The Deer Hunter

One thousand years later, a hunter moved silently through the jungle; a dead landscape forged by his ancestors, holding untold riches and the greatest dangers. Only a moment ago, he had been spied by his quarry. Afraid, it darted into the rusting labyrinth. Only a fool would follow. But the hunter’s children starved.

The animal had seen the man creeping along the treeline. Afraid, it bolted into the jungle. The iron forest meant danger to all who entered. Slowing in its run, the deer now edged along the pitted metal paths. The fields had smelled of brown grass and dry dirt, but here only something acrid stung the nostrils. The thirsty animal looked for water.

The hunter, who had never left the warm fields, felt a growing chill in the shade of the mountain towers. He recalled whispers that within these shadows still lurked the machines that changed the sky and brought the world to its knees. But now the sun parched the fields while his children starved.

A pool of thick greenish fluid drew the deer. Bending, it tasted some of the viscous fluid. The soup of toxic chemicals seared the throat. Choking, the deer threw up. Weaker now, the dying animal searched for water.

The hunter stood up among the debris and lifted his weapon. For a moment the deer and the man looked each other in the eye. In that instant, the generations spun backwards and somehow, though neither had been there, both remembered the way it had been: green fields stretched towards the great cities of the past, there was water and there was food.

The crack of a rifle rang out across the wilderness, and two more ghosts fled this world.

-2016-
bayou goula towhead

-2015-
the sea test

-2014-
the circumnavigator pt5
the circumnavigator pt4
the circumnavigator pt3
the circumnavigator pt2
the circumnavigator pt1
falling dream
the darkness
one hell of a mile 3&4
he will return
the believers
the horror pt2
the horror pt1
traces
death valley
whiteout

-2013-
paradise of outlaws
the mountain climbers 1&2
brought to surface
one hell of a mile 3
primordial
the lost world
inner gorge
a ghost story
the riddle
slaying the minotaur
heart of darkness
bayou
public lands
organ music
two sought adventure
the virgin river
the road north
preparations

-2012-
steal the world
the end of the world
el dorado
the valley of the kings 2
the valley of the kings 1
one hell of a mile 2
one hell of a mile 1
the mountain climbers rr4
heroes rr3
rainy roadtrip 2
rainy roadtrip 1
the transgression
sandstorm
sinister 2
sinister 1
dehydrated
anatomy
sleepwalking
new chapter

-2011-
like sedona?
torn in two
blink
bridge to nowhere
the door
hitting the wall
elusive 2
elusive 1
harquahala
hole
pick up lines

-2010-
revisited 2
revisited 1
which way?
lost mines
chute
monolith
freeze
slice
in their footsteps
a dance with death

-2009-
goodbyes
undercurrents
casting the bones
mountain thief
the deer hunter
strange temple
sanctuary
burial pt. 3
burial pt. 2
burial pt. 1
the apparition
return to hell
forsaken
the lower depths
underground lake
stretch sewer
the hidden lab
shadow movements
meager rations
sw8: the conclusion
sw7: lost gold mines
sw6: the big tubes
sw5: gold!
sw4: el calderon
sw3: redondo
sw2: ghosts
sw1: westward bound
leviathan
formaldehyde dreams
the underdark
in the beginning