Katydid Sample
Below is an online plain-text sample of the first part of my novelette, Katydid.
The Amazon Kindle e-book version of Katydid, and the paperback version, should be available via this link:
The Amazon Kindle e-book version is sightly different from the Smashwords version, but only in some formatting.
Here are the direct links:
You can purchase Kindle and other e-book versions at: www.smashwords.com/books/view/458106
And a paperback version is available at: https://www.createspace.com/4903265
Description:
Katydid is a story about a day in the life of a 10-year-old girl trying to survive on her own in a post-apocalyptic world. Staying alive and dealing with the daily perils in After is not easy. Trying to not become prey for the many predators that rise out of the ashes is often the least of your worries. It would not be easy for anyone, much less a lone, young girl. After losing everything she had, and everyone she knew, from Before, Katy is bound and determined to keep the one thing she has left – her life. Such as it is. And will be.
This medium-length novelette is an extended adaptation of the author’s short film screenplay of the same name, which is included, along with two poems.
(contains adult themes)
Katydid Cover Front Back
Partial Table of Contents:
Chapter I – Run! ….. 1
Chapter II – Jump! ….. 9
Chapter III – Escape ….. 15
Chapter IV – Fire ….. 21
Chapter V – FLASHback! ….. 27
Chapter VI – Memories ….. 31
Chapter VII – Dark of Night ….. 35
Chapter VIII – Hullo! ….. 37
Chapter IX – Old Man George ….. 43
Chapter X – The Mourning After ….. 53
Epilogue – Lucky ….. 59
Here There Be Poetry ….. 63
Katydid – The Screenplay ….. 69
Chapter I
Run, Katy, RUN!
The words pounded in Katy’s mind like her heart was pounding in her chest; her blood thrushing through her veins. Other than quick decisions whether to keep straight, or dog left or right, Katy didn’t seem to be able to think of anything else. Although a stray thought suddenly hit her– Is this what rabbits feel like when they’re running from their hunter?
A predator chasing its prey. Katy knew what it felt like to be hunted, to be prey, and to be chased, but she had never been in this situation. Nothing this extreme. Usually she was so careful. A young girl in After had to take great care. You can’t be too careful. That was a good rule to live by. If you wanted to live, to stay alive in this new world.
The forest rushed by her, mostly unseen. It was dark, but not dark-dark. The overcast and ever-cloudy sky let enough mid-afternoon sunlight through that the thick tree cover couldn’t blot it out completely. The mountain landscape was littered with trees – some kind(s) of pine? – with occasional bushes and ferns and plants of various kinds. And moss. But you can’t hide behind moss.
The uneven ground was difficult to traverse, especially the also-occasional snags from fallen, grown-over branches and tree roots – and rocks, large and small – that wanted to jump up and trip you. And the pine needles were slippery where solid ground would be better for escape. But maybe better for hunting and chasing, too.
Never look back!
Her dad told her that and Katy repeated it in her mind, to remind herself lest she falter. It seemed to be human nature, or something. To want to look back at what is chasing you and see how close they are, or, hopefully, how far ahead – away – you have gotten. When you’re running away from someone, never look back. It will slow you down. Just keep your head down and run full out, as fast as you can, and don’t stop. Not until you’re safe. And then run some more, just to be sure. You will either outrun them, or you won’t. So far so good.
So Katy used her ears. It was difficult to hear over her labored breathing, the rush of blood in her ears, the sound of her small pack and canteen slapping against her back, and the rustle of her clothes, but she could hear the men behind her. Further away now? Maybe just a little? Their panting and rapid, pounding footsteps fading? Katy was silent, and so were they — except for the non-verbal sounds. Better not to waste breath on yelling… or screaming… no matter how much you wanted to.
Just run. And don’t stop. Don’t fall. Try not to trip. Maybe now would be a good time to start thinking of exactly where she was going. At first it was just GO! It didn’t matter too much which direction. Speed and sudden, immediate action were what were called for, and so she did. Rabbit! One second she was there, and the next she was not. But if she had gained a little distance, she could start making conscious decisions about direction. Try to out-smart them. Maybe hide. Figure out a way to escape, because she knew she couldn’t run forever. Neither could they. It was a high speed waiting game.
