CHAPTER 16


   When they had gone to town this morning, Danni had been wondering why everybody in the Arch just did not move out here to Valley. This place seemed so peaceful compared to back on the islands. Danni even entertained the thought of moving here and trying to find a job. It sure beat the hell out of wanting to crawl up in her skin every time she saw a shadow in an alley. She was still dealing with the reactions of having been shot and those were the of the kind that nobody ever bothers to mention. They were the kinds of things that made you avoid certain things when you were not even aware you were doing it. It was even worse when you did know.
Of course, the entire debate was settled for her when the first strong gust of cold wind came rolling out of the trees and then hit her. It felt almost like she had been cut in half and that was even while she was still feeling numb from the pain killers. The walking had warmed her right up to the point that she was actually considering shedding a layer of clothing. She did compromise and unzip the flight suit a little. When the wind found it’s way in the lowered zipper, and hit the sweat underneath, Danni gave up the fanciful idea of stripping in the wilderness.
After the shock of the cold wind began to subside, Danni realized that it felt almost like she had been hit in the head with a hammer. She had to stop for a minute and take a knee. Her head was swimming in something but, whatever the haze was, Danni couldn’t figure. Was this walking? Was it the wind? Could it be the painkiller? The more important question that she had was, why hadn’t she reached the tree’s yet? How long had she been walking now? The scary part was that Danni really didn’t know. For some reason she had not even cared and, for the moment, she kind of still didn’t. The idea that she was alone in a deserted wilderness was only now starting to occur to her.
Danni got back to her feet and looked back to the chopper. It was sitting up on a small rise, across open ground, and when Danni compared it to the distance that she had left to go, in order to make it to the tree line, she realized that for some strange reason she was only about half way there. How did that happen? It felt like she had been walking forever! Then Danni started thinking and wondered, was this the direction that Tony had walked? She had remembered thinking that but, now Danni was wondering why? Did she even have a reason for coming this way?
She took another look towards the chopper. Danni felt a sigh of relief. Tony was standing up there. He was looking right at her. Danni waived at him. He raised a rifle to his shoulder. Why would he do that? Where did he get the rifle? That wasn’t Tony. Danni panicked and began running away from the gun. She cringed in terror, waiting to hear that crack. Her body started feeling sick as it anticipated that pain of hot metal tearing through her flesh.
What came was completely unexpected. It was not the nerve shattering explosion of a bullet leaving it’s barrel. Danni was too scared to look at first. What she heard sounded more like a swarm of insects. The way it impacted her ears almost tickled when it mixed with the meds. It grew louder but, Danni did not look back until the sound had stopped. Even then, Danni might not have checked except she fell just short of the trees. Then she only accidentally caught sight of what was going on behind her. The guy, who still had the rifle, was on a four wheeler.
She had a better look at the guy now. He was kind of pudgy. He had on hunters clothes and a ball cap. He probably hadn’t shaved in a while and it was pretty easy to tell, even from the current distance, that the guy had probably not washed his clothes, or himself, in some time. In stark contrast, the big long rifle looked to be in pretty good shape. Why did he want to point it at her? After a few seconds it became quite obvious that this was exactly what he was doing.
Danni felt that fear welling up in her. The guy had only closed about half the distance between the chopper and the trees. He was definitely taking his time to aim. She had a moment to think and she was not going to waste it on wondering why. Danni did not even think she was capable of it anyway and, for that matter, her brain did not seem to be able to perform any higher functions. She was on her knees, in the open, with a guy taking aim, and all she could do was nothing! It was like she was frozen in place.
“Danni!”
That was Tony! The voice sounded kind of funny. It sounded almost like he was yelling at her through a funnel or something. Where was it coming from? Suddenly, with no explanation at all, Danni almost completely forgot about the shooter. She got to her feet with no problem at all. She heard her name again and took a couple of steps in that direction. That was when she heard the crack of the rifle. Her body went limp. She dropped and everything went black.