Free Tranquil Fury by P.G. Thomas Page B

in the end, he visited eight small communities, but once again, not a single soul found. Barns and cold cellars, stocked to the rafters with harvested crops, the expectation, bare floors the unexplained observation again, and could not even find hay or straw. Around noon, he thought the magical horse might have a malfunction, instructed it to find water, but just as quick, it took him to a bubbling spring. He continued his search well past dusk, but to no avail, and that night, too tired to find a secured location, he slept in the open.
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    Lauren got up late in the day, was surprised to see how the forest had grown, as a little bit of light and rain had made a magical transformation to the once dead place. She wandered over to a green-leafed tree, plucked several large leaves from its branches, and then sat down in the warm sunlight. She removed her jacket, unzipped the mesh lining, and then for several hours carefully weaved the leaf stems into the mesh, and reassembled her jacket. She knew that she would leave soon, but now at least, she could take a small part of it with her.
    * * * * * * *
    Eric felt the need to do something, even if it did not accomplish anything. He let John and Logan sleep, as he made breakfast, hoping the smells would attract Lauren back to their camp. The smell of fresh food did wake up John, but the rest remained asleep, so Eric went to watch the road, and left John in charge of the camp, in case Lauren did return.
    John went over to one of the food chests and opened it. Inside were over one hundred gold replicas of food items, but the chest was empty of any food. He examined each side, but on the outside, it was just a wooden box. He put on the large platinum ring, waved his hand over the box, as he thought of an apple, and when he opened the box, an apple was waiting for him. So much for science . As he sat on the log eating the apple, he looked at Zack, remembered how intrigued he was the first time he saw him at school. John was always terrified in some ways of going into a new class, was never sure what to expect, but when Zack walked into a room, he was a force of one, a dark shadow which confidently stated ‘Leave me alone.’ Zack neither needed nor wanted friends, and in some ways, he fascinated John. A few times, kids would try to get at Zack, call him names or such. He in turn would just walk up to them, stare them down, would never say a word, and the other students would back off, unsure of what Zack was capable of doing. It did not help with the rumours, but John felt pretty sure that Zack had little interest, in what others said.
    John had performed an Internet search on Zack one night, and found more than he had anticipated. Given up for adoption by his birth mother, Zack had been in and out of foster homes for years, one bad adoption after another, and what should have been his last adoption, became final in a different way, as three years ago, his parents filed for divorce. During the proceedings, it became apparent that neither wanted custody, as the judge was preparing his recommendation, both of his adopted parents died in a freak car accident, so the courts awarded custody of Zack to his uncle. The way the story sounded, it seemed that the uncle was more interested in the large financial settlement, and inheritance that Zack was entitled to, rather than his nephew’s best interests. John felt that there was more to the story, but only Zack would have those answers. When Logan woke up, he went to sit with Eric at the roadside, and the rest of the day was quiet in the camp.
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    It was early dusk when Lauren wandered over to the boys’ campsite, all of whom were absent, so she walked over to the road entrance, and found them having an argument about Mirtza. He said he would be back in three days—did that mean he would be back on the third day, or the day after ? She left them there, and went back to check on Zack and Ryan. Lauren pulled a berry from