The creatures

The creatures- Chapter 4

The longer we walked, the more uneasy I grew. For all I knew this man could be planning to murder me. But something in me convinced me to go on. I had nothing left if the creatures killed my Mum.

Every couple of minutes, the man would glance down at me, it felt really intimidating.

"So what's your name?" He glanced down at me.

"Julia, and what is yours?"

"Matthew"

Now that I looked at him properly, I realised that he was not much older than me. He must have been around 18, maybe 3-4 years older than me.

The journey went on forever, soon enough I began to panic as we were entering the forest. He could easily have killed me earlier, nobody would care. They are all far too absorbed with other situations.

After a couple of minutes of me panicking as we went further into the forest, we reached a little hill. As we began climbing, I could make out about 20 other people. All of them around my age, maybe a few years older.

I began to panic.

They told me to sit down and introduce myself; I told them the basics, my name, that I'm 14, why I was outside risking my life etc...

After they gave me some food, clearly from tins, they explained to me why I was brought here.

I found out that there are a couple of groups similar to this one, all over America. They are all trying to murder the creatures.

I was told that they needed more help, as the numbers of the creatures kept on rising.

And they explained to me that they need me. Why me though?

Later I introduced myself with the rest of the members, many of them had many similar situations as me, no one left to take care of them. I became friends with a few other members, surprisingly many were my age, one or two were even younger.

After sunset I was given a larger gun, I don't know much about guns but I know that it looks pretty dangerous. I then had target practise for the next two days while the others were out hunting for the creatures.

At night we slept on the hill as apparently the creatures can not climb. It got really cold, especially during the night. I was given a thin blanket which I had to share with Jay and Ella. Jay was 16 and a total douche, I avoided contact with him.

However Ella and I soon became close, she was a few months older and she was lovely. During training sessions we would often end up working together; she was also quite new. We were taught how to fire the guns, set up traps, tie knots, recognise edible food from non-edible food, find shelter and a few basic lessons on the strengths and weaknesses of the creatures.

Over the next few days 8 new members joined. I have only tomorrow left for training before I have to begin the different tasks. Me, Ella, a boy called Jake and two others have the task of finding one of their hiding places. We will have to leave the hill for 3 days in order to search thoroughly.

My biggest fear is what happens if we do find a group of the creatures. Sure, I had some training but 3 people have already been killed in the last week, two of them were older than me and had more training.

If I die then Mum won't have anyone to look after her. She will be alone.

--- 2 days later---

We are leaving at sun set. I am now beginning to panic. There is no way that we will be able to stand a chance against the creatures.

We have been given some food to take along with us. And now they're just informing us of where to look, what to expect etc.

They have handed us a map which me and Ella are given the responsibility of looking after it.

They gave us some warm jackets and gloves, otherwise we would just freeze straight away.

As soon as the sun set us and two other groups set out. We started heading north from the hill. We were told not to begin looking for them until we reach the stream. Reaching it would take us up until tomorrow, as we will need to camp somewhere safe throughout the night.

The darker that it began getting, the more paranoid we became.

Ella was walking a bit ahead, she had so much energy! I began talking to the others, there is Jake who is 15 and I already vaguely know him, Rainie who is only 13 and Mitchell who is 15.

They seemed pretty OK so I decided to stay with them for a while, once it got pitch black I decided to walk with Ella, it was tough work keeping up with her but we were safer if we stuck together.

After an hour or so of walking we were already way too tired to carry on. Our legs ached and our heads were spinning from exhaustion. We were reaching the area where we were told to camp out for the night.

As we got closer I began to hear faint scratches, at first I thought it was one of the others who were behind. The scratching constantly grew louder until it was unbearable.

I was so exhausted and the noise was annoying the hell out of me. By now it was louder than any other noises around us. I turned around, now furious.

"Can you please stop it!"

I recieved blank and confused faces in return, I turned back around and kept on walking.

My plea clearly did not affect them whatsoever as they carried on.

I turned around and I regretted it.

Standing right behind the three of them were none other than 3 of the creatures.

I let of an ear-piercing scream to which I recieved confused faces.

"RUN!"

I shouted as loud as I could. It startled everyone including the creatures.

I began shooting at them, knocking one of then to the ground. Ella just stood frozen from shock whilst the rest were already near us.

Soon one of the creatures sprang forward and Ella, who was now out of the trance, managed to shoot it down before it reached me.

The one that I shot was now back on its feet and running towards us.

My head started spinning, and before I knew it. I fainted.

~~~

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