Alex Archer - Footprints

Joey shrugged. “We’ve kind of grown up together. I’ve been coming here for years, ever since I was old enough to run around on my own. Cheehawk here has been around about the same time as me.”

“It’s got a name?”

Joey frowned. “Well, what’s wrong with that? I’ve got a name—several, actually. And so do you. Why shouldn’t this guy?”

“Cheehawk, huh?”

The wolf turned its head again to better see Annja as she started to approach. Joey held up his other hand.

“Take it nice and slow. Don’t do anything to upset him and you’ll be fine. Just like any other animal, you’ve got to give him time to scent you and get used to your smell. Once he does, he’ll be fine. Just come to him without the intent to harm him.”

Annja approached very cautiously. This was, without a doubt, one of the stranger things she’d done. Making friends with a wild predatory animal like a wolf wasn’t what she’d expected to happen when she responded to Jenny’s e-mail from her New York City loft.

Cheehawk continued to appraise her as Annja drew nearer. When she was within a few feet of the wolf, she sat down and extended her hand until it was under Cheehawk’s snout.

She could feel the wolf’s hot breath on the back of her hand as he sniffed her. And then she felt the curious sensation of his tongue lapping at it.

Joey chuckled. “I guess you passed.”

Annja let her hand wander up behind Cheehawk’s ears and ran her fingers through his coarse fur. It was almost like patting a big dog, but not quite. Even though Cheehawk seemed to have accepted her, Annja couldn’t shake the idea that this animal could easily tear her throat out if it wanted to.

Joey shook his head. “Don’t believe that.”

Annja looked at him. “What?”

“Cheehawk would only attack if he felt threatened, just the same as you.” He smiled at Annja. “Don’t look so surprised. The expression on your face was enough for me to figure out what you were thinking.”

“Oh. Well, this is a bit new for me.”

Joey nodded. “For Cheehawk, too. You’re only the second human he’s let pet him.”

“Really?”

“I’m the first,” Joey said proudly.

“I’m honored, then,” Annja said. She looked into Cheehawk’s eyes. “Thank you.”

Cheehawk rose without making a sound, looked once at Annja and then at Joey, before turning and stalking off into the night.

“Where’s he going?”

Joey got to his feet. “I told you. He’s looking for his dinner.”

Annja stood, awed by what had just happened. Then she thought about why she was even in the Oregon woods in the first place. “We need to find Jenny. If she wasn’t able to make a fire, she might die of exposure out here.”

Joey frowned. “All right, but we’ve got to be careful. Those lunatics with the guns are probably still around. And I don’t feel like running into them.”

Annja got her gear from under the canopy. Despite the awful sounds, very little of her stuff was damaged at all. She emerged and saw Joey standing on the trail.

“Ready?” the young man asked.

Annja nodded. It was still terribly dark and she had no idea how they were going to find their way. But Joey didn’t seem to notice and before she knew what was happening, they were headed down the trail.

“How long have your people lived here?”

Joey picked his way along the path without making a sound. Annja marveled at his ability to stay quiet. He was very much every bit his namesake.

“Hundreds of years. We’re a splinter group of Apache.”

“Apache? I thought that tribe was from the Southwest,” Annja said.

“It was. We came up north to escape the persecution of the Spaniards and the white man. It took us a long time to find a suitable home, but this was it. We had a need to remain hidden until such time as we could prosper.”

“Has that happened yet?”

Joey shrugged. “There’s always the future to look forward to. Life on a reservation doesn’t offer very many Native Americans a lot of hope. Crime’s rampant. Kids drop out of school. It’s a mess.”

“You lived on one?”

“Me? Nah. I visited a cousin one summer. It was all I could do to hope for September to hurry up and get there so I could come home and go back to school. Not the kind of place I’d choose to live, you know?”

“So you live here?”

“Sure. My grandfather takes care of me. My parents died in a car accident when I was really young.”

Annja ducked under a tree branch. The wind had died down some and she lowered her voice since shouting wasn’t necessary anymore. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t really know them. It makes me sad to think of them sometimes, but my grandfather is all the family I need. Him and the animals who live here.”

“I don’t blame you. I never knew my parents, either.” She nodded at the trail. “You really know your way all over these parts?”

“Yep. I’ve been running around here for about five years now. My grandfather insists I come out here to practice my skills so they aren’t lost. He was a scout for his tribe when he was young.”

“That must have been a long time ago.”

Joey nodded. “Yep.”

“And he taught you how to do all of this stuff? The tracking? The stalking? All of it?”

Joey paused and studied the ground. “Skills like that are what made my people such a tough enemy. They’re also what protected us when we needed them. My grandfather says it’s my duty to ensure they never die out. When I have a son, I’ll teach them to him, as well. Just the way it goes, I guess. Stuff gets passed on this way like it has for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years.”

“Incredible,” Annja said. “You’re very lucky to have someone like your grandfather in your life.”

“Yep, he’s pretty cool. He once walked from Alaska to South America. He called it the spirit journey where he learned how to beat his own limitations. Eventually, I’ll probably do something similar. Kind of a rite of passage for my tribe.”

“How many of you are left?”

Joey ran his hands over the ground. “Your friend passed this way about an hour ago.”

“Really?”

Joey glanced at Annja. “She’s stumbling, though. You see how her footprints are staggered? There’s not a rhythm to them anymore. She’s in danger, most likely from the wind and the rain.”

“You’re certain these tracks were made about an hour ago?”

“I might be off by fifteen minutes or so, given the degradation of the track from the weather, but yes, it’s pretty accurate.”

“Can you find her?”

Joey frowned. “Be a lot easier if she was in better shape. As it is, she’ll be unpredictable. Her footwork will make it tough to follow her along a set course. In her state she might easily stumble and fall and we’d never find her.”

“We’ve got to try,” Annja said. “Lead the way.”

“Can you keep up? I’ll move faster if I know you can hang with me as I go along.”

“Don’t worry about me. If I can’t keep up, I’ll call out and ask you to slow down.”

Joey eyed her. “Okay, then. Let’s go.” He turned and started moving quickly. With his body stooped lower, Annja watched him move at a crouching run, checking the ground every few minutes for more signs and then continuing on.

Annja kept pace pretty well for a while, but then her own stamina took a bit of a hit. She felt herself starting to grow weary from the fast pace. Joey kept moving. Annja forced herself to push on, concerned that Jenny could well be dying somewhere close by.

Joey paused. “You okay?”

Annja bent over and breathed deeply. “Fine. Why?”