Dead in the Woods
By Vanessa Belle
Copywrite 2011 Vanessa Belle
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The harsh wind blew slithers of ice, too sharp to be called snow, into the faces of the three lost hikers. It was growing dark, their tent destroyed, and the food almost gone. If that couldn’t be bad enough, the werewolves had picked up their scent and were closing in. None knew how long they’d survive. But for that moment, they only had each other.
“Oi, you two, stop fighting already!” Called Rose to the other starving hikers with her. “If we don’t get along, then how do you think we can all survive?”
“Ha,” snorted Jade. “Of course you play leader. Don’t you think we have enough on our minds without you bossing us around?”
“Yeah, we have to worry about not freezing to death,” added Riley, the only boy of the group. “And Jade won’t stop complaining about being hungry all the time, or how her precious blonde hair is messed from the wind. And, if you haven’t already noticed, the howls of the werewolves are getting louder every night.”
Rose sighed and slumped to the ground. Tears of tiredness and frustration ran from her hazel eyes and down her face, freezing to her cheeks.
“That’s why I’m trying to bring order so we can survive. As for the freezing to death part; if we all huddle together while we sleep, and stay close during the day, then our body heat can keep each other warm.
“OK,” Jade and Riley agreed in unison. They all shuffled closer around the almost nonexistent fire. It was hard to get flames from almost entirely frozen sticks.
“Wait!” Riley’s grey eyes looked bothered. He tried to push his black hair out of his tanned face, but soon gave up. “There are three of us, so that means at night someone will be in the middle, and get double the warmth from the other two. That’s a bit unfair, isn’t it?”
“How about we draw a stick?” Jade decided. “Whoever has the shortest stick gets the middle. Sound good? OK.”
Jade left for the trees, away from the creek they stayed near for fresh water, so that the sticks would hopefully be drier and less frozen there. She found three, and broke them into different sized pieces, and headed back to the campsite. Placing them in her hand in a way so you couldn’t tell the tallest from the shortest, Rose and Riley picked first, and then she did.
Rose’s stick was shortest, and when she realized this, a grateful gasp escaped her cold, white lips.
Jade scowled. “Of course you manage to get the best of everything…”
“Stop winging,” Rose replied calmly. She didn’t want to cause any more arguments.
“It was purely chance; a one-in-three chance!” Riley sided with Rose.
“I don’t care, you nerd!”
“Just because I’m smarter than you, doesn’t make me a nerd!”
“Well of course I’m just the dumbest here, aren’t I?!” Jade was yelling now. “If you’re so smart, then why don’t you get us out of here?!”
“Well… Well…”
Rose could take no more. “JUST SHUT UP ALREADY! I’VE HAD ENOUGH!”
Jade and Riley were immediately silent, staring up at her with expressions of confusion and fear etched upon their cold-reddened faces.
“Please…” She said again, but now barely more than a whisper. “Please just stop arguing for at least five minutes…”
The others nodded stiffly. Rose was usually the one to keep a level-head, and rarely yelled, so her out-of-character outburst left the others with a swirl of different emotions that they just couldn’t get their minds around. Riley was the first who dared to speak, and he did so softly.
“Come on, we should get some rest. Rose, get between me and Jade.”
“Mm’kay…” The girls said, lethargy overpowering them. There hadn’t been much physical activity from them, but the cold had a way of leeching all the energy from one’s body. They all quickly dozed off into an icy but deep sleep.
***
The next morning, Rose and Riley woke at almost the same time, and so close beside each other they were practically hugging. They shivered, rubbed their eyes, and gave a small cough each, then turned to wake up Jade.
But something was wrong.
Jade’s body was almost a meter away from them, so they assumed that she rolled around restlessly that night. Her body was still, as it would be for someone in a deep sleep. But it was still… too still.
Where was the rise and fall of her chest? The steam of her hot breath expelled into the frozen air? The occasional twitch of her limbs fighting off the bitter air?
Rose went over and grabbed Jade’s shoulder, which was ice cold. Her lips were unnaturally blue, her eyelids purple. Even the redness on her nose and cheeks had been bleached away.
“Hey, Jadey, w-wake up…” Even Rose could tell something was wrong straight away.
“What’s wrong with her?” Asked Riley, not quite registering the situation. “Is she hurt or something?”
Rose, unable to speak, just shook her head. Riley, alarmed, went over and took Jade’s hand, feeling for a pulse. When he found none, he dropped her arm and stared at Rose.
“Must’ve frozen to death…” She nodded sadly, confirming what they both knew, but couldn’t comprehend. Though the trio fought a lot, each had known each other since kindergarten.
“What do… What do we do with the body?” Riley asked.
Rose was stuck for a moment. She didn’t want to leave the body, but they really had no choice. “Leave it. The werewolves will come and dispose of it in their own way. And, while they do that, we’ll have more time to escape…”
So, the two collected the few belongings they had left, and were on their way. It was lucky Rose and Riley left quickly. The werewolves arrived at the scene of Jade’s death barely a half-hour later. They took the dead girl’s body with them
Yes, the wolf men were hunting the trio, but not in a bad way. They were supposed to collect them to protect them from the other, scarier, most bloodthirsty monsters. The monsters that Rose and Riley unknowingly headed towards.
They’d really be dead if the werewolves didn’t catch up fast enough.