Read Online After the Snow by S. D. Crockett - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: S. D. Crockett
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words my good dog taught me. The pack fall in on that dead bitch. Tearing at her. That hungry pack so hungry they gonna eat their own. The young dogs fighting over the carcass.
It been our chance.
Number One dog aint too sure what’s gonna happen if he try me so he’s staying back a step but it won’t last long I don’t reckon.
“Keep looking behind,” I say to the whimpering girl clinging on my back like a squirrel.
The snow pretty deep but I been on top of it cos of the snowshoes. I look back. Big dog bounding toward us up to his chest in the snow.
“Run,” scream the girl.
I come to a narrow pass between two rocks, and I stick down one of the torches. KEEP BACK DOG COS I GOT FIRE.
But it aint gonna keep him back for long.
“Run! They’re all coming!” It’s the girl screeching. She’s hammering on my back like mad now and screaming run at me like I can’t hear her.
If I run I’m gonna be quarry.
I got to front him again cos I been a man.
And the dog got to understand I aint dead so he got to do what I want, not the other way round. He got to have a bit of dog left in him. He aint all wolf yet.
When I turn around in the pass, I see him come—brave in the deep snow, the others with hungry bloody mouths at his back. Girl still screaming like mad but I push her off behind. I get down then, low like a hare. But I got my knife out my pocket and I got my eyes looking right at that big dog. He still got a bit of brindle on his back from his mother. He aint bad. I don’t want to kill him but he don’t listen too good to what I been telling him.
I got fire, dog. I got fire and hands and snowshoes, and I kill your mate like I can kill you so keep back and let me pass. Let me pass.
But he just keep coming. The hunger in his guts shouting loud in his head. That’s when I stand on my two man legs and I hold my torch up cos it still just about alight and I step right toward him. And I tell him again—
And that big Number One dog stop then.
Maybe his hungry guts hear me now.
Cos I been a man.
He get scared and drop his eyes for just a second and then I know that I won so I tell him pretty loud.
“Let me pass.”
Big dog remember what his mother taught him then and get proper frightened and stick his brindled tail between his legs.
He been a dog, not a wolf.
I get the girl on my back and run.
I run and run and run. My legs feel like stones wading through the snow but I aint safe, not til I get up to the winfarm. The breath inside me coming out hard and painful, but I got to keep running.
I look up on the ridge above us for a pair of dog eyes looking down. Aint no sign though and I get a full heart then. I feel Mary’s cold bony hands clinging to my neck. We been up high above the pass. I stop and get a breath. I stand on the hillside. Shout at the sky.
This shout been full of something.
It been full of me and my winning.
She whisper, “Are we going to be all right?”
“Yes,” I tell her.
Cos I aint worried now—the fire inside gonna get me up the hill before nightfall. I know it.
I shout out loud to the dogs and the hills and anyone out there who listen.
“Tommy isn’t with us, is he?”
“No,” I say. “No he aint.”
12
The Rhinogs turn red and orange behind me as the mossy dark of evening spread across the sky from the east.
Up ahead I see the Farngod rising, the towers of the winfarm all about at last. I drag myself up to the eastern ridge—toward the broken wincone. The sun drop fast this time of year and night gonna come up on us any second now.
The girl been moaning a bit. I get her off my back. I got to unpick her hands from around my neck cos they got so cold and stiff clinging on. She don’t move. Her lips got blue and her skin look like wax. With the last bit of strength I drag her inside the wincone and near collapse beside her.
I know I got to stay awake but the warmth of sleep been washing over me and I don’t care about nothing no more,
It been our chance.
Number One dog aint too sure what’s gonna happen if he try me so he’s staying back a step but it won’t last long I don’t reckon.
“Keep looking behind,” I say to the whimpering girl clinging on my back like a squirrel.
The snow pretty deep but I been on top of it cos of the snowshoes. I look back. Big dog bounding toward us up to his chest in the snow.
“Run,” scream the girl.
I come to a narrow pass between two rocks, and I stick down one of the torches. KEEP BACK DOG COS I GOT FIRE.
But it aint gonna keep him back for long.
“Run! They’re all coming!” It’s the girl screeching. She’s hammering on my back like mad now and screaming run at me like I can’t hear her.
If I run I’m gonna be quarry.
I got to front him again cos I been a man.
And the dog got to understand I aint dead so he got to do what I want, not the other way round. He got to have a bit of dog left in him. He aint all wolf yet.
When I turn around in the pass, I see him come—brave in the deep snow, the others with hungry bloody mouths at his back. Girl still screaming like mad but I push her off behind. I get down then, low like a hare. But I got my knife out my pocket and I got my eyes looking right at that big dog. He still got a bit of brindle on his back from his mother. He aint bad. I don’t want to kill him but he don’t listen too good to what I been telling him.
I got fire, dog. I got fire and hands and snowshoes, and I kill your mate like I can kill you so keep back and let me pass. Let me pass.
But he just keep coming. The hunger in his guts shouting loud in his head. That’s when I stand on my two man legs and I hold my torch up cos it still just about alight and I step right toward him. And I tell him again—
And that big Number One dog stop then.
Maybe his hungry guts hear me now.
Cos I been a man.
He get scared and drop his eyes for just a second and then I know that I won so I tell him pretty loud.
“Let me pass.”
Big dog remember what his mother taught him then and get proper frightened and stick his brindled tail between his legs.
He been a dog, not a wolf.
I get the girl on my back and run.
I run and run and run. My legs feel like stones wading through the snow but I aint safe, not til I get up to the winfarm. The breath inside me coming out hard and painful, but I got to keep running.
I look up on the ridge above us for a pair of dog eyes looking down. Aint no sign though and I get a full heart then. I feel Mary’s cold bony hands clinging to my neck. We been up high above the pass. I stop and get a breath. I stand on the hillside. Shout at the sky.
This shout been full of something.
It been full of me and my winning.
She whisper, “Are we going to be all right?”
“Yes,” I tell her.
Cos I aint worried now—the fire inside gonna get me up the hill before nightfall. I know it.
I shout out loud to the dogs and the hills and anyone out there who listen.
“Tommy isn’t with us, is he?”
“No,” I say. “No he aint.”
12
The Rhinogs turn red and orange behind me as the mossy dark of evening spread across the sky from the east.
Up ahead I see the Farngod rising, the towers of the winfarm all about at last. I drag myself up to the eastern ridge—toward the broken wincone. The sun drop fast this time of year and night gonna come up on us any second now.
The girl been moaning a bit. I get her off my back. I got to unpick her hands from around my neck cos they got so cold and stiff clinging on. She don’t move. Her lips got blue and her skin look like wax. With the last bit of strength I drag her inside the wincone and near collapse beside her.
I know I got to stay awake but the warmth of sleep been washing over me and I don’t care about nothing no more,
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