In the previous chapter, Squint got help escaping from the Shadow Government's secret space jail and found himself in an alternate timeline where he was the only person left on Earth.  Now he's camping out in post-apocalyptic New York City, where he's trying to learn how to read and understand the mysterious books that his grandfather left him with.

Did you miss the previous chapter? If so, then click here.

And if you'd like to start from the beginning of the story, then click here. 

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Part 18 - Union Square Park

  I was slowly teaching myself to read again with my new favorite book, grandpa's survival guide, it was the one that had all the pictures.  The best thing I could do with my time at this point was to keep busy.  I rarely ever really went indoors, only when I needed to scavenge for supplies, or when the weather got too stormy.  It seemed like that cell that I spent most of my lifetime in had taken its toll on my psyche, I just didn't like closed spaces anymore. 

  That survival book taught me more than just how to read, it taught me how to live in my new world.  I quickly learned how to fish, hunt, trap, and forage.  There was also information in the book about things like how to properly start a fire and make various types of shelters.  But I didn't think I needed to learn those things yet, I seemed to be doing pretty good so far. 

  I wasn't satisfied with just learning how to read at a normal pace though.  I wanted to teach myself how to speed read so that I could go through the books quicker.  I couldn't find anything about speed reading in any of the books though.  So I began just kind of skimming through the books.  First I made a mental list the titles of all the books in the pack.  It was more than I thought it had been, but I was still able to memorize the list.  Then I read through and memorized the tables of contents from each book. 

   Reading into some of the other books was maddening, but in a good way.  I found the part my grandpa had mentioned in his letter, about time traveling without having to die in the process, and it made sense in theory, but I couldn't afford to try it yet.  As I understood my situation, too much had been risked to get me into that isolated world, I couldn't waste that effort by 'temping out' as the book called it into another time-line, or temporal lineage. 

  All of the books were exceedingly interesting.  But one book in particular caught my attention right away, it was called 'The Adventures Of Squint Crusher' but it was apparently a work of fiction with only a few facts mixed in.  Without thinking I peeked at the last page...  “Darn!” I exclaimed, “Who writes this stuff?” I checked the cover for an authors name, but apparently it was my own autobiography, another me had written it in a parallel universe. 

  I chuckled a little at the thought of knowing how my story would end, but then I remembered that it was about a different version of me in separate timeline.  I peeked near the end of the book again, “No way, that's bull!” I shouted into the wind.  I felt betrayed, I would never have acted the way that book described me.  I couldn't understand why I would have written it that way, or why my grandpa would have selected it for the pack.  I felt offended, but then again, maybe he meant it as a warning of what could happen if I wasn't careful.  I had saved a shiny green and gray striped feather from Horatio, now I was using it as a book mark.  I looked at the feather and reflected on the meaning of it all.  That poor bird, he probably only wanted to warm up by the fire.  I set the feather down just in time to look up and see what was coming towards me. 

  I had been sitting under a tree at Union Square park when I saw it.  A massive dog with gray and black fur, it reminded me of the half wolf puppy we used to have when we lived by the river.  It was walking slowly and silently towards me with its head down and its ears back.  It didn't even miss a step when I quickly stood up.  It was so close I could have thrown a book at it, but instead I scrambled up the tree as fast as I could. 

  It must have been hungry because it nearly bit my feet off before I reached the first branch.  Then it began howling.  I kept climbing until I was sure it couldn't reach me.  I yelled at the wolf, but it ignored my cries and just kept barking and growling at me. 

  Soon a couple more wolves came around, they must have heard all the barking and howling from the first one.  I think my camp at Union Square park must have been just on the fringe of their territory.  They sniffed at my backpack and began biting and gnawing at it.  More wolves showed up, and eventually they got my pack open and started chewing and tearing apart all the books. 

