Heart of Dust

The light began to fade between the branches of the trees as Edie continued forward through, what felt like a never-ending woodland jungle. The air around her grew colder as she wrapped her arms around her body, she knew that she would need to find somewhere safe to set up camp before she continued on any further.

As darkness began to creep in, she felt more uncomfortable, it almost brought forward the reality of the world, and what was going on, bringing her back to the present, memories flooding her head, unable to forget, and unable to concentrate.

She stumbled for a quick second, just able to catch her balance on a nearby tree, she stopped for a minute to catch her breath, trying to push the memories to one side and to focus on moving forward.

‘Edie, can you come here?’ shouted her mother from the other side of the farmhouse.

Edie was in her bedroom flicking through the records that had been given to her by her father. She enjoyed sitting down and flicking through all the artwork on each cover, just as much as listening to the music. ‘One-minute mum, what is wrong?’ She shouted from her bedroom, hoping her mother would hear.

As she ran down the stairs, she pulled her jacket around her. During winter, the cold air was not something she was used to. Growing up in a small town just outside of San Antonio, the first winter here was a shock, she had never known a feeling quite like it.

‘Mum where are you?’ she shouted as she made her way outside of the house and out into the fresh brisk morning air around the farm.

‘Over here sweety, come quickly, I need your help with an expression of fear and worry, her mother grabbed Edie's hand and took her into the barn, on the other end of the farm. During the winter months the few horses they had stayed in the barn for shelter, which her mother had grown to love the time spent with them, Edie did as well. Her mother had always been busy, working day and night, moving from state to state, this was the longest they had been in one place and it felt like home, for all of them.

‘Can you pass me over that bowl of water and a few towels from the side please?’ Edie’s heart rate started raising, as she started to understand what was happening.

‘What is wrong mum? Is Shadow okay?’ As her breathing continued to speed up, she could see Shadow, the youngest of their horses, the one her and her mother had helped to bring into the world, was lying still on the ground, with a face as colorless as a river stream.

‘It is going to be okay Edie, she must have got her leg caught in some barbed wire, this morning, can you pass me that towel’ She smiled at Edie, knowing that if this was Shadow's last moment with them, she would want both of them to be there with her.

The bitter cold air hit Edie's face and snapped her back into the present moment, her mind had been traveling back, too much for her liking, each time felt like a sting had perched her soul, each time making it harder to continue.

She made her way into a small clearing just opposite a large wall of rock. She had both hoped and feared that she must be getting closer to the ends of the forest by now; it had been over 2 weeks, or so she thought since she had entered this large pine-covered graveyard.

She stopped her Walkman and threw it into the top of her backpack. As much as the music relaxed her, she knew all too well, the dangers of not being alert, especially during the night. Edie took out the small tent from her rucksack and set it up just at the base of the rocky cliffside. She looked up towards the gleam of the night sky, and despite everything, there was a brief moment of peace.

The silence during the night over the past few weeks had not been something she had been used to, not for a very long time, not since the day everything changed, the day the world changed.

As she made her way back to her tent, she heard a faint crack in the distance, the sound against the eerie silence made her twitch and jump back, ‘I had been careful, covering up my tracks and not having a light fire for days, it couldn't possibly be. Could it?’ she thought to herself, as she quickly made her way back to her tent, covering the front with foliage and leaves from the ground.

End of Chapter 2