Mike has a strange encounter

Going from hurd leader to a post man wasn't easy. Really I had started to like sheep more then I did my own fellow man. But it's just how it was I suppose. I had been picked as a post man, because when I worked at a mall station we where one rider too short and since I was the only man there with experience riding horses fast, AKA hurding sheep around, I was picked. And since I did such a good job, a month later when the same thing happened again, I got picked again. And then would you know it, a month later after that I have a job there. Isn't that something? Now I wasn't very found of the job, it was far more stressful then my old jobs where. It always felt like I was in a rush, mainly because I was always in a rush. Taking a letter from one place across California to a another was serious business you know. Not something to be taken lightly, at least I was told. Sure I suppose some of those letter could be actually important, but hardly ever where they actually of any interest to anyone. Not that I was allowed to read any, that rule was strict as the ten commandments. And yes, it wasn't easy on the body either, and I could go on and on about the leg and tailbone pain or the horrible heat, but at least I wasn't the horse. Really the proof of how physically exhausting the job was would probably be shown when someone finds my dead body hanging off a thirsty horse. But then, well then there's how today's job.

I was coming back to the town that I worked in, I actually lived a town away from where I work, but I'm hardly ever home for longer then a Sunday so it's barely a home, all of California is my home now. Anyway so the night before when I was resting next to a weird growth in the earth I could hear noises far off, and a hour later in the car off distance I saw the dim light of a fire. Now it could have been peaceful people, and I don't even know if it was red men or white men. But you could never be too careful, never know who you'll run into. So staying on the safe side I decided to go a different way, before sun hit. But if they where already following me I was already gone for so the only thing I could do now was prevent them from seeing me now. So I took this new way I haven't before, but something about it looked off, the landscape I mean. It was a dull yellow color, and the ground didn't look very thick or dusty. There wasn't any plants or lush nature anywhere in sight. And every here and there I could see cracks in the ground I walked around. Something in me tensed up, and when I heard a loud crumble behind me in the distance, I nearly screamed. When I looked behind myself I could see some people way off riding on horses in my direction. They where so far off I couldn't make any details out, for all I known they could be flying purple people eaters. Now if they where any closer at this point I would just slightly pick up the pace, but since they where so far off I figured my best chance was too just head tails and run! So quickly I smacked my horse and we started off running. My hole body leaned to the very end of my horse, and seen the speed was picking up to a more middle ground of what the horse could do. Sure if they saw immediately that I was running, they would have numbers if they catch up, and if they did I would be a dead man for sure. But there numbers didn't help their overall speed. And if they are Indians like I think they are, then I'm sure none of there horses can go as fast as a post man's horse could. My body leaned into the horse's so much I was more of a blanket to the animal then a rider, and my eyes where fixed on the land ahead of me, because my life depended on it. We went so fast it was like we where flying across the dust, I even tasted it as we went. soon the distance became the scenery around me, and feeling more safe I looked behind myself, and the far off riders where soon now only the most distant of black shapes. I didn't stop the horse's speed then, but I tried easing up my body as much as I could in that position, so the animal did take a more relaxed running position. I almost felt silly then, thinking they where coming after me. Whoever they where.

I got home safe that night, took a day off and did more or less nothing, God knows the horse needed that. But the next morning after my day of rest, one of my co- workers ran up to me and said "Mike! Oh Mike you'll never believed what happened. After some back and forth, he explained to me that one of our postmen who was making he's rounds yesterday, had been found dead, seemingly killed, in the outback.