Beyond These Walls

Chapter 6

I shifted the bag I was wearing unto my other shoulder, wincing at the heavy weight. Trees surrounded us, tall and strong. A few bushes held some cherries. Alyssa had stopped and gathered some to stuff in her pockets.

My family walked near me, dried leaves crunching noisily under their feet.

It was six in the morning and we had been traveling since three a.m. The twins had been tired and glum, but mother and I sang some merry songs to them, and their moods had shifted.

But we had to stop singing after a while. We didn't want to risk any werewolves if they were lurking around to find us.

Sweat trickled down my head and I wiped it away with my hand.

"How much longer will it take for us to reach the town?" George whined, swatting away a fly.

"A couple of hours." I reluctantly told him, knowing he would be even more frustrated. He groaned, his little shoulders hunching forward. My mom patted his shoulder.

Alyssa just bit into a cherry she had found.

We stopped when it was midday. We munched on some bread mom had packed. It was a little soggy, but it lessened my hunger.

I cracked my knuckles anxiously, looking up at the sky afterwards. The sky was a beautiful light blue, the clouds large and fluffy.

A bird suddenly passed by me and I blinked, my eyes drawing away from the beautiful sight above me. I watched as the bird landed on a tree, it's small head looking around it's surroundings.

I smiled at its bright colors. The wings were red and the chest yellow. The rest of it's body was black. I didn't know what kind of bird it was, but it certainly was beautiful.

"What kind of bird is that?" Alyssa asked. Before I could answer her, more birds flew, landing on the same branch. They began to chirp loudly, feathers ruffled.

I stood up from the rock I was sitting g on and looked around cautiously. A rustling noise sounded from a nearby bush and I grabbed mom's gun from where she had rested it.

I aimed it towards the bush, stepping forward. My family had gone quiet, there eyes trained on where I was aiming at.

A large wolf leapt at me and I pulled the trigger. The gun shot hit him in the chest and the wolf dropped at my feet, still snarling and snapping it's teeth towards me. It's eyes were blood red and it's fur looked dirty as if it hadn't cleaned itself in months.

He was one of the werewolves my supervisor had told me about, a blood lusted werewolf. These type of werewolves loved human blood as well as human flesh and would do about anything to have a taste of it.

Despite the pain the wolf was in and even though he was dying slowly from the bullet, he still snapped it's jaws at me viciously. His legs scrambled to try and get up but he couldn't. His red eyes narrowed as I lifted the gun once again, angling my body to hide the twins from what I was going to do.

I shot him in the head twice and he stopped moving. He was dead.

"We need to leave. There's going to be more mutts like him around here." I stepped away from the body and grabbed my bag and urged for the others to leave.

We began walking again, looking around us carefully as we did so.

A howl rippled through out the forest. The wolves had discovered their pack mate's body. The noise of feet pattering against the forest floor erupted.

The birds which were on the tree shot out into the sky, their chirps echoing.

We began running fast trying to avoid the dried leaves that would make unwanted crunching noises if we touched them. My bag thumped loudly on my back and my arms swung wildly, dodging tree branches and running through high bush.