

I woke up and washed off in the river. The water was cold, like it always is this time of winter. There were jays in the bushes and their songs filled the air. Down the water aways I could see the town, or at least what was left of it. The growing season had been an unforgiving one, and throughout the town children evicted from there homes begged for food. People looked away.
Lady had been sleeping next to me in the clearing. She came down to the river to drink. I saddled up Lady and patted her head. I talked to her, calling her by her name.
I rode out of town towards Dallas, marking a trail by the position of the sun in the sky. Because of the clouds I became confused partway through the journey and found that I had traveled about 30 miles due South of my intended course. As the sky began to darken I found that I had become hungry and that I would need food and soon. I killed a coyote with my rifle and got off the horse to skin it. The bloodslaked land coughed up dust as I got down on one knee and cut the pelt off the rabbit, starting at the base of the neck and then working around in a spiral fashion. I made a fire using to chollah branches. I found a flatrock on which to cook the rabbit and I split it with Lady.
After some time of sitting in silence and observing the vastness of stars, I spotted a party riding on the horizon. Their torches burned like fireflies against the stark backdrop of deep night.
They after me I spose I told Lady, and she grunted in agreement.
I saddled her up and continued toward my destination. I had no fear the posse would outrun me, as I had seen to it myself that the ablebodied men of the village were slain in their beds before they even had a chance to tell their wives to run and grab their weapons, steeling themselves against their fates and making peace with whatever god they bowed down to, be it Yahweh or the delicate softness of the desert in the dead of night.
This was where my faith was rested, and I worshipped as I rode swiftly down an enscarpment into a valley nested between two formidable peaks. Here I saw lights coming from the opposite direction, and whipped around to see a group approaching from behind as well.
Shit, I said to Lady.
The steep grade made escape to either side an impossibility, and I saw that my only hope was to avoid detection. I coaxed Lady to the side of the ravine and talked soothingly to her as the groups slowly converged on the valleys center. I knew my plan was doomed from the start, and the group took my scalp as retribution for what I'd taken from them.

