Frosted Pines

Chapter 5

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I am working really hard to make each chapter worth reading. So without any further ado: Chapter 5

I felt warm rays of sun on my face, that kind of wonderful indescribable warmth. The faint chirping of meadowlarks welcomed me from my sleep; a rare occurrence now. I felt Jack's presence beside my scrunched up body. It felt like the perfect morning.

My yawning quickly turned into a gasp. It felt as if my whole heart stopped beating. Damn it Hayley, you fell asleep. My eyes shot open, burning as they adjusted to the bright sun. Stumbling to my feet, I coughed sharply inhaling air.

"Woah, calm down now." Jack's voice startled me and I partially tripped back onto the blanket, my face buried in Luke's lap.

"Ouch..." I mumbled into his clothes. I heard two gruff laughs.

"Well good morning, mumbles." I got up, disoriented, jerking up at the sound of Luke, embarrassed. I rolled over further away from him biting my lip, staring into Luke's eyes.

Jack let out an obnoxious yawn, getting up from the blanket, redirecting our attention to him. Whew, everything's okay, we aren't all dead. My stomach growled, and I lazily grasped for Luke's backpack which was carelessly thrown on the snow. I foraged through the pack, not finding anything.

"Wheres our food?" I muttered a bit annoyed with the lack of snacks.

"You ate it." Jack answered, starting to stuff the blanket in the pack. Oh. I gazed down, blood flooding my mouth. That was the last of it huh.

Our spirits were high as we trudged through the empty snow fields, sun shining on our faces casting shadows to our right. Luke and Jack occasionally kept up small conversation. My back was raw and throbbing and I'm sure the blood had become clumped and gelatinous. Suddenly Jack shook my shoulder causing me to look up. I almost choked on my breath.

In the distance was what looked like a small community of trailer homes, half buried under the layers of snow. The walls of each structure held layers of slats, all colored a dingy pastel yellow. The shutters were a creamy white and everything about the place was homely.

A low muffled growl echoed through the valley, alerting us to grab our guns. Luke grasped for a small knife that was strapped to his pack. As we came to the first home a vicious barking could be heard. Agonizing, shrill shrieks came from the house, the door was precariously left open, the frozen air blowing in.

"Someone's in there," Luke said breathily, in shock. We dashed into the house, guns cocked.

A small deformed body lay on the floor, a child. Flesh peeled from her arm, cheek ripped so we could see blood coated teeth. Two dogs stood barking, helpless to the carnage. The girl's leg was twisted in a spiral and gore sputtered from the her mouth. Her hand twitched. I saw as a pair of teeth sunk effortlessly into the girl's head, her skull collapsing under the immense weight. She was dead.

The small pack of Depraved bounded towards us, hunger in their eyes. I saw Luke stab the first in its heart and I shot one as it leapt for Jack, still gaping at what we had just seen. Two bodies lay crippled behind her, nearly picked to the bone, a mother and father I presume.

Luke let out a harsh sigh as he kneeled next to the girl, picking up her torn up arm to check for a pulse. Nothing.

I gazed to the floor solemnly for a moment. Another dead, another to soon be forgotten. Peering up, I saw two large dogs, tails between their legs lying in their owners blood. The first was giant, a large slender frame with a short grey coat and floppy ears- quite unmistakeable for a great dane. The other was smaller and looked to be some sort of shepherd with radar ears, a long brown coat and a striking black muzzle. They both looked up for the first time, cocking their heads as Luke began to make kissy noises at them. I whipped my head around to him, wrinkling my nose as the dogs timidly approached him. Of course, he's good with animals too.

I took a knee next to Luke, putting my hand out so the dogs could sniff.

"Come on guys, we need to get going." Jack said roughly, piercing through the silence. My eyes swept over to him as the brown dog came up to me and laid down, resting his muzzle on my boot.

"We can't just leave them here," I whined slightly, stroking the dogs velvety muzzle.

Jack sighed, "That's two more mouths to feed."

"Taking these guys in would be the least we could do for them." Luke cut in, gesturing towards the three corpses. I saw a small grin quickly escape Jack as he peered over to me.

"They'll need names then." Jack said cheerfully. I sort of squealed inside, it had been years since I had a dog. My parents had bought me a puppy when I turned ten, a mutt since we didn't have the money to get a purebred. That damn dog was my best friend- died on a hike, ran off alone and got eaten by coyotes. We found his body bloody and stagnant with flies. I replied immediately, pointing to the male grey dog and then to the other girl "Juneau; Riley."

Luke looked at me surprised at my blunt answer.

Juneau "and Riley it is then." Luke said lightly, scratching Riley's scruff. Jack grinned, squatting for a moment and petting the dogs. I felt my lips crack into a smile for the first time in a long time.

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Wooh some new characters,

If you are wondering what breed Riley is, she is a Belgian Malinois, a type of shepard quite like german shepherds.

I really hope yall are enjoying this story and again thank you so much for 100 reads!! Please if you are enjoying this so far vote, comment and share!

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