“I think I know where we are.” Jen sighed as the fireplace crackled.

  “Yea, my house.” Chuckled Hudson.

  “No, I mean where Timber is. It’s hell. We all died and this is just…hell.”

  “Well It froze over.” Tom sighed as Carol rolled her eyes.

  “Seriously? We died and hell is a western? A cold western with no iron and a booming lumber industry? Give me a break. Obviously we were abducted by aliens.” She said with certainty. Tom scoffed.

  “Men from the moon flew down and scooped us up, hu? Yea that’s more believable than hell. Came and got ya from the future, brought us all back here at the same time, nobody remembers spacemen or lights in the sky or nothing. Now I was standin out at night with my guard down, be pretty easy for someone to have just shot me. Natives, Confederates, pissed off drunk soldier. I ant exactly religious, but maybe that’s the point. Either of you churchy folks?” he asked the girls.

  “No, not really. I believe in science.” Carol argued.

  “Maybe that’s why you ended up in hell too.” He shrugged.

  “It’s not the afterlife, we didn’t die, what, both of us happened to be on civil war grounds doing a reenactment weekend and coincidentally two of us in perfectly normal health had a heart attack at the same time, or someone serial killer snuck in and killed us both silently, neither of us seeing him or reacting?

  “Maybe nobody remembers their death. Bear could have got you both.” Tom sighed.

  “There’s no bears! It was a gated area with wildlife specialists on site and modern security. Someone would have noticed a random bear. This isn’t hell. They got towns in hell? Where’s the devil? Hudson… What town are we in?”

  “Helldale.” He chuckled.

  “Very funny.”

  “Not really.” He shrugged. “Lotta theories floatin around over the past century, hell’s one of many nobody ever proves or disproves. Moonmen is another one I’ve heard. Some people say there weren’t no life before it, You were just dreamin and woke up, and this is reality. I’ve heard that this is the distant past and some Age of Ice, and I’ve heard it’s the future after mankind done killed everything off with bombs so big they killed the sun. Called it nuclear winter. They say it explains the craters but not how we got here, and the craters proved to be volcanic spots anyway. None of it matters. Is what it is and what it is…is Timber. Spend your whole life philosophizing how you showed up and why and miss livin or get killed waitin. Lotta men sailed out to sea or rode into the dark to find what’s out there. You know what’s out there? More snow, more trees, wolves, mammoths death. You go south and you got water, and more water, probably something out there that can eat a ship. Nobody ever goes very far and comes back. Fall off the edge, get lost in the current, just freeze…dead is dead, missy. Best not worry about it and start worrying about how we’re gonna survive this leg situation. HuntinWolf is dead, they’re gonna assume that when he don’t come back eventually, send someone else. Nobody gonna find that body before the animals do. We stay here, we die. At least I will, I aint endin up in Buchannan’s hands alive, sure as shit. We Go East to Coalridge, maybe head Southeast to Barrenwood, maybe on to Clearstone Hallow. Nothin beyond that.” He said, laying out an old map.

  “What, just ride for the rest of our lives?” Jen said, “Keep moving on trains and horses and never stop?”

  “Don’t know what a train is, but you can’t afford 4 horses here. If I’m lucky enough to get one horse and a wagon without anyone lookin for my bounty, it’s gonna be pullin the wagon. After that we follow the river to Coalridge. Maybe nobody knows us there yet.

  “If this place is always cold how are the rivers and lakes not frozen solid? Asked Carol, examining the map.

  “They call it geothermal. They learn you that in school here. Everything is cold till you dig deep down. The ground gets warm as hell down in the mines. Apparently as theory goes, all the rivers and lakes were formed by the ground crackin and exposin hot spots and the snow around it melted and filled in. You take a look at this here map and notice all the cities look similar?

  “They’re all round and walled in. Is that why the wolves don’t get in?”

  “The wolves got a very specific range of light they can see in. When the moon is down they can’t see shit, but if you got a fire or end up near the light of a city it blinds em. Too bright, scares em off. And these ain’t walls, these are natural elevated spots. Apparently the heat sometimes pushes up a column of packed snow and rock, makes these steam volcanoes with a warm center. Perfect place to build a town. Every town runs on steam and sits on one of these. Kinda hard to climb vertical columns the center domes down naturally, so ya got a natural block for the wind and a good place to plant a row of trees. The rich build homes around the center where it’s warmest and once ya run out of surface, you just expand down on the low spots around the pillar and hope for the best. You get too far from the light of the towns and the critters getcha. We got about 4 days of critter territory between us and Coalridge. Bout a day’s walk we get to Oldfort. With any luck and flashin some money we’ll get that wagon. We can’t wait for night either. We’ll have people knockin by then.”

