Savaged by Mia Sheridan

Author:Mia Sheridan [Sheridan, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Published: 2019-05-26T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The snow sparkled under the silver-gray sky, fat flakes floating down and melting on Jak’s skin as he slid across the open field. The long flat shoes he’d put together, made it easier to walk over the ice-crusty ground without sinking into the soft fluffy snow beneath. He wished he’d thought of making something like these a long time ago. But, how could he? He learned the best he could as he went along, figuring new and better ways to survive. These shoes weren’t a . . . what was the word? He didn’t need to have them, but they were nice to have.

His mind drifted, the words of the woman in the picture going around in his head. He talked to her sometimes, asked her questions, tried to guess what her answers would be.

Sometimes, like today, when his mind wanted to drift from the cold of winter, he’d say the words that brought him peace. He’d say them over and over again until his heart settled, and he could find something good about the day. About life. About his presence in a world that only made sense in a physical way. To Jak, the writings of the woman were his friend, she was his priest from the story that he’d never actually read, and his teacher. He loved her, even though he’d never met her. He visited her sometimes too, in the bottom of that canyon. He sat outside the car where she’d died, said words to her and the man. He wondered if they’d died right away or if they’d suffered. He wondered where their child was—the girl. He felt so much sadness. He wished he could have saved them. He wished they were alive and he could meet them. He would ask the woman all the questions in his mind and heart. She had so many more words than he knew.

In his pretending, she answered. He closed his eyes and heard her speak, clearer now than the faded voice of his baka.

It had been five winters since he’d found the car and the blue bag, and while he would never say his living was easy, the writings he’d found had made things . . . better. He wasn’t sure exactly why. He only knew that the writings had changed his mind about wanting to die. Had he really wanted to die though? No. He had wanted the pain to end, the loneliness. The writings had made him care about living.

His muscled legs pushed one board forward, then the next, sliding across the snow, his breath puffing white in front of him for only a brief second before it was snatched up by the wind.

Movement caught his eye and he slowed, his muscles tensing as he spotted a person far off to his right. Hide? Slink? No. He crouched low as he loaded an arrow into his bow, looking through the scope.

It was . . . a woman?

Jak lowered the bow and arrow, standing back up, his fast heartbeat slowing down, questions circling in his mind.

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