Ellie Dixon

Hunting or Hunted

Me and dad were taking a short brake as he strung up another squirrel he'd shot. "When am I actually gonna catch one?"

"If we weren't running so low on food, I'd let you have another go. You already missed one." Dad reminded me with a teasing smile.

"Okay, but you caught it eventually." I reminded him, crossing my arms over my chest. "Besides, if I was using anything other than your eighteenth century crossbow, I'd have caught a gazillion by now." I complained as dad got up and we walked further into the forest.

"First of all, the first recorded crossbow was no later than the 7th century BC, so get your facts right, sweetheart. Second of all, we know you're borderline good with your weapons, but what if you're in a situation where you don't have your  weapons?" Dad questioned.

"Borderline good?" I raised my eyebrows as I pulled out my boomerang and threw it at a walker that was twenty feet away. My weapon managed to come back to me as well, avoiding the many trees in its wake. "You call that borderline good?... Also the 7th century BC thing is just further proving my point."

"Fine, borderline perfect, but nobody likes a show off." Dad commented.

"Says Mr Daryl watch me kill this walker with my eyes closed Dixon." I laughed.

"I did it though, didn't I." Dad raised his eyebrows as he looked down to me.

I fought off a smile as I shook my head. "I had a P.E teacher like you once. Mr Smith. I'm not sure what his first name was, but on his badge it was N. Smith so me and Emily called him knob Smith. He was so full of himself like you are, but he loved to yell at kids. Also thought playing video games and bragging about cheating on his wife was cool."

"You do realise knob begins with a K and not an N, right?" Dad laughed.

"I realised that when I was eight. Too late for Emily though, so I kept referring to him as Knob Smith... Didn't have anyone to refer to him with though." I said a bit sadly. 

"If it helps, Mr Knob Smith might be a walker now." Dad tried to comfort me. "And you got something better than friends now. You got family... Even that Noah kid which you ain't spoken too yet."

I smiled. "Guess I came out on top eventually."

Dad patted my head. "That's my girl."

I smiled before dad moved his hand in front of my face so I stopped in my tracks with him. "Uhm, rude."

"Shh." Dad said so quietly I barely heard him... But, then I did hear the growling. I looked to my left and saw a herd of walkers. I could only make out about fifty of them as the growling got louder but it could've been more. Dad secured his crossbow on his back before grabbing my hand and we started to run. I turned back and saw that the walkers had noticed us and were now on our trail. I also noticed the herd was more like a hundred to a hundred and fifty walkers. Not good.

We noticed a cottage up ahead. "We can wait them out in there." I pointed out, just before I tripped over a small rock. Dad didn't wanna waste time so he just picked me up and ran us to the cottage. He opened the door and slammed it shut behind us. He put me down as he kept his back to the door.

I made sure my foot was fine before I looked around. There was nothing in this cottage which turned out to be more like a shed. There was only a fireplace, I peeked up it and since I could see the sky I realised it was a potential escape route. "I ain't fitting up there, babe." Dad commented. 

I looked out the window and could see the herd catching up. I ducked down below the window to make sure they couldn't see me. As I ducked down, my hand came into contact with something. I moved my hand and a giant spider crawled into my palm. I screamed as I tried to flick it off. Dad squatted down, covering my mouth with one hand and flicking the spider away with the other. Dad kept his hand over my mouth but moved the other one to the door. We stared at each in fear and in hope that the herd would just move along. When we heard the banging on the doors and the walls, dad instantly stood back up to press his body against the door to keep them out. Tears brimmed my eyes as I looked out the window, I had to swallow a sob to not make the situation worse. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I hate spiders and it was on me... I'm sorry, daddy-"