The Lost Year: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Story by Christopher Oldfield

Author:Christopher Oldfield [Oldfield, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

28

Cassiopeia kept her eyes on Tom’s tracks as they continued south. She could tell by the spacing of hooves that his pace had quickened. Not far south of the Sheriff’s home, however, the man had stopped.

Here, Tom had tied his horse to a tree before eventually continuing on. For whatever reason, Tom had marched into the brush before returning, not bothering to cover his tracks as he headed toward the coastline.

Cass stopped. The Sheriff stopped too. He was on the horse, doing his best to stay upright on the bareback mount. She had insisted he ride, at least for now, and he agreed. Reluctantly. Even he recognized he needed to heal up fast for what was coming.

Cass peered into the thin stockade of trees that obscured the lake. “Follow?”

The Sheriff turned toward the drab slivers that broke through the dying wood. She tried to read his face but it was blank. Then, it clicked.

“Is this…?”

“This is where she died. Where Tom let her die,” he growled.

She stepped toward the horse and gave it a scratch, swatting away the few flies that hovered. “Do you want to go see? Maybe say a few words?”

The Sheriff shook his head. “What can we say to ghosts that they don’t already know?”

Cass chewed on her lip. A bit dramatic, but he wasn’t wrong. She knew no words could fix the past. Nothing can change what had been done.

Not to him. Not to anyone.

If you’d just have stayed where you were supposed to maybe things in New Gamling would have been different. Maybe they’d still be alive. Maybe everyone…

She stopped herself. “It’s tiring, isn’t it?” she sighed, interrupting her own thoughts.

The Sheriff looked to her. “What is?”

“Carrying our mistakes. Carrying the memories. We used to be able to make new memories. The bad gets plowed, the good blooms. But when you can’t make new memories…when the bad outweighs the good…it’s exhausting.”

“And somehow the worst memories are never far from thought,” the Sheriff added. “No matter how good things get.”

Cass ran her fingers down her sole remaining braid. “I hope we can get back to living, one day. Not just surviving, but living, y’know?”

“One day,” the Sheriff agreed, leading the horse onward.

Cass could tell he didn’t believe the words.

Did she?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.