CHAPTER 4

Hera: Middle of Nowhere

Safe for awhile so I took stock.

Physically, not too bad. The knee held up okay, but I can tell that it’ll swell up and ache for at least the next half a day or so. Ridge runnin’ and stump jumpin’ is a young man’s game, and I surely ain’t that no more. Been a long hard road gettin’ to this point, and no mistake.

Mentally.......fair to middlin’, all things considered. Never did seem to have a problem with my head when shit was flyin’ all around. Comin’ down off the jazz, though, that’s another thing entire. Sittin’ here shakin’ so gorram bad I can’t even get my canteen out to take a drink.

At least nuthin’s messed with the hide that I can see. Was afeared a bear might’ve been denned up, seen the scat as I made my way up this little canyon, but all to the good when I finally dragged my sorry ass in here. When the shakes get done I can set up, get myself patched up and rested. Gorram blackberries are like razor wire around here, one of the reasons I picked this place.

Seems like my life just been runnin’ in one big circle. I hunted these very hills, or near enough when I was a boy. Couldn’t wait to shake the dust of this world from my boots when I joined up, and where did they send me? A week before the Valley I was in these same damn hills, sneakin’ and peekin’ , makin’ life miserable for the purple-bellies. Now here I am again. If this is some kind of cosmic practical joke, I surely do not get the punch-line.

My own damn fault, of course. Shoulda just took the bounty, short as it was, from Mr. Barty and cleared out on the first thing smokin’. But he pissed me off, stiffin’ me like that, and I don’t take that off nobody.

Persephone: 15 Months Ago

I hate bein’ in cuffs. Reminds me of way too many times I been shackled to a wall, then beat half senseless by some Alliance goon furtherin’ my “rehabilitation” in the “re-education facility” I got dumped in after the Valley. That’s a prison camp for those of you ain’t figgered it out.

“Jacob, Aloysius