  Tom pulled the supply sled behind him in the rear as the rest lead forward, armed and not much warmer. A lit torch hung on the sled, lighting the wrong way.

  “Why Am I pullin the damn sled?” he hollered.

  “Cuz you’re the strongest and you can’t shoot for shit. We need every hand on a gun and someone luggin supplies, them girls can see better than you and they’d pull a sled slower. Stop hollerin so loud, you’ll bring the wolves in.”

  “Why are you so damn scared of wolves? We got wolves back home. You shoot one and the rest scatter. They ain’t exactly unstoppable long as you got a gun handy. Shit we’re loaded for bear and got 3 sets of eyes lookin.” Tom huffed.

  “You’re full of shit if you ain’t scared of the wolves. Either you never encountered one and you’re lyin or you’re just lucky and shot a baby.”

  “Well that’s just tragic.” Sighed Carol as Jen hung back to keep tom company and get warm by the torch.

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  “I believe you.” She muttered, grabbing a rope and helping pull.

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t get too excited. It’s warmer back here and frankly I’m a little bit lonely. Carol and…Hudson the Nomad there, may be loners but I don’t thrive well in the dark. Place gives me the creeps.” She sighed.

  “At least Hudson’s not obsessed with bears. You ever run into a bear? That’s a serious problem. I’d rather hear him bitch about the wolves than the damn bears out here. You can shoot a wolf, usually scare the rest away. Bear doesn’t give a shit, you empty your sixgun into a grisly and just piss it off. I’ll take the wolves any day.”

  “How are you adjusting?” she asked.

  “Confused, not sure what theory sounds the least stupid, honestly.” Tom sighed.

  “I mean your eyes. Must be scary to just…suddenly have the world closed in on you and not know what’s out there.” She smiled kindly.

  “Honestly I don’t think I wanna know what’s out there now that I’ve encountered a little of it. Everything close by seems to be better than what’s out there.” He said looking back as she smirked slightly.

  “Are you seriously flirting?”

  “No. I’m just tryin to make you feel better. Is it workin?” he asked.

  “Yea, a little bit. Keep talking.” She grinned.

  “Can we stop and take a break?” Carol begged as Hudson pushed on.

  “Hell no, we got less than half a mile before we get to the first stagecoach stop, and we don’t stop till we get TO the stop.”

  “Look, some of us aren’t used to the cold, I have a titanium rod running up my Tibia, and you don’t know how bad it hurts to walk on this in the cold after a while.”

  “No I don’t. Ya ever get disembowled by wolves. I haven’t either but which do you think you’d prefer missy?”

  “What…why are you so obsessed with the wolves? Do they travel in packs of thousands here or what?”

  “Usually packs of about a dozen, if you see one there’s ten or eleven more ya don’t see. You got more confidence in them guns than you should, and the only thing keeping us alive right now is that torch light. You don’t see them, but they see you. Betcha ass they do. They set up shelters every so far in between the towns for travelers. Everyone knows when the moon goes down and the place gets real dark, the nightmares sleep and you make your travel then. When the moon comes up so do they and you best be bunkered down somewhere with a fire. These shelters are made specifically for waiting out the wolves.”

  “Then why are we traveling by full moon?” she asked.

  “Because I think I’d rather be caught by wolves than Lee Buchannan. Wolves will just tear you apart and eat ya. They aren’t trying to make it last or make you suffer, they’re just hungry animals trying to survive. It’s a nasty way to go, but at least it’s over quick. Buchannan likes to keep people alive for weeks, months. If even a tenth the sick shit I’ve heard he does to people for fun, is true, and we’ve done pissed him off enough to put a bounty up, I’ll take my chances with the wolves. Just gotta keep that fire lit and keep movin till we get there. They don’t make torches that keep Buchannan away.

  “Guys, hurry up with the sled, we really need to get to this shelter while the wolves are out.” Carol said sounding rushed.

  “What is it with everyone and the damn wolves?” Jen sighed. “They’re basically just big huskies without manners. Not like HOHOgholyfuck, what is that!?” she yelled, jumping and shouldering her rifle.

  “Don’t shoot! You’ll piss em off.” Hudson said as Jen stared at something in the dark, eerily still and quiet.”

  “Just keep walkin. You fire shot and spook them, they’ll rush the light.”

