Hunt and Hunted

Chapter 2: The Boy

   At first I was so paralyzed that I had no clue what to do. Then came another scream. Before I knew it I was at the door opening it, my mother by my side. We opened the door and looked around. My eyes finally falling on a boy with shaggy dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and covered in blood. I almost puked. It looked so bad. But finally I pulled myself together and ran to him. My mom and I never hesitated in this type of scene.

   I turned around because I heard footsteps. It was Rose. She was coming to help. So we all lifted the boy and carried him to the house we laid him on the blanket that we had ate lunch on. I went to grab the medicines and herbs out of the cabinet while my sister went to get a wet rag to clean him up. As I got to the cabinet I grabbed the pain killer and some cleaning oil. I ran back to my moms side.

"Rose honey, I need you to get the rag, please hurry!" My mom yelled with out taking her eyes off the boy.

"I'm coming!" Came Rose's reply. Next thing I knew she was in the room on the other side of my mom with the rag. She went around and began to clean the boy's face.

"What's your name sweetie?" My mom asked the boy.

"Gage," He replied. His face was pale and his eyes bloodshot.

" Where are you from?"

"A couple towns over. I ran away hoping to find shelter, and a place away from the war."

"Well you came to the wrong place." I said sourly. I didn't like this boy. He gave me a bad feeling. My mom nudged me, hearing the annoyance in my tone.

"I guess I see that now." I think I could see a hint of a smile on his lips. Yeah, I don't like him.

"This might hurt just a bit," My mom grabbed the cleaning medication and put it on his arm which had a pretty bad wound on it. The color drained from his face even more, I could tell he was fighting back the urge to scream. Even though I didn't like him, I kind of felt bad. My mom then gave him pain killers. Slowly the color started to come back to his face and we got a little more information out of him. His parents died, he didn't have any close friends or family, and he didn't have any siblings. We also learned that he ran away about 1 week ago and that his arm got so injured because when a bomb hit some debris flew and hit his arm and cut it open just recently.

"We should let him rest," my mom suggested as she got up.

"Thank you for everything." we walked out of the room to let him sleep.

"What are we going to do with him once he heels?" I ask.

"Well we can't exactly throw him back out on the street." My mom peeked back at him. He seemed to be a sleep. I wanted to ask "Why not?" but thought better of it.

"Are you suggesting that we let him live with us?!" That came out louder than planned.

"Sshh! And yes. He could help us. He could even help you with your snares and hunting."

"OK, but I'm going to take another nap." I walked to my bed, kneeled down to pray, then put my hair in a French braid. I laid down and tried to go to sleep. I almost was asleep  when Rose walked in and sat on the edge of my bed.

"Will you just give him a chance?" She asked the sickly sweet voice she did so well.

"I will, but I might not like him as much."

"You don't even know him Avalon!" She was still being nice even though she had an edge of sternness in her voice.

"I know but....I'll try. I'll help out with him. For you. I'll try and get used to him."

"OK, I'll let you rest." She walked out and I rolled over and went to sleep.

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   When I woke up I heard talking coming from the other room. I walked in there hesitating.