Runaway

II

"Hello?!" The boy who gasped yelled out.

An unfamiliar voice. It can't be them. But I still can't be seen.

I look over and see him slowly walking towards the deer. He's looking around.

Shit. I need to get back up the tree. But he's gonna see me! I don't know what to do. Think, B, think!

He slowly leaned over the deer, to make sure it's dead, I'm assuming. He knelt down and reached for the spear.

Here we go. What am I getting myself into.

"Don't touch it!" I yell.

He stood up quickly looking all around him. He moved his head up and locked eyes with mine.

"What? What are you doing up there?!" He said with a confused look on his face.

"What are you doing down there?" I reply.

He looks around, quickly scanning the area.
"Well, I'm lost... I think." He scratches his head and looks back at me.

"Don't touch my dinner. Go back to wherever you came from." I gave him a cold look and jumped down from where I was perched.

"Dinner...?" His face turned from confused to disgusted and then back to confused.
"Wait, why were you on the tree? No, why are you eating deer?!" He moves away from the deer and stands against a tree a few feet away, keeping his distance.

I slowly make my way to the dead deer, keeping my eyes sealed onto his. With my eyebrows furrowed, my hair a bit of a mess, and a knife in my hand I'm surprised he hasn't ran for his life.

I reach down and pull the spear from the deer's heart.

"Sometimes it's fox, sometimes it's fish, sometimes it's rabbit, but today it happens to be deer." I say, hoping to freak him out a little bit. "I do it to survive. Why are you all the way out here?" I ask coldly.

"Like I said, I got lost." He started feeling around his pockets.

"What are you doing?" I put my guard up more than it was before.

"I'm looking for my phone." He looks up at me as he pulls it out of his left pant pocket.

"Give it to me." I hold my spear up as I demand for his phone. He looks at me then at the spear and then back at me.

"I need it to get home. I'm sure I can pull up a map or something." He unlocks his phone and tried pulling up a map, I'm guessing.

"You don't want to end up like that deer, do you?" I gesture at my spear in one hand and my knife in the other.

"Shit, okay fine." He tosses the phone on the ground in front of my feet, his hand shaking. I smash the phone with my foot.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" He yells and runs his hands through his hair trying to comprehend what I just did. He totally thinks I'm crazy now.

"I can't risk anything." I reply. He starts pacing and mumbling words to himself as I sling the spear over my shoulder.

I secured a strap on the spear so I don't have to worry about carrying it while carrying whatever I hunted.

I pull rope from my bag and tie its feet together. I look at him, waiting for him to look back at me.

"What are you doing now?" He asks, his face full of anger and confusion.

"I'm going to cook it," I smirk, "Are you going to help me carry it or would you rather hurt your ankle even more trying to find your way back?" I noticed how he wasn't putting pressure on his ankle.

He limps over and grabs the other end of the deer and we carry it down towards the river.

The river was quite hidden and it was only a few minutes from my tree. It has a lot of fish on good days and usually early in the morning. If I wake up early enough that's where I get my food for the day. When I wake up too late I have to find another food source, usually any animal that stumbles through my neck of the woods. The river was also where I cooked my food. There was a tree with a hidden opening where the roots start to grow through the ground. I kept my "fire pit" there and any wood that I've gathered for cooking.

We set the deer down and I move a few rocks covering the hole in the tree. I pull out my supplies for cooking and set them up. The boy walks toward the river and sits down, leaning against a tree. I start a fire and set up my rods to hold the deer above the fire.

"So, do you live out here?" He starts. "How long have you been out here? Why are even you out here?"

"Slow down. First of all, I'm not going to give you any information about me. If I did, I'd have to kill you." I giggle to myself but only to myself, making sure he doesn't see any hint of emotion in my face. He looks at me with a scared expression.
"I'm kidding." I rolled my eyes.

"How old are you?" I asked with a sharp tone in my voice, trying to get some information out of him.

"19. My name is Dakota." He was pretty open considering I just threatened to kill him.
"How about you?" He asks.

"17. Bambi. That's all you need to know." I reply sharply, no emotion in my face or voice.

Remember, no slip-ups. I've got the perfect place here. I can't let anything screw this up.

"I know the way back to the town if you'd like to not be lost anymore." I look at him and raise my brow.

"Sure, yeah." He replies quietly. I notice him messing with his ankle.

"How is it?" I look at his ankle as he slowly starts to take his shoe off.

"What? How'd you know I hurt it?" He pulls off his sock revealing a purple bruised ankle.

"I'm observant. Plus, I'm not stupid. I noticed you barely walking on it. Let me take a look." I stop what I'm doing with the deer and kneel down in front of him. I tuck my dirty blonde hair behind my ears and examine his ankle.

"You sprained it. You're gonna need to rest it unless you want to make it worse." I look up from his ankle and into his eyes and the back down at his ankle. I could tell he never took his gaze off of me.

"I'll rest it when I get into town." He says and starts to put his sock back on.

"No, it's a 40 minute run from here. Considering you can't run, or walk that fast for that matter, it'll take around 2 hours to get back. That'll make it worse and it will definitely be dark by then. These woods aren't a good place to be when it's dark." I grab medical wrap from my bag and start to wrap his ankle.

"Well what am I supposed to do then?" He asks as he runs his hand through his chocolatey brown hair.

"You'll stay with me tonight."