The Hunting

Chapter 33

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We waited a full day before heading into the canyons. For the hunters, it flew by fast, but for me... it was agonizing. I couldn't stop thinking about Arden. I can't believe that I told her. I hope she's alright. Jaiver better not try anything with her! Currently, we were taking a rest as barely any of us had slept. I wonder how Arden is holding up. I sighed. I need to stop. I am going to drive myself insane if I continue to do this. I looked up at the rest of the hunters. Don was zoning off and Pietra and Calum were leaning against each other. "Do any of you have any fun stories to tell?" I asked.

My question was met with silence. After a second Don spoke up, "I can share how Pietra and I became hunters."

I raised my eyebrows surprised. "Yeah, that would be cool."

He looked at Pietra and she nodded.

He started, "Well, Pietra and I grew up near the ocean. Our parents were hunters, so we were always traveling. We never stayed in a place too long, but we often ate fish. When I was eight and Pietra was ten, there was a nasty storm that killed our father. The area that we were staying at got really flooded, and he was down by the ocean fishing for us. We never saw him again."

"I am so sorry," I replied.

Don shrugged, "It's alright, it was a long time ago. Anyways, after that our mother decided we needed to move inland. Considering how she was raising two kids, she was worried about us having the same fate as our father. We walked and we saw a lot of different things. We saw old civilizations, deserts, mountains, rivers, you name it! For the longest time, we never really saw anyone else, and if we did, we went the other direction. During the winter, about five years after our father's death, our mother got really sick and passed away. That was probably the hardest time of our lives. We had to learn how to fend for ourselves. We had many bad run-ins with scavengers. Since then, we were lucky enough to run into Remmington and Jaiver, and we picked up Calum along the way. We have been in a group for a while now and you basically know the rest of our story."

I patted Don on the shoulder, "Thanks for sharing man."

Don nodded and Pietra spoke up, "You were the most obnoxious brat when we were growing up."

Don glared at Pietra, "Oh shut up."

Pietra walked over to Don, "But you're my obnoxious brat and I don't know I would do without you."

I watched as they looked at each other knowingly and then pulled each other into an embrace. Calum stood up and motioned for me to do the same. Once Pietra and Don were done, we started to walk. After a while of silence Calum spoke up, "I guess it's my turn now."

I shook my hands, "Only if you want to, I was just wanting to pass the time by."

Calum shook his head, "It's no big deal. We have all been through hardships and mine aren't that different."

Calum told me that he grew up without any parents. It was just him and his older brother. His older brother, whose name was Cain, raised Calum since he was a child. When Calum was sixteen, he and his brother got separated after an attack from a bear. According to Calum, he searched and searched for Cain and the bear. He found the bear dead, but no sign of his brother. Calum lived on his own for about two years until he found the rest of the hunters. He wants to believe that his brother is alive somewhere, but he knows better than to get his hopes up. After he was finished, we were quiet for a while while I soaked in what I learned. Wow, they have had a hard ass life. I can't believe all of them were alone. Yet they found each other. I don't know what I would do without my family. I sighed softly as I was thinking about my family and what they were doing now. I wonder how Chase and Emma are doing. They should be fourteen now. I continued to think about my family as we walked trying to follow Arden and the other guy's trail. I got dragged out of my thoughts when Pietra spoke, "What's your and Arden's story?"

I ran my hand through my hair, "I want to tell you guys, but Arden and I have known each other since we were little and I don't want to say anything about it unless Arden agrees. She's a better storyteller than I am anyway. We both trust you all, but Arden is a very private person. I don't want to disrespect her like that."

Pietra nodded and we fell back into silence.

We continued to walk for a couple of hours until our path split. Calum said we would wait here for a while and figure out which path to take. While everyone was taking a drink, I walked a little bit down each side to look for clues. When I got to the left side, what I saw at my feet surprised me. Bloody bandages. I ran over to the group, "Hey, there are bloody bandages on the left side!"

Pietra and Calum instantly popped up and went to check it out. I watched as they looked down the left side and took a couple more steps into the canyon. They were talking for a while and then went over in the right and looked around as well. They walked so far down that side, that I could barely make out their figures. Don and I sat in silence while we waited for them to come back. After a couple of minutes, I saw them strolling back. It looked they were bickering. I heard Pietra first, "Why would they make the directions to their base so obvious? The right has no sign of a trail or footprints or any activity."

Calum shrugged, "I don't Pietra, but it seems awfully obvious to me. The scavenger was in a hurry, he must've dropped his bandages in the rush to make it back to the scavengers."

Pietra snapped, "Scavengers are not this easy to read, you know this!"

Now it was Calum's turn to raise his voice, "Well, what are we supposed to do? We looked for anything on the other side and came up with nothing! I bet you Jaiver and Arden chose the left side, we need to follow their lead."

Pietra sighed and started rubbing her arm anxiously, "This doesn't seem right."