Page 43 of Creed
“We’ll have to carry the little one,” Creed said, automatically reaching for the girl. Robyn was understandably hesitant to hand over his sister, but Creed remained patient despite our tight time limit. “I promise I’m not going to run off with her. We have a long distance to travel. You won’t be able to carry her that far, and you’re no help to her if you wear yourself out trying.”
Biting his lip with indecision, Robyn eventually nodded and transferred his sister onto Creed’s back. Then he tried to pick up the backpack, but I beat him to it and grabbed it for myself.
“Don’t worry about this. Just focus on yourself.”
Robyn eyed me with suspicion. “Are you sure? It’s heavy.”
I withheld my urge to laugh through the insult. Creed and I were almost the same size, but his bulk mostly came from muscle that had been honed over decades of training. My size clearly came from a life of too much fine dining mixed with hours sitting at a desk.
“I’ll manage,” I assured him as I slung the bag onto my back. Oddly enough, although the bag was large, it wasn’t as heavy as the pack I’d been carrying for our original hiking trip. Even over just a couple of days Creed had already helped whip me into better shape.
Once everything was settled, Robyn showed us to the tall fence surrounding the entire village. It was at least eight feet high, made of solid wood, and only had a few entry and exit points.
The more I saw of this village, the more it seemed like a prison disguised as a home. This was not a place meant for people to live freely.
“Over here,” Robyn said, waving us toward one particular board in the fence. “This board broke during a storm a few months ago, and no one bothered to fix it. I dug out under it as much as I could.”
In the dark it was hard to tell, but on closer inspection I could see where Robyn had excavated some of the dirt out from under the fence. Based on the marks in the ground, he seemed to havedone it by hand. It wasn’t very deep, but once the loose board was moved out of the way, there was a decent size gap left.
Decent sized for a child, at least. Creed and I were another matter.
“Are we going to fit through there?” I whispered to Creed.
“Only one way to find out,” he replied, equally quiet.
Robyn went first, easily shimmying under the fence. His sister was then passed through next. We had to wake the poor girl up so she could crawl on her own. Blearily eyes looked around, clearly confused, but she was drawn to the sound of her brother’s voice on the other side of the fence and followed it without question, crawling on her hands and knees in the dirt.
Then only Creed and I remained.
We shared a look, and Creed shrugged. “Here goes nothing.”
He had to lie flat in the dirt to even have a chance of fitting through the gap. He couldn’t even prop himself up on his elbows to army crawl. Instead, he had to reach forward and drag himself purely by his arms like the world’s most uncoordinated snake. His shoulders could only fit through one at a time, and his feet kicked in the dirt for more traction to help push himself forward, but once the majority of his chest was through the fence, the rest of him followed pretty easily.
Once he was free, I shoved the backpack through the hole after him. Then I was the last one still trapped on this side of the fence.
Taking a deep breath, I lowered myself down onto the ground. Once I was face to face with the opening, it looked even smaller than I thought. It was a miracle Creed had even fit, and I couldsee fibers from his shirt stuck to the wood planks where he’d scraped along the fence.
Creed’s face appeared on the other side of the hole, turned at an odd angle where he was crouching in order to see me.
“It’s all right. Just go slow. And if you get stuck, don’t panic. Tensing up will only made it harder to fit through.”
I followed Creed’s technique, keeping the rest of my body flat and relaxed, and gripping onto either side of the hole in order to pull myself with just my arms. I wasn’t as strong as him. Dragging my entire weight left my arms trembling from the strain.
My head and shoulders fit through easier than Creed’s had, and for a moment I had hope that everything would go smoothly.
Then, when the side planks of the fence touched my stomach, I came to a sudden stop.
“Fuck,” I sighed under my breath and let my forehead fall to the dirt.
It was as I’d feared.
Creed and I were both large men, but Creed’s broadest point was his shoulders, which could be maneuvered to fit through one at a time.
My broadest point was my stomach, which couldn’t be manipulated nearly as well.
“It’s okay,” Creed said above my head. “Just stay relaxed and give me your hands.”
I stuck out my arms for Creed to grab, and he tried to pull me through from his side of the fence, but I wouldn’t budge.
