Into the Outside by Lynda Engler & Henry Dixon

Author:Lynda Engler & Henry Dixon [Engler, Lynda & Dixon, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

The group forged ahead leaving the city behind. Dover now lay to their west, and a road heading north opened up so they turned in that direction. They passed old houses barely visible from the road anymore. Fifty years ago they probably had manicured yards but now the grass was taller than hay, flower gardens had been overtaken by weeds, and vines grew up the sides of the houses, almost completely obscuring many of them. Trees grew thick in front of the houses where fifty years earlier there was probably only grass.

They soon passed under a large highway. Isabella identified it on her map but Malcolm chose to continue on the smaller thoroughfare toward the mountains. The trees encroached on the road once under the highway overpass, and the tribe had to cut their way through vegetation if they were going to leave the buildings and alleyways of Dover behind.

“Going to Dover was a mistake,” admitted Malcolm. “If we’re going to find a safe place to settle, it won’t be anywhere near a city.”

“Yes,” Isabella agreed. She was trying hard not to think about the bloody bodies they had left behind, allowing the sense of moving forward to reassure her. It gave her the illusion of safety, although she now knew nothing was truly safe out here. The thought of what kinds of creatures might be lurking inside the abandoned houses frightened her.

“I knew those yellow areas on your map were places that were full of radiation and chemicals, but I didn’t realize they held such horrors. I never knew creatures as horrible as Eaters could exist!” Malcolm said, shaking his head, as if attempting to clear the grotesque memory of the battle from his mind. Garith, Kaedo and Malcolm used their machetes to swipe at vines and bushes growing in the roadway to clear the path for the rest of the tribe to follow.

Malcolm continued to talk as he slashed at the skinny trunks of trees and the dense prickly bushes that had reclaimed most of the road. “When Chloe told us about the Eaters – well, honestly, I didn’t believe her. I thought she was exaggerating, or hallucinating. Sometimes the wasting disease does that to people. There weren’t any Eaters in Ewr, so why in Dover?”

“Dover is a much smaller city. Maybe the poison wasn’t as deadly there.” Talking out and trying to decipher the mystery of the Eaters allowed Isabella to force her emotions down into the dark recesses of her mind, consoling and calming her.

“Maybe,” Malcolm agreed. His powerful right arm wielded the machete with such force, slashing at the jungle that grew so thickly that the flora almost formed an impenetrable wall. But there were gaps where younger trees grew and they were able to clear a path wide enough for the group. “But the Eaters must be extremely old. Chloe said they’ve been around since before the chemicals were dropped, since before the wars. If that’s true, they must be older than we can even imagine.

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