Monsters

Chapter Four

We had decided to travel together. After I began to leave without her she called for me to wait. As I turned back I saw her jogging up to me with a decision in her eye, an answer to my question.

"So, you have any place in mind?" She asked me while her eyes were drawn to a group of monsters off in the distance. At her answer, a small smile grew on my face as I began to feel a slight warmth spread throughout my stomach.

"East," I said before taking her bat from her hand and placing it on my shoulder as I set off in a random direction. I heard her chuckle from behind me.

"East huh? Well, you're going the wrong way." At this, I pause and looked at her tilting my head. "East is that way." She pointed in the opposite direction I had been walking and I facepalmed.

"Of course, yes, that was just me testing you. Congratulations! You passed!" I said before walking in the direction she pointed while trying to hide my face that was flushed from embarrassment.

"Right, of course, you were." She teased me a bit and I found myself grinning after getting her to loosen up. I hadn't seemed to get anything other than her brooding and serious exterior other than a smirk. We will surely make one interesting traveling duo. "Here, catch!" She called for my attention and I turned in time to catch what she had thrown. Upon looking down I scoffed.

"You should get some food in you. I have some water too if you maybe feel like living to see tomorrow that is." She mumbled with a smirk and I rolled my eyes at her antics.

"Oh ha ha." I quipped back sarcastically.

... ... ... ...

"So, why are we headed East?" She asked me as I leaned against a tree to catch my breath. It honestly surprised me how we managed to walk for hours on end yet she never broke a sweat. In fact, the only times we had taken breaks to rest was because I had desperately needed them.

"I'll tell you if you tell me where you were intending to travel." At this comment, she shut down again and I grew frustrated. Every time she had asked me a question I had answered honestly, but any time I had asked something in return she closed herself off and changed the subject. The first few times went unnoticed but then it became repetitive and there was no denying it. "See, there you go again." I sighed looking away from her and starting to walk again.

"What?" She asked as I heard her unzip her hoodie as the sun's heat beat down upon us even as it grew closer to the time it was meant to set. I just shook my head and rolled my eyes. Holding my side momentarily as I stepped over a fallen tree I chose to give her the silent treatment. The woods filled in the quiet between us with the sound of mother nature as birds chirped and leaves crunched beneath our feet.

"It's going to grow dark out soon. We need to get out of these woods and find a place to stay tonight. If that group is still on our tail it would just be safer to get out of the open." She said from behind me after a few minutes of traveling in silence. I simply chose to stay quiet, not exactly used to making conversation after such a long time of traveling alone, as well as still upset with her remaining so closed off when I've been nothing but open. Was I being unfair?

"Watch out!" She shouted suddenly and I looked up in time to see a monster coming out from behind the tree beside me. Instinct took over and I swung the bat full force bashing in its skull. I started to breathe heavily as I looked up to see even more monsters coming up from a distance.

"They must be from another hoard?" I offered and took a few steps back. Looking toward her I saw her eyes looking at the bloody bat that lay within my tight grasp. "Hello? We need to get out of here." I tried to say this quietly and her eyes snapped towards mine as she focused back in on the present.