The Last Old Man: An America Falls Thriller (The Drifter Book 1) by Scott Medbury

Author:Scott Medbury [Medbury, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

‘Keep up!’ Ragland rasped, glancing back to see the girl trudging behind.

He’d assumed the sun had risen. Assumed, only because he couldn’t see it through the thick fog that clung to the valley they’d walked into. The trees grew thin on the valley floor, opening into a vast grassland before the next ridge.

She jogged, matching Ragland’s speed, and glanced at him, fearful still. Cautious. Wondering where he was going.

With not a single word spoken since he’d rescued her from the cannibals, Ragland had no information about where she had come from, where her settlement was, or even her goddamn name.

‘You don’t speak much, do you?’ he grumbled, cleaning one of his arrowheads with a cloth.

Nothing.

‘If you don’t speak by noon, and I know you can speak. I know it. Then we’re gonna have to part ways, you and I.’

She frowned at him, measuring his words but said nothing.

‘Well then,’ he smirked. ‘That settles that. I think we best get us breakfast.’

His arrows were quickly bloodied, finding not one but two cottontails whipping through the field. Back as a kid, he’d loved animals. Couldn’t bear the thought of harming a single hair on their heads. Not even a mouse. Now, ten years deep into the new world, he didn’t so much as blink. It was just life. Eat or die.

He cut them and pulled the furs off the carcasses like a glove with a soft thrup sound, revealing the purple-red meat beneath.

The girl didn’t blink, which told Ragland she may be new to human violence but was no stranger to hunting or butchering.

With the ground damp, it took him a little longer than usual to find enough dry kindling for a fire. As sure as it always was, the fire was soon popping; two rabbits spitting across the flames, fat dropping onto the logs and hissing.

The girl sat on a rock, knees close together, arms wrapped tight around them. She stared at the rabbit, not blinking, and once again, Ragland was reminded just how much she looked like Melanie.

Her stomach growled as loud as any hungry bear’s.

‘Eat,’ he said, pointing his knife at the rabbit.

No movement.

‘It ain’t a request, kid. I need your strength for the hike tomorrow. Nothing but hills and ridges north of here.’

She glanced at him, shuffling her weight a little, but decided against it.

Wow, he thought. Those fuckers really did a number on her.

Sympathizing, he took the second rabbit off the fire, stuck one end of the stick into the ground between two campfire rocks, and cut off a wedge of cooked meat like a kebab, handing it over to her.

Her hand flashed out and grabbed the food. Ragland had barely blinked, and she’d consumed the entire piece.

‘There we go. You’re gonna have to sort the res—’

But she had gotten the hint, tearing at the rabbit with her bare fingers and wolfing the meat down like she hadn’t eaten in days. And maybe she hadn’t.

Ragland watched her ravenous movements with a pang. The resemblance didn’t help

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