Wayward Pines: Nomad (Kindle Worlds Novella) (6 page)

He started to put the journal away, decided no, he needed to write something, and again put the pen to paper.

Day 4

I did a lot of walking. Ended my day in a tree. It rained while I slept and now I’m wet. I miss you
.

That would have to do. He closed the journal, put it and the pen away, collected the rest of his things, and descended the pine tree.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Tobias knew he wasn’t alone. He went completely still, listening to the noises around him, hearing the usual birds chirping and cicadas singing, his hand all the while moving toward the gun in his jacket pocket.

A twig snapped behind him, and he spun around pulling the gun and aiming it right at the abby.

The abby stood there, maybe forty yards away, small and frail and innocuous. Even its black eyes stared back at Tobias with no threat. Eyes that Tobias had seen before, if only briefly. Sad, desolate eyes that mourned the death of its parent.

Tobias kept the gun aimed at the abby. The abby didn’t move. Didn’t make a sound. Didn’t do anything but stand there, staring back at Tobias.

Tobias lowered the Smith & Wesson to his side.

The abby took a hesitant step forward.

“Stop.”

The abby stopped. Cocked its head at Tobias, as if asking why.

“What do you want?”

The abby, of course, said nothing, though Tobias thought he could read it in the creature’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do for you.”

The abby just stared back at him.

“Get out of here before I shoot you.”

The abby didn’t move.

Tobias moved the gun from his right hand into his left, bent and grabbed a rock, threw it at the ground near the abby.

“I said, get!”

The abby backed away, startled, but made no sound.

It wasn’t until then Tobias realized his level of disappointment. He’d wanted the abby to charge at him. Anything that would be considered a threat so he could shoot the monster dead.

Throwing another rock, he knew, would not create the desired effect. Firing his weapon, however, was out of the question. A gunshot could bring other abbies to his location, and he’d had enough of abbies for the time being.

Instead of waiting for the abby to charge him, Tobias charged the abby.

Just like any animal, it retreated. But it didn’t retreat far. Only a few yards before stopping when Tobias stopped.

“Just go,” Tobias said.

The abby stared back at him.

“Go!”

He charged again, scooping up another rock and throwing it straight at the creature. The rock hit the abby in the chest.

The abby let loose a cry much like it had the other day when it found its parent and took off running into the trees.

Tobias stood there then, breathing heavily, waiting for it to return. After several minutes, he was convinced it wouldn’t. He reached into his jacket pocket, withdrew the compass, determined which way was west.

It was then, as he turned and looked out over the valley, that he saw the rainbow. It stretched from one end of the horizon to the other. A rainbow, his mother had once told him, was God’s promise that he would never destroy the world again, no matter how bad or evil man became.

Even as a boy Tobias had been skeptical, and here now, more than 1,800 years later, he saw the proof for himself that God didn’t give a shit about this world. After all, this was hell, and right now Tobias was the only man who had the chance to save them all.

Leaves rustled somewhere behind him. He turned his head slightly and caught movement through the trees from the corner of his eye. The tiny abby was back.

He wasn’t sure what it wanted, exactly, though he had a guess. It was lonely.

Okay, then. If it wanted to tag along for now, Tobias would allow that. He, too, was lonely.

Either the abby would eventually give up and go away, or it would finally attack Tobias, in which case Tobias would put it out of its misery.

For now, though, he needed to concentrate on the mission at hand. Taking a deep breath, he stared out over the valley and the rainbow that straddled it. Tobias started walking, focused on that iridescent strip.

He wondered what he would find when he reached the other end.

Robert Swartwood is the
USA TODAY
bestselling author of
The Serial Killer’s Wife
,
The Calling, Man of Wax
, and several other novels. His work has appeared in
The Los Angeles Review
,
The Daily Beast
,
Chizine
,
Space and Time
,
Postscripts
, and
PANK
. He created the term “hint fiction” and is the editor of Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer. He lives with his wife in Pennsylvania.