Hunted, page 21
But he’d wanted them to keep walking. Every extra step carried them closer to home. And those steps might tilt the balance for Anna. She didn’t look well. She’d woken once, tried to speak, and fallen unconscious again. The grey shade hadn’t left her skin. They had been trying to carry her slowly and carefully, but her neck wound had started to ooze again.
There wasn’t anything they could do for her… except get her to a hospital as quickly as they could. They were just so slow.
The terrain was uneven and even harder to see with just the swinging lamplight. Every step had to be considered before it was taken. Chris had hoped they could push through and walk for most of the night, but he had to admit, he was at his breaking point. His legs shook. His arms shook. He shifted his grip on the stretcher’s rungs every minute, but the muscles were too fatigued to take much more.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s find an empty patch of ground to put her down.”
They scouted out a patch of dirt circled by young spruces. Hailey kicked leaves and branches out of the way then flopped to the forest floor and unhooked her hiking pack with a groan. Flint helped lower Anna then collapsed to his side. He looked ghastly… worse than he should have, considering how much time he spent in the gym. Chris prayed it was just regular exhaustion. He didn’t have the skills to deal with anything worse.
Anna stirred. One hand flopped out from under the jacket they had draped over her, and Hailey shuffled to her side.
“Hey there,” she whispered. “How’re you feeling, pumpkin?”
“Water,” Anna rasped. “I… need…”
“Okay, I gotcha, babe.” Hailey turned back to Chris, fear reflected in her sunken eyes. “You’re certain you don’t have any left?”
Chris dragged his pack around and unzipped it. He pulled the bottles out and shook them. They were all empty. “Sorry.”
Hailey turned back to her friend with a shaky smile. “You hang on a moment, cutie. I’ll get you some water, okay?”
Chris grabbed her arm as she tried to rise. “Hail…”
“None of us are going to make it far without something to drink,” she hissed back. “You think we feel bad tonight? It’s going to be twenty times worse tomorrow, when we try to start walking again.”
He couldn’t argue. His throat was parched, and his head was foggy. It felt like a bad hangover, and he knew he wouldn’t feel better until he had water. “What are you thinking of doing?”
“I’m going to leave the string. I’m going to see if I can find a river.”
Chris swore under his breath. “We’ve been walking all day without passing so much as a puddle.”
“No. But we’ve been following the string and moving like molasses.” She turned her backpack over, shook out its contents, then began stuffing the empty water bottles back in.
“Okay.” Every muscle in Chris’s body groaned as he stood. “I’ll come with you.”
She sniffed. “You can stay and rest if you want.”
“Nah. We can cover twice as much ground if we both go. Flint, you stay here and keep an eye on Anna, okay?”
Flint didn’t answer. Hailey shuffled to his side and rubbed his shoulder. “Babe?”
He grumbled and kicked one leg out. He was already asleep.
Chris emptied out his own backpack, refilled it with bottles, then collected two balls of thread and two whistles.
“Use the string. Make sure you don’t lose your tether back to here. And whistle if you get into trouble or find water. Okay?”
“’Kay. Good luck.” Giving him a tight smile, she clicked her torch on and stepped into the woods, a line of twine trailing behind her. The trees swallowed her and nearly eradicated her light within a dozen paces. Chris took a fortifying breath before he picked up his own light, tied off his string, then moved in the opposite direction. He cast one final glance back at their makeshift camp. Flint continued to sleep, though the muscles in his face twitched. Anna was mostly hidden by the jacket draped over her, except for one outstretched hand that looked like a ghost beckoning him. The lamp made a small circle of light but couldn’t reach past the banks of trees and trailing vines.
As he stepped deeper into the trees, a sense of isolation washed around him. For the first time since leaving his home the previous Thursday, he was truly alone.
He didn’t like it. The trees were too tall. When he turned his torch up, its light struggled through the lowest boughs but died before reaching the canopy. He hadn’t minded being surrounded by the green giants before, when his friends were with him, but walking amongst them alone wasn’t anywhere near as easy.
