The Ruds

Chapter 7

Mason was slowly getting better; I was so tired I could sleep for a year. I had gotten maybe twenty minutes of sleep in five days. With the rest of the money we bought some things like books and paper and stuff. We bought, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tuck Everlasting, and That was Then, this is Now, and I have read all of them like six times in three days. I love to read I have always been a big reader, well when I could get my hands on a book.

I had to go back to the river to get water and again I heard something walking around. It sounded big and when I heard branches snap I looked up. When I looked up at the trees I saw claw marks about ten feet up, huge scratches down the tree trunk. That is when I realized that it was a bear I kept hearing. I put the bucket down on the ground and pulled out an arrow then put it on my bow.

I kept moving around to where I heard twigs break, I kept moving and then I heard a branch break behind me and I spun around. I aimed the arrow right at the figure that broke the branch. "Woah, calm down it is just me." Dylan said to me. I slowly put the bow down so the arrow was facing the ground. "What are you doing?" He asked. "There is a bear out there, I saw it once when I was at the river and now I hear it all the time." I explained. He didn't say anything for a while, "How 'bout we go and get the water and then go back to the cave," He suggested. "Sounds good," I smiled.

We walked back to the cave and put the water down on the chest, then went to bed. I actually got some sleep that night, I was so tired that I fell right asleep, didn't really think about anything.

In the morning I was suddenly woke up when Dylan shook me. "Faith wake up," He exclaimed. "What?" I said tiredly. "Mason is gone," He told me, and with that I woke right up. "What!" I exclaimed, getting out of the sleeping bag. "I woke up and he was gone." Dylan explained to me. "We have to find him," I got up off the ground and grabbed my bow and arrows and so did Dylan and we left.

"Mason!" I yelled. "Mason!" Dylan repeated. "He couldn't have gotten that far." I tried to persuade myself. "I hope not, but he does run pretty fast, so hopefully he didn't get that far." Dylan said. "Mason!" I started yelling again.

We walked around for a little while longer when we hear a lower scream. "Mason!" I yelled and Dylan and I ran to where we heard Mason. We ran a little longer to see Mason on the ground under a tree his head a little scratched. "Mason!" I exclaimed and Dylan and I went over to him. I kneeled down next to him and Dylan stood by his head. He was somewhat conscious, but he was breathing hard and was blinking a lot. "Mason what happened?" I asked. "Faith," He whispered. "Yea?" I asked. "Faith," He whispered again. "I'm right here," I said.

Mason grabbed my arms and pulled me to the opposite side of him, just as a something went over my head. I looked up and saw that there was a wolf on top of Dylan and the only thing that was keeping the wolf from bighting Dylan was his bow. I went to go shoot it when I remembered that I had left my bow over by the trees. I started running to the bow when I heard Dylan, "Faith watch out!" I ran faster and grabbed my bow just as something caught my foot, I kicked it off and the wolf let go of my leg for a while.

I was trying to keep the wolf off of me when Dylan came over and hit the wolf in the side with his bow, he had put his arrows down further away and didn't have time to get them. The wolf backed off long enough for me to stand up. Dylan helped me up and then stood in front of me as the wolf got closer. "Dylan," I whispered. "Yea?" He whispered back. "The arrows," I pointed over by the wolf to the bag of arrows.

The wolf jumped tackling Dylan to the ground, making them both stumble and roll on the ground. I went over to grab an arrow, but it was stuck. I pulled on it to get it out, but for some reason it wouldn't budge. "Faith!" Dylan yelled, getting attacked by the wolf. I finally pulled an arrow out and pointed it at the wolf, then let go.

It hit the wolf right in the side and it fell to the ground. I ran over to Dylan, and I saw that the wolf had bitten his arm and shoulder and scratched his face quite a bit. "Dylan," I said. He was breathing hard and he kept wincing. He sat up and showed me where he had got bitten. "Those are pretty deep," I took off my jacket that Marty had brought for me the second time he had come.

