A New Path - Part 1

I hear something...a low stuttering groan...then, BANG! I sit straight up in bed, my heart beating a million times a minute. I try to look around at the unfamiliar room, but I am blinded by a sunbeam falling across my eyes. I hear the groan again coming from within the wall. The fog of sleep begins to lift and I fall back against my pillow as my adrenaline starts to fade. Just the stupid metal trailer walls expanding in the hot sun.

I flip my covers off and roll out of bed. My feet stick to the cheap fake wood verneer on the floor as I make my way over to the sink. I splash cold water on my face, or at least what the tap says is cold. Luke-warm is more like it, but I guess in this heat it is the best I can hope for. I look up into the mirror and stare into the deep blue eyes looking back from my reflection. "Good morning, sunshine."

What am I doing here? Punishment, obviously. Another school year, another school that kicked me out. Now my dad figures I owe him money back for what he spent on the last place and I get sent to the middle of some desert to spend my summer break selling tourist knick-knacks to the sight-seeing buses that come out to view the canyons once or twice a week. I tried to convince him to let me do some other type of work. I used to make good money when I was little posing in print ads for local newspapers and magazines. Something about my naturally long eyelashes giving me an angelic appeal or something. But no, my dad has his own arrangements for me with one of his old poker buddies.

Of course, the selling isn't really that bad. I have always been good at convincing people to buy stuff. It's just this pressing heat. It is everywhere and it never lets up. Combine that with nothing to for miles in any direction and it sears the soul right out of you. I can't wait to get out of here. Maybe another week or two and I can catch a bus or train out of here. Live free for a while and see where it all leads.

Its my day off though and I need to do something with it. Might as well go for a walk and see if I can find anything interesting off the beaten path. I pull on my favorite white shirt, some jeans and my black sneakers. I ruffle up my sandy brown hair and check the mirror once again. Not bad. Not that anyone around here cares, but I can at least look halfway decent while I suffer. I leave the door unlocked as I set out down the dirt road and turn off onto a footpath leading out to the canyon rim.

Now I am a firm believer in ghost and other stuff that come out at night. I always have the feeling stuff is watching me from the shadows. Most of the time I can ignore it enough to have a peaceful night because I know it will all be gone in the morning. But now I feel like someone or something is watching me and it is the middle of the day. And it's quiet. Not a peaceful quiet, but a dead quiet. Its like the birds, bugs, and whatever are all just holding their breath.

My heart starts to race as I look around like a scared jackrabbit. I grab a mesquite branch off the ground and hold it like a rough baseball bat as I start to move quickly along the trail. I hear wood snapping in the bushes off to the side and I break into a run. The breaking branches and thuds in the dirt assure me something is there and it is keeping pace with me.

I chance a look over my shoulder and see the biggest lizard I have ever seen! At least I think it is a lizard. That's the best description I can think of except this one was as big as a small car and seemed to be keeping up with me fairly well even with an awkward lumbering gait. I swung wildly with my bat around my sides trying to keep it back a bit. I made contact with something and heard a faint grunt on the second impact, but I didn't know if I was doing anything. What I did know was that I was running out of time and I needed a way out.

Up ahead I saw my chance. One of the big crack in the ground that splintered off the main canyon. One good jump would get me across and the beast behind me probably couldn't propel his bulk that far. I rolled the dice and made the best leap I could. Time seemed to go in slow motion as I sailed through the air. I started to come down and realized I was still short of the far side. I caught the edge with my hands, but my downward momentum was too much. My palms and fingers scraped themselves raw trying to claw at the rocks as I slid down the wall into the crack.

Up above, the big lizard like thing looked down at me as I slid to a stop at the bottom. I opened and closed it's mouth a few times, letting a dark green saliva drip down into the crack. It hit some rocks nearby and I saw them hiss and spit as the acidic stuff broke them down. Then the creature reached one leg out over the edge, grabbed solidly onto the rock and started walking down the wall as if it was on level ground.

I knew I was a goner, but I wasn't about to just throw in the towel and roll over peacefully for this thing. I grabbed my mequite brach up in my bloody hands and charged the great beast with a yell. I swung as hard as I could towards the middle of it's head. The branch made contact and shattered at just about the same time his front claw caught me in the chest and sent me sailing back several feet into a pile of rock. I blacked out....

The next thing I know, my face is being slapped. I slowly open my eyes to see a short man standing over me in a yellow shirt and shaggy brown pants. "Easy there, boy. You took quite a hit. You are lucky to be alive." My encounter comes flashing back and I find myself fully awake and more than a little panicked. "That thing! Mister, we need to get out of here before it comes back!" He presses his hand down on my should and points with his other hand to the great lizard laying in a heap on the ground. "Relax, boy. It's oout for a good long while."

I struggle to my feet and walk over close to the sleeping monster. "Did I...? I must have! I knocked it cold!" The small man just grins over at me as he twirls a much more solid looking club in his own hands. "I admit you got guts kid, but your fighting skills are bad enough to make Lord Ares laugh until he cries. Just be thankful you can walk away from this and go get sometraining before next time."

"Next time?!?" I stare in shock at the strange warrior in front of me. "There are more of these things out here?" He motions to the beast, "Well maybe not more of this specific creature, but there will be more of something. Look, kid, there isn't enough time to explain it all here. Come with me and I will take you to people that can help you deal with the next time. Or you can stay here and take your chances with the next one on your own."

My auto response of never talking to strangers wanted to kick in, but the whole nightmare of a situation gave his words a ring of truth and I had no choice. I had to accept and see where this was all going. Hey, I was planning on hitting the road anyways. Might as well do it now.

"Great! There is a bus terminal a few miles down the road. We can catch a ride there. Oh, but you you better put this on." He tosses me a heavy grey sweatshirt. I catch it and look back to him. "Are you crazy? Its 100+ degrees out here. I'll get heat stroke before we make it to the bus." He actually did look a bit apologetic as he replied, "Well, you can't get on the bus looking like an axe murderer and this is all I got for you to use." I look down at my cloths and see my shirt is ripped in several places and has blood smeared on it from my hands and from a few small cuts across my chest. "Yeah, I guess you are right" I put on the sweatshirt and follow him down the road to the bus station. I was sweating so much you would have through I just came out of the rainforest rather than the desert, but I made it in one piece. He arranged the tickets for us once aboard the air conditioned bus, I quickly fell asleep.

To be continued...