Free The New Wild by Holly Brasher Page A

to future generations. That is, if we can
make it.
    So far, nobody has wanted to join
us on our journey west. Everyone’s hoping they’ll find someone, somewhere, that
they know, to get through this mess. I hope it’s true, for all our sakes. We’ll
all have to settle down and rebuild some type of home, somewhere.
    Xander walks ahead of me as dusk
falls like a quilt being pulled over the shoulders of the world. The fireflies
swarm all around us again, and Xander catches as many as he can in my jar.
    “A lantern! I made a freaking
lantern!” he announces proudly. There are about twenty of them trapped inside,
flickering on and off at different times, so it does cast a continuous glow,
albeit a weak one.
    Giant Japanese maple trees stand
on all sides, and in the light of the bug-tern their branches look like the
twisted, sinewy arms of my grandfather. Ferns the size of houses tower around
them. Their stems are nearly as thick as Xander’s legs and covered in thick
brown fur. In the distance, I can hear wolves howl into the twilight. My
stomach lurches. The whole scene is like a horror film, especially with those
damn purple-eyed bats swooping above us. Xander keeps his right arm over his
head as he walks and barks at them. “Stay the fuck out of my hair, you rabid
vampires!” I laugh, but the forest says nothing—just rustles a reply.
    Finally, we spot a creek, which is
our cue to bed down and prepare ourselves for another long day ahead. But when
we get closer to it, we notice smoke rising in the air. I freeze, urging Xander
to turn around and re-route. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
    “Jackie,” Xander says, in the
haughtiest tone he’s ever used, “Don’t you know anything? There’s a difference
between smoke and steam . That right there is steam .”
    “I don’t care what you call it, we
don’t want anything to do with it.”
    “Well, fuck. I do. Use your brain,
woman. It’s a hot spring .”
    He looks sternly into my eyes
until it clicks. Hot spring = nature’s hot tub.
    “This is gonna be good,” he says,
darting off toward the water.
    “Xander, we need to set up camp!
We can’t do it in the dark.”
    “I don’t care. This is too great,”
he says, stripping down.
    “What the hell are we gonna eat?”
    “You just had more bananas than
I’ve ever seen in a supermarket.”
    It’s true. I did. We were walking
along and I saw them dangling in one ginormous yellow clump and ate as many as
I could.
    “I mean, you’re a freaking
gorilla,” he says.
    “All right, all right, fine. I get
it. Fine. Go in. Whatever. I’m setting up camp.”
    By the time I passive-aggressively
throw my pack to the ground, he’s already down to his plaid boxers. This is the
first time I’ve seen all his skin. It’s super pale but covered in freckles.
He’s also, I should mention, incredibly, freakishly buff. He is gorgeous,
especially now that his face is so tan.
    The steam rises from a little eddy
in the creek surrounded by boulders. It smells faintly of eggs. I guess that’s
the sulfur. There are wildflowers among the rocks, tiny pink bells that quake
in the breeze, hairy yellow roses, clumps of violet flowers whose stems are as
purple as their petals.
    Xander sticks one toe in to test
the temp, then jumps right in.
    “ Ugh ,” he sighs.
“Done.” He turns to look at me as I’m sparking up a fire, or trying to. “You
really should get in.”
    “Uh huh,” I mutter, pretending not
to feel the lure of a soak.
    “I mean it. It’s almost like a
real bath. I’m smelling better already.”
    “God, let’s hope so,” I say.
    “Hey! You’re no bar of soap, either.”
    “Can you really smell
me past your layers of stank?”
    He looks down into the water.
“Well, no, but it can’t be pretty.”
    “Didn’t think so.”
    I get a little fire going and boil
some water for drinking. In the hot spring, Xander is spread across the surface,
floating, sucking air in and out of his chest.
    “C’mon, get