Page 7 of Camriel
A plan had come to her during her long night of prowling through the city searching for a safe way out.She’d seen a photo of the Adirondack Mountains in the window of a travel agency a few hours ago.It would be secluded and seemed like the perfect place to hole up in.
“It’s going to be a long journey, Vic,” she told herself.She’d stolen a map from a gas station and had worked out a route.“It’s about two-hundred and forty miles to the base of the mountains,” she went on.“It’ll take you about six days to reach it if you can run forty miles per day.”
She usually ran five miles a night without much trouble.Forty miles didn’t seem like too much, but it would wear her down if she didn’t fuel her body sufficiently.That meant she would have to forage for food fairly frequently.
“Try saying that five times fast,” she joked, then began jogging.Her pace was slow and steady, since she had such a long way to go.Vehicles clogged the streets leading to Manhattan.It was a mystery why so many people had tried to reach the tiny island.It would have been far smarter to head for rural areas like she was planning to do.
“People are fudging stupid,” she figured, wrinkling her nose at the stench of rotting flesh.Bodies were scattered all along her route.The survivors weren’t coping well at being left behind.Most seemed to be trying to kill each other.She’d had to take down over twenty fools who’d thought they could murder her, or worse.
Her first kill had been harrowing to say the least.Her mind skipped over it rather than lingering on the details.Victoria had always known she was different from everyone else.It wasn’t just her size and strength that set her apart.She could anticipate what people were going to do.It wasn’t like she could read their minds, it was more like she could foresee their actions moments before they did something.
“I’m a freak,” she said with a heavy sigh.Her mom had given her up for adoption when she’d been a newborn, so Victoria didn’t know who either of her parents were.She’d been in the foster care system her entire life, moving from home to home because she didn’t fit in.
Another quirk she possessed was the innate ability to know if people were good or bad.She’d always been able to tell if her foster parents or siblings were going to be abusive.One perk of being so big was that she couldn’t be bullied.Victoria had always been a fighter.It had come to her as naturally as breathing.It had also been the reason why she’d been moved around so much.
At fifteen, she’d decided she’d had enough.Too many of her foster fathers had tried to do inappropriate things to her.Breaking their fingers had always been a good deterrent.The authorities never believed her when she reported their transgressions, so she’d finally run away.
“That’s when my life of crime really took off,” she joked as she jogged down the sidewalk.
In reality, she’d always been a law-abiding citizen.She’d bought a fake ID from a lowlife shizbag and had gotten a job as a bouncer in a nightclub.Victoria’s size made her look older than she really was back then.After a couple of years, she’d been spotted by a talent scout.He’d watched her throw two men out of the club and had gotten her a job in pro wrestling.
“I miss it already,” Victoria lamented.She’d spent the last seven years working her way up the pro wrestling circuit to make a name for herself.Finally, she was at the top of her game and had been earning big money.“Then the world ended and now I’m a nobody again,” she grumbled.
Sensing someone to her left, she heard furtive footsteps, then a man came barreling towards her from behind a tree, snarling silently.An inch taller than her, he held his arms out ready to grab her.
Evil emanated from him like a palpable stench.Victoria didn’t even pause when he leaped at her.She grabbed his wrist and tossed him to the ground, snapping his arm, then stomping on his neck.His body jittered in its death throes as she continued running.
“Victory wins again,” she muttered, annoyed at how many bad people had been left behind.“Is everyone I run into going to try to kill me?”she complained, angling around a car that had veered off the road and had smashed into a lamppost.
Victoria kept up her steady pace and ran for a few hours before stopping.She broke into an empty house where she’d be out of sight for a while.Using the facilities, she was glad to at least have the use of a bathroom, even if the toilet didn’t fill back up with water now.
She sat down at the dining table to eat, noting dust was already beginning to settle on the furniture.Vic ate some energy bars and hydrated herself with water.She was just about to leave when she felt a prickling sensation in the back of her mind.
“Uh, oh,” she murmured, getting to her feet and slamming her mental door shut again.Just like at the East River, she could sense someone trying to pry into her mind.She let herself out through the back door, then sprinted away as fast as she could run.
Chapter Five
