Good For Gone

The Hunt

I strapped the backpack full of snacks and water bottles to myself, even going so far as to use the buckle in the front.

I had the knife tucked into my waistband and Peter took the Taser. I still didn't entirely trust him around knives.

Since they knew what the car looked like we parked relatively far away and hid it the best we could with tree branches.

Before I locked it up I reached in and grabbed my fuzzy purple dice off the rear view mirror.

"Peter," I called him over, "I want you to have these."

"What?" He asked as he appeared at my side.

I held the dice up and he let out a bubble of laughter, "the dice?"

"Yes," I had to roll my eyes at myself, "You said luck isn't your Forte, and we'll need all the luck we can get. I don't want you messing up our mojo."

He laughed.

No matter how uncomfortable it made him, I made him hold his hand out as I tied them around his wrist.

He admired my handiwork, shook his head, and began walking towards the road. I buried the keys in a shallow grave nearby and followed him.

"Since this is the road to the nearest town, their path probably branches off somewhere around here." he said as we walked on the shoulder of the road.

I felt amazingly uneasy. Every sound made my stomach lurch. But Peter seemed oddly calm, almost content with what we were doing. His sadness wasn't missed by any means, but what it was replaced with confused me.

We walked in silence, constantly listening for any unsavory noises. Peter's eyes were trained on the woods, looking for something that I couldn't.

His arm shot out in front of me, cutting me off, "Wait," he whispered, "I think I see it."

I followed his eyes but only saw the same line of trees we'd been walking alongside all day.

"I can't see anything."

He reached out like he was going to move me, but stopped himself and just ushered me over closer to where he stood.

"Look right there, kind of sideways."

I stared directly to where he pointed. The ground slopped downward right off the road, causing the trees to hang awkwardly. But as I moved closer I noticed a crooked path hidden among the branches.

It was wide, for something that was so hard to see, with lightly outlined tire tracks.

"They'll see us coming if we use this," I said.

He laughed, "That's why we're not walking directly on it."

He stepped into the woods and I followed, still notably more edgy than him.

We stepped lightly, fighting to make sure we made as little noise as possible in the underbrush. The walk was long and quiet, I was religiously sipping energy drinks to keep myself from passing out. The hot air made it feel like it was hard to breathe but I was afraid to take off the jacket and tie it around my waist. I needed to be ready to run at any moment.

We stopped a handful of times to sit on logs and eat jerky.

But the day was mostly dedicated to walking, stopping, looking around, and then walking again.

It was pretty boring until we found them.