Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 30

I could hear everyone stumbling around as we walked through the woods. Without streetlights and tree branches covering the moon, we were practically blind. I was barely able to see two feet in front of me and unless one of the others had night vision, I'm sure they were having the same problem. I would have said something about stopping, but our priority was to get as far away from the town as possible. For all, we know Brian's goons are out looking for us right now so the farther we get the better. We trudged on tripping over tree roots and walking into branches. As we got farther away, I began to hear crickets and other insects. The woods began to fill with noise and things felt somewhat normal again. We've done this before. We walked through these trees for three days with only five granola bars and two water bottles and made it out and this time we have supplies.

If the backpack works like Margret says, we'll be set. Wait, shouldn't the bag have a flashlight if it supplies what we need? Stopping in my tracks, I unzipped the bag and took it off my shoulder. Feeling around, I smiled when my hand met a familiar shape. Pulling it out, I grinned at the sight of a flashlight. Quickly switching it on, the woods instantly lit up. "Guys," I said, "We have a flashlight. We don't have to feel our way around anymore." "Thank goodness!" Jack cried, "I was going to lose it if I tripped over another branch!" "Wait," Anna squinted confused, "Where'd you get that from?" "The backpack," I told her, "Margret said it would give us the supplies we needed." "Ohhhh," she said, "I forgot about that." "Me too," I admitted pulling out another one, "It looks like it gave us two. Who's closer to the front?" "Ella, I think," Leo says a little way ahead of me "Toss it to me and I can give it to her."

"Okay," I said tossing it to him, "I'll give light to the people in the back Ella you give light to the people in the front." "Or I could," Chase suggested, "I'm stronger so if anything attacks us, I can fend it off." I frowned. Yeah no, he may be physically stronger, but I trust Ella way more than him. He'll probably steal the flashlight, jump us when we're distracted, and steal the bag. "Ella already has it," I stated, "We'll just let her keep it. Besides she can hold her own if something jumps at us." Chase gritted his teeth, "If you say so." With that, we continued our journey through the trees flashlights lighting the way. We continued to walk for a while longer till someone called a break. Sitting down, on the cool leaf-scattered ground I rested my head against one of the trees. Even though I took a nap before we left, I'm tired. Probably because I'm not used to being up till whatever time it is. "Am I the only person that's tired?" I asked.

Carmen shook his head, "No, I could do with some sleep." "But we slept before we left," Chase said. "Yeah, but then we got into a fight with two small feral teenagers," Carmen replied. "Excuse you," Leo gasped, "I am an adult!" "You bit me!" Carmen cried. "So!?" Leo asked, "That has nothing to do with my age!" "It does!" Carmen insisted, "Adults don't bite people!" "Says who?" Leo retorted, "Biting is an amazing defense mechanism." "Oh my gosh," I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose, "It doesn't matter if adults can bite or not. We need to decide if we want to sleep or keep moving." "Sleep," everyone said simultaneously. Chase growled in frustration, "Looks like we're sleeping." "We can start traveling again tomorrow," Amelia told him kissing his cheek, "We'll move faster once we get some rest, and we need to come up with a plan." "I guess you're right," he sighed. "I'm your wife," she stated, "I'm always right." "Of course, you are," he chuckled.

After placing the flashlights back in my backpack, I lay down and close my eyes. I tossed and turned for a bit, but eventually, I was able to fall asleep. The next morning, I woke up to the sound of people moving around. Sitting up, I saw that Chase was awake and shuffling toward my bag. "Do you need something?" I asked. Chase jumped. "You're awake," he said surprised. "Yep," I nodded, "I'm a light sleeper all of your moving around woke me up." "Oh," he hummed, "I see. Sorry about that." "It's okay," I told him looking around at the brightening woods, "It seems like I needed to wake up anyways." Chase glanced up at the sky, "Guess so." "We should wake up the others," I told him shouldering my backpack and heading over to Jack. I shook Jack awake and headed over to where Anna was. Once she was up I went over to Leo and smacked him awake. Once he was sitting up and glaring at me I went over to Ella.