White Birds And Red Flesh

New Friend

She stared at the vile creature. "What is that anyway? I've never seen anything like it."

As she walked around her trap, she noticed now that the head was detached due to a malfunction in the trap. This one had the head of a deer and no eyes. Its spine still tried desperately to keep the two parts of the creature together.

"Wait a second. I just noticed that there are no animals in this forest besides birds, is this the 'deer' I heard the first day I got here? Actually, how long exactly have I been here?" She talked to herself, bewildered.

The scream she had heard sounded familiar to the one she had on the morning of the idiotic decision of walking into the forest of her demise. As Serenity observed the odd anomaly that lay taut in front of her, she heard rustling in the trees and the faint croaky breath. This time she also heard the birds returning.

"Oh come on!" She exclaimed, visibly annoyed "can't I go one day without almost dying?!"

She sprinted away from her trap, trying to avoid larger bones, her steps cracking and crunching in her mind, getting louder and louder. She saw another light, this time she didn't trust it and slowed her pace. As Serenity got closer, it moved.

"A flashlight?" she said, confused.

She hides behind a tree and peeks over to see a girl, about her age. She was scared. Very visibly scared, she trembled and her flashlight shook. Serenity needed to help her, she stepped out from behind her tree and the girl screamed.

"Shhh! They'll hear you! Also, shut that off I can see it from a mile away."

The trembling girl, slowly pulled the tab down and the flashlight dulled. She looked at Serenity.

"I-I'm Isla."

Serenity was not paying attention, she looked around and grabbed Isla's wrist. She led her behind a giant boulder and hushed her.

"No matter what, don't speak"

The guttural clicks mimicked a velociraptor. It groaned and hissed, it was injured. It moved on, not hungry. Serenity watched it leave, it was the one from the cabin maybe. It looked similar. She turned to Isla. "Where did you come from, what direction?" She asked desperately

"I... I don't know. I got lost, I was just hiking. What are those things?" She asked, shaking.

"I'm not sure, but I figured out how to kill the blind ones. How long have you been here?"

"Well, I- I left this morning and now, I don't know what time it is"

"Do you have your phone? Mine is dead."

"Yeah. Here" She said quietly, reaching into her bag and handing her a phone. No service, it read.

"Damn. Okay, follow me."

They walked for an hour and found a small crawlspace that had a small opening they could sit up in. They ate something, then laid down on the stone floor. Serenity felt something soft hit her stomach. Isla had thrown a small pillow onto her.

"Here" She said and pulled a few blankets out "I was going to go camping out here. I guess you got lucky"

"Yeah. Thanks." She said as she covered in a blanket and used the pillow and arm to get comfortable. Isla laid on Serenity's stomach as a pillow.

"I only brought one, sorry"

They soon fell asleep, Isla slept peacefully. Serenity did not.