Chapter 1

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She inhaled deeply, held the breath for a moment then slowly exhaled while pulling the trigger.

She smirked a little then frowned as the deer jumped away. She pulled the gun down from her face. She looked up at the slowly darkening sky, deciding if it would be worth a trek in the pitch black of night for a few meals.

After about a minute she decided it wasn't worth possibly getting injured and unloaded the magazine from the rifle.

She gave a small sigh of disappointment as she put the magazine in an inner pocket of her coat, pulling the gun's shoulder strap over her head. "So much for venison," she mumbled quietly to the forest around her.

She crouched down to pick up her shoulder bag and heft it up. She squinted once again at the sky then at the trail behind her. She supposed she could at least be glad it wasn't raining yet.

  She started the trek back to her campsite and grabbed out and unwrapped a piece of cured meat from the other month, putting it in her mouth she started to hum quietly to herself.

About two hours later and she made it back to her tarp-covered tent and crawled inside. It was practically pitch black out and she didn't try to bother with a fire, from sheer exhaustion. She had nearly lost her way a few times in the low light and needed to backtrack.

  She pulled the gun and bag over her head and set them down near the entrance then shed her jacket and hoodie, laying them on top of her bag. She toed off her boots then crawled into her sleeping bag, falling asleep almost instantly.

She awoke with a slight start, a feeling of not quite right settled in her stomach. Frowning she peeked out. Nothing seemed immediately wrong but then that's how it always was when something really bad was wrong.

Her fire pit was still a few feet from her tent, cold and unlit.

The sun peaked through the trees, and the same gentle breeze swayed the branches from the same direction.

Her frown deepend when suddenly she realized, she had not set up camp in a clearing. Or well, at least not one this large. She crawled out completely and sat back on her haunches, watching the world around her.

  She had to have been looking around for about 10 minutes, then the feeling faded away slowly. So she stood up and stretched, lacing her fingers together and stretching her arms straight up. She turned her back to crack it in both directions then cracked her fingers and released a small sigh.

  She popped her head back into the tent and grabbed her "small"(big) hunting knife, her two canteens and her sweater and left for the river. Once she got there she relieved herself then filled up her bottles and splashed her face with the water.

  She looked across the slow flowing river to see a nice big buck and she immediately regretted not grabbing her gun. Giving a small sigh she stood up, the deer and herself watching each other warily and hungrily, respectively.

  Their heads whipped to the sound of a twig snapping and the deer quickly took off and so did she, unsheathing her knife and holding it in her small hands.

She quickly, but quietly, made her way back to her campsite and started packing hurriedly.

~~

Once she had packed up it was just past midday and she was moving east along her river. Her feeling of not quite right had come back, so she kept her gun on her shoulder and her knife sheathed and strapped to her thigh for easy access.

  She was heading downstream, and travelled fairly quickly for being so overburdened by her tent and other supplies. And soon it was nightfall and she set up a small little lean-to/crawl tent (the really low-to-the-ground ones) and a little fire pit. She put her bags and things under the covers, keeping her knife on her, and went to the river. She was gonna hate herself, but she stripped her clothes down to her undershirt and shorts and went into the freezing water.

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