I stop at the small dip in the forest. I
have a great view here. I blend into the trees and listen. I close my eyes and
wait. The noises become like a song the forest sings. You only hear it when you
stop being you and become part of the forest. I feel the waves in the music
rising and falling with the wind.
I grab my bow and arrow and get read. I
wait for it. I hear the sound I am seeking. It is a pheasant.
I see the bizarre looking face of it and
the spectacular colors. It is a male. I take a breath and on the exhale,
release the arrow perfectly. It took me two years of constant shooting to be
able to down a pheasant at this distance. The male drops without a sound, as
the arrow pierces his throat just below his head. I wait and watch. The forest
continues its merry song. I wait an extra second. I put the bow and arrows back
in the small hole beside the tree.
I retrieve my catch, constantly looking
over my shoulder. Jake and his sister watched me in the forest for two months
before I became aware of them. My sense of security in this place is
questioned. A heat flushes my cheeks as I walk carrying the bird by his feet. I
think about Jake. His dark hair and blue eyes and long eyelashes.
A stabbing pain rips through my thigh.
I look up to see the reflection of a
scope from across the small gully. I drop to the ground and whistle. I lay
amongst the brush frozen. My heart is beating out of control.
Anna.
I know she has shot me. She wants my
cabin. She made that perfectly clear. My heart hurts for the smallest of
seconds. I force it back into its cave and harden myself to the fact I will
have to kill her. Flashes of her sweet face and how much she looks like her
brother fill my mind.
I hear the shots whizzing past me in the
brush. Panic fills me. She is using my own silencer against me. I wonder if
Jake knows.
I hold my breath and wait. I know Leo
will come to me. I have trained him to come to me. He will come.
I hear footsteps.
The forest is silent as the predator
moves through it. The birds can hear the panic in me. My heartbeat reveals all
to them.
I feel a sickening hurt as I realize I
have been betrayed. I never should have helped him out of the hole. I should
have never opened the door.
I should have cracked the whiskey and
listened from inside my cabin, for her to die or leave.
I knew I would regret it.
I look around. There is too much brush
surrounding me. Any movements will stir up the bush and reveal my spot. I can
hear her footsteps as she draws nearer. She is heavy in step. She breaks the
branches roughly, making the birds and woodland creatures even quieter.
Her footsteps are on top of me. I am
certain she can hear my heartbeat. I am also certain she is going to shoot me
in the back.
I hear a whizzing noise again and bullets
hitting the tree behind me. The ricochet lands not far from me. I wonder what
she is doing. Has she lost the spot where she shot me? Thankfully the bush is
thick around me.
I hear a thump and some rustling near me.
I don’t know what's going on. I am panicking silently.
"Em." A whisper fills the
forest near me.
I look around without rustling the
bushes.
"Em."
I feel Leo's breath on me suddenly.
I look up to see Anna squatting beside
me. She has walked silently toward me like Leo does.
I see the rifle in her hands. Rage fills
me, but I know the bullet in my thigh is not going to allow me to jump up and
fight for the gun. I will not be defeated by some kid. I look at Leo, who is on
edge. He is hunting as if Anna is his partner. That hurts more than anything.
"Em I killed him but there might be
others."
"What?" The words leave my
mouth, before I have a chance to check my volume.
She puts a finger to her lips, "He
probably isn’t alone."
I look at my gun in her hands, "You
never shot me?"
She points to a bush beside me, "He
shot you. Why would I shoot you?
What? Where are you shot?"
I ignore the shooting pain and get up on
my knees. I almost cry out as I make it to my feet in a hunched position.
I see the boots of the man on the ground.
"Those are military issue." I
speak softly, scanning the forest.
"Great."
I limp to him and bend over. My leg is
pouring blood now. I take off my outer shirt and tie it around my thigh
tightly. I fish his pockets. The warmth of my blood is seeping down my leg. He
is older, forty maybe. He has brown hair and looks like he's been eating quite
well. His butt is remarkably large. I take his gun and a knife I find in his
boot. I take some beef jerky he had and throw it at Leo.
"We could have eaten that."
I look back at Anna and frown,
"Never eat anything you take off another human. Could have the infection
or be rotten."
She points to Leo, "He could get the
infection."
I shake my head, "He's immune."
"No one is immune."
I smile sarcastically, "I have
downed sick things before and he has eaten them. He never gets sick."
She makes a face as she unties his boots,
"Oh god, so he ate his mother and lived?"
I nod, "Yeah probably. I try to not
think about it."
"You said he never ate her."
I shrug and scan the forest speaking
softly, "I didn’t want to gross you out or scare you while I was touching
your brother's wounded leg. We just met. I was trying to be polite. Get the
bird."
She takes his boots, the bird and walks
to me, "You need a hand?"
I lean on her. Leo comes up to my other
side. He is less startled now.
"He got all crazy and started
scratching at the door. He tried to open the door himself. I knew something was
wrong. He led me right to you."
I brush a hand into his dense fur and
stroke. It's not the first time he's saved me and I know it won't be the last
time.
We walk back to the cabin. I feel sick
and afraid. I have no doubts the army guy is not alone.
My small defenseless cabin is under
attack. My shirt around my leg is soaked red and I feel weak. I'm afraid the
bullet is still in my thigh. I think about the fact that Anna is the only able
bodied person now and we are going to be attacked any moment. My safety and
comfort is gone. In my mind I can hear the tearing and the screaming again.
