Hunt

Chapter 70 (Julie): Hunter to Hunted

"We'll meet at the car. Go, that's an order." Kyle says to me. A cold steel in his eyes as he shields me from the white wolf in front of us. I want to stay, to fight along side my brother and help protect him. But before I can even begin to protest any further I find myself sprinting away from the memorial up the trail. Tears stinging my eyes and blurring my vision as I clutch the car keys Kyle passed to me in a death grip.

A snarl from behind spurs my legs to push me even faster. I don't dare to look behind me as I fear what might be right on my heels. Tearing back up the trail back to the car I skid the first corner. Slamming face first into something standing in the middle of the trail. The impact sending both me and the newcomer skidding different directions across the dirt. It's pained yip audible over the ringing in my head indicates it wasn't human.

"J-Julie? Is that you?" The wolf calls out to me .

"Reyna?! Jesus..." I sputter as I recognize her voice.

"Where is he? Where are the others?" She quickly snaps, more aggressive than I anticipated.

I shake my head clear, quickly pulling myself to my feet as I don't even try to dust myself off. "They're at the memorial. There's too many."

Without another word Reyna tears off into the trees faster than I can currently process. My head still full of fog from our impact, my knees sting from sliding across the forest floor. I have to limp the rest of the way to the car, my legs feeling weak under me. Like I had just finished one of Kyle's bullshit conditioning tests...

"O-okay... C'mon Kyle you better be right behind me." I mutter as I unlock the car door, slipping into the driver seat. "Of all days to not have come prepared..."

The engine roars to life, completing my part of the plan. But as the seconds slowly tick by I begin to feel myself losing my mind to worry. I couldn't just sit back and wait, Kyle needs backup. There were too many of them even with Reyna and the others. There's just no way he could get out of that mess unscathed.

Unless he knows he's done for...

The stray thought hits me like a bolt of lightning, ejecting me from the driver seat as I frantically pop the trunk. No. No! I wouldn't let that happen! There has to be something I can do!

"C'mon... C'mon! Anything!" I yell in frustration at the empty trunk in front of me. Kyle had nothing I could use as a weapon back here, usually it's packed full of junk. It's just my luck it got cleaned out right before this mess. Flipping the carpet of the trunk back I find the hatch to the spare tire. An idea popping up in the back of my mind as I fumble with the latch. Where there is a spare tire, there's usually a tire iron. Hope fills my body as I begin to fish around for the tool, eventually finding what I'm looking for I pull the tire iron free from the trunk. With renewed confidence I slam the trunk shut, beginning to rush back down the trail.

Movement catches my eye up the trail just as I begin to make my way back down towards the memorial. I watch in horror as Kyle comes screaming around the corner just as he's taken off his feet by a blur of white. He skids sideways before disappearing into the brush off the trail. It all happened so quickly that I didn't have time to really process what I just watched.

"Kyle!" I scream out as I break into a sprint, the world slowing down as I rush towards where he went over the edge. He got hit hard...

More voices reach my ears, multiple people shouting out to Kyle alongside me. The closer to where I saw him go down the more my heart races. Hopping the trail I land hard in the dirt. A white wolf stands with its back to me between me and my brother. Markus seemingly unaware of my arrival as he appears to be laughing to himself.