The Hunter

A rustle in the trees next to him startled Ben enough that he let out a loud yelp. There was an answering cry of surprise, but it was from something human. It was from Toby, who had thought Ben had seen him coming and was about to call out to him. He had not expected his friend to be so startled.

“God, Ben, don't scare me like that!” Toby snapped, a hand at his chest.

“We've gotta get out of here!” Ben hissed, grabbing Toby's shirt and yanking him swiftly forward.

He glanced back, but saw no movement, nothing chasing them as he dragged the loudly protesting Toby away. This was probably the most Ben had heard Toby speak, but he did not pay it any mind. All he cared about was getting away, back to the safety of their camp, if it could be called safe.

“Ben, slow down! Stop, you're hurting me!” Toby yowled, grabbing at Ben's arm and digging his nails into Ben's skin.

Panting from fear and exhaustion, Ben finally came to a stop and turned to face the other boy, who scowled at him. Toby's eyes fell to the fish, but swiftly returned to Ben's face. He thought about his next words carefully, considering the different consequences.

“What happened?” He finally asked simply.

“I was attacked by something! We've got to keep going, I don't know if it's safe or not!” Ben babbled, catching his breath slightly.

“If we keep running around like lunatics we are certainly going to get killed, but not by some weird animal. Calm down a bit, and let's go back slowly, okay? There's not much we can do at this point even if anything does come to attack us.” Toby urged Ben, attempting at being comforting.

Ben's mind refused to calm down, but realizing he was making things harder for the other boy, Ben forced his body into a more relaxed state. He gave a slow nod and then, to change the topic, held up the fish.

“I got dinner.”

“I see that. Let's go back and I'll make a stew or something equally easy to eat.” Toby nodded, licking his lips.

Ben woke in the middle of the night to his stomach rebelling against him. Despite Toby warning him to be careful, Ben knew he had eaten too much. It had not seemed like too much at first; he had only eaten maybe two cups and a half of the stew Toby had cooked up. Groaning softly, Ben pulled himself out from under the now deflated life raft the boys used as a sort of tent. Toby mumbled something in his sleep, but otherwise took no notice as Ben crawled away.

He swiftly scrambled to get to the other side of the camp before he hurled most of the contents of his stomach behind a tree. Cursing softly, he struggled to hold the rest down, but managed. Ben spit out bile and tottered back to the stream that led to the lake and began to wash out his mouth. In his misery, he did not hear the crack of branches behind him until almost too late.

Ben dove forward, into the water and a huge, bulking shadow charged the spot he had been crouched moments before. Scared nearly witless, Ben darted to the other side of the stream and barely managed to climb up into the lower branches of a near by tree before the beast charged again. It slammed into the trunk of the tree, shaking the entire thing. Ben pulled himself up even higher and looked down at the ground below.

A massive twelve point buck stood snorting angrily at him, stomping at the ground. After a moment, it continued farther into the forest, followed by two does and a fawn. Ben stared after them in disbelief for several minutes before he shook himself off. He started to climb down, but lost his grip on the bark of one of the branches and fell. His landing was oddly soft and it only took a second for him to realize he had landed on something. Something that felt an awful lot like a bush that had not previously been there.

There was a grunt from below Ben as the bush-thing shoved him off. Ben scrambled backward in terror, wondering when this awful day would end. The thing turned to him, an arm shooting out and grabbing his bandanna.

“Let go!” Ben howled as it dragged him closer.

He kicked out as he had done at the lake, but the bush-thing was prepared this time. It grabbed Ben by the ankle and yanked. Ben was forced onto his back and once again he felt claws around his neck. This time, however, the bush-thing did not put pressure and Ben was able to breathe easily. Gulping nervously as he tried to calm enough to think, Ben held perfectly still. It seemed he was being closely examined, the bush leaning what Ben thought to be it's head close to his chest. A whimper escaped the terrified boy and he thought he heard what sounded like a chuckle, but he could not be sure, as there was a loud scream in the distance to the west. In a flash, the bush was gone, leaving only behind the sound of the wind through the trees as it dashed away at impossible speeds.

Ben's head thumped to the ground. He did not have the strength to get up any longer, so he closed his eyes and simply drifted off to sleep, letting what ever happened next happen.