Running From Fear

Chapter 1

It was well past the time Otelia said she was going to be back, and Alec was getting very worried. Not only was he all alone at the base by himself, but now his little sister was gone. Alec tried to think nothing of it. She could've easily gotten sidetracked by a small creek or a caterpillar even. Alec sighed and tried to calm himself down. He started gathering wood from around the base to start a fire for the night. Simple tasks like these always seemed to ease his mind. Alec then sat down on the ground next to the fire pit that was currently filled with ash and a few leftover sticks from the prior night.

"I'm eleven now, Al. I can go hunt for food by myself." Alec remembered Otelia's words before she left. "Yeah, right", he thought. He pulled a knife from his pocket and started sharpening it. Alec had started hunting when he was ten, but that was only because he was forced to grow up after his father died. All the fun things that kids his age would do at the time were out of the question. He knew exactly what was expected of him. Nothing more, nothing less.

Alec heard rustling in some nearby bushes. Out of pure instict, he threw the knife that he was just sharpening towards the direction of the noise.

"Geez, Al." Otelia said as she dodged the knife that was just thrown at her. "You tryin' to kill me or something?" She then took a few steps back to retrieve the knife and turned back to her brother.

Alec just stared blankly at her. "S-sorry... I thought you were a Seeker", he said as he walked over to her awkwardly and took back the knife from her. "Any luck finding food?"

Otelia nodded her head and slung her bag from over her shoulder, unzipping it and pulling out a squirrel. "I shot 'bout five of these. If you can cook them up, we could really have a feast tonight!" A grin of accomplishment resided on her face as she held the rodent's limp body and waited for her brother's reaction.

Alec shook his head. "You had me all worried. I thought maybe something had happened to you... what took you so long anyways? You were gone for like, five hours. You said you would be back by eight-thirty and it's ten! You weren't exploring, were you?" He gave her a skeptical look. Otelia was always wandering off from the base to explore. As harmless as a little bit of exploring seemed, it was actually quite dangerous. There was always the constant danger of getting attacked by a wild beast, but there was also the danger of getting found by a Seeker and then being captured.

The Seekers came about when the government wanted to find a way to "improve the human breed". Studies at the time claimed it would improve basic cognitive abilities of the brain and in turn would improve human performance in many areas. Unfortunately, the plan backfired on the researchers and the test subjects

You could obviously tell that Otelia and Alec weren't related. Alec was tall with long brown shaggy hair with brown eyes. Otelia, on the other hand, had frizzy red curly hair with freckles that covered every inch of her body and had green eyes. Despite this, Otelia always thought that her and Alec were biological siblings and because of this, was very close to him.

"What are you waiting for Al? Are you gonna cook or just stand there and look stupid?" Otelia said setting the bag with the squirrels on the table and then placed a hand on her hip, looking impatient.

Alec stared at her blankly. "Y-yeah, coming right up." 

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