THE CREST by John Klock

Author:John Klock [Klock, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Klock

29

On The Road with Axel

The two men walked in the murkiness, through an undeterminable time of day, somewhere between twilight and nightfall. They were charcoal silhouettes set in a plutonian shadow that distorted the mind and crushed the soul. If there was a God, it was not out there.

The two strangers met unexpectedly on the road, they gazed at each other and kept walking, pondering the next phase of their journey. They walked apart from each other, on each side of the road, distrustful.

“Dark times, man,” Axel said to the other man.

“Indeed, the elders predicted it. End times.”

“Not if I can help it,” Axel replied.

“Where you headed?” the other man asked.

“Away from the packs of human wolves. And you?”

“Don’t know exactly. My path is uncertain. My spirit animal has been silent. Where are you from?” The other man asked.

“Ashland, been out twenty days now,” Axel revealed to him.

“Ashland?” The man laughed hysterically. Appropriately named, we live in ash land man.” He waved his arm to their surroundings.

“And you?”

“Up from Cali.”

“You’re a long way from home, my friend.”

“Home? Nice concept, I guess. Not too many homes left anymore. Not much of anything left.”

What’s your name?”

“They call me Biff. Biff Redhawk.”

“Well Biff Redhawk, I’m Axel and I’ll tell you right now I don’t travel with partners so get that idea out of your head. I’m a solo operator, safer that way. Got it?”

“Good enough. Want nothing from you anyway, man, maybe a little information and a little conversation, lonely on the road you know.”

“Dangerous too. Surely, you must have some idea of where you’re headed?” Axel asked.

“There’s a place. I saw it in a vision. It’s a fortress on a ridgeline. I’ll know it when I see it, I guess. Inside there are people that can take us in — and there are plants.”

“What plants?” Axel asked, intrigued now.

“Friendly plants, but they need our help. I assume that is why you’re traveling.”

“Kind of, I can’t explain it. Like an image in the forest leading me, a scent. I believe my spirit totem is a fungus,” Axel articulated to his companion.

“Your spirit is a fungus? From your dreams?”

“That’s what I know.”

“And what does your spirit fungus say?”

“Not sure. It started with the psilocybin. It’s as if I was connecting with something. Like a gas coming out of the ground. It was colorful, always a step ahead of me.”

“You said scent. What kind of scent?”

“Musky, hard to describe. It emitted the scent of decaying leaves, a little like anise. I don’t know, it activated a part of my brain or some shit like that,” Axel noted.

“How so?” the other man asked, interested.

“Triggered something. I took the shroom and now I can follow the path. That’s all I know. Day in and day out, I follow the scent, it’s spiritual, man. Like a phantom in the forest. Like an instinct,” Axel noted.

The night grew darker, implacable, and the cold drifted in like the icy breath of a banshee. The two men continued on the road. Just then they saw a flickering campfire ahead and heard voices.

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