Survival of the Fittest

Several hours after his untimely arrest, Leonard Mead was staring out of the window of the lone police car, gazing into nothingness as houses pass by in a blur, to the edge of the woods, having blossomed faster due to a technological marvel. This marvel is the hyper-efficient nuclear reactors and the excess radiation caused the saplings to mature at an accelerated rate. The radiation soaked trees were bare of leaves, and hung over the red dirt road like skeletal hands reaching up from the underworld for their next victim.

Coming into view is a giant of a structure. Large, towering peaks in the front flanked a large wooden door braced with wrought iron. A tall spiked steel gate marked the beginning of hell on earth for most. Only a few would find salvation within the sturdy stone walls. The fortress was known by the foreboding name of The Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies. A large, stylized P was emblazoned on the front gate, a warning to all who would enter. As the car drove up the driveway, the gates groaned as they were opened to allow the car to enter the premises.

"Welcome to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies, a home for the Technologically Inept. Please enjoy your stay," said the robotic voice of the car, sounding as cold as the air outside.

Leonard, having heard of the horrors that took place in the Center, decided that he would rather be a fugitive and an outlaw instead of a vegetable, he ran. He started running, faster than should be humanly possible, towards the gates as they creaked closed. The world around him started to fade until nothing was left except him, the gate, and the woods beyond. As he ran, and ran, and ran, the cop car voice could be heard from behind him, describing the sanatorium in all its undeserved glory, as the car turned and began to give chase.

Having too far of a lead on the car for it to catch him, he ran, passed the gate and kept running straight into the woods. He suddenly tripped over a gnarled root, and fell prey to a snare.

After a few hours another person came to check the traps. A man with long, dark red hair, tied back into a low ponytail, sharp angular face weathered by no doubt countless hours in the sun, and a distinct farmer's tan was visible over his very well muscled arms.

"Name and Purpose?" the hunter said threateningly in a thick, foreign sounding accent.

"Hello?" he said questionably.

"Name and purpose?" the hunter said far more incessant than before.

"My name is Leonard Mead. I was, am, escaping from the Psychiatric Center," said Leonard sincerely, not having the time to come up with a convincing lie.

"Well then, you've certainly come to the right place. This here forest is home to many critters an' as long as you show them proper respect, they'll try harder not to kill you."

"Will you ever so kindly let me down from here so that we may continue this conversation as equal persons?"

"Certainly, Mr. Mead," the hunter said. He moved over to a previously hidden rope and cut it, knocking the net and Leonard down onto the ground.

After picking himself up and dusting himself off, "I see you are quite an experienced hunter and survivor and I'd much rather not re-enter the city. Perhaps I could learn from you."

"An' in return?" asked the hunter expectantly.

"Help, an extra pair of hands, human interaction," Leonard started listing. "Pretty much anything that you would need help with."

"Deal. I show you the ropes of survivin' and you help 'round the camp."

"I never did catch your name, good sir."

"Names are a purdy hard thing to toss an' even harder to catch. M'names Woods, Lucas Woods."

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Woods."

After a short walk back to Lucas's camp, and having a light but filling meal of venison, he went to bed on the uncomfortable ground, meanwhile Lucas went up into a large bedroom built in the trees surrounding the camp.

Might as well get used to this, thought Leonard. Not going back to the city anytime soon.

The next morning, Leonard was awakened quite roughly by his new traveling companion. As he groggily got up, he realized that it was still very early morning and the sun had just started to rise.

" Rise 'n' shine. We got to be gettin' an early start 'less you want to starve," said Lucas all too cheerfully for it being clearly earlier than 5 o'clock in the morning.

As he handed Leonard a root, he said, "Chew this, it works better than any coffee that you might brew."

Leonard looked down at the small, carrot-esque, brown root. Well, there are far worse things I could be eating. As he bit down into the root, his eyes widened in marvel at the unexpected taste. A sweetness akin to freshly picked fruit, perfectly balanced with a biting bitter taste, blended into mouth wateringly delicious food. Feeling suddenly energized for the day, Leonard and Lucas set off to learn and teach, respectively, about forest life.

