Survive

Hunted

Chapter Song: Jungle, X Ambassadors & Jamie N Commons

"Curtis!" I whispered, gripping the gun in my hand tightly, knuckles turning as white as the snow on the ground. The light in the woods was slowly starting to diminish, shadows growing larger and more sinister looking. I counted to ten, silently listening for footsteps and more voices before quietly calling out to Curtis again. I cringed with every step, the crunch of the snow under my feet and my blood pounding in my ears. Every breath I took released a white puff of fog, chilling my lungs to the core.

The sound of a branch cracking made me slam my back up against a tree, trying my hardest to blend in with the environment. I held my breath before peeking around the tree, seeing two bodies standing around a deer with arrows sticking out of it, it's blood staining the white ground crimson.

"Pretty decent sized." One of the people spoke up. A man with a deep timbre laced with an Irish accent. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the scene. People. Living, breathing people were standing not fifteen feet away from me.

"Where the hell did Dorin and Fraser go?" A woman this time, her voice raspy with an English accent.

"Call 'em back, sun's goin' down." The man said, ripping the arrows out of the deer and slipping them back into a quiver attached to his back. The woman pulled something out of her jacket and pushed a button before speaking.

"Dorin? Fraser? We got the deer, meet back up at the checkpoint." It didn't strike me until after she spoke that what she had was a radio.

"Grozav, finally got it, no?" A voice I recognized crackled through the radio. One of the men who ventured too close to our tree. I couldn't place the accent, but it sounded Eastern European.

"Just get your arses back here, it's getting dark." The woman replied, shoving the radio back into her coat. I took that as my cue to leave, not wanting to stick around any longer. Taking a silent step back, I kept my eyes on the two individuals; hoping that they would keep their eyes on their prized deer. Don't look this way. Don't look this way. Don't look this way.

"Where you goin'?" The man suddenly called out, turning around with an arrow nocked in his bow. Throwing caution to the wind, I quickly spun around and ran as fast as my feet would carry me. Zig-zagging through the trees, not picking a specific direction, I traded out my gun for my knife. Opting for a silent kill instead of drawing in more attention. I wasn't sure how long I was running for, but when the sound of footsteps behind me ceased; I snuck over to a large pine tree. Hiding in the prickly branches, I held the knife close to my body as I tried to catch my breath. The footprints left in the snow were a red flag for my location, but I wasn't going to be staying in one spot for very long.

Taking a gulping breath, I readied myself and stepped away from the tree; listening intently to every noise. Starting off in another sprint, I hadn't gotten five feet before something wrapped around my ankle and violently pulled. A sharp snap rang out and my body was whipped out from under me, my stomach flipping as I was hung upside down. The rope biting deep into my ankle.

"Shit!" I gasped, scrabbling for the knife as it fell from my grasp. A soft thump below me caught my attention and I craned my neck to see the source of the sound. My gun had slipped from my jacket and followed the knife's path towards the ground. The hilt of the knife was sticking out of the snow just out of reach, the tips of my fingers barely brushing against it.

"Well done! Well done!" The same Irish accented voice called out, two dark silhouettes coming closer. I scrambled quicker for the knife, but my arms wouldn't stretch any farther. "Christ, you really know how to leg it." he added with a laugh. With a pained groan, I frantically clawed for the knife, but a black boot invaded my vision and kicked the knife away from my grasp. "Whoa! We don't need none of that." The man said, bending down to look at me, his smug face upside down in my vision.

"Dorin said they found the other one, let's just get this over with." The woman said, sounding tired as she came around to my back to bind my hands together. My entire body tensed when I heard "the other one". The man staring at me waved her off silently, keeping his dark eyes focused on my face.

"You're a pretty little thing, ain't ya'." he chuckled, running a cold, dirty knuckle down my cheek.

"Fuck you." I snapped, turning my head away from his hand. All the blood was rushing to my head, making every small movement dizzying.

"You hear the mouth on this one?" he scoffed, looking up at the woman behind me.

"Shut up, Patrick." she sighed, obviously used to his actions.

"Oh, come on El! I was just havin' a laugh." he snickered and opened his mouth to say something to me. But I had already reared my head back and slammed my forehead into his nose. He landed on his ass with a thud and clutched his bleeding nose in his hand, groaning and cursing in pain. "Fuckin' shite!" he yelled.

"You deserved that." The woman, El, said with a small laugh. She walked back around to face me and picked up the gun and knife I had dropped and pocketed them in her jacket. I tested the rope around my hands and silently cursed when it wouldn't budge. They obviously knew what they were doing.

"Just finish it!" he snarled, getting to his feet and sending a vicious glare my way.

"Come on, Patrick! I was just havin' a laugh." I sneered, imitating his accent mockingly. He simply held his nose and continued to seethe.

"Let's wrap this up, I'm hungry." El said and shifted her rifle in her arms. "So sorry about this by the way." she added with surprising sympathy before bringing the stock of her rifle back.

"No, no, no!" I shouted as she slammed the stock into my head, knocking me unconscious and making the world go black.

A/N: So, I recently saw Mad Max: Fury Road and loved Tom Hardy in it. So I decided to use him for another post-apocalyptic story lol. Obviously the picture above is supposed to be Patrick (who I wrote with Tom Hardy in mind) and the chapter song (which is amazing) is supposed to set the mood. Anywho! Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote and comment! Xoxo