Who would give up first? Who would fall? Who would break a leg or sprain an ankle? Who would win? Who would lose? Not Katy, not the latter. She was nothing if she wasn’t a winner. And she was lucky. You had to look at life that way, no matter what the truth and reality really were. That’s where hope came from. And hope was the most important thing now. Without it, you didn’t have much. Not in After.
There were three of them, and only one of her. One was big and fat. Out of shape. Older than the other two. He had been the one cursing and yelling threats of what he would do to her if she didn’t STOP RIGHT NOW! He had been silent for a while now, and from the sound of it was quickly falling behind. The other two were right on her heels, but also seemed to be falling a little behind. They were bigger than her, and some of the low tree branches helped, because she could more easily duck under. Maybe her youth gave her more advantage in going over, around, and through, as well. Every little bit counted and helped.
One of the men was about as old as her father. (…as old as her father was when…) The other younger, maybe college-age. Katy smiled a small smile of sorts, and almost laughed – not a funny laugh – thinking how they would be in so much trouble if they were in Before – grown men chasing a young girl like this. It would probably have been against the law. But there were no laws anymore as far as she could see. Her dad would have protected her. And her mom. But they weren’t here anymore. So it was up to Katy to protect herself. She had no one else.
No police. No ambulances. No emergency rooms. So be as careful as you can. No more medicine, or doctors, or nurses, or dentists. No more nothin’. All the good stuff was gone. All of it. Everything she liked, and loved, and wanted, and desired, and dreamed about. Gone. Forever.
The burn in Katy’s legs and lungs told her it was almost over, one way or another. She couldn’t go on much longer. If she had eaten in the last few days, she could probably hold out longer. Or maybe if she had eaten more the last few months. It actually surprised her how fast and far she had run till now. Fear would do that to you. Give you that spurt of much-needed energy. For a while anyways. Especially fear for your life. And your well-being. Which were kind of one and the same, in some ways. She had been lucky so far in that respect. She had seen some others who were not so lucky. And she really did not want to become one of them. (…like her sister…)
She didn’t really understand it, what that really meant. Her parents had alluded to it, in some small way tried to explain it, but Katy could tell that they didn’t really want to talk about it. Maybe didn’t want to think about it. So they explained without really explaining, to her and her younger sister Sally, but simply ended up telling them that there were men who might try to hurt them, and they should be very careful, and do anything and everything to prevent that from happening, whatever that really was. Even going so far as to hurt, or kill, those who tried to hurt them. But she wasn’t sure if she could do that. Maybe she could. Maybe not. You didn’t know what you were capable of sometimes until you were put in a situation.
At 10 years old (ten and a half!), Katy just had an inkling that that was some adult-type thing that wasn’t supposed to involve kids, little girls like her, and probably boys, too. Katy had heard things whispered and joked about in seemingly rude and crude ways on the playground at school, back when there was school, mostly by the boys, and sometimes by the girls who were daring to be ‘naughty’. But it was all something very mysterious and unknowable, cloaked in a fog of not-quite-understanding. Things to be whispered and wondered about, usually with embarrassed giggles, but often on the outskirts of a kid’s reality. The lucky ones, anyways.
In a way, Katy thought maybe she understood it all better than she thought, or wanted to admit to herself, and definitely not to her parents. How embarrassing. Though what she wouldn’t give to have even an embarrassing conversation with them now, rather than not being able to talk to them at all.
Like most other kids, she had been taught about how adults weren’t supposed to touch you there, in your private places. About not talking to strangers, and ‘Stranger Danger’, and dialing and/or yelling “9-1-1!!” That sort of thing. Things that little kids shouldn’t have to know about. As if it wasn’t bad enough Before, it was even worse After. Yes, Katy did know more about it all than she would have liked. Probably for the best. Knowledge is power, her dad used to say. It was probably true.
Katy didn’t know if Sally had tried when her time came. Maybe she did and failed. Maybe she wasn’t careful enough. She was younger, too. More trusting and such. No one really knew what happened… except the end result. It wasn’t something good to think about.
