Page 9
Story: The Rewilding
It had been a straightforward decision for Steph. It had not been easy to eventually find a tree that was simple enough to climb whilst also overhanging a section of the fence. However, she didn’t have the threat of rain rushing her this time.
A bit of vomit jolted itself up her oesophagus as she landed with a thud.
A damp spot engulfed Steph’s knee as she rose from the ground. Slowly she began walking forward, speeding up a little only when she was satisfied that she was moving freely and that the fall had done no damage.
She pushed past bushes and rounded trees until she could see what she had been looking for. Ahead of her was the second fence, but beyond it?
Steph made her way closer. She was not sure what she expected to see exactly but her heart was beating faster all the same. She could see that this fence also had an electric current running along the inside although it had a barbed, backward overhang. Someone really didn’t want whatever was inside the fencing to get out. Not that Steph assumed they wanted anyone to come in either, but the work had definitely gone into keeping something in.
The trees rustled gently overhead as Steph approached the fencing. She tried her best to quieten her breathing, holding her breath in an attempt to calm it. All she achieved was a more acute awareness of her beating heart. She stood and stared through the mesh. Nothing.
Frustrated, she grabbed her binoculars and looked through them once again. Still nothing. Her heartbeat was calming naturally. The anti-climax was the perfect remedy.
She pondered what to do. There were plenty of trees butnone that would help her climb over the barbed overhang. Mathematically speaking, she suspected there was a good chance, out of the thousands that littered the landscape, that there was a suitable tree that could get her over; but how far would she have to walk to find it? There were miles of fencing, and how long would she really be afforded between the fences before she stumbled across a camera? Now she thought about it, how long would it take her to find a tree that could take her back over the first fence? She put that thought to the back of her mind for the time being. One issue at a time.
She decided to set up camp where she was until a better idea came. Perhaps there would be something to observe close to the fence?
A large protruding tree root offered her some elevation from the ground as she sat waiting. She sighed. Then listened. Listened to the sound of the forest: the birds, the wind and tiny rustlings.
Having chosen to sit and wait, she became acutely aware of how sour her stomach felt. She was a rubbish drinker. She always had been. Two-day hangovers were not uncommon for her on the rare occasion she let herself unwind. She knew she wouldn’t actually vomit, but that also meant that she knew she would have no sudden release of the acidic feeling in her stomach. It would go when it was ready and not before.
A loud rustling caused Steph to snap her head up. But which side of the fence had it come from? The inside of the fence. No. Yes. Two sounds? The dominant noise was coming from her side of the fence. It was getting louder, the unmistakable whirr of wheels on dirt. But the first noise?
Steph looked up in the direction of the wheels and then back to the fence. A herd of deer erupted from the undergrowth and leapt their way frantically along the fence line. At the same time, a couple of quad bikes burst over a small ridge and between twotrees to Steph’s right.
Part of Steph had hoped for this. She had wanted to be found. Although their timing was unfortunate. She spun her head back towards the deer who were darting back deeper into the trees. Something had spooked them. The way they were moving showed signs of panic.
The soft engine sound pulled up beside her. Steph didn’t look. She didn’t want to take her eyes away from what was going on behind the fence.
“You can’t be here!” a voice announced. Steph ignored it. She took a step forward, craning her neck. Everything was happening faster than she could process.
“I said…”
Steph spun around to glare at the man, intent on telling him to shut his fucking mouth. She was caught off-guard when she recognised the face. It was the surly-looking man from the hotel bar.
Steph was about to say something when the sound of something heavy crashing through the vegetation made her spin around once more. She was just in time to catch a glimpse of something large and almost grey-looking plummet back below the surface of the treeline. She only managed to glimpse the back end of it, but it was enough to fire her curiosity.
“What was that?” Steph asked the man on the quad bike.
The man pressed a button on his quad bike and sat up straighter. His companion, who Steph now noticed was the more amenable-looking of the pair from last night, did the same.
“Nothing, just some deer,” the man replied, wiping a clod of dirt from just below his left eye.
“No, the deer were ahead, I saw them. That was something else!”
“It was a straggler.”
“Deer don’t tend to thud over the ground like that, do they?”Steph snapped with a sneer.
Running a hand through his hair, the man growled to himself, “For fuck’s sake!” He then turned to his older companion who laughed at him and shrugged.
“Well, Davey, it’s been a while since we had to bring one in,” the man chuckled.
Steph watched in confusion as Davey bared his teeth to himself in frustration.
“If we had set the system up that I wanted, we wouldn’t be too late for these kinds of things!” Davey barked.
“True,” the other man shrugged. “But it would mean more people, and you know how the boss feels about all that.” The happier-looking man then put a finger to his lips in a hushing motion. He laughed to himself and repeated the action in the direction of Steph. Steph looked on bemused.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9 (Reading here)
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102