Hush

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Bill rooted around their food supply, pulling out a packet of beef jerky. He tore open the wrapper, and attempted to bite off a chunk. But the piece of beef had frozen in their freezing surroundings, and he ended up hurting his teeth instead. He looked around, grabbed a broken branch from the ground, stuck the beef jerky into it like a skewer, and placed it near the cooling cinders. After a while, the jerky heated up and he ate his breakfast easily than he would've if the jerky was still frozen. 

Moments later, Jake stirred and woke up, blinking in the bright light. 

"Good morning!" Bill chirped, finishing the last of the jerky.

"Morning." Jake looked around, scratching his head. He spotted Andy snoring in his sleeping bag.

"He hasn't been asleep long, has he?" Jake asked sleepily, pointing to Andy.

"He was supposed to be keeping watch."

"I don't know. I woke up about an hour ago, and he was already asleep."

"Useless piece of junk. Doesn't he know what keeping watch means?" Jake grumbled under his breath.

He crawled out of his sleeping bag, rolling it up and stuffing it into the tent.

"We won't be staying here for very long, just a couple of hours at most, or at least until Andy wakes up." Jake called out to Bill.

Bill nodded, then stood up. 

"I'm just gonna look around for a while, see if there's any berries or anything we can eat." Bill said.

He walked to the edge of the clearing and through the thick wall of trees around it.

"Be careful!" he heard Jake holler from the tent.

He made his way through the greenery, careful not to trip over tree roots. The leaf-less branches of the trees were covered in frost and icicles, and he made sure not to walk under any just in case an icicle would fall onto him. He wandered around aimlessly for a while, missing his family and friends, his old life. I wonder what they're doing right now? he thought. He ambled past a couple of fir trees, his mind drifting to the thought of home. He barely paid any attention to where he was going. Suddenly, he heard a rustle in the bushes behind him. He whipped around, his mind instantly alert. He stood as still as a statue, watching the spot where he thought he heard the noise. Nothing seemed to be moving. He slowly stepped closer to the bushes, until he was directly in front of it. He kicked the bushes, and jumped back. Nothing came out of them. It was probably just an animal or something, he thought to comfort himself. I should probably go back now. He followed his footprints in the snow back to their camp, and was relieved to see that Andy was awake. They packed up their things and continued their journey through the deep forest. 

They hardly spoke to each other during the trip, instead choosing to conserve their energy just to put one foot in front of the other. A lot of times they heard rustling noises in the leaves, and Bill would always be startled and jumpy. They kept their quick pace, pausing only for the occasional gulp of water or mouthful of food. Finally, after another sunset came around, they stopped and made camp, setting another fire against the freezing cold. Jake was getting more worried and very hesitant about the fire. Possibilities of the Hush finding them after all their effort at getting away was agonizing. They avoided burning green leaves if they could, choosing dead branches or leaves instead to minimize the amount of smoke produced by the fire. They fell asleep as before, but this time Andy taking first watch and Bill second. The night crawled by without incident, and by the next morning they were packed up and ready to go again.