After a half-hour of walking and learning how to move silently through the forest by stepping on roots and visible ground, they came across a small river, not easily heard but gently flowing with water so clear it could be used as a window. The men collected water into small water skins made from rabbit hide. After washing their hands and faces slightly downstream, Lucas pitched an idea to Leonard.

"Since you are bein' on the run and all, and that head of gold ain't helpin' you hunt an' hide. You might be wantin' to dye yur hair."

Leonard considered the proposition and saw the wisdom of it.

"That sounds like a perfectly fine course of action. What would you use to partake in such an activity?"

"Bush. Small, ovalish leaves, tiny red berries. Bring about twenty berries over an' I'll tell ya how ta take care of yur problem for ya. Don' eat them berries though; first, they'll make you sick and then you'll be pushin' up daisies."

After hunting around for the berries for the next few minutes, Leonard came across the bush. Grabbing far more than needed, he made his way back to Lucas, taking great care not to crush the berries he was carrying in his shirt.

"I'll tell ya how to do it."

After Leonard received the instructions, he proceeded to crush the berries into his shirt, then ever so carefully covered all his hair in the blood red juices of the berries. After several tedious minutes, Leonard's once shining golden hair was now an incredibly dark red. Darker than Lucas's by a wide margin.

"Now, we teach you the basics of usin' a bow," said Lucas with a manic gleam in his eye that, had Leonard known him better, would know spelled out trouble for whoever was on the receiving end of that look.

After learning how to make and string a recurve bow, along with wittle and fletch arrows, Leonard was learning how to shoot it.

"Legs spread shoulder-width apart, front foot turned straight. Nock the arrow, pull back on the string with three fingers, one above the arrow and two below. Non-drawing' arm straight out, yet relaxed, tense yur drawin' arm, squeeze yur back muscles, and release."

On the word "release", Leonard let go of the bowstring. The arrow flew with a shrill whistle, spinning and flexing, and landed in the tree target. It was slightly up and to the left of dead center, but still accurate enough to kill a deer or bird with one shot.

Having checked the traps for small game, also called lunch, Lucas and Leonard went out hunting for dinner. There was a deer wandering about and they took to the trees and proceeded to silently follow the buck.

After an hour of trailing the deer, the deer stopped at a river to take a drink of water. Leonard looked at Lucas asking silent permission. At Lucas's slight, but deliberate nod, Leonard nocked one of his arrows, which he had made out of birch heartwood with a mix of raven and crow feathers. Leonard felt giddy while he drew the arrow as this was the first meal that Lucas let him kill. He calmed his breathing, aimed for the heart and fired. The dark arrow became invisible in the shadowed world of the forest and wounded the buck, however, he did not kill it, as the slight twist that Leonard's wrist made when he shot the bow caused the arrow to be off the mark.

Leonard and Lucas climbed the tree and over to the downed and bleeding buck.

"That there twist ain't somethin' that'll just up and vanish. You've gotta compensate for it when you aim," Lucas berated.

"Okay, so what do I do now?" asked Leonard as they arrived at the downed deer.

"You take a knife-remind me to have you make a knife-and slit its throat while offerin' a few words of solitude." Lucas turned away from Leonard and knelt next to the deer."Yur fight is over, may nature welcome ya back," Lucas whispered loud enough for Leonard to hear as he sliced the deer's throat with a mean-looking, jagged, rock knife.

Lucas carefully dragged the kill back to camp as he had Leonard collect a rock to become his knife.

Back at camp, Lucas showed Leonard how to skin an animal. Leonard noticed that the antlers on the buck would make a great bow, so Lucas let him keep them for this little project of his. Leonard immediately went to work on the knife as he needed the serrated edge to cut through the tough material of the antler.

