Runners

by Don McLellan

About the Author: Don McLellan has worked as a journalist in Canada, South Korea and Hong Kong. He has been listed twice for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and has had two story collections published, In the Quiet After Slaughter and Brunch with the Jackals. More at donmclellan.com.

Excerpt

They stopped to rest on the ridge, Abrinkovich, the Russian; Kalpinski, the Pole; and the brooding Finn Salomaki.  They could hear the dogs behind them, scrambling up the ravine. The sound of cracking whips echoing off the canyon walls sounded like gunshots. Bonuses would be paid to whoever brought them in.

“Dead or alive, it doesn’t matter to me,” Chernakov, the camp director, told everyone who’d signed up for the hunt, and he meant it. “There’s less paperwork if they’re returned horizontal.”    

The trio studied the terrain stretching out before them, a course of jagged outcrops and frozen tundra. After this ridge there was another, and then another. Bear, wild boar, wolves. The numbing cold. Knees wobbly from the climb.   

“This way,” barked Abrinkovich, who’d authored the escape, noticing the glint of water trickling from a rock face.  “We can refill our jugs.”

“That way,” said Kalpinski, a bent index finger aimed at a ghostly stand of spruce. “If we’re lucky, there’ll be some moon. We can walk all night.”

Salomaki said little, as always. Just as long as they were moving in the right direction. One step closer to the border.

“Discuss your knitting patterns later, girls,” he said. Every utterance was like a burst of smoke spat into the brittle northern air.

Story Comments