Mysterious Danger

Forest

Harsh breathing.

Twigs cracked.

"Do you think we've lost them?"

"I suppose so," I replied. (Gods, please let them be gone, I don't think I can run much longer). The bag was weighing me down a lot, even making it difficult to stand.

The wind whistled, the leaves from the trees above rustled.

Silence

The only sound was now coming from our own rapid heartbeats. For a couple of minutes we stood there in silence, waiting to see if it had been them.

When I finally couldn't bear it anymore, I asked, " Is it safe enough for us to spend  the night here?"

'I wouldn't be so sure Evelyn," he answered with a sigh.

"Let's eat. We'll keep our stuff ready in case we have to flee."

"Alright," he said with a defeated sort of voice, though he seemed rather pleased we were gonna rest at last.

"Hey Orion, I think I have a lighter here somewhere, so would you mind going for some wood to make a campfire?"

"You know, splitting up isn't a good idea," replied Orion.

"Then just keep close," I said. He sighed and got up, going behind a couple of trees. I started rummaging through my bag, looking for my lighter and for some canned food. At the bottom of the bag, I caught a glance of my sleeping bag. "Good," I muttered. After giving it one or two full turns to the bag, I finally found both the food and the lighter.

A while later, Orion came back with the twigs and logs he could find. It was kind of difficult to set fire to the branches, but once we achieved it, we started eating.

I had some water inside a Thermos that was just in the outer part of the bag (thank gods, it didn't fall off), and Orion had a bottle of water he had grabbed randomly when packing.

For a while, there was silence. The only things making noise being the crackling of the flames and us eating and drinking (oh, how I was already missing the delicious dinners of hot soup and rice).

"Funny how well we managed to pack despite having done it so hastily." I blurted out, trying to start a conversation.

"I suppose so, yeah." Orion replied, without looking up from his meal. I felt this was already going nowhere.

"So, about what happened...." I gave it another attempt.

Silence

I started looking for a way to bring out the topic, "Are we going to-"

"No," He cut me off.

"But..."

"Not now, we'll talk about this tomorrow." Orion seemed pretty stern about it. "I'll do the first watch. You go sleep for a while."

I wanted to debate, but my pain and exhaustion got the best of me. Heavy-eyed, I set down my food and went to grab my sleeping bag. I put it beside the warm fire and just listened to the wildness of the forest in the meanwhile. I started thinking of what had happened and what would be of the future now, when my body finally gave in and I fell asleep.