Free Circles in the Dust by Matthew Harrop Page A

flew to it.
    “Are you hungry?” he asked, knowing the answer. “I have food at my camp.”
    “No, that’s all right,” the girl began before her stomach resumed its howls. “I have food,” she said, indicating her bag, though David had no intention of taking no for an answer.
    “Let me feed you. You saved me. If you hadn’t found me here, I was just going to lie there until I…” David trailed off. It was harder to think of death now.
    At the end of another gastral chorus, the girl relented with a mumbled, “All right.” Though as she explained, “I didn’t really do anything though.”
    “But you did,” David responded with enthusiasm. He tried to stand and faltered as the world spun, catching himself on his hands and knees, slowly rising, the girl rigid in her place a few feet away, watching him, her gun still held with an iron grip.
    “Don’t try anything though,” she said when he was finally on his feet, eying him from head to toe.
    “Yeah, right.” He chuckled, standing up cautiously. He was bubbly with excitement, fatigue forgotten. He looked down at himself, worried for the first time in yeas what he looked like, and was shocked to see how thin he had become, standing there like an old skeleton. He wrapped his coat around his thin frame, reminded with a damp slap by his collar that he had been lying on the very wet ground, trying to hide himself from this girl who looked as if she actually ate, rather than wandered in a starved daze all day. It had been so long, a lifetime, it felt, since he had seen a member of the opposite sex.
    He started off into the woods in the direction of his cabin, looking back after a second to see if the girl was actually following him. She looked down at her stomach, looked back toward the forest the way she had come, and hesitantly followed in his tracks.
    “My name’s David,” he informed her.
    “Elizabeth,” she mumbled, still holding her gun in a death grip.
    “Elizabeth?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Your safety’s on.” David turned and traipsed into the wood with a smile.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    chapter 7
     
     
    The walk back to David’s cabin was spent in silence. David’s head buzzed with questions but he was so weak from his passive-suicidal episode that he had to focus all his energy on walking. He tried to strike up a conversation a few times, but could only get out a handful of words before being winded. Several times he had to stop and rest against a tree after attempting to probe the girl, Elizabeth, for more information about her mysterious background. He eventually gave up on the interrogation and focused on making it back to his cabin, something he was not sure he could do. He kept stealing glances back at her, making sure she was still there, reminding himself that he wasn’t the only human alive, that his life had begun again just when it was coming to an end.
                  At length they finally mounted the final rise before David’s home. He walked in front of Elizabeth, lifting his head, his eyes following the body of the tree behind his cabin all the way to the top. His tree. It stood tall and proud as ever, beckoning him home. His gaze rested lovingly on the stoic pillar as he hiked the last bit of hill, his thoughts taking a brief respite from the mysterious girl he had stumbled upon in the woods. Or, more accurately, who had stumbled upon him.
                  He paused as they reached the top and his home came into view. Elizabeth was still on her way up, so he took the chance to rest for a moment and regroup. Blood rushed to his face as he looked down into the hollow. It looked like one of the deserted camps he had wandered through when supplies had begun to run low and those who had survived the old world’s initial blow were swept up by the second. There were cans littered around the fire, which looked like it had been cold for months. A mere handful of logs remained in the once proud stack beside his