External (Book 1&2)

Book 2|Chapter 1

|Winter is Coming|

My lungs fill with air as I feel cold air brushing against my skin. My cheeks grow red at the feeling and my throat aches as the cold air enters my airways.

I sit as quiet as possible, my feet slowly rock in my crouched position in a way to keep myself balanced. I let my eyes scan the area around me and keep my hands wrapped around the sharp blade.

Inhale. Exhale-.

There.

My target nears my position in the tall grass, unaware of the dangers lurking within. I take one last inhale before jumping out, exposing myself. I bring my arms around the neck and take my weapon, easily killing it with one strike.

"Good job." Cayden comes around from his hiding spot behind a tree, clapping his hands as he does so. He walks over to the deer, looking at my strike with intensity. "Good, you did it humanely, that's the most important thing."

Cayden has been trying to teach us how to hunt animals. While doing so, he has one rule, you have to kill the animal humanely. He taught us how to do so for a whole week just by itself before he let us even come near an animal. The only one who refuses to learn is actually Sabrina, she doesn't understand why hunting is necessary if the earth supplies food by itself. And yes, this may be the case in some places, but where we are now, there is no food around. Especially with winter on it's way. As the air get's colder the plants shrivel up, hiding within themselves. Soon enough, even the animals will be hiding away.

So, because of this, we have been stocking up on animal meat. Cayden taught us how to properly keep the meat good for long periods of time. We have to take out the innards of the animal and that part of hunting, I don't think I'll ever get used too.

Cayden picks up the deer, carrying it over his shoulders as we walk back to camp. Recently, we have been staying just outside of the city limits. We don't want to stray to far from the facility and the city since we are still trying to find our leaders, even after two months of searching.

We have a one room cabin in which we all stay in. It took us two weeks to build, but it is structurally sound and has some kind of insulation to keep us warm, thanks to Kevin of course. Living in a small place like that, makes me wish I was back in my home in the facility. But, we had tried to live there for the first week and it just didn't work. It took dozens of people to run that place and with just eight of us, there was no way we could keep up with everything that needed to get done. After the first week, the place shut down. Kevin had to jimmy-rig the elevator so we could leave before we ran out of air, it was a scary hour.

I wrap my jacket around my body tighter. Thankfully, we all had the senses to pack for winter before we left. As the temperature drops to thirty degrees, I wear leggings under jeans with a sweater and jacket on. I can't imagine the air getting any colder, but this is just the beginning of winter, so I know the temperature will drop at least another ten to twenty degrees.

We walk into our campsite. The group sits outside on logs, positioned around a fire. The huddle together in the cold while waiting for last weeks hunt to cook. Cayden hangs the deer from a tree with the help of Marcus. He takes out his knife and begins to cut through the meat to keep it fresh. I look away at that, not being able to stand the sight.

I move away from the two men and make my way to the fire. As I near the feeling of the heat warms my body and smoke enters my lungs with a brush of wind blown my way. I cough slightly at the feeling and sit down next to Williams on a chopped up piece of log. When I sit, William, hands me some meat on a stick. I smile at him as a thanks before holding it over the fire to cook the raw meat.