I must travel into the mountains to become free. There is no other option that I can see. I’ve done terrible things. On the brink of redemption, I failed. I must atone, completely detach from society, and find out who I am, who I’ve become, and who I can become.
I arrived in the forested mountains of Symkaria with naught but a backpack and building supplies. Finding a clearing, I immediately set up my tent, and began work cutting down nearby trees. I was to build a log cabin that would suit me till the end of my days, which I pray is a short distance that I must yet endure. Day in and day out, I would start my fire, chop wood, and try to catch whatever I could to eat, usually at night. It was often that I heard the wolves cry at the moon; their howls would put me to sleep some nights. It was summer when I began, good weather, and I was finished before the fall began to require me to have a proper roof over my head. It was a small cabin, just enough for me, and all the furniture was also made from whittled wood; after, of course finished the house.
Many moons passed, before the nearby town expanded – deforestation. This caused my food supply to shift, and then dwindle. It wasn’t long before hikers spotted me in the woods. The reports began, then people looking for me; my cabin deep within the woods was within walking distance from a town now. It was awful; I knew that soon, the ones I came to be free from will find me.
“Death to the glabrous!” The familiar cry tore through the sky one bright yet cloudy night. It awoke me with a start. He knows, I thought; how his howl rattles my bones. From my windowless cabin I could see nothing from my position, and, taking my gun, quickly moved to the hidden viewing panels. Outside, I saw that it was that beast Sgt. Kern and his war-dogs. 7 of them in total, I’m not sure if I can take them.
“I know you’re in there, Zahn, I can smell you!”
“My, what a big nose you have!”
“If you think tha—” I shoot his nose off.
The howls come from all sides immediately, and they begin to attempt to tear down my cabin. There’s not much I can do from inside, so I break out of the front door firing blind. They start to chase after me when the moonlight hits me, I begin to turn, to, change. Within seconds they’re on top of me, tearing at my flesh and fur. I strike back at them, shooting two through the heart, tearing the trachea out of another. But it’s no use, they hold me down as Kern personally takes a chunk out of my throat, leaving me there for dead.
“You don’t quit us, Zahn.”
Epilogue:
I woke up days later in the town’s hospital; some hikers found me in the morning and got me here. There were no other bodies around me. It was chalked up to a wolf attack, and I was allowed to leave in a week or so. I knew I couldn’t go back to how it was, living freely, and winding down the rest of my life in peace. I had to find Sgt. Kern, kill him and his remaining war-dogs while I have the element of surprise. I just can’t sit idly by any longer as he tries to turn the human race into cattle. With blood on my hands, freedom will be mine.