Katy almost tripped over a snag, almost wrenched her ankle, almost let out a small yell, partly of surprise, and also partly to chastise herself for daydreaming and not keeping focused on the predicament at hand. It made Katy feel a little better, in a way, to use some of the ‘big words’ she knew, most of them taught to her by her parents. And reading books helped. Back when she read books. But it also made her a little sad. She tried to not think about her parents, and her sister, and a lot of other stuff, very much. Better to not go down that road. That was one of her mother’s often-used sayings.
The landscape had started to change in the last few hundred yards. More up and down, and it looked like maybe there was even more of that ahead. Running uphill was hard, so not that. Running downhill, as long as it wasn’t too steep, was better and faster. But so for everyone. There had to be something she could do. There’d better be.
And then she heard a rushing kind of sound. Kind of like traffic off in the distance. But there wasn’t any traffic anymore. Katy couldn’t remember the last time she saw a moving vehicle; and there were only birds in the sky now – and insects and the occasional sometimes-butterfly. So that meant it was probably water. A stream or something. Hopefully not too big. A river would be dangerous. But a large stream might offer some form of escape.
She was in new territory now. She had never come this far, this direction before. Katy dogged left, more downhill, and headed toward the sound. It got louder the closer she got. And she could smell the water. Or maybe it was the green dampness that was really the smell. Did water have a smell? It sure seemed to if you were thirsty enough.
And then Katy almost made the worst mistake of her short life. She was moving so fast she almost couldn’t stop when she came to a cliff. A sheer drop-off. It was only about twenty feet down or so, but that could mean death, even Before. These days, a broken leg could mean death. More likely than not. At seemingly the last second, she saw what it was, and dropped to the ground, skidding closer and closer to the edge. Some of her body even went over the edge, mostly her legs. But she clawed at the earth and pine needles and anything she could to stop herself.
Luckily it worked. She knew she was lucky. And she was a little proud of herself that she didn’t scream. Silence was a good thing. Okay, she might have made a small sound, something of a gasp, but that was it. To thine own self be true. That was a saying people used to say.
After she stopped moving, and knew she wasn’t going to die, or be badly hurt, which also probably meant death (…always keep that in mind…), she pulled herself back from the edge and crawled to safety. Relative safety, anyway, because she could hear the men still coming. Too close. She stood and stepped back toward the edge, looking down.
At the bottom were some pretty big rocks, and the water. Maybe not a river, but not really a stream either. There wasn’t enough not-water to be called a beach, more just a bank. About three or four feet or so. And then the large stream, which was moving pretty fast, probably about ten feet wide; maybe fifteen. It had rocks in it, with rapid whitewater rushing around them. In the middle it looked less rapid, but looks could be deceiving. That area wasn’t big enough to be called a pool or anything like that. It was much too far to jump to the other side, which was also a cliff, of sorts, but not as high.
She looked back the way she had come. It was then that she realized the men weren’t moving as fast as they were before. Maybe kind of hesitating. Their movements were barely audible over the water sounds. They had probably been following the sound of her running, and now that had disappeared, so they were tracking her as best they could. Maybe using actual tracks from her feet. And the sound of the water had probably helped mask her, as well. Good that she hadn’t screamed or shouted when she fell. So this was a good choice, coming this way. But they were close, and getting closer. She hadn’t lost them. They could still find her. Being lucky was a good thing, but you shouldn’t rely on luck, because everyone’s luck ran out eventually. Even the luckiest.
Just as Katy was about to turn around and look back at the water, and around her, to see what she could do, one of the men, the older one, but not the oldest, fattest one, came into view.
Chapter II
The man was much closer than Katy thought. He stopped when he saw her and their eyes locked. His got big, like he was surprised, and Katy thought hers probably did, too, but probably with more fear than surprise. He wasn’t scared. If anything he was angry. And then, through his labored breathing, a large, wolfish grin came to his face, which made him look evil. This was the last sight a rabbit saw before the canine crunch of slack-jawed teeth. Katy shivered at that thought. Where had that come from? Maybe she had read it somewhere, or heard it on TV or in a movie. Or maybe she was a poet and didn’t know it.
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Order now:
The Amazon Kindle e-book version of Katydid, and the paperback version, should be available via this link:
The Amazon Kindle e-book version is sightly different from the Smashwords version, but only in some formatting.
Here are the direct links:
You can purchase Kindle and other e-book versions at: www.smashwords.com/books/view/458106
And a paperback version is available at: https://www.createspace.com/4903265