The Fist

7

A rumble sounded from the direction of the hill, a chugging blanketing the occasional metallic screech. An old car. Ava's dad had refused to buy a new car because his was 'perfectly usable' and there was 'no point fixing what wasn't broken' and so had made the same noise as they were hearing in the woods. "I thought Dursley was too technologically advanced for old cars and squeaking gears?" Ava asked, turning to face Nathan.

"They've got something big they're working on, not really bothering with cars, but we need to go now," Nathan said, speaking very quickly as he climbed to his feet, zipped up the rucksack and threw it over his shoulders. "Come on."

"Nate, what is it? You don't think they're coming for us, do you?" Whether Ava thought the same or not, and she really didn't know, she got to her feet and followed him. They'd rolled the plastic bag up and put it inside the rucksack, so Ava didn't have to worry about grabbing anything before jogging a few steps to catch up to her newest - and, she decided, her best - friend, who was already increasing his pace to a very quick walk for their short legs.

Nathan pointed to the bottom of his hat, "Listen, the noise is getting louder." turning her head so one ear was facing the way they'd come up the hill, she could only nod. It was getting louder. How had she not noticed? "Well, that means they're coming this way," Nathan explained, though she already knew what it meant. He just liked to know he knew things every once in a while. Needed to know they hadn't taken everything from him. "And who else is out here? Who else, but us, who only last night, broke into someone's house, stole food and drink, and ran away again." He made a fair point.

"And even though it was dark, so they couldn't see us, we left footprints," Ava said slowly, only then realising she'd put them in danger. "And the wind... it wasn't that windy last night. Was it?"

"No," Nathan agreed. He'd noticed the impressions of the rucksack and their feet around their little campsite had still been there when he'd woken up. "Prints will still be there. If not the ones along the bottom of the hill, then the ones up it."

Breathing more heavily, she walked a bit faster and made them change direction often. "What will they do to us?" Her worried eyes met his and a moment later they turned around and continued the way they were going, walking backwards, in the hope of confusing the drivers. The issue though, was that they were going at less than half their previous speed, which hadn't exactly been fast. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

All the while, the groaning of the engine grew louder and closer and louder and closer and-

"They've seen us."

"No!" Ava cried, "No, let's climb a tree, climb and-" The car - pick-up truck - was right on top of them.

A man with a fluffy-looking brown beard and no hair on his head, rolled the window down, shivered, and leaned his head out. "Hey, you look a little lost. Why don't you climb in here and we'll show you a nice warm place and good food?"

Ava recognised him as the human who... "Jack!" She greeted his dog, who was poking over the side of the trailer, with a bright smile and then a frown as he looked at her. His deep brown German Shepherd eyes looked into hers and she could see a deeper understanding run through them, passing a message over to her and- And she knew she shouldn't have called his name, shouldn't have reacted to him.

"You know him, do you?" His human asked. "You were the one who came in yesterday, then. He let you go, did he?" Never caring for an answer, the man turned away from her shaking head and got out the truck. Frozen in shock and fear, neither child moved as he walked to the trailer and, as Jack made a run for it, tearing across the snow, he lifted his hand from his belt, aimed the gun and fired.