, that hurt!” I slowly turned to sit on my butt in order to rub my hands together to ease the pain. I was treating my knees to the same massage as I attempted to discover what had caused my fall. Turned out to be an overturned wheelbarrow, or more specifically the remains of one.
After picking myself up off the ground, I tried to turn the thing over to move it out of my way, only to learn I was very lucky just my hands and knees were aching. If I’d fallen on top of the thing instead of over it, my body would have been found with a rusted sliver of metal sticking through my ribcage.
Then again, as isolated as this place was, it was far more likely it would be my fleshless skeleton that was found some day long into the future. It would become some sort of urban legend about where the murder weapon had come from because the wooden parts of the thing were nothing but mush. Even the rubber tire was so deflated and looked so forlorn it was as if the entire wheelbarrow had given up the ghost and instead of moving dirt, was trying to become one with the earth.
Sending my thanks that I remained in one piece out into the Universe, I carefully tugged the weeds anchoring the wheelbarrow out of the ground and tossed them aside. Not exactly the gardening I’d pictured over breakfast this morning, but I’d known the place was going to take a little work.