The Archer

Chapter 8

After the long night of staying awake, almost starving to death, I figured I could take Elizabeth out to hunt with me. Of course, I was still mad at her, in fact, she was grounded. Now, most people might think of grounding a kid means making them stay inside the house all day, but it was an even more effective punishment making her come out into the cold forest so I could teach her how to hunt. "So, where'd you get your bow and arrows anyway?" Elizabeth asked me, quietly still wondering if I was still mad at her. "It was a Christmas present from my father...." I answered looking down at the oak wood bow and my leather bag of arrows.

Besides I didn't dare let her out of my sight again. So yes, she was coming with me to learn how to hunt. "Who taught you how to hunt?" she asked me, curiously. "Well, my father didn't have the heart to kill, which is kind of ironic since he was drafted, so my grandfather taught me how to hunt," I told her, hand on the shoulder. She shrugged me off and continued to walk faster.

We had finally made it to the clearing where I had some wooden targets and smaller tin can targets set up on a fence post leading to the old abandoned barn where I had hidden from Elizabeth when I thought she was a stalker trying to kill me. I showed her some of the rookie's ropes, and she said she thought she understood it. So, I let her have a go at it, and she amazed me when she knocked down all the tin can targets in 5.4 seconds. I congratulated her, then allowed her to practice with my bow for about another hour while I leaned back on a tree and watched.

"Alright, I think you've had enough practice time. Let's see if you can hit a real, living, moving, breathing thing." I said at last. We moved towards the bushes and waited for something, anything, to come on out. I tapped Elizabeth when I heard something small scurrying in the brambles right near us. She felt the warning tap and readied the bow and arrow. She waited, and waited, and waited, until.....SNAP! She hit the bunny directly in the head, as soon as it hopped its sorry cottontail out of the bush it had been hiding in.

I congratulated her and showed her the way to another large clearing in the forest that I had set up camp in. The clearing had one huge pile of firewood in the center and a lucky find of gasoline on the sideline. I stabbed a large sharp stick through the bunny and grabbed a box of matches out from my pocket, lit the match, threw the lit match in the woodpile, and dumped gasoline on it. The flames burst up high into the air, crackling and popping. While the fire got going I instructed Elizabeth to hold the bunny on a stick over the fire, just as if she were roasting a marshmallow.

She did as she was told and the bunny roasted very nicely. After about a minute or two, the bunny was done the cooking, and we munched and crunched happily on it. After, we ate we talked for a little while until it was almost dark. Then, I decided that we should start going home, so Elizabeth followed right behind me to the house. We finally made it to the house, but something didn't feel right. I heard a quick swoosh right above my head, so I quickly looked up, but there was nothing there. So, I continued to drag Elizabeth to the front porch, briskly.

Then, I felt a drop of what felt like saliva drip on my head. I looked up in horror, to see the biggest creature I had ever seen! It was one of them that's for sure, but I had never seen one so big! It was standing there on my roof, growling and hissing at me. I quickly backed away, dragging Elizabeth back with me. I didn't dare to scream, I had no intention of attracting any other creatures that may be lurking. I slowly backed away with Elizabeth behind my back, hiding. The large creature jumped down from the roof and inched towards us with its long, sharp, claw-like finger.

"Run..." I whispered in Elizabeth's ear. She hesitated for a moment, just standing there. "Run!" I screamed as the large creature jerked forward about to bite Elizabeth's face. Elizabeth ran as fast as she could into the woods screaming in horror. I followed right behind her, almost stepping on her heels. She screamed as she tumbled down a very steep hill, and I tumbled right behind her. When we both finally reached the bottom of the hill, she and I just lie there in the dirt, that we were both caked in. I looked down at my leg, it was definitely broken, just as that thought entered my head, a very long feeling of pain shot up my leg.

I looked to my right to see Elizabeth, face down on the ground, crying. I reached out my arm to grab her, but she was too far away. I looked up at the sky, and my vision began to get blurry. The black night sky morphed into a shade of purple then blue. As these colors raced around in my head, all I could think was...I'm going to die...