That first night, I walked through trees and brush and tangled undergrowth, shaking my head at the vastness of it all, wondering if it would ever end. There was no road to follow, at least, not where I had come out. After spending my entire life within the city walls, this alien, green-and-brown world felt hostile and dangerous, like it was trying to drag me down and swallow me whole. I did stumble upon a few leftovers of human civilization—old houses crumbling under carpets of weeds and moss, a few rusty car skeletons choked with vines—but the farther I got from the city, the wilder the forest became. I’d had no idea it was this big, that trees could just stretch on forever and ever. I thought of New Covington and wondered how many years it had left, how long until nature crawled up its walls and smothered it completely.
And unlike the empty city, with its silent streets and cold, dead buildings, the wilderness was alive. Everything moved out here. Branches sighed in the wind. Insects buzzed through the air. Things rustled in the bushes just out of sight. At first, it was unnerving; I’d grown up on the street where every noise or sudden movement made you flinch and tense to run. But after a couple nights of this, listening to things flee from me, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing beyond the city that could really put me in any danger. I was a vampire. I was the scariest thing out here.
I was dead wrong, of course.
Just after dusk one evening, I stumbled upon a slow-moving stream and followed it for a while, wondering if it led anywhere. I caught glimpses of several deer and a raccoon at the water’s edge, and figured more animals would be drawn to the water. But I’d grown so used to seeing wildlife by now that I didn’t think much about it.
There was a low growl in the shadows ahead, and I froze.
Something massive and dark lumbered out of the trees, coming to a stop a few yards away at the edge of the water. It was the biggest animal I’d ever seen, with shaggy brown fur, huge shoulders and enormous yellow claws. It snuffed at me, then raised its lip, revealing a set of huge teeth, some as long as my fingers.
My stomach dropped. I’d heard the stories the old-timers of the city would throw around sometimes, of the wild creatures that lived beyond the walls, breeding and populating without restraint. But the word bear didn’t do the real animal justice. This thing could tear a rabid in two without thinking about it. It could probably give a vampire a run for its money.
Which meant I might be in a bit of trouble here.
The bear stared at me with beady black eyes, huffing softly, shaking its huge head as if confused. I stood rigidly still and tried to remember what you were supposed to do if you met a bear out in the woods. Fall down? Play dead? Yeah, that didn’t sound like a good idea at all. Slowly, I reached back and grasped the hilt of my sword, ready to draw it if the bear charged. If I landed one good, solid blow on the neck, behind its head, maybe that would be enough to kill it. Or at least slow it down. And if that didn’t work, I could always climb a tree…
The bear snorted at me, nostrils twitching. It swayed back and forth, making low groaning sounds in its chest, scraping the dirt with its claws. I got the distinct impression that it was confused. Maybe I didn’t smell like prey. Maybe I didn’t smell alive at all. But it turned and, with one last grunt in my direction, lumbered away into the woods. I waited until I could no longer hear it plowing through the undergrowth, then hurried away in the opposite direction.
Okay, so there were bigger, scarier things out here than rabids. Good to know. I wondered why it hadn’t attacked me. Had it sensed another predator, like itself, and decided to look for easier prey? I didn’t know. But I could guess that the bear thought I was something unnatural, something that didn’t belong in this leafy world with its endless trees. The wildlife out here probably didn’t meet many vampires. I also wondered what the rest of New Covington would say if a bear came waddling down the street into the city. I smirked at the thought. They’d probably crap their pants. If Stick saw one, he’d faint dead away.
My smile faded. Where was he now? I wondered. Was he still living in the warehouse with the other Unregistereds? Or had he sold me out to move into the vampire towers, to be fed and taken care of, beginning a new life as a pet?