End of Days: The Hunted

Chapter 13

Mary sat inside the small, black tent, packing all of her clothes back into her bag. As she was packing, Matt crawled in, leaving little space. He sat down next to her, his unkempt, black hair hanging loosely over his face. "Look, I'm sorry." he said, "I know I've been on edge lately. I'm sorry if I made you or anyone else upset lately."

Mary smiled brightly, "It's fine. We've all been on edge."

"I know, it's just, all of this is so crazy. I'm not sure I can do it anymore. All of this running away."

Mary touched his dirty face, "It's okay. It's going to be alright. We'll make it."

He put his hand on hers, "But I'm not even one of you." he paused, "I just don't know why I'm here."

She took her hand off his face, "You can leave if you want. We're not keeping you here."

"No, no. I want to be here for you." he said, "I'm here because of you. I don't plan on either."

"Thank you." she smiled, "I'm glad you're here."

Matt moved her hair out of her face, "I love you. I don't ever wanna lose you."

"I don't want to lose you either."

He moved closer to her.

"Hey!" Tom popped in through the tent entrance, "We got some deer meat!"

Matt jumped back, "Oh okay. Thanks."

"Don't thank me, thank Luke." said Tom walking away.

"I guess we better get some food before everyone else gets to it." said Mary.

"Yeah. I guess so."

Luke handed out pieces of the deer meat. "It's probably not the best, but it's the best I could do."

"Oh, it's fine. Something to eat is something to eat." said Tom taking in a mouthful of cooked, thick meat.

"I'm just glad I was blessed enough to get a good catch." Luke picked off another piece giving it to Rebecca.

"We should probably get moving soon though. I'm afraid those brutes will be catching up." said Mary as everyone sat around the fire cooking the deer parts.

"We'll head out early tomorrow." said Tom.

Luke looked toward the starry sky. "Sure is a beautiful night. Maybe try traveling tonight?"

Tom examined the dark sky and frowned, "Eh, maybe. Either way, we need to get moving."

Matt woke up to complete silence. Everyone else was still asleep. So much for traveling tonight. After that deer, we all just fell asleep. Boy, it was nice to actually eat something other than canned food. He got up from the ground, stretched and patted his full stomach. He looked around, enjoying the silence of the night. Wait, silence? He listened closely to the dark night. No animals, no wind, nothing. This wasn't good. He knelt close to the ground and peered off into the distance. A shadow swept across the forest. Oh no! He moved swiftly toward Mary. "Hey." he pushed her awake, "We need to get going. They're here."

Her eyes widened, "What?"

"They're here!" he whispered fiercely, "Look!"

He pointed toward the woods. A black figure walked past.

She got up quickly, "Come on, let's wake everyone."

They moved fast, waking up everyone. They got all of them into a car and started the engine. The car roared and soon enough, they were out of range of the enemy.

"That was close." Tom said.

"No doubt." exaggerated Luke.

Boom!

The car flipped as an explosion erupted from underneath it. Total blackness filled the air as smoke lifted into the sky. The car skidded and stop at the edge of a cliff, almost falling into the depths of the darkness. They all screamed.

Luke kicked the side door open and busted out. He helped everyone out and then looked for the enemy. He spotted the dark red eyes of a soldier coming in their direction. He sprinted toward the dark brute and leaped at him, kicking the red eyes of the helmet. He then brought down a fist on the face of the once helmeted soldier. Shots broke through the air and he ducked, heading back to the others. "Come on!" he yelled.

They all ran away from the destroyed car, leaving everything behind.