"What are you doing?" He asked. "Lift your arm up a little," I told him. I rapped my jacket around his neck and made it into a sling to keep his arm up, so the blood would stop. He leaned up against a tree for a little while before he was breathing somewhat normal. "Will you be okay if I go get Mason real fast?" I asked him. "Yea, I'll be fine," He told me.

I got up and went over to Mason who was still laying on the ground. "Hey, Mason, you alright?" I asked. "I think so," He said. "What happened?" I asked. "Well I was in the cave sleeping when I had a dream about this lady, she had brown hair and blue eyes. She didn't look familiar from anywhere, but I felt like I did know her. Then I woke up and I felt like I had to go find her so I got up and left. I walked around for a while before I realized what I was doing and noticed that I didn't know where I was. I walked a little while longer and wound up at the river. I splashed my face to wake up more and when I looked up the wolf was there. He jumped on me and scratched me, I got away and then ran and climbed up that tree. I was real dizzy from blood loss and fell out of the tree, and then you where there." He explained to me.

"Do you think you can get up?" I asked. "Um... yea," He looked around for a second to find the best way to get up without hurting himself. When he got up he fell a little bit but then caught himself. "Are you ok?!" I asked. "My leg hurts, but fine." He said getting up and limping over to where Dylan was.

"Hey, how you do'in?" I asked Dylan. "Still hurts, but I'll cowboy up and deal with it." He smiled. "What you mak'in fun of me for liking country?" I smiled and asked. "Maybe," He kept smiling, I rolled my eyes and shook my head at that one.

It was getting a little dark, but the boys didn't feel up to leaving quiet yet so we stayed there. I was so tired that I put my knees up leaned my arm against them and then my head against my hand and started to fall asleep. "Faith, you okay?" Mason asked. I looked up at them, "Oh yea I'm fine, just tired." I told them, and mason slightly nodded his head and leaned up against the tree again.

"Faith?" Mason asked after a while. "Yea?" I answered. He was laying on the ground looking at the stars, and Dylan had fallen asleep so we were just talking for a while. "Did you ever wonder what HiJack did while he was gone?" He asked. "Yea, I did. All the time actually." I laid next to him and looked up at the starts. "Why?" I asked. "Just wondering," He said. "You know Cash doesn't hate you, right?" I told him. "Whatever," He replied. "No I'm serious, when or if we can ever get out of here and go home, I bet he will be happy to see you." I continued. "I wouldn't be so sure," He commented. "I would," I told him and then we were quiet for a while.

"What where your parents like?" He asked out of the blue. "Well my mother looked a lot like I do now. She had long brown wavy hair and brown eyes, she would always play the guitar and she even taught me how to play. She loved riding horses and we used to go out together all the time, and she used to tell me I should get into barrel racing. She was real nice and funny and she could always make me smile. And my Father, He was tall and had darker hair and brown eyes, he loved sports and we used to go out and pass the football when it was football season and a baseball when it was baseball season, you know things like that. We used to go to a lot of football games together, and I learned most of the rules." I told him. "They sound real nice." He said. "Yea they were, but I don't completely remember them, it has been so long. I'm sure that HiJack remembers them a lot better than I do.

"What was HiJack like when y'all where younger?" He asked. "Well we got along alright and he always let me tag along with him and his friends. He would help me with the guitar and helped me practice barrel racing. Then when our folks where gone he was a totally different person. He was never really happy, he would just sit in his room all day and not talk to anyone, and unless I brought him food he wouldn't eat anything. We went through a lot of different families that year and then we got Ruth and Harold." I explained.

"Why did you go through so many different families?" He asked. "They would always find reasons to get rid of us. The first family was the Marshalls and they didn't like us 'cause we were too young. Then the Thatcher's and they got rid of us 'cause we stayed out too late a couple of times, and so on and so forth 'til Ruth and Harold." I told him.