Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 12

By the time Anna and Ella woke up, I think it at least was midday. We were currently trying to figure out how to divide up the food and water. "Well, there's five granola bars so each of us could get one and it would be up to us to ration it out," Leo said. I nodded, "That's the most logical decision. The real problem is the water. We only have two bottles and if we divide by gender then we have three people drinking from one bottle." "We have an uneven amount of people," Ella pointed out, "No matter what we do three people are going to be drinking from the same bottle." "Ella's right," Anna agreed, "If it was just the four of us it would be easy but now, we have a fifth person." I groaned, why was this so hard!? As much as I hate to admit it this would be much easier if Leo wasn't here. Then we could evenly divide the water! "We could just split the water between us four and leave Leo to die," Ella suggested, "Then we wouldn't have to worry about it." Leo turned and glared at Ella, "Need I remind you if it weren't for me, you would be dead!" "Right," Ella scoffed, "And now I'm supposed to respect you or something?" "I just thought I would remind you that you would be dead," Leo replied, "I could have always left you guys to die, it's not like I needed to stop and tell you what was going on. I could have just kept going, there was no reason for me to stop." Liar, I thought to myself, you knocked on the door because you were scared, and rightfully so. "I don't care," Ella spat, "Besides you're injured you'll just slow us down." An offended look crossed Leo's face, "I got injured saving your sorry asses! If your friend hadn't screamed, we wouldn't be in this situation right now!"

"Don't blame Anna for this!" Ella argued, "They still would have seen us! We were right there!" "I don't think they would've!" Leo shouted, "They looked straight past us!" "How do you know!?" Ella yelled, "I thought you didn't know anything about them!" "I don't! Since you're so eager to kill someone off why don't we leave you to die!?" Leo shot back. Ella laughed, "Why? So, you can add another body to your kill count?" "I haven't killed anyone!" Leo argued. "Really?" Ella asked skeptically, "Because I think you have. Because normally people aren't that mad when someone accuses them of it unless they're guilty!" "Well, maybe it's because last night you implied that I killed my friends!" Leo spat. "Because you probably did, and I have a feeling that one of us is next," Ella sneered. "If I do ever decide to kill anyone, you'll be the first on the list," Leo seethed. "Is that a threat?" She asked narrowing her eyes. "It is," Leo replied, "And if you don't shut up, I'll carry through with it." Ella glared at him but said nothing more, I guess she didn't feel like dying. Not that I think Leo would kill anyone but it's better safe than sorry. "Instead of killing people," Jack said, looking annoyed, "We could have one person jump between water bottles so it's even." Ella shrugged, "That would work too, who's gonna bounce between bottles?" "I could," I volunteered. "Sure," Anna said, "I mean you hardly drink any water as it is, so you'll probably drink the least out of all of us." I glanced around to see if there were any objections. There weren't any. "So, it's settled," I declared, "We each get one granola bar, Anna and Ella will share a bottle and Jack and Leo will share one then I'll bounce between bottles." "Now all we have to do is figure out what we want to do," Anna said. Jack frowned, "I forgot about that." "What do you mean figure out what to do?" Ella asked confused. Leo rolled his eyes, "We need to figure out whether we want to wait in the woods to be found or walk to the town, you moron."

"Oh, I'm sorry if I just assumed we were walking to the town," Ella replied. "Can you two get along for five minutes?" Jack asked irritated, "Or do I need to make you hold hands and walk around the clearing?" "Sorry," Leo muttered. Ella rolled her eyes, "Whatever, let's just figure out what we're doing." I bit back a grin; Jack was such a mom. Jack smiled, "Good, now staying and leaving both have their pros and cons. If we stay, we run the risk of the killers finding us, but it will also be easier for the police to find us. If we leave all of the walking will probably make us thirsty faster but we can call for help once, we get to the town." "We also need to take into account that Leo is injured," Anna pointed out, "If we leave, he'll probably slow down our progress and he'll probably get more injured or risk getting an infection." "I won't slow us down," Leo said, "I'll be able to keep up." "Anna's right" I agreed, "Even if you could keep up, you could injure yourself more or get an infection, and neither of those things is good." "Oh please," Leo scoffed, "As long as we change the bandage regularly and I take breaks if needed, I'll be fine." "He has a point," Jack said, "As long as he has clean bandages the risk of getting an infection is slim and if we take breaks when he needs them, he should be fine." "Yeah, but taking breaks will slow us down," Ella commented. "Don't worry about that," Leo told her, "Think of it as a sprained ankle, if we stop, it won't be that often." "But your ankle isn't sprained," I said, "Your leg is ripped open." "Not that much of a difference," Leo replied, "I vote we go to the town; I don't want to take any chances out here." "I agree with Leo," Jack chimed in, "I vote we head to the town." "I disagree," Anna stated, "I think we shouldn't risk it with Leo's injury, I vote we stay." "I vote we head to the town and if Leo can't keep up ditch him," Ella said. I sighed, "I agree with Anna and vote we stay but we're outvoted three to two." "Then it's settled," Jack stated, "We head towards the town, and if the police find us before we get there great, if not we call them when we get there."