As I walk through the door, Anna helps me
to the other chair. I sit on the edge and try not to get blood everywhere.
Leo looks worried. His eyes are
concerned and full of expression. He nudges me. I scratch his face and kiss the
top of his head.
"I can't believe you thought I shot
you. That's really what you think I would do after you help Jake?"
I wobble slightly from blood loss and smirk,
"No, but I was scared. I'm glad it wasn’t you."
I feel the chair against the back of my
head as the ceiling starts to spin. I feel sick but then everything goes black.
"Seriously you both have to be hurt.
I'm going to get Leo to bite me so someone else gets a turn at laundry and
cooking."
Pain shoots everywhere. The light in the
cabin is too much. I feel like I'm on a boat like when I was a kid. Everything
feels thick like I'm moving through mud.
"Oh you're awake."
I bat my eyelashes at the fuzzy being in
front of me.
I feel hands on my face, "But still
hot. Anna what did the book say about fevers?"
"I never read that part."
I cough and sniffle, "I need fluids
and salt. I need my body to get hydrated again.
Jake brushes his hands over my face,
"You look really uncomfortable. Want me to take you to your bed?"
I sit up as best as I can. I feel weak.
"I'm okay here. Did my artery get
shot?"
Jake's face comes into view completely,
as my vision clears.
He shakes his head, "We don’t think
so but you lost a lot of blood. I think you're anemic. Our mom was
anemic."
"I eat a lot of meat."
"She always ate a lot of veg though.
Something found in radishes and purple cabbage and beets was what her doctor
told her."
"Well that would explain it." I
feel crabby. My leg hurts.
I look at the huge white bandage on it.
"Who did this? Did you get the
bullet out?"
Jake limps back to his bed on the couch,
"Anna did it. She did exactly what you did for me. Only you weren’t awake
for it."
I catch the bitterness dripping from his
statement.
"Stop being a baby I saved you. What
about the man?"
Anna brings me a glass of water, "No
one else has come but at the same time we haven’t exactly been leaving the
cabin."
Leo is sleeping beside the loveseat I am
stretched along.
I reach my fingers down and let the tips
slide through his fur, "Someone will come looking for him. I think we
should go to one of the other houses." I can't believe I've said it. I've
never helped anyone. The words feel unnatural for me.
Jake laughs, "You have other
houses?"
"Supply houses where I've hidden the
food and the supplies. They're all farmhouses with bunkers or shelters and
cellars."
Jake whistles softly, "You are an
amazing girl Emma. How long have you been alone?"
Visions of my father creep in but I'm too
tired to fight them. My lips move on their own. "The whole time. He died,
my father died in the first month. When the panic hit the cities and everyone
fled." I don't tell them he was the first person I left. The first one I
ignored.
I see the pity cross Jake's face,
"You were nine?"
I nod once.
"How have you made it this
far?"
"I don't help people. I haven’t
helped anyone. He told me to run. Always run. Don’t look back Emma just run.
Then hide."
Anna sits on the couch beside her brother
and beams at me, "Until us."
I look at her and think terrible things
about being shot and the fact the man no doubt followed them to my cabin.
Instead I smile, "Till you."
Jake reads my thoughts, "And look
where it's gotten you. I think you're right. As soon as we get back on our feet
we should get moving."
I need to look at the wound on my leg. I
need to make sure she did it right.
I lift the leg and ignore the pain. I
tear the tape wincing and slowly peel the layers away.
Blood seeps through the closer I get to
the wound. I feel nauseous seeing my own blood filter through the cotton. It's
stark compared to my blood that has made an image of a flower appear.
The top bandage is soaked. She hasn’t
stitched me up properly.
I want to get angry with her but I speak
softly, "I need the water boiled and the needle and floss."
She looks hurt, "Did I do it
wrong?"
"Yes." I grit my teeth and
speak through them, "But you tried."
She passes everything to me on a plate. I
want to chuckle at the fact I've been downed by a sniper, but I can't. I should
have noticed him, instead of daydreaming about Jake.
I glance up at him. He looks worried.
"How's your leg?"
"Fine. It itches but my fever is
gone. It looked really red and angry when Anna changed the bandage
earlier."
I point to the bathroom, "Anna I
have tea tree oil in the cupboard. It's antiseptic and antibacterial."
She returns with the small blue bottle.
My father had left bottles of it in here when he was stock piling his supply
cupboards.
She passes it to me. I dump it all over
my wound. It doesn’t sting. It feels like nothing, but the smell burns my nose
with mint freshness.
I put the lid back on and toss it to
Jake. He is sitting in his underwear on the blankets. He undoes the bandage and
smothers his leg in the oil.
My fingers tremble as I pour whiskey over
them. I try to thread the needle with floss but I can't. I close my eyes and
sigh. I feel the cool nose of Leo press against my ankle. I open my eyes and
thread the needle. It's the smallest needle we have. I grit my teeth and
remember the day my father took me to the San Francisco Pier.
The wind was warm and filled with exotic
smells. My stomach rumbled as the breeze lifted my dark blond hair up into the
air. People shouted and squealed in joy at every turn. I had never seen a
two-story carousel before. I remember the magical feeling of climbing aboard my
horse. It had a dark golden mane that matched my hair. I ran my fingers over
the warm hard mane and imagined it was real. My father took pictures and waved
at me as the ride stared up.