After several hours of hitting stones together to chisel one into a knife while the deer meat cooked, Lucas and Leonard enjoyed a fine meal of freshly cooked food with some berries.

Seeing how it was getting dark and Leonard didn't want to sleep on the ground for more than is necessary, he decided to get started building a hut in the trees. By the time it was 10 o'clock, Leonard had already collected a sizable amount of building supplies and decided that tomorrow he would start building the house.

Once again being woken up by an excitable Lucas at an unfathomable hour, they ate the leftover deer from the night before and had more of that root.

"Would you mind if I stayed and worked on my house today," said Leonard motioning towards the pile of materials. " I want to get everything done so we can hunt farther and separately."

"Solid reasonin'. Alright, go ahead an' build to yur heart's content, but you're bringin' for dinner tomorrow."

"Fair enough, see you at dinner."

"See ya."

Having gotten the bare-bones of the house done and a roof on it, Leonard decided that it was livable and went to bring the antlers and rocks up to his house to work on them, seeing as it was only a little after high noon. He went on to sit cross-legged on the floor and bash rocks together.

As Leonard finished cleaning one of the antlers with his new knife, he noticed that Lucas was coming back to the camp with a large buck, nearly twice the size of the one that he killed yesterday. Leonard stopped working on his bow and went to help Lucas skin it, kept a small portion of antler for himself, figuring that if he was going to have one implement made of antler why not have them all made of antler. After all, it wasn't like the deer were in any danger of disappearing.

After dinner, before Lucas went to bed, Mead showed Lucas the bow that he had finished while the overly thick deer meat cooked, asking him to check it over for flaws. Seeing none, Lucas handed it back to Leonard with a small smile and a nod.

The next morning, after eating, Leonard went out in the opposite direction of Lucas. He quickly spotted a murder of crows, he drew an arrow back, the irony that this specific arrow had all crow feathers was not lost to him. He managed to down three good sized crows and went to drag them back to camp.

After having an early dinner of deer, provided purely by Leonard as Lucas had returned shortly after Leonard left the crows at camp in order to pluck and smoke them. After dinner, Leonard decided to turn a small section of antler into a better hunting knife.

Several hours of hard work and rock bashing later, Leonard had a suitable knife and used the leftover antlers off of the previous two nights kills as walls for his the look, he decided to ask Lucas where he kept the extra antlers. Realizing the time, Leonard deduced that Lucas would most likely be fast asleep and decided that that was a wise course of action.

3 Years and 6 Months Later

A rustling was heard in the leaves in the trees above, and a whistling could be heard piercing the stillness of the air around it. A sudden arrow appeared on the side and then death. The taking of a life, the sadness of it all. Yet, for the man in the tree, the death meant something more than sadness. It meant a continuation of a life. His life. For One Leonard Mead, the death of the deer in front of him meant that he now had food to eat tonight and some food for the rapidly approaching winter.

As he was carrying his kill back to camp, he came across a wolf, left behind by her pack due to a broken leg, and obviously in pain. Mead wanted to help the wolf and, seeing how Lucas was still out hunting more food for winter, he brought the wolf back and into his house. After splinting the leg and giving the wolf something to help it sleep, Leonard went out to collect his prize, for he had been hunting this deer for several weeks now as it had a beautiful set of antlers and Leonard wanted those antlers as a trophy.

After eating dinner and bringing some raw meat up for the wolf, Leonard put the meat in front of the wolf, moved a few feet away and with one hand on his knife, waited. The wolf woke up and smelled the meat and, in a bout of uncontrollable hunger, wolfed down the meal. Leonard held out a hand with some meat in it. The wolf ate the meat, avoiding the hand. So was the start of a beautiful friendship.

Soon the winter had passed and the wolf was let outside. Not yet having told Lucas about the apex predator in their midst, he waited until Lucas left to call for the wolf.

"Akira, here girl."

As soon as he was finished, a white blur came shooting down from his house and to his side as Akira, the wolf that he rescued, raced to his side to go hunting.