  “No!” I screamed at the wolves, but they just barked back at me and kept ripping the books to pieces.  My mind was racing, I had no defense.  There was no way I could fight off a pack of hungry wolves.  I realized that I could 'temp' out before they got me and save myself the pain of the encounter, but I really didn't want to get caught and end up back in space jail.  And I hadn't gotten far enough in that one book to know how to summon a flying saucer, I wouldn't have even known what to do with it even if I did know how to call one.  Then I remembered the hunting knife that I had put in my pants pocket. 

  I thought carefully first, I couldn't just throw the knife at a wolf, there were too many of them for that.  I could try reaching out and slashing at the wolves from a relatively safe position in the tree, but I was afraid that if they bit my hand I might drop the knife.  I looked around in the tree and saw a long thin branch and thought I could make a spear out of it. 

  I climbed a little closer to that branch and started bending and twisting it to break it loose.  It was hard to do but eventually I used the knife to saw the branch away from the tree.  All the while the dogs were barking and growling at me fiercely.  Finally I got the branch cut off and started pulling the leaves and smaller branches from it.  Then I broke the weakest part of the tip off the branch and began to sharpen the longer half with the knife. 

  Finally I had a weapon.  Even if it was just a pointy stick, it was something I could use against the wolves.  I looked down through the tree branches at the wolves, they were still gathered around the tree.  It looked like they had given up on trying to eat the books.  Carefully, I climbed downward just a little, so I could reach the wolves with my pointy stick. 

  Making sure I had a good sturdy position in the tree between two thick branches, I leaned forward and faced down without exposing my limbs to the hungry wolves.  Then I chose a target, the big one that kept jumping higher than the others, that would be my target.  I got the stick lined up for a strike.  The big one saw me looking at him and made eye contact with me as he stood practically upright with his front paws on the tree. 

  He growled and began to bark, but just as soon as he opened his mouth, I slammed the pointy end of the stick right down his throat.  I kept pushing until it stopped and then I pulled back up on the stick to make sure I didn't lose my weapon on the first attempt.  The dog shook and put its nose to the ground making heavy wheezing sounds and vomiting blood.  Then I stabbed another dog on the outside of the neck.  Now the other dogs were starting to act differently.  Blood was squirting everywhere from the second wounded dog who was now running around wildly. 

  Another wolf started chasing the bleeder and soon the others helped to bring him down, biting and scratching at each other as they ate their companion.  The first dog I wounded was laying on its side now and another wolf started eating him too.  I thought this might be my chance to escape, but then I realized that if any of the four surviving wolves decided to chase me then I would never make it to the nearest building in time.  And even if I could get to a building, all of the windows everywhere were simply gone, I would have to find a room with no windows, or above the ground floor and there just wasn't time. 

  I decided to wait and see what the other wolves would do next.  I thought I might have a chance at stabbing the one at the base of the tree while it was eating the other wolf.  But he was just outside of my reach.  And then one of the others came over and started chewing on the big wolf too.  When they had apparently gotten their fill the cannibal wolves urinated on my tree and then ran off. 

  I heaved a sigh of relief and waited a while longer before coming down from the tree, I wanted to make sure the wolves were truly gone.  When I felt satisfied that they weren't around anymore I climbed slowly down.  Looking around at the mess of torn papers and half-eaten wolves, I think I cried a little.  Quickly I gathered up as much paper as I could from what was left of the books.  I stuffed all that I could get back into the backpack. 

 Once I had gathered as much as I could, I ran without looking back, nowhere in particular, just fast.  I couldn't stay outdoors in Union Square anymore, if those wolves came back I probably wouldn't be so lucky the next time.  Then I stopped.  I had left some supplies in the theater.  Doubling back around even faster made me feel like an idiot.  I was reminded once again that it pays to think before I act. 

  Finally I got to the theater, the wolves were still nowhere to be seen.  I grabbed as many supplies as I could carry and ran off again.  I didn't get far before I found a large apartment building labeled Irving Place and remembered my thought about finding safety above the ground level, so I hurried inside.

 

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Did you enjoy reading today's chapter?  If so then stay tuned for more tomorrow.

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