Chapter 1: Bad Idea
Some days you're better off staying in bed. That day was one of them. For sure. I look back now and marvel at how much trouble I'd saved myself—trouble? Make that flat-out physical pain— if I'd have just rolled over and gone back to sleep that day. But my stomach was empty, and so was our chest. So I got out of bed and woke up my little sister. Today was her first day of hunting. Dad taught me when he was still alive, so today I was teaching my little sister Kacey. "Moom! Kacey and I are leaving!" I called.
"Okay, but be careful, Michelle!"
"Got it!" So we walked out of the door and into the woods, to see how much food me and my bow could scrounge up by nightfall. I could have baked a cake. I don't know. I wasn't in the mood. So we walked into the distance, sat down, and went to work. I explained things slow. Real slow. Its just that she didn't get why we had to shoot the animals with sticks, not arrows. And for the fifth time I told her "Dad didn't tell me how to craft them." And then she would fall silent.
Anyway, towards the end of the afternoon I got this feeling. Like we were being… watched. I don't know why I felt that. Maybe it was the little noises I heard ever so often. Or maybe it was because I could sense the presence of another bow. I don't know. But in the end, I was right. Out from behind a bolder in front of us, a skeleton appeared. "Kacey… run." I said but she didn't move. I reached for my bow and sticks with eyes on the mob. I aimed with hands trembling, and sweat dripping down my face. I shot, but missed badly. The skeleton stared blankly at me. It new it had next shot. "Kacey" I whispered still looking at the skeleton "Go now!" She looked over and opened her mouth to respond, but it was too late. An arrow went strait through her heart.