Read Nightmare journey for Free Online

mutant.
    Five minutes later they had packed the sack and were ready to leave the warehouse.
    Jask said, “Where do you intend to go if you ever manage to get out of the Wildlands? No matter where you settle down, you'll be rediscovered. Your talent will flare up, unexpectedly. Or you'll use it too often to gain things you want and end up giving yourself away.”
    “I intend to find the Black Presence,” the bruin said. “And once I've done that, I'll have no need to live anywhere on this world.”
    For a moment Jask was speechless. When he could find his voice, he said, “Foolishness! There is no Black Presence. Do you sincerely believe in all those silly myths about other worlds, that man once traveled to the stars and is still being watched by an-an alien who's waiting to judge him?”
    “Why not?” the bruin asked. “It's history, not myth.”
    Jask grimaced, for he had realized that the bruin's world view was even more heretical, more unorthodox, then he had at first understood. “Then you must also believe that the Last War was fought between two different groups of men-instead of between man and the Ruiner, who had come to undo Lady Nature's work?”
    The bear-man laughed aloud. “My friend, the Ruiner you fear so much is only a myth. It is you who must relearn history, the true history of this sorry world.”
    “Heresy,” Jask said, apalled.
    “No, nothing of the sort. It is merely the truth,” the bruin said. “But all of this can wait until we're free of that pack of dogs baying at our heels. Let's go.”
    At the opposite end of the great chamber into which they had clambered from the sewer the bruin lifted away another stone slab, revealing a second drain. “It's only a different branch of the same system,'' he said. “This way, there's less likelihood of encountering those bastards hunting us.” He dropped his heavy rucksack through, went in after it, looked up at Jask, who stood trembling at the edge of the entrance. “I could be out of this hole and on top of you before you had a chance to run very far,” he growled.
    Jask nodded despairingly, dropped his smaller sack, and entered the drain after it.
    The bruin put the stone shield in place.
    He said, “Come on, then. We have quite an arduous journey ahead of us, my friend.”
    Jask followed in the mutant's tracks, the fungus-coated walls close, the water splashing under foot, the odor almost overwhelming him. He was behind the creature, and he had a knife: two interesting facts that jelled into one crisp, violent notion in his mind. He should be able to kill it. Yet he knew that if he had the skill and strength to jam the blade into the bruin's back, he would find himself half-strangled in those brawny hands before he had time to twist it.
    “You're perfectly correct, friend,” the bruin muttered. “And unless you place that blade in one of two vulnerable spots, I'd hardly notice the pain.”
    “I must have privacy in my own mind!” Jask snapped.
    “So that you can plot against me?” the mutant inquired, chuckling loudly, clearly enjoying the exchange and not the least bit frightened by the Pure's momentary thought of murder.
    Jask said nothing at all, plodded on, miserable.
    Something danced across his foot, squeaking loudly, terrified. He jumped, shivered at the thought of having been touched by the tainted creature. He was thankful, now, that the tunnel was in complete darkness. The bruin, if he had heard the tiny creature, gave no indication of concern.
    The mutant chuckled again and said, “By the way, I do have a name. I'm getting weary of seeing myself referred to so vaguely in your thoughts-mutant, tainted creature, quasi-man, bruin, bear-man. I'd prefer to be called Tedesco. It's the name I was born with.” A bit farther along the drain he said, “We've got a long, long journey ahead of us, Jask. It's best that we call each other by the right names and learn a bit of tolerance, if we can.”
    Heresy, Jask thought.
    An animal had no name, no personality.
    “The