Restless

The Howling Fate

I woke up before Ben and Zach the next morning. I left my tent and sat next to what was left of our fire. The ground was wet, as if it rained overnight. The burning coals in the fire pit were glowing dark red. A few minutes later, I looked over and caught sight of something pure black moving across the ground. It was Coal,the King Black snake we had found the day we arrived there. I made sure it was him and picked him up.

"We meet again, Coal. It's good to see you." I whispered to the snake. Coal's forked tongue flickered in and out of his mouth. His eyes expressionless. "I'm sure going to miss you when we leave. We might come back in the future, but only time will tell"I looked up at the orange and red sky that held the rising sun. It couldn't have been later than 5am. Just then, Ben emerged from his tent and stretched. He greeted me with a smile and sat down beside me.

"Morning." He said drowsily. His hair was messy from sleeping. He saw Coal and rubbed his tail. I set Coal back on the ground and he slowly slithered away.

"Sleep well?" I asked him. He nodded.

"What are we doing today?" Ben asked, trying to fix his hair.

"Just whatever, I guess." I stated. "What you think?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe Zach can choose."

"Yeah. We can ask when he wakes up." Ben explained. A second later, Zach unzipped his tent and stepped out he yawned and then froze. He was looking at something behind us, towards the woods. His entire face had lost color, out of fear. Ben and I turned to what Zach was staring at behind us. Then I saw it. A wolf was standing at the edge of the treeline, watching us. It was fairly large and was covered in messy, grey fur. Besides the dark, nothing scared me more than a wolf. Then Ben did something I'll never forget. He stood up and slowly started to approach the beast.

"Ben, what are you doing?!" I whispered. Ben ignored me and continued to inch his way toward the dog. He slowly extended his hand toward the wolf. The animal held it's ground. The only movement the wolf gave was the blinking of his dark eyes.

"See? He's friendly, guys." Ben softly called back, when he was inches from its fur. Without hesitation, the wolf lunged at Ben and clamped its fangs down on Ben's wrist. Ben's screams filled the air. Blood flowed out of the bite, but the wolf refused to let go.

"Zach, get my gun!!!" I yelled, running to Ben, trying to free his hand. It tore Ben open even more. Ben's screams only made the beast thrash harder. Seconds before I got to Ben, I saw Coal strike the wolf's rear leg with his fangs. Coal's attack distracted the wolf and it let go of Ben. Ben fell back and I barely caught him. I glimpsed at his hand to find a bloody chunk of flesh. I could make out two of his fingers in the gory mess. The wolf had turned to Coal and bit him. Coal went limp almost instantly. He was dead. This made my blood boil. The wolf dropped Coal from his mouth and turned back to me and Ben. Slowly approaching us, it growled, baring his teeth, which were covered in blood. It charged and leapt at me. It's claws hit my chest and knocked me off my feet. I pounced onto me and tried to bite my face.

"Get it off of me!!!" I yelled trying to choke the beast. One of it's claws reached my right cheek and I felt it scratch me open. Blood trickled down my face as I held the wolf back. Right when I thought my face was going to be ripped off by the animal, A gunshot pierced the air the Wolf howled then went limp on top of me. I pushed the lifeless wolf off of me and stood up. Zach stood behind me with my revolver in his hands. He handed it to me and we rushed to Ben who was holding in his tears. He wrapped his wound in a towel that was now almost completely red with blood.

"Ben, we have to get you back home. Madison can take care of your hand." Zach stated, Trying to keep Ben calm.

"It feels hot like when you break a bone... and tingly, like when your arm falls asleep." Ben explained, holding his wound. Zach and I started packing up of campsite. The food first, then the blankets and pillows, then the actual tents. This all took about 10 minutes to finish. Ben sat in the driver's seat of his car, waiting. The towel was now completely red. Ben was starting to lose color from his face.

"Are you sure you can drive, Ben?" I asked, hopping in the car. He lazily nodded then started the car with his good hand. The engine purred as we sped off toward home. I helped Ben every once in awhile. It was an hour drive, we had a long way to go, and little time to get there.