The only small consolation was finally being able to move quickly. Even with the tiredness and the soles of his feet burning as though they were on fire, he felt like he was soaring.
He unravelled the thread as he walked. Every ten or so paces, he looped it around a branch in the same way he’d seen Anna do it. Night animals chattered to either side. Chris didn’t try to spot them with his torch but kept the light on the ground ahead of himself to watch for hazards.
He hopped over a rotting log and yelped as the forest floor vanished from under his feet. He scrambled, arms flailing for purchase, and dug his hands into soft ground. He was sliding, but the slope was shallow. His grasping hands found a rock, and he latched on to it, gasping and desperate to keep from dropping any farther into the abyss.
He’d dropped the torch. It bounced out of his reach, its beam flashing over vines, ferns, and weeds, until it finally came to a halt lodged against a rock. Chris let his mouth fall open. The torch’s light shone across water.
The liquid wasn’t rushing, and it wasn’t sparkling, but it was moving, which meant it wasn’t just a bog. Chris let go of his perch and let himself slide down the riverbank until his boots squelched in the mud surrounding the river. He snatched up the torch and scanned the space. The closest part of the river was nearly stagnant, but farther out, it flowed smoothly. Chris grabbed his whistle out of his pocket and sent out four sharp, loud blasts. Then he pulled his bag off his shoulders, rolled up the cuffs of his pants, and waded into the water.
It was shockingly cold, but that just made him break out into gasping, hysterical laughter. He reached the area where the water flowed more reliably and dunked a bottle into it. He swirled it around then poured the water into his mouth. He’d never tasted anything so delicious. It washed down the frothy phlegm and filled his stomach. He emptied the bottle and submerged it for another drink.
Branches snapped behind him, and Chris lifted his head. “Hailey! I found water!”
She didn’t reply. He turned the torch towards the trees and panned it over the bank of plants that grew at the top of the riverbank. Something moved out of sight a second before his torch landed on it.
Chris’s enthusiasm turned chilly. He cleared his throat and called again. “Hello?”
The environment suddenly seemed thickly, oppressively quiet. Chris’s own breathing echoed around himself. The water was silent, the night birds had stopped calling, and even the ever-persistent insect chatter seemed to have gone mute. The world was holding its breath.
Chris took a step towards the bank. He’d started shaking. He shouldn’t have left Flint and Anna alone, especially not when they were both vulnerable. Anna had been pedantic about them staying in a tight group, and now, alone in the river with some unseen presence watching him from the trees, Chris wished he hadn’t ignored her golden rule.
Leaves crunched. A branch broke as something shoved past it. Whatever it was, it was coming towards him, and quickly. Chris squeezed the water bottle so tightly that the plastic crumpled.
A figure broke out of the trees and held up its hands to shield itself from the torchlight. Chris lowered his arms and exhaled something between a gasp and a laugh. It was only Hailey.
“You gave me a heart attack!”
“You? What about me?” She dropped her bag and crawled to the edge of the riverbank to look down at him. “You said whistle for emergencies. I thought for sure you’d fallen and impaled yourself on a branch or something.”
“Well, I did fall, but it turned out to be a lucky break.” He redirected his torch to the stream.
“Water!” Hailey made to slide down the bank to join him, but Chris waved her back.
“No sense in us both getting wet shoes. Throw the bottles down to me. I’ll fill them and lob them back at you.”
“Thanks.” She unzipped her bag and shook bottles out. “Give me one quickly. I’m parched.”
Chris chuckled and threw his bottle up to her. But as he did, he couldn’t stop his eyes from roving towards the bank of plants where he’d seen movement. He would have thought Hailey was too tired to play pranks like that.
45
Flint woke with a gasp. Something sharp pressed into his back. He reached his arm around and swatted at a dead branch that was jabbing just below his shoulder blades.
It was very quiet. His friends hadn’t talked much for the last few hours of walking, and he hadn’t wanted to, but at least their breathing and crunching footsteps had always been close by. Now, he felt lonely.
