Mountains And Plains [OLD VERSION]

Chapter Seven

The morning was cool and a bit windy. The grass was covered with hoarfrost and looked like it had a snow coat.

I crawled out of our so called bedroom and streched my arms up. Feeling my muscles wake up I went to the river. I dipped my hands only to pull them back. The water was freezing. My teeth began to chatter and my body shuder but I embraced the cold and with super speed cleaned myself.

Walking back I noticed that the fireplace was out cold. Frowning I crouched and touched the coal but they were cold indicating that the fire went out long time ago.

'Mark?!' I shouted but was met with trees' rustle. Bad feeling clenched my chest. I walked a perimeter of the field and froze by our mini potato field when I saw footsteps. My work mood kicked in and I carefully walked closer to the footsteps. They were big, obviously man's. Looking more I saw another footprint but this one was a bit smaller. And then another one..... And another one.....

I felt panic seize me up when I stood up and strated frankly shouting for Mark. I knew my guts were right. We were definitely not alone in this place.

And why not? This place is huge, of course there will be another life....

Suddenly I heard a rustle behind me and quickly turned around. I saw Emma waking up. Her eyes fell on me and I saw worry cross her face.

'What's wrong?' She asked and quickly made her way to me. I hardly swalowed and looked back at walked grass.

'Someone was near our camp' I said and pointed to the footprints. Emma crouched frowning and after a moment of inspection looked back to me. She had annoyance written on her face.

'Are you trying to scare me, Ary? Those are probably Mark's mark' she said and I looked at her weirdly.

'Then how about those smaller ones? And those huh?' I showed her to other indications but Emma, after a brief inspection, just stood up and scowled at me.

'Those are identical' she said and I felt anger build up.

'Emma are you serious?! I studied this shit for three years and I'm telling you there were atleast four grown up men walking around our camp. If not then where is Mark? He hasn't been here for a few hours because remainings of the fire are cold! We are not alone and whatever is hiding in this forest took Mark!!' I screamed to her face panic finally making me to tick off like a bomb.

I saw Emma's face go pale and her eyes wide. Her body started to shake from fear and she looked at the fireplace. I felt regret in my stomach and I hugged my friend.

'I'm sorry I didn't mean to scream. This place just makes me go on edge of insanity' I whispered and felt Emma's hands crushing me in a tight hug.

'What are we supposed to do now?' She asked and I saw tears appearing in the corners of her eyes. I felt determination swell in me and I looked her in the eyes.

'We have to stick together and move our camp. It's still early so we should be able cover a decent amout of ground' I said and looked around one more time. The feeling of someone watching came back.

'Someone is watching' I whispered.

'What do you mean?' Emma whispered back fear and worry showing in her eyes.

'After the wolf attack I felt as if someone is watching us. I must be just paranoid but the feeling is unsettling' I said cautiously looked behind me. I saw the same shrubs and trees. Nothing out of extraodinary.

'Okay. Should we take something before going?' Emma asked and my eyes fell to the potatoe plant.

'I think we should go by the river since it's the only source of water and take some potatoes. I don't think we will be so lucky to find them again' I gave her a smirk and she sighted.

'I'm sick of them' she said and I chuckled.

'Me too' I said and went to one of our brushes 'help me out' I said and we started pulling poor potatoes from their warm soil that still grew.

After the quick job we had only 6 potatoes. Wrapping them in Emma's jumper we looked at each other.

'Which way?' She asked and I looked towards the mountain.

'How about goimg a bit higher? Maybe they will loose interest in us' I said and she just nod.

We walked to the river and started our climb to the west.

I start to regret my choice by going "a bit higher". With each hour of walking we were facing more and more difficult hills and slopes to climb. I'm not saying they were high as mountain Everest but without the right equipment it was a challenge. And of course higher you go colder it gets. And I completely forgot about the weather. But for our safe time we pressed on.

We lost the river a couple of times but found it right away.

As the day neared the dusk Emma started collecting dry wood for the campfire on our way.

'How about there?' I asked out of the blue when I saw a small cliff that hung above us giving us natural shelter from the rain and wind. It was made from light brown dry soil and had some wines hanging from the edges of the cliff.

'That's perfect' she said and we made towards a "cave". It wasn't your normal cave but the place still had a bit of depth into a small mountain.

Dropping on our butts out of exhaustion we placed our potatoes and wood down. We walked whole day with little of resting so we were both worn out.

Emma started creating the fire, which she did quite well, while I stood up and went to the tall grass to collect it for our beding. After my fourth harvest Emma finally started the fire and soon we had warmth before us. Peeling our potatoes we cooked and ate them like starving dogs.

When we were laying on the grass Emma turned to me.

'Do you think Mark is alive?' She asked and I gave her an encouraging smile.

'Of course he is. He is capable of surviving in a place like this'

Emma smiled but it soon turned into a frown.

'We should take a bath and clean ourselves as well as our clothes. We stink' she said and we both chuckled.

'Good idea' I said and we both fell into our slumber.

Almost there.... A bit more and the action begins....