The Hunting

Chapter 21

He looks down at me after staring at the sunrise for a little bit longer. He whispered, "We can wait a little bit longer until we wake up the others. It is still pretty dark out."

I nodded in agreement as I turned back around to face east. I was quiet for a bit as I was trying to formulate the question that has been in the back of my mind of a while now. I sighed as I looked over at him. He looked at me in return. He spoke up before I had the chance, "I know you have a question on your mind. Ask it."

I furrowed my brow, "How do you know that?"

He shrugged, "You have a very distinct facial expression when you have a question on your mind."

"Oh."

" Go on then."

" By now, you all know that we are not scavengers. Why keep us around then? Why bother keeping two strangers? Especially since you know that they mean you no harm?"

Jaiver stayed silent for a while. He must be thinking of a response. I don't blame him though, it's not the easiest question to answer. By the time that he came up with a response, the sun was starting to peak over the rolling hills of an endless grassland. The sky looked like a campfire at night. Yellows, oranges, and reds surrounded the sun as the parts of the sky that have yet to be touched by the light were still dark blue and purple. This is absolutely beautiful. My attention was taken away from the sunrise as Jaiver spoke, "At first we kept you around because we thought if you were scavengers, you would be a good trade for Remmington. We then got to the point of realizing that in no way, shape or form either of you could be scavengers and we didn't know what to do for a while. We then learned how intelligent and good with a bow you were and we decided that we couldn't just let you go. We want you to help us rescue Remmington. Both you and Nate. Mostly you. If it were up to me, we would've left that guy in the forest that first morning."

"Then what is with the trust issues?"

He answered this question right away, " Same reason why you still don't trust any of us. You're worried about one of us hurting him or hurting you. You don't know our past or where we came from. You don't know our likes or dislikes. Our habits or our tendencies. Also, considering how curious you are, it drives you to the point of not trusting us, not trusting me."

I stood there in shock for a moment. I don't know what to say. After a moment, I nodded knowingly, "We should probably wake the rest of them up."

He nodded in response.

I let out a quick exhale, "Javier?"

He made a sound like he was going to listen to me.

I continued, "Thank you for talking to me. I know you would prefer to not talk. I appreciate you indulging in conversation."

He flashed me a quick smile as he started walking to the nearest group, who happened to be Pietra and Calum. His response sent chills down my spine, "It depends on who I'm talking to. If it's you, I actually enjoy talking."

I looked at his retreating form, eyes wide. What was that? I snapped out of my surprise and followed him to wake up the others. When I caught up with him, he looked at me and told me to go wake up the boys. I nodded and started walking towards Nate and Don. When I got there, I hand to put a hand over my mouth to stop from laughing aloud. Don was sprawled out, both his arm and leg were draped over Nate. Nate was breathing softly as he was curled up into a ball. I crouched on my knees and gently tapped Nate on the shoulder. He wiggled but did not wake up. I tapped him a little harder and said his name. No response. I rolled my eyes. This boy. I grabbed him by the arm and yanked him lightly. "Nate get up."

He groaned lightly. I continued to pull him, "Come on lazy, it's time to get up."

He whined, "I don't want to."

Another eye-roll, "Nate get up, we need to get going."

He cracked his eyes open and looked at me, "Will you help me up?"

I nodded. I stood up and grabbed his hand, at this moment I noticed how much bigger his hands were than mine. I helped him up with a grunt. I spoke, "You're heavy."

He chuckled lightly, "That doesn't mean much coming from you."

I glared at him and then turned my attention to Don who was still spread out across both the bedrolls. I tapped him on the shoulder, "Good morning Don, it is time to get up."

He sat up slowly with a big yawn. He scratched his head as he looked between Nate and I. He must've remembered the events from last night. He looked me in the eye and gave me a quick wink as he stood up. They started to roll their beds as I went back to check up on the others. The rest of them were up, gathering the supplies. Don and Nate were quick to join us. It took only a little bit until the camp was all cleaned up. We shared little words with each other as we were all very tired. I think all of us are worried about the future, what lies before us, worried about anything. I know I'm worried about a lot. Like what Jaiver said? – STOP! Stop thinking about these things. That is the last thing I need to be worried about. One of the tasks that we did before we left was getting rid of any traces of a campfire. Calum used his foot to kick all of the sticks and ashes around. He said it was because we did not want to be followed. We broke out some of the jerky and ate it as we took turns getting water and reliving ourselves. After some time, we finally left the campsite. The sun was up in the sky now, glowing brightly. There were very little clouds thankfully. I sighed quietly as we started walking. Here we go again.