Fate Decides

Chapter Seventeen

"Shit, it's cold," I mumble through chattering teeth. We have been on the run for weeks now. If I had to take a guess, I would say it has been about a month since our pack lands were overrun. We've been surviving out in the woods, trying to find Liam before the Warriors do, but it is a hard task to do when we are trying to survive a harsh winter with barely any supplies.

"What did you expect? It's the middle of January," Erik says, throwing another piece of wood on the fire.

The fire and the thin blankets we had managed to find in an abandoned car are the only things keeping us from freezing. With every breath I let out, a white mist leaves my mouth. My hands ache from the cold, never warm enough to be comfortable and never cold enough to be numb. No matter how tight I pull the blanket around me, it is no use against the bitter cold of the wind. It is starting to seem plausible that I will never be warm again.

"Never expected to be out here like this," I say quietly.

The infected have been roaming around, both the werewolves and humans. They look more and more disgusting every time we encounter them. Probably because they are slowly rotting away. Their flesh is often ripped and their limbs are mangled, blood seeping from every cut and orifice. Just thinking about them makes my skin crawl and my stomach turn in disgust.

"Nobody did," my brother says, rubbing his hands together and then holding them out in front of the fire. We stay silent for a few seconds, listening for any strange noises around us. The moon above us shines just enough light for us to be able to see our immediate surroundings, but we are always on high alert.

I swallow, my mind thinking about our mate. "Do you think Liam's okay?"

My heart clenches every time I think about him out here all alone. He is pregnant and almost half way through. We need to find him and soon.

Erik finally looks over at me, breaking his gaze from the orange flames dancing through the dark night. He scoots over to me, opening his arm so that he can wrap his own blanket around me. I look into the flames, hoping he does not see my tears, clear signs of my distress.

"We'll find him. At least we have caught his scent now. We'll be seeing him soon," Erik says. Every thing he says is true. We caught his scent yesterday when we were backtracking towards our pack lands, knowing Liam had run in the opposite direction as us.

I let out a shaky sigh and nod my head, leaning on my brother's shoulder. "We just have to find some supplies in that store we saw this afternoon. Enough to get us to the next one."

The only noise to be heard is the chirping of crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl. Somehow, we fall asleep on the blanket we had laid down earlier in the night. The ground is hard and the blankets are too thin to keep us properly warm, but the exhaustion from our constant running makes it easy to drift off to sleep.

*****

"Do you think anyone is in there?" I whisper.

We are hiding in the forest that surrounds the store we found yesterday. It is a small convenience store, the windows covered with pieces of plywood. A few infected roam around the building, oblivious to us hiding from their view.

"Why would the windows be boarded up if no one is living there?" Erik says, peeking through the tree branches obscuring us from the infected's view. He has a point, meaning that we will most likely encounter others if we go in there.

Looking over at my brother, I can see that he is just as cold as I am, body trembling from the harsh licks of icy wind. "We have to try. We're nearly out of food, and I don't think I can survive another night with those shitty blankets we have."