Chapter One
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LIGHT SNOW FELL AROUNDOaklie as she worked on her latest wooden sculpture.A flake landed on her cheek and she wiped it away with her gloved hand.Camping lanterns lit up the clearing in the forest where she was working.Darkness lapped at the edges of the light, waiting to gobble up her work in gloom again.
Her chuckle at her morbid thought turned into a gasp of wonder when gold light suddenly blazed across the sky.A glance at her watch told her it was midnight.She tilted her head back until her waist length black hair hung below her butt.“It’s so beautiful,” she murmured, following the meteor’s rapid descent to the south.It was so bright and close that she had to squint to see it.
Tall trees blocked her sight, but the expected shockwave from the landing never came.Oaklie felt momentarily dizzy when she lowered her head again.Cracking her neck did nothing to relieve the weird pressure that was now hovering in the back of her mind.
“I hope I’m not picking up on more intruders who are trying to get in,” she muttered darkly.Sending out her senses, she couldn’t detect any people nearby, but she was several hundred yards from her property.
Casting a look at the statue, Oaklie reluctantly left it for now.She followed the trail back to the edge of her home.A tall fence made of thick logs surrounded the place where she’d been raised.The tops of the logs were now sharpened to spikes, thanks to her innate power.She’d had to add barbwire after the Rapture to keep determined interlopers out.
Magic flowed from her to the fence and three logs swung inwards to allow her entry.They swung back into place without any trace that they’d parted when she stepped through them.She passed the once thriving and now dead vegetable garden and glanced at the small cemetery to the left.Her upper lip lifted at the unmarked grave she’d dug just over three months ago.
Oaklie reached the gigantic house that was well over a hundred years old.She still couldn’t sense anyone in or near the property.Her gaze passed over the barn that had once sheltered their collection of animals.Like the vegetable garden, disease had swept through the property, wiping everything out.
“I can’t sense anyone at all,” Oaklie said in consternation when she passed the house and came to a stop at the wide gate.If the dogs had still been alive, they would have alerted her if there were any people skulking around.
Grief welled up and she pressed her palm against her chest.It was a feeble attempt to contain her sorrow.Her property wasn’t the only one that had been devastated by the weird blight and plague that had come and gone so quickly.They’d appeared two days before the Rapture had struck.Every home and farm in the area had been affected by it.
“I’d already lost so much,” Oaklie said, turning from the gate to trudge back to her work.“Then God took everyone I loved, leaving me alone with Eli,” she said, flipping the bird at the small mound of dirt that had yet to flatten out.There wasn’t enough snowfall to cover the grave.The other six graves were empty and were a symbol of her loss.
Oaklie was drawn to the cemetery she’d created.She studied the headstones she’d carved out of wood using her power.Her mom had suffered complications after her one and only biological daughter had been born.Oaklie’s siblings had all been adopted.Eli had been a newborn when they’d chosen him, so he was barely a year younger than she was.
“What a mistake adopting him turned out to be,” she said with a scowl at the only grave that contained an actual body.
Heaving a sigh, Oaklie wasn’t ready to go to bed yet.She returned to the fence, which parted for her again, then followed the trail back to the clearing.
Her senses prickled when she felt someone approaching before she could resume her work.“They never learn,” she muttered in annoyance.It seemed like her surviving neighbors had all gone feral.They’d done a good job of killing each other off since the apocalypse.A bunch of them had tried to storm her property several times now.None had survived.She’d strung their corpses up on trees that bordered her land as a warning.Crows and animals had stripped their flesh, leaving only bones and scraps of clothing behind.
Oaklie left the clearing and circled around behind the approaching person.He’d been drawn by the camping lights.She could smell him before she saw him, thanks to her enhanced senses.He stank of sweat, blood, vomit and a hint of rotting meat.Whatever he’d eaten last had gone bad and he was paying the price for it now.
“She’s not going to killme,” the man was muttering quietly, unaware the young woman he was stalking was now stalking him.“I’m too crafty for her,” he said, then snickered.
She shivered at how insane he sounded.Madness was common in these parts now.Everyone who’d been left behind was evil, crazy, or a combination of both.
Armed with a rifle, a hunting knife and rope, he slowed down in an attempt to catch her unawares.Twigs snapped beneath his boots as he crept closer to the clearing.The snow wasn’t thick enough to make it through the dense branches to the ground.He believed he was being stealthy, but her hearing was far sharper than he could possibly realize.
“I’m going to eat well once I’ve had my fun with little miss Oaklie Woods,” he said with sick joy.
Oaklie’s face twisted in disgust.Not only did he plan to try to capture and violate her, he was going to turn into a cannibal afterwards.Then again, he’d probably already taken to eating other humans long before now.
While she only vaguely recognized him, she was well-known in their town and the others nearby.Her art was on display in a boutique.Her wood sculptures were sought after all over Tennessee for their intricate detail.
Closing in on her target, Oaklie was far quieter than the hunter could ever be.The woods were her domain.The trees were hers to command, as was all wood.She just wished she could have saved her vegetable garden from the blight that had killed it.While she could manipulate certain plants to suit her needs, she couldn’t heal them.
The hunter stopped at the edge of the clearing to peer at the sculpture she was working on.“Who the hell is that?”he asked almost beneath his breath.
Oaklie ghosted closer to peer at the huge wooden figure.“I don’t know who he is yet,” she replied.
Screaming in terror, the man whirled around and fired his rifle in panic.Oaklie had already sprinted behind a tree to use it for cover.“You missed me,” she called out in a sing-song voice.
“Whatareyou?”the psycho cannibal shouted in fury.
“I’m not sure,” she said honestly.“But one thing I am sure of is that I’m not going to become your dinner.”
He fired towards the sound of her voice, missing her by several yards.Oaklie swiftly moved to a different spot and peered at her quarry from behind the trunk of a tree.“Just a little bit closer,” she murmured.
