strength

Part 2 "Rules"

He had closed his eyes only for a minute. He had only let go of his fear for just a second. He had lost his focus for just a moment. Stupid boy.

Joey shoots up when the sound of something breathing comes dangerously close. Frozen he sits up as the breathing becomes heavier. Panic is rushing through his body as he looks down and sees a wolf as big as a bear waiting at the bottom of the tree. Looking up at him, waiting for him to fall down.

It takes only a second before he realizes where he is. In a tree, in a fucked up world with men who chop off legs and wolf-bear hybrids. 'Fuck' shoots through his mind as he tries to move up just a little so he can look if the wolf is alone. Pain shoots through him like bullets when he moves his right leg.

He hisses as he grabs a branch and tries to muffle a cry. 'I'm not made for this' he thinks as the pain becomes worse and worse. He doesn't move an inch as he stays put and looks down at the wolf beneath him.

It's watching him. It looks but doesn't move. For a second Joey thinks it's just a statue but when the Wolf starts to circle around the tree he realizes he's fucked. The wolf's gaze is burning in the back of his head as he hopelessly tries to think of something to get the wolf to leave.

Joey looks up and sees a large branch on his right. He reaches out and his fingers brush over the wood. He curses and tries again. His hands slip around the branch as he pulls himself up, trying to reach a higher point in the tree. It's not until he hears a soft cracking that he realizes that he fucked up, again.

The branch breaks off and falls to the ground. Joey, with his hand still wrapped around it, falls with it. He screams as the he tumbles down. He reaches out and his arm gets stuck. With a shock his body stops falling and a burning pain shoots through his arm. Joey bites his knuckles not to scream again as he pulls himself up the branch that saved him from falling.

He looks down and sees the wolf laying on the ground, blood next to his head and the branch laid next to it. 'I killed it' Joey thinks as fear crawls over his skin. 'I killed it'.

Joey leans back and takes a deep breath but quickly looks down as he realizes what he has done. He screamed. Here, in this world. God knows what's out there and he screamed. The feeling of panic -that was now already painfully familiar- crumbled his mind.

"What am I supposed to do?" he breathes out as his head falls back and his whole body shakes.

Joey notices that the temperature was probably below freezing and his body feels numb. 'How the hell am I going to move?' He thinks as he looks at his right leg, that is still hurting like a bitch.

The silence is tearing him apart as Joey waits for anyone, anything or just something to jump at him. When there are no footsteps to be heard, Joey sighs from relief. For a second he can almost cry from happiness until he notices it.

The sounds.

They're all gone. Juts gone. The whole forest is silent and every other sound has disappeared. It feels like a bad black and white movie. A horror movie without the scary music to warn you when the killer is close. No sign, no warning, nothing.

Joey sucked in a sharp breath as he felt a cold wind stroke his arm. The wind passed and the sounds slowly came back. 'What the-' Joey thinks as he touches his arm, still feeling the cold piercing and poking his skin.

He looks down and sees that he hasn't fallen far to the ground. It would only be a couple feet if he jumped and his leg could take it if he rolled. Joey stretched his neck out to see the trail the group of men had walked on and he nudged to himself. 'It's now or never Joey' Joey looks at the sky. The sunlight is creeping in and for some reason it feels safer to start walking now.