Page 22 of A Love of Wrath and Rapture

“I’m probably going to die out here,” I whisper. “But I won’t die doing nothing about it.”

The only chance I have is to calculate my next move. Only then do I stand to stay one step ahead of death.

“One step at a time, that’s all I need.”

I get to my feet, fueled by the sole purpose of surviving. No one else will do it for me now. I’m all I’ve got, that and the clothes on my back.

I pull my layers tighter as another gust of wind threatens to blow me away. The cold pierces through my fabrics, its full power numbed by the sun.

I look up to it as I figure out my next move.

“I’ve got to find some type of shelter. That sun is the only thing keeping the cold from claiming me. Once it goes down, I’m dead.”

There’s no way for me to check how many hours of sunlight I have left. There’s no time to waste.

I take the first step forward into an uncertain future, plagued by the fast pursuit of death.

A small stroke of fortune comes my way with the weather easing. The winds fully pass and the snowfall lightens, allowing me a clearer view of the path ahead. A path to nowhere.

The boots I wear aren’t made for this level of snow as the bitter cold substance stops just below my knees. Back in the settlement, the grounds were evened out with hard labor, making walking as easy as breathing.

But the current conditions make traversing the terrain painfully slower, each step a full exertion of effort.

After what feels close to an hour, I stop and bend over, hands resting on my knees as I gasp for air.

“It just doesn’t end.”

Everywhere around me still looks the same, I wonder if I’m already going insane.

Throwing a hand to my head, I wipe away a pool of cold sweat. My breathless lungs beg for air and a chance to recuperate.

Smacking a dry mouth, I’m desperate for a drink of water. The lack of it will speed up dehydration, but I try not to think about that.

I ought to rest at least. If I keep pushing hard, I’ll collapse from exhaustion.

I sit at the top of a steep slope, leaning back against a pile of snow. I close my eyes but quickly open them again, seeing an image of the settlement in my mind.

Regret and anger make great companions for one another, each taking their place in my heart.

Then, a flurry of a black silhouette in the corner of my eye.

I look up and around me in a hurry, confused to find nothing out of the ordinary.

“What was that?”

Scratching my head, I shrug it off as a trick of the mind and decide to keep moving.

As I peer down the slope and see its danger, a highly strung tension wraps its nauseating grip around my stomach.

Far too perilous for a descent on foot, I recline on my butt and slide down, flexing every muscle as I pick up speed. It goes far smoother than I expected but the tension feels like it's weighing me down at this point.

“How much farther?” I ask myself, looking ahead to spot a narrow entryway to a valley in the distance.

Masses of rock and ice rise up on either side of the valley, so I figure there must be a cave somewhere in that territory.

But my heart almost stops.

I spin around when I hear a faint flurry of footsteps, quickly turning around to see that same black shape throwing itself behind a rock. Had I blinked, I’d have missed it.

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