Into The Woods

Chapter 2 - They Are The Hunters, We Are The Foxes

I slammed my foot on the brakes but only one of the wheels obeyed, causing the car to drift and tumble until it was stopped by a crash into one of the trees, ending up upside down.

I was unconscious; until I was awaken by a panicked Alexis shaking me at the shoulders. I placed my hand on my forehead and found that there was a small cut and some blood was seeping through it.

"C'mon Zac" she said while grabbing her bag and trying to crawl out of the upside down positioned car.

I swiftly unbuckled my seatbelt grabbed my bag and crawled out of the car. I grabbed her hand and we ran deeper into the woods, until we were stopped by an arrow flying past us.

I turned around and saw Vlaid, one of the hunters hunting Alexis, aiming his crossbow at Alexis. He was tall with black hair and brown eyes. He wore all black with a quiver full of arrows of his back. He released the arrow and I quickly ran towards Alexis, who was frozen in her tracks, and pushed her out of the way. The arrow landed in the tree that was behind the spot Alexis was previously occupying.

I took her hand in mine; quickly got to my feet, helping her up as well and started running further into the woods.

As we were running, Vlaid drew another arrow from his quiver and aimed it at us, released it, but missed again. We ran as fast as we could without looking back. We reached a tall bolder and hid behind it, and tried to slow down our breathing. They were soft, hurried breathes.

When my breathing was normal I checked to see if Vlaid was still on our trail. Just as I peeked out from behind the rock to see if Vlaid was around, I saw an arrow heard straight towards me and landed mere inches away from my face, into the rock.

I quickly turned to Alexis; grabbed her hand and we continued running. While we were running, arrows flew past us from behind but us missed every single time. We continued up a hill and ducked behind some tall bushes that I spotted. I could still hear the crunching of leaves which meant Vlaid was still around. The sound of crunching leaves continued west and got softer with every step Vlaid took. Once the sounds were really soft, I checked to see if he was still around, but he wasn't. I grabbed Alexis's hand and helped her up.

"Are you alright? Were you hit?" I asked her, inspecting her.

"No, were you?" she asked and I inspected myself.

"No I wasn't" I said with relieve in my tone. "Let's keep moving and find shelter, the suns almost down."

We continued up the hill and found a small covering behind some tall rocks and set up camp for that night. Once the tent was setup, Alexis and I got under the covers and tried to recover from what happened from today's events. Alexis was fast asleep, but I couldn't fall asleep. The thought of Vlaid being in the woods and being able to find us at any second was haunting me.

Alexis shifted closer to me in her sleep, and I put my arm around her pulling her even closer. Her being close to me seemed to lessen my anxiety. I listened to her soft breathing while I tried to fall I sleep. Her soft breathing was so hypnotising that when the sleep started to consume my body, I couldn't will myself to fight back.