He sat up and blinked in the low lamplight. Anna was still there, lying on her sleeping bag. Except for the wad of bandages at her shoulder, she looked like she was just napping. Flint rubbed the back of his neck and blinked. Anna was there, but Hailey and Chris were gone. They’d left him.
No. They wouldn’t do that. They’re my friends… aren’t they?
He swallowed and pushed up onto his knees. He’d been trying so hard. Harder than he’d ever tried before. He’d carried his fair weight, walked as far as Chris wanted him to walk. He hadn’t complained when the bites on his legs rewoke and burned like fire. He hadn’t caused a fuss. But maybe they’d guessed how badly he was doing. That was why they’d dropped him. They’d realised he was dead weight.
His throat burned. He tried to call out, see if maybe they were still close enough to hear him and take pity on him, but the cry sounded pathetic. He slumped back and ran his hands over his scalp, digging his fingers in until his skull ached.
He couldn’t panic. They hadn’t left him. They wouldn’t have. Hailey loved him… or she said she loved him, at least. And Chris was his best friend. They’d been buddies since middle school.
But deep down, he knew he was being stupid. Friendships stopped being important after a few days lost in the forest. When things went bad… and they had… friendship turned into survival of the fittest. Anyone who couldn’t keep walking got left behind.
They’d made a good effort. They’d tried to carry Anna for most of a day. But Chris wasn’t dumb. He knew that every sick person in their party was a liability they couldn’t afford. So he’d left Flint and Anna, the two weakest, to fend for themselves. The backpacks were gone. A bunch of equipment had been dumped out, probably as a final kindness, and his two friends had continued along the road alone.
It was the smart decision to make, he guessed. At least now Chris and Hailey had a good chance of escaping alive. He wished they had at least said goodbye, though. He didn’t want to die alone.
Flint’s throat burnt worse than ever, but now his eyes stung alongside it. His fingers were shaking. Anna stirred at his side, and he patted her shoulder.
“It’s okay, shh. It’s okay. I won’t leave you.”
She didn’t properly wake. Flint wrapped his arms around his chest and blinked furiously. He was thirsty. They’d been out of water for hours. His legs ached, but he thought they would carry him a little farther to find something to drink. But that would mean leaving Anna by herself. And she hadn’t wanted to be alone in the forest. She’d been very, very clear about that.
Something moved between the trees ahead. Flint perked up and squinted into the shadows. The lamp’s light was dimming as its batteries ran low, and the shadows were playing weird tricks on his eyes. One second, he thought he saw someone standing there. The next, the figure was gone.
“Hey!” His voice croaked. He glanced at Anna then swallowed as he picked up a branch.
Leaves crackled. There really was something out there, just beyond his range of vision, watching him. But it wasn’t Chris or Hailey. They wouldn’t have stayed silent if he’d called to them. Flint’s heart missed a beat as he slowly rose to his aching feet. The ant bites, which had been calm, started burning again. He took a stumbling step forward.
“I know you’re there, freak,” he growled. If the creature heard, it wasn’t frightened. He could see a block of shadow, tall and thick, standing amongst the trees. It looked just like a massive tombstone, except when Flint stared at it, the figure turned and began walking away.
He didn’t want to follow. But he couldn’t spend the night huddled next to Anna, knowing that if he fell asleep, the monster would come for them. There was no right answer.
Flint took a careful step forward. The creature continued to walk away. As it moved, it reached out an arm, and a slow scraping noise made Flint shiver.
He could see it now, but what happened when it moved beyond his line of sight? Would it circle around? Come at him from a different angle? Or just wait, biding its time? He couldn’t stand it. As tired as he was, he wasn’t going to be a sitting duck for it to pick off at its leisure. It was probably used to people being scared of it. Well, he wouldn’t cower, and he wouldn’t give it that satisfaction.
Flint charged. The creature disappeared behind a tree. It was fast. Flint hefted his branch as he reached the area he’d last seen it, but it was already gone.
“You want a fight?” he screamed. “I’ll fight you! Come and get it!”
