Hunting Season

It's getting cold again, the water is starting to freeze. The leaves are falling off the once flourishing, green, beautiful trees. The brown leaves litter the ground. The grass is also losing its color and turning into a brown dried out type of brush. Not any good to eat, but for the winter it'll do. It does the bare minimum of keeping me alive. The ground is freezing, I am freezing. The winters are harsh, food is scarce, the temperature is dropping steadily, along with my weight. Worst of all.... This is around the time when everyone I know starts to drop dead.

I awoke to the sound of a Chevy pickup truck sputtering to a start, it struggled to get its engine going in this brutal, bone chilling cold. I slowly stood up, my hind legs were numb. I stumbled around for a minute as I scanned my surroundings. A wave of anxiety flooded my bloodstream. They were gone, all of them. My brothers, they were gone, out of sight. I became dizzy, like a drunken man on the corner of a busy intersection, racking his brain, trying to figure out which way was home.

Suddenly I halted to a stop. My legs folded beneath me and i tumbled to the ground like a game of Jenga. I was a pile of tangled limbs. I decided to stay down here, I couldn't even think about trying to get up right now. I needed the rest anyhow, actually I needed something to eat. I could hear the echoing cries of my body begging for food bouncing off the walls of my empty stomach.

Right then I seen something rustle out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't sure what or who it was. And I wasn't sure if I should stay down low and try to hide my frail body in the brush, or if I should spring to my feet and take off like a bullet . I looked a little closer and the panic that weighed on my chest finally lifted. My brothers, they were up ahead of me a few hundred feet. They didn't leave me after all! I was ecstatic. Out of nowhere I gained the energy I've been searching for and rose to my feet.

I slowly waddled over to them. My brothers. They weren't my biological brothers, but close enough. We've been together for 2 going on three years. There were five of us. Just a small herd of bull elk. That's what we were, a little smaller than a moose and a little bigger than a whitetail deer. There was a few more of us a couple months ago. We lost 3 brothers to car accidents. Us elk aren't usually the ones that get hit, but it does happen.

"How was your little nap?" Sloan asked, he was the leader of our little herd. He was one of the oldest, just a little over 3 years old.

"It was great, until I woke up and all you guys were gone" I sputtered out with a strained voice. I was still shaken up.

"Oh come one, we weren't that far out, and plus we didn't feel like waiting around on you anymore. But the eating is good over here, chow down and quit jabbering".

That was Eric talking, him and Sloan were actually brothers. They're twins. I looked down, there was actually small patches of green sprinkled throughout this mesmerizing sheet of white. The boys had peeled back a few layers of ice and snow to expose the beautiful lively green. The green reminded me of summer, I loved summer. It was warm, there was flourishing food everywhere. I was never hungry or struggling to keep warm. Summer was my best friend.

I put my head down and got to eating. I forgot what green grass tasted like, I was so used to shriveled up grass and leaves. Winter was rough, by far my least favorite season. There was a booming crack that split the sky. Without thinking I bolted. I was running so fast I felt like I was soaring. I knew what that sound was, it was familiar, so frighteningly familiar. My heart was pounding like a drum against my chest. I had to stop, I couldn't run any farther. I jolted myself to a halt as my eyes frantically darted around. It was a gunshot. A close one at that.

Sloan, Eric, Max, and Beau. We were all here. I had to double check, I wasn't sure we all got away. In the moment of the gunshot I wasn't concerned about anyone but myself, I guess that's just the adrenaline, it clouds your thinking. But, the saying "birds of a feather flock together, until the cat comes", couldn't be more of a true statement. I mean, elk, we're herd animals, seldom found on our own, but when something spooks us, every elk for himself.