The Hunter Version 1

headed in his direction, but he stayed put a little longer to be certain. When all the noise had moved away, he dared to peek around the tree. To his horror, he found one of the men staring right at him.
“Hey!!” Greg bellowed.
Ben did not waste another second and tried to bolt, but one of the other men was fast and seemed to know the land well. As Ben stumbled and tried to keep upright, this man moved with confidence and ease and pounced on Ben before he could get more than a yard away.
“Get off me!” Ben yelped, rolling over and kicking out at the smaller man, who grinned and easily dodged.
“What do you have, Sal?” Came Sam's voice as Greg trotted over, huffing, Sam and the woman close behind.
Gathered together, the four looked strange. In Ben's mind, you would have never seen such people together in one place unless they were forced to be. Sam was tall and had the build of a rower; powerful arms and legs. His strawberry blonde hair was messily cut as short as was possible in this harsh environment and his blue eyes examined Ben with kindness. Greg was a shorter, much more muscular older man covered in faded tattoos and gray, shoulder length hair. He glowered down at Ben, but did not approach.
The woman was big boned and tall with wiry red hair and green eyes made larger by a pair of dirty glasses. Her skin was badly sunburned, like Toby's, and covered in freckles. Then there was athletic Sal, who should have been in a circus. He had hair the same color at Ben's, kept long and in a ponytail. He was skinny and short, but his legs hinted at a life time of athletic training that none of the others, even Sam, could brag of. Ben felt tiny and weak compared to the men and very afraid. They were much more threatening than Max was, despite everything Max had told him.
“Who are you?” Sam asked, kneeling as Ben sat up.
Ben did not reply, simply giving a shake of his head and scooting away.
“Should I have let'im go?” Sal asked, staring at Ben with interest, his head tilted to the side.
“Maybe he's the jack ass who's been stealin' our food!” Greg snarled, taking a step closer.
Ben scooted back even farther.
“N-no, I'm not. I'm not anyone special...I just found this place on accident. I have to go. Now.” Ben sputtered, trying to get to his feet.
Sal was on him in a minute, slamming a foot down on Ben's shoulder and forcing him back down.
“Sal,” Sam frowned, but was ignored.
“Stay, why don't ya? Ya can't exactly prove you weren't the food-thief, can ya?” Sal grinned at Ben.
“Please, just let me go. I need to get back to my camp before...my companions worry.” Ben told them, placing a hand on the foot that still remained on his shoulder.
“What do you think, May?” Sam asked the woman, who gave a simple shrug.
“He looks skinny enough to be a thief, but there's not really anywhere he could hide food.” Mae stated.
“He coulda ate it.” Sal pointed out and Greg nodded.
Ben remembered distantly that Max said there had been a camp of five about a mile away from his and Toby's camp. This must have been it. Seeing as there were only four people standing in front of him, he thought the fifth must be the thief.
“Where is your other companion?” Ben tried.
“What do you mean?” Sam asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
“I, uh, I saw another person in the trees a little earlier. I...thought he was maybe with you.” Ben lied, doing his best to keep color from his face that would give him away.
Sal chuckled and glanced back at the other three.
“He's crazy!” Sal began to say, but there was a loud sound from the camp that had Greg and