Rainier lay breathing, her face planted in the cold snow. She lay, contemplative of the sensations around her. She felt the melting of the snow under her warm live body. The metallic taste in her mouth was from her bleeding nose, she watched the cardinal stain spreading on the snow before her face. Her arm lay at an odd angle up the hill behind her. Wind stirred the trees. She closed her eyes for a moment.
Jack waited on the side of the road looking for a ride into town. He was careful about who he let give him a ride, they had to be just right. No truckers or men alone, he would only stick out his thumb for little families and women. Hippies were alright too. His general rule for hitching, and he had developed quite the list of rules was “Nobody I couldn’t take down in a fight.” Though this generally spelt more walking for him, he didn’t mind. He was in no rush, nobody in town was expecting him to show up. He’d been gone for almost three years now. Traveling around the country, working seasonally on farms. He’d saved up some money traveling light. Jack considered this his grand adventure, there had been no rules, no one to answer to. By now, he surmised that he was certainly off police radar. His infractions had been minor mostly but after the last big job he felt like it was time to move on for a while. Yet something had drawn him back to the town where he had grown up. A car pulled down the lonely north-eastern highway, around a curve of snow heavy pines preceded by a cold gust of wind, a young woman was at the wheel. Jack stuck out his thumb.
Rainier ran panting through the woods, she didn’t look back. Her legs screamed out in lactic pain, she couldn’t stop. Fight and flight had surely kicked in now and there was only the gnawing on instinct on her mind. She sprinted at top speed down the path. Pursuit she though almost blandly, was inevitable.
Jack was surprised when the car pulled to the side of the road. His face, reflected in the passenger side window of the car looked scraggly, dark circles ringed his eyes. The window rolled the glass slowly down, revealing a petite dark haired slip of a girl. She smiled brightly.
“Hey stranger, where you headed?”
Jack shifted his rucksack on his shoulders.
“Just into Burlington.”
“Well that’s where I’m headed!” she grinned “One stop excepted, if you’re in no hurry I’m your gal.”
Jack grinned, “That’ll be just fine Miss.”
She was out of breath, her asthma was catching up with her. The path divided, which way did she have the best chance? She knew that there could be no escape. A hunter never lets go of wounded prey. The trees about her stood like thin dark tombstones, marking places long forgotten. Rainier chose a path and dashed.
“Unusual name, Rainier. After the mountain I suppose?”
She smiled at Jack, he seemed nice, a little down on his luck, but a good guy.
“Yup, hippie parents, the whole deal. Anyone expecting you in town?”
“Not a soul,” he said leaning back into his seat relaxing. “You know it’s dangerous to pick up hitchers on lonely roads don’t you?”
Rainier smiled again, “Well Jack I used to do a fair amount of hitching myself. Mind if I turn on the radio?”
Jack grinned, and ran his nicotine stained fingers though his hair. This was all too perfect.
“Sure thing missy.”
The hunter had caught up with the prey, the shovel slammed down over and over. Screams of pain reached nobody’s ears this far into the woods. The deep red splattered all over the snow, bits of skull and brain clung lovingly to the now crimson shovel. The colors were perfect. So perfect. Everything had been, just as the hunter dreamed it would be. The satisfying crack of skull, the pink mists of blood, and the chunks of brain stuck in dark hair.
Rainer turned down the radio.
“You mind if we stop on that trail up ahead? I’m a photographer and I want to take a few pictures. There’s a little brook not too far into the woods.”
Jack was pulled out of his daydream in disbelief.
“Sure Rainer.”
He always liked to say a new person’s name a few times, it helped to get their trust. She pulled the car over to the side and he got out.
“Would you mind running round the bend of the path and grabbing me a trail map? I want to make sure I don’t have us wandering all over creation.”
Jack knew that his little name trick had worked, she was so trusting already. He walked around the corner and out of sight of the car.
Rainer went to the trunk, and unlocked it with the key. Moving the large camera aside, she grabbed the rusted old shovel. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the hunt.
Besides, who would miss a drifter?
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