Hunting Season

Whispering Winds

8 months later

Adira threw her gear bag over her shoulder, slamming the passenger door shut as she made her way to the back of the car.

She popped opened the rear, grabbing a few spare items- a handgun, ammo, binoculars, a tent, and a bag filled with clothes and supplies she had randomly thrown in. Despite the amount of items she had to carry, she was more determined than worried about the hassle.

Adira's boyfriend disappeared a few months ago, and ever since then she had been planning to go search for him. He was last seen in the Whispering Winds Forest miles away from home. It was where he had gone missing with his friends, and it was also where local law enforcement and park rangers prohibited people from entering since bodies started showing up.

The news channel said it was a bear, other more questionable folk stated it was some alien hybrid, but Adira didn't care about the town people's talk. To her, finding Mitch was more important than some wild animal doing what wild animals do. Now that the state was allowing only a few hunters to start entering Whispering Winds once more, Adira jumped at the first opportunity.

"You planning on staying in there?"

A gruff voice caught the young woman off guard, and she quickly whirled her head to her right, focusing on an older man hoping out of a beat up truck.

Her eyes glazed over his vehicle, and then him, resting on a large rifle in his grip.

"No," she lied, "I'm just doing some-."

"Well you best be careful. You don't know what's in there." He finished, spitting to the side with a disgruntled growl and shake of his head, "Kids."

Adira wanted to bite back and say something nasty, but she held her tongue. Without a word, she marched towards the opening of the forest with all her items on hand. The winter season was coming, and the night was sure to be cold. Adira had a very vague idea on how to survive in the wilderness, but she learned a thing or two from YouTube a week before.

Whispering Winds was one of the largest forests in the area, covering over 20 million acres of trees, lakes, and such. Despite its size, Adira knew where Mitch and his friends went. She still had a photo saved of them, entering the same way she did. Mitch had sent it to her before they all went missing, followed with a "Wish us luck, love you" message.

Adira looked around her, swallowing uneasily as the parking lot faded behind her. She was completely surround by trees and knew that with night fall coming it would be ten times worse. There would be unidentifiable noises, large animals, and maybe even some creepy homeless people, she thought with a shiver. Adira reached into her pocket, cradling the pocket knife for reassurance. She tried not to make as much noise as she could so nothing or no one would see a lone walker and take advantage.

She must have been moving for ten more minutes before she decided to stop and take a breather. As she sat on a nearby boulder, she wondered if at one point Mitch did the same.

The thought of her missing boyfriend used to put her into a severe depression, but down the road Adira decided to hold on to the hope that somehow Mitch was still out there. The forest was large, and Mitch was not only a good hunter, but a good survivalist as well. He would have made a house out of sticks if anything, and him and his two buddies, Conrad and Kevin, would prove to be helpful as well. They were always a strong trio, bonded for life since they left the army together.

"Oh shit," Adira was caught off guard when a stag appeared just ahead, his large horned head turning to look around. The animal's round, dark eyes rested on Adira for a moment, and she slowly waved at the beast as it resumed its walk.

She had never seen any forest animal up close, but it was surprising it wasn't afraid of her. She only hoped the local bears or whatever carnivore was around didn't feel as confident.

Adira tossed her bag aside, resting it against a nearby tree. She began to fumble with it, pulling out a flashlight, packaged goodies, and a water bottle.

She began to take the tent out of the bag it was in and started to pitch it to the ground. It took her a few times to get it right, but within no time she had everything settled down.

The day was progressively getting colder, which meant a fire would be a wise thing to start.

Adira yanked out a lighter from her pocket and gathered dried leaves and branches, laying them in front of her tent. She crumbled up a few spare pieces of paper from a notebook she had packed and lit them up, setting it into the fire. It was a slow but good start, and soon she had a healthy glowing firepit.

Now that darkness was ascending quickly, Adira sat right outside the entrance of her tent. She rubbed her arms as she looked around the large trees surrounding her.

It was scary being in a forest at night, especially with the name Whispering Winds. She understood now why the forest was called that, because every now and then when the wind was strong you could mistake the swaying of the leaves with the sound of faint whispers.

"Oookay," Adira spooked herself, "It's just leaves. Nothing else. No ghosts or creepy stuff." And so the unwanted dark thoughts commenced.

A handful of people had gone missing in the forest for months, only a few turning up dead at a later point. Even though the authorities said there were no more disappearances, how would they know more people weren't going missing? What if whatever was in Whispering Winds was picking out homeless people or those who no one would miss? But...wouldn't that make the attacker human?

A loud snap echoing in the trees caused Adira to gasp loudly and she slapped herself for everything she was thinking. No. The thing mutilating people was an animal. It was most likely already killed by a hunter. She was safe and so was Mitch and his friends. They were lost in the forest, it's happened before with countless others in the wilderness. They knew how to survive.

Another sound much closer this time made the young woman quickly scramble into her tent and drag everything inside with her. She made sure she had everything before she zipped up the entrance. If it was a wild animal she just had to stay quiet and not make any noise, then she'd be okay.

Her heart beat heavily against her chest as she lay on her bag, waiting for something scary to appear in front of the fire and cast a shadow over her tent.

But nothing ever came.

She was unaware until the next morning that she had passed out from fear.