We repack our bags in a hurry. It’s a narrow strip of trees we’ve managed to get ourselves stuck in twixt the road and the river. We daren’t cross the road and with the river at our backs, a fallen log is the best we’re gonna get. We gather the last of our things and crouch down behind it, Manchee held twixt my knees, rain splashing everywhere.
I take out my knife.
The hoofbeats keep coming, louder and louder.
“Only one horse,” Viola whispers. “It’s not the army.”
“Yeah,” I say, “but listen how fast he’s riding.”
Viola looks behind us at the river. “Can you swim?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” she says. “Because I can’t.”
I can hear the buzz of the rider’s Noise starting but for a time the galloping is louder and I can’t hear it clearly.
“Horse,” Manchee says from down below.
It’s there. Static twixt the hoofbeats. Flashes of it. Parts of words caught. Rid— and Pa— and Dark— and Stup— and more and more.
I clench the knife harder. Viola’s not saying nothing now.
Faster and Nightfall and Shot and Whatever it—And he’s coming down the road, round a little curve we took just a hundred metres back, leaning forward–
The knife turns in my hand cuz–
Shot ’em all and She was tasty and Dark here —
I think I reckernize–
And he’s nearer and nearer till he’s almost–
And then Todd Hewitt? rings out as clear as day thru the rain and the galloping and the river.
Viola gasps.
And I can see who it is.
“Junior,” Manchee barks.
It’s Mr Prentiss Jr.
We try to duck down farther below the log but it ain’t no use cuz we already see him pulling back hard on the reins to stop his horse, causing it to rear up and nearly throw him.
But only nearly.
And not enough to make him drop the rifle he’s got under one arm.
Todd BLOODY HEWITT! screams his Noise.
“Oh, shit,” I hear Viola say and I know what she means.
“Well, HOOO-EEE!” Mr Prentiss Jr yells and we’re close enough to see the smile on his face and hear amazement in his voice. “Yer taking the
“I been hearing yer Noise for almost yer whole stupid life, boy!” He turns his horse this way and that, trying to find where exactly we are in our little strip of woods. “You think I’m not gonna hear it if ya just
“And wait a minute,” he says and we can hear him edging his horse off the road and into the woods. “Wait just a minute. What’s that beside you? That empty space of
He says it so nasty Viola flinches. I got the knife in my hand but he’s on horseback and we know he’s got a gun.
“Too effing right I’ve got a gun, Todd boy,” he calls, no longer searching round but coming straight for us, getting his horse to step over bushes and round trees. “And I got another gun, too, another one special, just for yer little lady there, Todd.” I look at Viola. I know she sees what he’s thinking, what’s in his Noise, the pictures that ooze out of it. I know she does cuz I can see her face closing right up. I bump her arm and I flash my eyes over to our right, just about the only possibility we have for an escape.
“Oh,
The horse is so close we can hear its Noise, too, jittery and crazy.
There’s no farther down we can crouch.
He’s nearly on top of us.
I grip the knife and squeeze Viola’s hand once, hard, for luck.
It’s now or never.
And–
“NOW!” I yell.
We jump up and a gun blast rings out, splintering the branches over our heads, but we run anyway.
“GET!” Mr Prentiss Jr shouts to his horse and here they come.
In two bounds, his horse turns and jumps back to the road, following along it as we run. The strip twixt the road and the river ain’t getting any thicker and we can see each other as we go. Branches snap and puddles splash and feet slip and he pounds along the road matching our every step.
We ain’t gonna get away from him. We just ain’t.
But we try, each of us taking a twisty path up and over logs and thru bushes and Manchee’s panting and barking at our heels and the rain’s splashing down on us and the road’s getting closer and then it suddenly veers sharply towards the river and we got no choice but to cross it in front of him to get to the deeper woods on the other side and I can see Viola leaping over the boundary and onto the road with her arms pumping and Mr Prentiss Jr rounding the bend and he’s twirling something in his hand and we make a dash for the other side but the horse is roaring down on us and suddenly I feel something grab my legs, binding ’em so fast and so tight I fall right off my feet.
“Aaagh!” I yell and I hit my face into muck and fallen leaves and the rucksack goes over my head and nearly rips my arms off as it flies off my back and Viola sees me fall and she’s nearly cross the road but I see mud curling up from where her feet are digging in to stop herself and I shout, “NO! RUN! RUN!” and she locks my eyes and I see something change on her face but who knows what it means and as the horse bears down she turns and disappears into the woods and Manchee runs back to me and barks “Todd! Todd!” and I’m caught I’m caught I’m caught.
Cuz Mr Prentiss Jr is standing over me, breathing hard, high on his white horse, rifle cocked and pointed. I know what’s happened. He’s thrown a rope with weights at either end right at my legs and they’ve twisted round and caught me, expert, just like a hunter after swamp deer. I’m stuck down here in the mud on my belly, caught like an animal.
“My pa sure is gonna be glad to see you,” he says, his horse nervy and stepping side to side. Rain, I can hear it thinking, and Is it a snake?
“I was just sposed to see if there were rumours of you on the road ahead,” Mr Prentiss Jr sneers, “but here you are, in the real honest-to-God flesh.”
“Eff you,” I say and do you think I say eff?
I’ve still got the knife in my hand.
“And it sure is making me quake with fear,” he says, moving the rifle so I’m looking right down the barrel. “Drop it.”