"That leaves one more thing," Ella said, "When do we leave?" "I say we leave now," Jack replied, "The farther we get from here the better." "Sounds good to me," I said, "But when do we stop walking?" "When it gets dark," Leo answered, "There's no point in walking if we can't see." "Sounds like a plan," Anna smiled, "Let's go!" I smiled, at least Anna wasn't mopping around because she got outvoted. As long as Ella and Leo don't start arguing, I think this should go smoothly. We decided to leave the food and water in my bag, and a few minutes later, we set off in what was hopefully the direction of the town. As we walked through the forest, I peered between the trees and made sure I didn't see anything that looked like a person. We continued to walk and as we trudged on, I began to let my mind wander. My mind drifted off to last night, so much had happened in such little time it's hard to believe we had been lost in the woods on a harmless hike not long ago. It feels like years should have passed since then. It's amazing how we went from carefree to terrified in a blink of an eye. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Everything happened so quickly. It was like I was in some sort of story. How did this happen? How could I keep my friends safe if they were in the middle of the woods and being hunted by murderers!? Were they even murderers? After what Leo had told me last night, I'm not sure if they were human or not. If they weren't human, how can we stop them? Can you kill something that isn't human? Would that even work? Or were we doomed to die? I shook those thoughts to the back of my head. I didn't have time to focus on things like that, I need to make sure my friends made it to the town without dying. I can worry about those creatures later. We continued to walk, occasionally we would sit down to rest, but we never stopped for long. The faster we got to the town the quicker we could call for help.

As time went on, the sky began to darken. We continued to walk till we could only see the vague outlines of each other. "I think we should stop for the day," I called out as I narrowly avoided running into a tree. "I agree," Jack said, "I'm going to scream if I trip over another tree root." Ella sighed, "Fine, I was hoping to go just a bit farther." "We can hardly see in front of us," Leo pointed out, "I doubt we would be able to spot anyone trying to attack us." "Leo's right," Anna agreed. "I know!" Ella replied, "I said fine! That meant we could stop!" Anna held her hands up, "Okay, sorry. No need to get snappy." "No, it's fine, I'm the one who should be apologizing," Ella muttered, "I'm tired and this day hasn't been ideal." "All the more reason for us to rest," I told her, "Everyone is exhausted and I'm sure the more sleep we get the better we'll feel tomorrow." Ella nodded and sat down, "This looks like a good place to stop. I'm going to sleep so don't bother me." I plopped down on the ground next to Ella and groaned. My feet were sore from the long day of walking and my legs still hurt from our wild sprint the night before. I really should have run during the off-season. I sighed nothing I can do about it now. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and listened to my surroundings. Ella was fast asleep beside me, I always envied how quickly she could fall asleep. Jack was shifting around somewhere on my right trying to get comfortable, Anna was humming to herself, she would probably fall asleep soon. I listened until all of my friends had fallen asleep and just as I was about to doze off, I heard someone moving around. Sitting up, I scanned the area for danger only to find nothing. "Go back to sleep," a British voice said. That's when I remembered Leo was with us. "I wasn't sleeping," I told him, "I was going to, but you woke me up." "Hm, sounds like a you problem," he replied. I snorted, "Are you always this rude?" "It's not rude," Leo muttered, "It's called being sarcastic."

I sighed, "Well either way it makes you come across as rude." "Do I look like I care?" he asked. "I don't know," I replied, "I can't see your face." Leo snorted, "Good point." We sat there in comfortable silence until a question popped into my head. "Why are you awake?" I asked, "Aren't you tired?" "Kinda," Leo replied, "But I figured someone should stay up in case those things are around." I frowned; I hadn't thought about that, but he has a good point. "Don't worry about that," I said, "I'll stay awake. You get some rest." "But then you won't get any sleep," Leo frowned. "I'll be fine," I replied, "Missing sleep doesn't affect my mood." "But what if you fall asleep?" He asked. "It won't be a problem," I told him, "I'm a very light sleeper the smallest noises wake me up. Besides those things scream like banshees I'm pretty sure I would hear them." Leo went quiet for a moment. "Fine," he sighed, "But if you feel tired wake me up." I nodded, "You got it. Now get some rest." I heard Leo lay down and move around until he got comfortable. I leaned up against a tree and listened until his breaths evened out. I could feel my eyes begin to droop and finally, I fell asleep.