The Hunted

As Good of a Target

The birds sang overhead as the sun began to rise. I lay under a bed of pine needles, still shivering from the cold of the night. I hadn't slept that night. That gunshot could have been used to injure Derek. They weren't allowed to kill us, but they could certainly injure us if they wanted to.

As long as he was still conscious, he could have removed it himself. We'd gone through the first aid treatment just the previous year. Getting shot was something that happened often in our profession. It was something we needed to know how to do so we weren't bothering the infirmaries and medics with unnecessary medical procedures. As long as it didn't get infected he would be fine.

I sat up and brushed the pine needles off of myself. I would need to build a fire and get warmed up, but I still needed to find some source of water. That was my primary concern at the moment.

There was a wild raspberry bush near my camp. I picked as many of them as I could before I headed off in search of water. Moving around would help me to get warmed up. The fire could wait. The water couldn't.

Walnut trees could be tapped for water. It had completely slipped my mind until I had checked on how many I had stashed in my backpack that morning. I'd need to find something to syphon it out of the tree, but I was certain I could rig something together. All I needed was to be able to get it to come out of the tree. I could easily stand under the stream and let it run into my mouth.

The trouble was I couldn't remember where I had found the walnut tree. It was in the direction of the gate, I knew that, but there were multiple gates to the Recreation Zone. The challenge was going to be remembering which one it was.

I retraced my steps to the shop clearing and sprinted across it back into the safety of the woods. I had been on this side of the shop when I had found the tree. That at least helped to narrow down the search area.

It could also lead me closer to the Guardians and their weapons. I was just as good of a target as Derek was.

I pushed that thought from my mind. There wasn't any point in dwelling on something that was out of my control. If they were going to shoot me, then I couldn't prevent them. I may have been good with a knife, but I wouldn't be able to throw it through the chinks in the fence and into a Guardian, killing them, before they were able to pull the trigger. There wasn't enough time.

x.x.x

The sun was high overhead by the time I finally found the walnut tree. I shrugged off my backpack and knelt down to find a sturdier knife than the one I'd been carrying. They were all the same size. My best weapon down to the best size. That didn't mean that all of the knives were made exactly the same, though. These weren't brand new knives. They had been used and the wear and tear was obvious on them.

I pulled out one that wasn't as worn as the rest and straightened up, running my hand over the trunk of the tree. One side of the tree was supposed to be better than the other, but I couldn't remember which one it was. There had been something about moss. The same side that moss grew on? The opposite?

It wouldn't really matter. Any side would give me what I wanted, I would just have to put some extra effort in.

I looked at the trees and ground near me, moving around the tree until I was on the south side.

Placing my knife against the tree trunk, I took a deep breath before I started chipping away at the bark. Bit by bit the bark fell away and the water grew closer.

After nearly an hour of chipping at the bark with the now dull knife, water finally began to run down the tree. I grabbed one of the green outsides of the walnuts from my backpack and used it to direct the watery sap into my mouth, closing my eyes as the earthy flavor filled my mouth.