Leonard never realized that hunting with a canine companion would be infinitely easier than hunting alone, and most importantly, game that was previously too dangerous to hunt suddenly went in season.

Leonard arrivd back at camp dragging a bear behind him. A satisfied grin plastered on his face, with a slightly bloody Akira next to him, tail wagging near the speed of sound.

Unexpectedly, Lucas was there waiting for Leonard as his hunting had not been going well due to a bear problem that has been plaguing him for months.

An expectant look was evident on Lucas's face, followed by confusion as he took in the scene before him.

"What, expecting someone else?" Leonard asked smugly.

"Bu...Wha… Wh… How?"

"A little help from Akira here."

At the mention of her name, Akira looked up at her friend. Leonard threw her a piece of rabbit jerky while chuckling to himself.

"So anyone up for bear tonight?"

1 Year Later

Knobby, leafless, trees lined and filled his vision as he trudged through the fog that was as thick as a blanket, looking for Lucas.

Lucas went out hunting several days ago, and while it wasn't uncommon for him to disappear for days at a time, this trip was taking longer than was originally planned. Leonard was starting to be worried.

A large, snow white wolf with cold blue eyes followed the hunter. Sniffing around and looking wearily from side to side.

A piercing scream echoed through the air. In a panic, the hunter escaped into a tree and the wolf dove in between some exposed tree roots. A large tawny-brown cat stalked by the two, stopping right in front of the wolf's hiding place. It sniffed once, sniffed twice, and stared seemingly directly at the wolf, before turning its head and wandering off. After half an hour of silence to make sure that the cat didn't circle back to attack them, the pair removed themselves from their respective hiding places.

"So that is what's been driving' the prey away from here. A large cougar," said Leonard cautiously low, not wanting to bring unwanted attention from said cougar.

The pair continued for several minutes when the wolf picked up a scent. With a loud bark to signal its master, it took off into the woods.

"Hang on, Akira. Slow down," stated a slightly winded Leonard.

After more than an hour of following the scent, Akira started to dig in a leaf pile. When the pile was cleared, a body was there, half-eaten and clearly eviscerated, organs were spilling out everywhere.

A growl came from behind Leonard. He turned around and drew his antler knife as the cougar pounced from the surrounding woods. Its sickly olive eyes stared down Leonard.

As it moved to end Leonard's life, a white blur rammed into the side of the cougar, taking it by surprise. A fight for dominance occurred between Akira and the cougar. As the animals separated for a brief respite from fighting, Leonard threw the knife. It spun soundlessly through the air before embedding itself in the stomach of the panther.

"Your fight is over my friend, May nature welcome you back," Leonard said drawing the knife neatly across the cougar's throat.

Back at his camp, having brought both carcasses from the depressing section of woods, Leonard started digging a grave for Lucas. When Lucas was buried, Leonard started skinning the cougar, feeling it only be right that the door to Lucas's house is forever blocked by the pelt of the creature who killed him.

After properly preparing the hide and hanging it over the door, Leonard went solemnly to his house where he proceeded to cry himself to sleep.

The next morning, Leonard decided to check in on the city and see if he could reintegrate himself. He did not want to live in the same area as the corpse of his best friend.

After donning his black bear cloak, and whistling for Akira to follow, he began his trek to the city, about fifteen miles. Over the six and a half hour journey, he thought about his life for the past four years, all the ups and downs and the flat spots of life, how he wandered into this life and how now he was probably going to leave it.

Before he knew it, Leonard was entering the city, receiving strange looks from the people in their tomb-like houses, as a wild man draped in a bearskin with a deer antler bow and a quiver of dark red arrows with black feathers. As the archer walked calmly to his old house, he saw a new family inhabiting it. All of them gathered around the TV watching the latest game show.

Disgusted by the laziness shown by the people of the city, Leonard turned his back abruptly to the house and walked away from his past.