Surviving The End (book 1)

Chapter 1

                                                 4 YEARS LATER

I moved through the trees without a sound. I watched everything around me, but everything was still. I heard a crack of a stick. I snapped my head in the direction of the noise, my bow and arrow at the ready. I smirked when i saw a deer. I shot it down and cut it open as fast as I could. the other creatures will soon smell the blood. 

It took about half an hour to get it back to the house and hang up in the shed. the winter cold will keep it from rotting. the past 3 years I've been on my own. 4 years ago the end of the world came. Monsters invaded our world and destroyed human kind. my best friend Kat was killed when she was 14. she went out to met with a boy and never came back. my parents went out to find food and never came back either. since then i haven't seen another person. I been hunting and growing my own food to survive. everything i need is in a days walk. I spend the summer hunting and collecting food and collecting wood to stay warm. winter was almost here and I was almost ready. At night i bored up the doors. when I moved here I bored-ed the windows and left open enough to look out without being seen. 

a twig snapped to my left making me look over. something was watching me in the trees. i was surrounded by a forest. I tried to see what it was but with the sun setting, the woods were impossible to see. over the years the creators had gotten smarter, more patient. I pretended i didn't hear anything and headed into the cabin. I bored the doors and started a small fire so I could eat. as the beans cooked I watched outside for anything moving. something was out there, watching and waiting.

I ate in silence and listened to the monsters run around. every night something wanders into the yard but never stays long. As long as i stay quiet they have no reason to stay. I finish my beans and sigh. this was my life? I had no one, I was on my own. for how long can I keep doing this? I know that explosion was a cover up. before the internet went out I did my research, finding out that everything happened in Detroit. that was nowhere near where I had lived. I was in LA at that time. I moved here about 2 years ago and I have no idea where i was. The government was hiding something. I take a deep breath and head to bed after the fire goes out. 

I opened my eyes in fear. the last time i heard that sound, some died. I was the only one in the area, was it my turn to die? I jumped up grabbing my bow and arrows and running to the windows. I looked around from the back to front. I frowned when I saw another person. he backed away from something in the trees. his head looked to be looking up higher than him. I looked in front of him and watched a creature on four legs walk out of the trees. hell hound. pure black dog, bigger than a full grown horse. it towered the boy. it's eyes glowed yellow and it looked as if the color moved like fire. it was ready to attack. I know i should let it kill him and leave, but it's been years since I saw another person. I needed to know where he came from. I groaned and ran out the door and shot at the hound. it bounced off its head making my eyes wide. shit, that's not good. all i did was piss it off. it growled at me this time. I've seen them but never tried to kill one. they were too big. I heard the wail again. it caught the hounds attention for a moment. I shot at the hounds paw making it whimper. I grabbed the boy's upper arm and pulled him up. 

"Time to go!" I yelled and we took off running into the cabin. I closed the door and bored up the door.

"what was that!" great, he talks. I ignored him and walked to the windows watching the hound, my bow at my side just in case. it paced in the front, like it was deciding to come in or not. just then its ears went up and it took off. I sighed in relief and set my bow down. 

"hello? can you hear me?" I wanted to slap him. I should have let him die. he acts like he's never been in this world before. 

"that was a hell hound and yes, I can hear you, so please shut up now." I said sarcastically. I looked at him closely. he had short brown hair and brown eyes. he was skinny and really dirty. he smells like he hasn't washed in years. 

"what you saw was a hell hound, a pure black dog with fire yellow eyes and because it wasn't leaving burned marks it was still a pup." that made his eyes widen with fear making me hold back a smirk. 

"wait? Do they get bigger than that?" I smiled and nodded. has he really never seen one? who was this guy? "and what was the screaming I heard? I thought my ears drums were going to explode." I nodded slowly. how was this guy still alive? 

"that was a banshee. I didn't realize there was one in the area. I got here 2 years ago and the last time I heard one was 3 years ago when everyone I loved died." I took a deep breath before finishing.

"she may look terrifying but she's only an omen of death, unless she feels threatened, or you enter her home." the boy looked at me, he looked as if he was going to faint. seriously! how is he still alive? this kid is going to get me killed if i'm not careful.

"Oh, i'm Lucas by the way." he gave me a small smile. he acted like a kid.  

"Danny." I said back as I watched him closely. "Hungry?" I asked. he nodded and I started the fire. after we ate some beans I headed outside to the shed to butcher the good meat off the deer. Lucas followed me and watched. 

"do you know how to butcher a deer?" I asked as I kept working. 

"no." he said softly. "I don't know how to do much. I have been..." he paused like he was thinking. "Scavenging for small stuff to eat, that i didn't have to cook." I looked up from the deer to look at him. only my eyes moved though. how was he still so small then? he's hiding something. 

"I can learn though. if you're willing to teach me."  he sounded like he wanted to stay but didn't want to come out and say it. I stop what I'm doing and stand up straight. 

"do you know how to collect fire wood?" I asked. he smiled and nodded. I nod and tell him to collect wood. for the rest of the day he collected wood as I finished the deer and packaged everything and threw them into a small freezer I had got working in the shed with a generator. I sat outside and carved myself more arrows for my bow. Lucas was next to the side of the house chopping wood. I sat there carving, once in a while looking up. by the end of the night Lucas had collected, chopped and stacked the wood on the side of the house. I covered it with a large tarp I found in the shed when I first got here. he collected a lot of wood, more than what I could collect in a day. 

we sat beside the fireplace and ate some of the deer I caught. 

"you have a week to learn." Lucas stopped and looked up at me. I looked back as I kept eating.

"if you can't then I can't let you stay. I'm already risking letting you stay here." he nods and looks at his food. 

"we will start with harvesting. tomorrow is the last day to pull so we will spend the day doing that. next week the animals go into hibernation so we need to do some hunting before then. you got the wood collecting done so we don't need to do anymore of that. thanks by the way for that." I said as i set my plate to the side. Lucas gave me a nod and finished his food.

"sounds good to me, can't wait." I couldn't help but chuckle and shake my head. I'm so dead.