  “What the fuck.” She whispered, staring, unable to blink or look away. A black shadow in the dark blue landscape stood, not even moving enough to breathe. It seemed far too close to be still outside the light of the torch, as if just a black cutout had been placed ten feet away, floating at the same speed without moving a limb or hair, like an illusion of perspective. She breathed heavier, 7 distinct glowing dots in the shadow growing brighter as her eyes adjusted to the faint glow. The longer she stared, the more she notices more of them. The same arch of 7 greenish yellow lights, one pointed and dim, one brightest at the top of the arc, and 5 trailing down behind smaller with each dot, a dozen of the unusual arches of lights frozen in the dark where the blackness was blackest, the closest one still refusing to move. And then, one of the 5 lights in the back row…blinked.

  That was the moment Jen realized the object wasn’t close enough to be in the light, it was just further back than she realized, and only seemed closer because it was far larger then a wolf should be. The roughly horse-sized silhouette twitched, slowly taking a step with them as the yellow eyes, periodically blinked in no particular order.

  “GUYS MOVE FASTER!” she said, starting to panic as the head tilted and the contrast of the head against the lighter snow showed more detail, like the foot long horns protruding from the skull, and the heart-shaped glow from the nose, one neon green eye moving behind it, the black pupil scanning their group.

  “Both of you slow down and stop. Hold perfectly still.” Hudson said, pistol drawn and cocked. “Everyone grab a torch and light it off the one on the sled. Pay close attention because it’s gonna happen fast. Once everyone got a torch lit and their hand locked on it like your life depends on it, because it do…I’m gonna say run, and you gonna run the direction we’ve been goin. There’s a shelter house you can’t see yet, but you can’t miss it when you get there. Leave the sled behind, hopefully it will be there when they leave, if that torch lasts. You’ll get a head start from me and I’ll shoot this bastard in the face. Should stun him while we make a break for it.”

  “STUN!?” Jen barked.

  “Guys, I can’t run!” Carol informed.

  “Well, you might wanna consider trying it anyway. I’m gonna give the order and when you move it’s either gonna stick with me or chase ya, and if I shoot to stop it, they all comin in and I’ll be right behind you at that point. How much head start just depends on how distracted he is by me.” Hudson said waving the torch slowly to get it’s attention on his light. “Run.” He said. Carol sprinted on pure instinct, looking forward and trailing the torch to see ahead in the dark, she could feel eyes on her everywhere as tom and Jen quickly caught up to her.

  “Hang on to that torch and don’t scream!” Tom yelled, grabbing her and scooping her up as he went, targeting the direction of the cabin and letting her be the eyes. A shot rang out and a blood chilling banshee scream followed it, followed by numerous howls and Hudson’s incoherent cursing. Tom made it to the cabin, blindly threading the doorway and ramming the door open, glad it was partially cracked already. A second later the door shut and Tom stumbled, almost falling on carol as Hudson shut the door and dropped the heavy beam to lock it, the sudden impact of a horse-sized animal hitting the door and testing the locks. He ran to the fireplace and stuck the torch in, adding wood and stoking it with frantic breaths and fanning, trying to light up the cabin as much as possible and lighting candles that had been left behind, placing them near the windows, small thick glass bars cemented into the 6 inch thick beam frames to give light, the sound of talons scraping the other side.

  “What the Sam Hell’s flaming fuck was that?” Tom barked angrily.

  “Wolves…I thought you weren’t scared of wolves.

  “Wolves my ass, old timer I’ve seen wolves before, they’re this high and they die when you put a bullet in em.”

  “Well I never seen one of those wolves before living my whole life in Timber. I guess we got different animals in mind then.”

  “You hurt?” Tom asked Carol, still aggressive but concerned.

  “No, where’s Jen?” she asked. He turned around and looked closer at the corners, the now fully lit room very much void of a 4th person.

  “Oh my god, open the door she’s still out there!” Carol screamed, welling up with cold tears, tom grabbed the red rifle and was stopped by Hudson, scooting in his way and refusing to let go of the gun.

  “Buddy you better stand your ground a moment. You open that door, we don’t close it again. That ain’t someone knockin, that’s something clawin. You hear any voice screaming for help or sayin let me in?” he asked.

  “No.” Tom said, swallowing harshly.

  “Neither do I. Tom, listen up. I was the last to move, I was the last to leave, I didn’t see her when I caught up to you, and I didn’t see her when I shut the door. She ain’t screamin because she’s dead already. Somewhere between me haulin ass and me seeing you hit that door, she either fell, or got grabbed and I didn’t hear a peep. She’s dead, folks. Be thankful it was a quick kill and you didn’t hear her screamin and clawing the door before going silent. We’re all gonna die. She got lucky and died real fast.”