The Hunter

Earthquake

The ground moved under Mira. It wasn’t supposed to move, was it? No, the ground definitely wasn’t supposed to be moving. Did earthquakes happen here? Sometimes earthquakes did happen in completely random places. They needed to leave the cave now!

She pushed herself up and opened her eyes in time to see the ground rushing towards her. Two arms wrapped around her and caught her before she landed on her face. The pain shooting through her ribs reminded her of her current physical condition. The arms slowly set her on the ground.  She was in a sleeping bag. What the heck was going on? She looked up at Collin in confusion.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Collin knelt down next to her. “You were still sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you. Since you made me promise we’d leave at dawn, I thought it’d be best to carry you.”

After sniffing the air, she nodded her head. The path he had chosen impressed her as did his ability to move while carrying her and the backpack. It was midmorning, which meant he’d been carrying her for several hours at that point. If she had to guess, they were on the other side of the mountain and he’d been sticking pretty close to it. Nothing here smelled quite as threatening. She pushed herself up ignoring the pain and slid the sleeping bag off her legs.

Collin reached down and scooped up the sleeping bag. After he rolled it up against his leg, she walked forward sniffing the air. If they found a decently hidden cave, they could hide there for a little while. Truth be told, whenever she had been hurt badly in the past, she’d hidden in crevice and slept an entire day. That wasn’t exactly an option right now.

“You should probably eat a little something.” He put his bag on the ground and she spun around to watch him. “Oh, and we need to refill on water when we can. I have some, but we’ll run out by nighttime.”

Her eyes traced his every movement before they scanned his body. Spots of blood, more precisely her blood, covered his pants. He hadn’t changed since he’d bandaged her back. Had he even slept? His eyes had slight bags under them, but he didn’t act tired. She lowered herself onto the ground. As much as she hated to admit it, she didn’t have the energy to stand still. She needed to preserve all of her strength for when they were actually moving.

She grabbed the bottle of water out of his hands when he handed it to her. The water felt cool on her throat and she hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until she started drinking. She stopped herself sooner than she would have liked, but he had said they were low on water. When she held out the water bottle for him, he swapped it with a few strips of deer jerky.

“Are you okay?” He sat down in front of her and squinted while looking at her eyes. “You haven’t said anything since you woke up.”

Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath. When she reopened her eyes, she nodded and forced a smile on her face. His face only looked more concerned. She definitely sucked at acting or faking emotions.

“What’s going on?” He reached out and touched her hand.

She jerked back instinctively and could barely keep back her growl. For a second, something that looked like hurt flashed in his eyes, but it was probably something else. He pulled back and stood. After a few seconds of staring at her, he sighed.

“You’re scared, aren’t you?” He watched her face carefully.

She whispered, “Yes.” Her eyes slowly drifted up to meet his.

He nodded and glanced around. “Let’s try to find some kind of shelter. Can you smell any water?”

Her nose twitched as she sniffed the air. “Not nearby.”

“Let’s keep walking until you can. Maybe we can find someplace safe to rest for a bit.” To his credit, he didn’t try to carry her again. He walked forward a few strides before he glanced at her over his shoulder. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure I can handle a couple of rogue wolves if needed. I doubt I could take a mountain lion, though. So if one of those pops up again, we’re screwed.”