Trapped in a Vile World

I spent most of the next day with Jimmy and Brian, pooling knowledge about the chosen locations and trying to plan what things might be needed for each trip. We decided the order would be Jimmy and the north pole, Zacky and the tropics, Johnny and the desert, Matt and the safari, then Brian and the south pole.

The worst part of planning was trying to decide on the diets of each one. Hunting rabbits and foxes in the snow for nourishment wasn’t exactly something I was looking forward too. Luckily, the tropics would have a plentiful array of fruit and small mammals that could be easily obtained, and the safari was full of hunters, therefore filled to the brim with good prey. Even worse than that was the teasing about me hunting. I’d been a vampire for less than a week, and I’d basically been bottle-fed by Brian and Zacky since I’d been conscious. Since Matt was obviously the aggressive hunter type, they elected him to teach me the basics.

The next few hours were fairly miserable; though Matt had an incredible talent for hunting, he wasn’t the best teacher. He got frustrated when I made the same mistake more than once, and moved through the ropes so fast that I couldn’t get a good grasp on them before he put me to the test. After many hours full of frustration and failure, I finally caught my first animal: a scrappy little squirrel. I was a little squeamish about killing it, but Matt annoyed me to the point where I just snapped its neck to end my pain. I had to catch almost five more until Matt was satisfied with my performance; I even caught a rabbit. Jimmy joined us a few minutes later, relieving a pretty aggravated Matt.

“Tera, you need to learn to feed off of these animals if you’re going to survive these next few weeks,” Jimmy said earnestly, trying to persuade me. I wrinkled my nose at the idea. He rolled his eyes, and bit into one of the squirrels. When the red liquid surfaced beneath his lips, the burning sensation in my throat roared back to life once again. He lifted his head knowingly, the blood dripping down off of his bottom lip. I closed my eyes, trying to center myself, but the sensation that strangled me was too powerful to resist. He smirked a little as he watched me.

“So… How do I…?” I asked timidly, looking over the dead animal. I could tell he was stifling a bit of laughter as he instructed me to the weak points of the animal’s body. I did as he did a few moments before, and the burning in my throat immediately began to fade. When most of the blood was drained, Jimmy held up his hand. I stopped, licking every last drop from my lips to ensure none was wasted. He showed me how to skin small animals, and cut the small pieces of meat into chunks that were fit to be cooked. We cooked up the meat on sticks we had whittled down. It didn’t taste too bad, but it certainly wasn’t restaurant food. The rest of the guys joined us and we feasted on my bounty of scrappy mammals.

“So when are we going to start this whole shabang?” Zacky asked quietly. We all listened as the trees rustled in the falling darkness around us.

“As soon as possible,” Brian piped up.

“Are you sure she’s ready though?” Zacky persisted. I frowned at him, snatching the cabob he was eating off of. He looked at me, confused.

“Well, if you don’t think I’m ready, you have no business ruining my hard work,” I grumbled, biting into what was left on his skewer even though I was already full. He narrowed his eyes at me.

“She might die if she doesn’t work on her hunting skills,” Matt said with a smirk. I growled angrily at him across the fire.

“Excuse me, who caught and cooked dinner for your sorry ass?” I asked angrily, standing up and leering over at him. He held his hands up in fake surrender, but the smirk never left his face. Brian, Matt, Zacky and I started to bicker while Johnny finished eating his food in silence and Jimmy looked at the ground.

“We leave tomorrow,” Jimmy’s calm voice washed over us, immediately silencing the bickering. No one argued. No one said a word. I sank back to where I was sitting. Zacky snatched the stick from my hand before getting up and walking back to the entrance to the tunnels. I didn’t look after him, nor did I look at any of the other guys as they left one by one until just Jimmy and I were left. I looked up at him, questioning him silently. He kept eye contact as he spoke. “It’s the best option and you know it,” he said quietly. The seriousness in those normally joyful blue eyes scared me. I nodded, dropping eye contact. He was next to me in an instant, throwing a comforting arm over my shoulder. I leaned against him, taking in a deep breath and sighing. “Don’t be scared,” he whispered so quietly that I could barely hear him. He leaned his forehead against mine. “Everything’s going to be okay. I’m going to take care of you.”