Something metallic scraped against a tree. Flint swivelled towards the sound. He caught a flash of glowing green eyes, then the monster was gone again. He leapt towards it, determined not to lose to the creature. It had taken Eileen. It had hurt Anna. It had probably killed Todd too. He would make it pay. As long as it could bleed, he could win, and he would make it regret ever laying a finger on his friends.
The monster stepped out from between two trees. It loomed over him, nearly a foot taller than he was. Its eyes flashed a sickly green. In the permeating darkness, that was all Flint could see. It was all he needed to see. He ran towards it, a bellow building in his chest, weapon raised to smash it across the creature’s face—
His feet touched air. Flint screamed as he plunged down. The eyes disappeared from view. His branch hit something solid and was torn out of his hands. He was falling into an endless pit. There wasn’t enough air left in him to scream. Then his head hit a rock, snapping it forward and sending fireworks across his vision.
Flint tumbled to a halt. He couldn’t see anything except black. His limbs felt numb. He was lying on something hard and rough… tree roots, maybe. He had one thought.
The monster had lured him there. It hadn’t needed to fight him, because it was smart enough to use a trap instead. And it had won.
His head dropped, and his eyes fell closed.
46
Chris looked up, a half-filled water bottle in his hand. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Hailey, up on the riverbank, glanced behind herself.
“It sounded like someone yelling.”
In the insipid torchlight, Chris saw a flash of panic in her eyes. “You don’t think…”
“We need to get back.”
He staggered out of the water, his shoes sticking in the mud, and threw the bottle at her. She stuffed it into the backpack then reached towards him to help pull him up the incline. He scrambled onto the weedy, rocky bank then snatched up his pack. Feeling like a fool, he jogged towards the red twine. They shouldn’t have left Flint and Anna alone for so long.
Chris pushed himself to jog along the path the twine made back towards camp. Hailey’s crashing footsteps echoed behind him. Moving quickly, they reached the impromptu campsite within two minutes.
The lantern still glowed, lighting Anna’s sickly complexion as she drew in shallow breaths. Chris rotated on the spot, looking for Flint. The space his friend had been sleeping in was empty. “No, no, no!”
“Flint!” Hailey screamed. Her voice cracked. “Flint! Babe! Where are you?”
Chris ran his hands through his hair. Panic was starting to rise. He couldn’t see any signs of a struggle, but that wasn’t much of a consolation when his friend had essentially vanished into thin air. He should have told Flint where they were going before they left to look for water. He should have made sure he was awake and alert.
Hailey was shaking at his side. She clutched his forearm hard enough to bruise. “Fli-i-i-int!”
He didn’t know what to do. If Flint had woken, panicked, and wandered into the forest, why wasn’t he answering their calls? And if he had been taken unwillingly, would it be stupid to run into the forest after him?
Hailey’s grip became even tighter. Her breathing was more laboured than the run warranted. She was hyperventilating. “We have to find him… we…”
“Okay. Keep calm. I need you to focus.” Chris tried to ignore the note of panic rising in his own voice. “We’ll find him. We just need to…”
A noise like an animal’s muffled wail came out of the forest ahead of them. Hailey stepped towards it, still keeping her painful grip on Chris’s arm. “Is that him? He’s in pain—someone’s hurting him. Chris, do something!”
He pulled the knife out of the belt strapped to his waist. The noise repeated, sending chills running down Chris’s back and limbs. He stumbled through the forest, his heart beating so fast that it felt like it was about to explode. He didn’t like leaving Anna, but if the noises really were coming from Flint… “Stay close behind me. Watch my sides and back. Yell if you see anything moving.”
They paced forward together. Hailey kept one hand on his shoulders to reassure him she was there. He panned his light across the tangle of plants and fluttering bugs that intersected his path, while Hailey kept her own torch on the area behind them. No more noises came from the forest, but Chris thought he could pinpoint the direction they’d come from. He kept creeping forward, his pulse hopping, his light jittering, his footsteps as quiet as he could make them.
