Our World Is Slowly Dying

Exploring The Wilderness

The campers all sat around the fire at the end of the evening.
"Daddy," Charlie asked politely, "one day will I be able to go out into the forest like Dexter and hunt for food?" Dexter lifted his head in interest as Crawford laughed in disgust.
"You'll never be good enough for something like that," he insulted, "now shut up, take everyone's dishes and clean them!" Charlie sulked. She wanted so badly to become someone like Dexter. Unappreciated as he is, he's the reason the camp is still alive. She took the 5 dishes that Debra had cooked bland, dry food onto and took them to the creak to wash.
Every Thursday, Dexter went alone to a nearby town and collected bags full of goods to last us to the next tiring Thursday. Charlie wished she could go with him, but doubted he even liked her. Never ever had he spoken a real conversation to her.

According to the sun, it was beginning to get dark, so it wasn't long until she had to go and collect more dried branches from the outskirts of the forest. In her tent, she once found her dad hide a couple of penknives inside his pillow case. If she could get her hands on one of them, she would be able to craft her own bow and arrow and kill the Infected like Dexter. She returned back to her tent and Coby was inside waiting for her, however she wasn't interested by what coloured toad he had found by the creak.
"Hey- you'll never guess what colour-" Charlie cut him off.
"You know, I think I'll collect some sticks early today."
"Oh, sure," Coby said and went back into his pod, probably to go and read the same old comic.
Charlie snuck into Crawford's pod and and slipped her hand in the pillowcase. 4 penknives she found, and she took the worst. He wouldn't realise the worst one was missing, surely. As she approached the campsite, Dexter was already gone. She started creeping towards the forest when all of a sudden, "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Crawford grabbed Charlie's wrist, making her glad she had stuffed the knife in her back pocket instead of clutched in her sweaty fists.
"The campfire died down quite quick, don't you think? I'm making sure these sticks are worth the time looking for," she lied. Crawford grabbed the top of her black and white shirt and brought it towards his face. "Go off with that dumbass, Dexter, and you'll wish you weren't born." He pushed her the way she was heading.
The closer she got to the forest, the more she regretted her mischievous scheme, and how much of a beating she would get if he found out. Was it the best thing to do? Her head said to turn around and go back but her feet kept walking closer and closer. She got to the edge of the forest and began to approach it. Finally, the moment she had been waiting for was so close.