Hunt

Chapter 76 (Julie): Bits and Pieces

"Julie? Julie Parker! Dammit kid are you even listening to me?" Paul scolds.

"Huh what? Y-yes, I'm listening!" I quickly respond, snapping back to attention. My mind having wandered elsewhere for a brief moment. 

Paul sighs before turning back to the map he had been explaining to me. He hesitates before getting back into his lesson plan. Asking, "Have you been sleeping alright kid? You look like you've got one foot in the grave right now."

I try to blink the heaviness from my eyes, giving Paul my best reassuring smile. "Yeah I'm fine, nothing to worry about. But I'll definitely sleep better once we're done with this whole mess..."

He cracks a smile. Chuckling, "Ain't that the truth... Alright, im gonna test you. See if you've actually been listening to me..."

I had asked Paul and the other hunters to put me through the wringer. It took this disaster for me to realize just how out of my league I really was. To snap me out of the delusion that I was just as capable as any of the other hunters who've been doing this for a lot longer than I had. Some of them have been in the hunting life longer than I've been alive. I needed a lot more experience. I could know exactly what to do, but knowledge wouldn't mean a thing if I froze up in the moment. Knowledge is no substitute for experience. But that principle goes both ways. But I didn't have the time to gain years worth of experience. I'd have to make the most out of the time I have with all of the others before we fight the Silverlocks again.

But I've also not been entirely truthful with the hunters either. In whatever spare time I could find I had been searching. Looking for anything indicating where my brother could've been taken. If he was even still alive. I know that I had promised the others that I'd wait until the current threat was dealt with, but I just couldn't sit still. Whenever I tried to slow down and take some time to relax it felt like I was drowning. Like I had failed him. I had to find something, anything relating to what became of Kyle. Even if that meant going door to door with his picture. I had to know if he died from his wounds. And if he didn't I had to fulfill my promise to him.

I've been out almost every night since he vanished. Checking any roads I could find on the map of the cascade mountains that I had 'borrowed' from Paul's place. The only information I had to go off of was that the Cascade Runners were to the south of us. So it was not much to go off of... But if I kept it up I'm sure I'd run into someone who knew something about it. There was only so much area to cover. But I was being hopelessly optimistic that I'd find something. I couldn't afford to let that optimism slip.

My phone buzzes, distracting me once again from Paul's lesson as he's talking about topography lines and how to read them. Every time I get a text I feel a small glimmer of hope in my chest that it's Kyle reaching out, telling that he's alright and everything was just a bad dream. But it never is, and each disappointment stings the same. This time a text from Natasha pops up on the screen.

"Come by after your done with Paul. We'll pick up from the other day."

"Julie Parker! I swear to God!" Paul scolds me again, shaking his head. "How are you going to learn anything if you can't even stay focused for five minutes? You were the one who wanted to learn!"

Shoving my phone back in my pocket I sheepishly apologize. Promising Paul that I'll pay better attention from now on. Paul grumbles about my generation and phones for a bit before he eventually returns to the maps in front of us. This time I would pay attention, I wouldn't let myself get distracted again.

Paul's lesson wraps up just as I'm beginning to lose my mind. Terms and symbols floating around in the soup that my head had become. But on the bright side I could now more accurately decipher the map I had been using to locate the Runners. Small victories.