The Group, the Idiot, and the Murderer -Mavin short story-

Chapter 5 - And Now We're Fucked

        We ran farther and faster this second time. Gavin stumbled along with a slightly drunken walk by my side, while I tried to get him to keep up. Geoff was ahead of both of us.

I didn't know what to think of anything anymore, and all I wanted was a few moments to process what the fuck was going on. We should have won. But now Ryan and Jack... were... dead? I couln't believe that even when I had seen it with my own eyes. 

I was scared out of my mind at the fact that the murderer was probably following us right then, and I had no idea how far behind he was. Maybe 5 feet, or maybe he was still by the cabin, but no matter what I couldn't look behind me. I just had to keep running until the stupid forest ran out of trees. I told myself I could do it no matter how many trees there were, but like many things in this camp out, I was wrong about this too.

I could no longer gasp for enough air and my legs ached. Fear had consumed me but it was beginning to get blocked out by the dizziness in my head. As the three of us passed by a few tents and a truck, I knew I had to stop. 

"What?" Geoff asked as I nearly collapsed on to the floor. Gavin and him were also out of breath and had stopped, although Geoff was looking around very nervously like he wanted to keep moving. The sweet, cool air felt so good in my lungs.

I walked to the nearest tent and looked inside to see it only contained a blanket. 

"Hello?" I asked quietly as I looked around the small campsite. Nobody. Then I turned to Geoff, breathed for just two more seconds, and told him the truth. 

"I can't run anymore."

Gavin gave an unsure look over to Geoff, knowing he was going to have to make some kind of hard decision here. Instead of talking me into running more, he understood. He came over to the tent I was standing by and pointed at it, putting his other hand on my shoulder. 

"Hide in here," he said. 

I climbed in and already felt like I was going to pass out. Geoff began zipping the tent closed behind me, sealing me away from the outside world. 

"Wait!' Gavin said. Geoff must have already knew what he wanted, because he opened the tent right back up just enough for Gavin to climb through with me. 

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him. He got himself comfortable by sitting in a criss-cross position and leaned back, closing his eyes and muttering something incomprehensible.

"I've gotta keep moving guys, but I wish you the best of luck," Geoff whispered before zipping the tent up for real this time, and beginning to run for his life.

And so then it was just me and Gavin, breathing our lungs out in this small dark blue tent with nothing but a thin red blanket. I could tell the temperature inside was the same as the temperature outside by the way it started to burn my throat.

"I'm scared," he said.

"Me too," I replied. I couldn't help but think about how I wanted to be somewhere else. Maybe working at my cruddy job as an electrician, or maybe just watching T.V. at my apartment by myself. Anything could beat the terrifying things I was going through.

"I'm really scared," Gavin whined.

I was thinking about everything that had just happened, so it took a while for me to respond to him. 

"Don't be," I finally said. It sounded stupid after it came out, but Gavin seemed to think it was meaningful on some level because his dumb face was staring straight ahead in deep thought. 

"Are you going to tell me what you were doing out in the middle of the woods when you found us?" I asked. 

"I wanted to take a walk. I wanted to see new things or go on a little adventure."