The Hooman Saga: Episode 02 — Surviving Blackout
Serial Fiction: A human arrives back on Earth in an escape pod — to discover wolves have become sentient and humans are almost extinct…
(This book is available almost everywhere online — if you can’t wait to see how this turns out, see https://calm.li/HoomanSagaBk2Pt1 for more information and links.
Missed the first installment? See https://medium.com/@robertcworstell/1-a-screaming-arrival-5dc3282413b9)
TIG HEARD THE SCREAMS in his mind.
Someone falling from a great height. From inside that smoking, red-orange meteor headed toward them. He saw it coming from the bleached-white rock cliffs he stood on.
Then he heard the sonic booms with the roar of a meteor burning through the atmosphere.
The crash, and the flames. But no explosion.
Tig then did what he shouldn’t ha(Hooman Saga — Book Two, Part 1)ve. He didn’t do what “normal” wolves do.
There was a fire. If it spread, his pack could be in danger.
He knew that if the fire got out of control, it could ultimately reach the valley his pack lived in. He ran toward the fire, toward the meteor strike. Not that he could put it out but he needed to know.
When he arrived. He was relieved to find the only thing burning was an old snag. Nothing around it but rocks.
But this meteor was a strange one. They were used to meteors.
This meteor left a streak. It didn’t come down and explode.
This one had screamed in his mind.
He looked back where it came from. It left a trail and he could see it coming down off the mountain. It had bounced and skipped and then skidded to where it stopped against that old tree. It wasn’t burning up, as the other ones did. The descent had burnt off most of what surrounded it, leaving a smooth surface. Scratched and seared, but not pitted like a cinder.
Tig’s curiosity kept him going closer. It was either going to explode or not.
Suddenly something popped and opened a hole in its side. Tig froze. He couldn’t see what it was clearly through the smoke.
Sue knew it was a rough landing. She felt sorry for the cyborg pilot Ben who was more part of the equipment than he was alive. Still, she felt for everything that lived, whether stuck in machinery or able to move around on its own. Sue remembered her cats, parakeets, fish. They’d look at her like they wanted to tell her something, and she wanted to say something to them. She didn’t know the right way to tell them, the right words to use.
But she shook her head to clear her senses. As she swung the bar on the hatch, it just hissed open. The acrid air of tree burning nearby flowed into the cabin. Clouds of smoke.
She started coughing as she came out climbing up over the seats and the control panel. She knew she had to get air. One arm up. Get her shoulders up. Keep scrambling. Couldn’t see very well. The smoke stung her eyes.
She knew it was more blue in that direction so she kept climbing. Had to get out. She lifted herself up until she was able to lean over at the waist across the opening, and at last breathe in some fresh air.
Then everything went black.
TIG SAW SOMETHING. Some body coming out of that opening. He saw it looked like a hooman. He didn’t know for sure with all that smoke.
Then the hooman collapsed, right in the opening.
The fire was still climbing up that tree. He didn’t know if that tree was was going to fall on top of it.
The wolves were always taught, even from an early age, that all life was precious. Even the hooman hunters that sometimes came after them.
He remembered all the legends, the stories they told to cubs. Hoomans were always the “bogeyman.” They were always the ones who come after you if you didn’t clean up after yourself, if you didn’t tidy things, or mistreated your brother or sister cubs. The Hooman would get you.
And yet, this was a hooman and it needed help. But more than that, something about this was different. He’d never met or been this close to a hooman before. He didn’t if all humans were like this when you got close. You didn’t know. You just knew that it was alive and it was in danger.
He could have crept slowly closer but instead he leapt and ran, climbing up over the hot rocks.
Tig looked the hooman over carefully and firmly gripped the collar of its suit in his strong teeth and pulled. It took several times to wedge himself against capsule and then worry the body back and forth until it would free up and was able to slide smoothly off that meteor even as he did, thoughts came back to him. Meteors aren’t smooth. That mass was probably more likes a space ship from the old, old legends. This wasn’t shiny and tall. It didn’t give off light.
He didn’t have time to think about this, because the fire was still burning. His paws would need to cool off soon or he’d have blisters. So he dragged the hooman away from everything hot into cooler shade.
(This book is available almost everywhere online — if you can’t wait to see how this turns out, see https://calm.li/HoomanSagaBk2Pt1 for more information and links.
Our newest fiction releases are available at https://calm.li/FictionReleases)