My name is MaKayla, nothing else, just MaKayla. It was the only thing I could remember from before the Collapse and so it would be what I was known by from then on out. This wide expanse of rich green jungle, laid out like a beautiful carpet at my feet may look inviting but heed my words swiftly for I do not have the patience to say it twice. This place is death to the unwary, the foolish, and the innocent. Beneath the emerald canopy lurks creatures unimaginable. The greatest predators are the ones what seem so disarming. A friendly vine with little heart shaped leaves has eyes underneath for spying prey and roots in the ground with acid for teeth to dissolve flesh. I know that one personally and bare the pock mark scars down the length of my spine from a spray of its venom. The crystalline trees, aptly named for the delicate nature of it's branches. Step lightly around those for when the bark shatters and the sap pours from within, you will be trapped for the next hunter's midday snack. These are two of the dangers that we Runners have become so accustomed to that instinct slows our pace and dodges the vine's green gaze, but there are more, many more. Beasts, for that is all the Old One can refer to them as, with fur and scale, razor teeth and sickle claws roam freely along our paths, forcing us to take new approaches on each Run. If it weren't for the food that sustained us, we'd never leave the Hilltop area where no beast comes and no jungle encroaches.
My days were consumed then by fear, by and edginess that only those who are hunted can know and I thought it was all there was in the world. Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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