Chapter 2: Something Strange in the Woods

Nessie's POV

I woke up the next morning feeling weaker than when I went to sleep the night before. My muscles ached a little when I moved. I didn't hear any noise around me so I knew everyone must have left already before I even opened my eyes. The only thing that I could hear was the sound of other animals moving around in the woods. With some difficulty I managed to sit up.

The only thing that was on my mind was food. The bread from last night had done little to satiate my hunger. It had been days since any of us had a decent meal. Now I was really starting to feel just how empty my stomach was. The soft kick I felt reminded me that I was supposed to be eating for two when I couldn't even eat for one. Hunger was a well known fact of life for my friends and I. We'd gone with little to no food for days and even weeks in the past.

I got up slowly and carefully. I grabbed my gun and headed out into the woods. Today there would be meat cooking over the fire. I'd do my best to make sure that happened. I hoped that my friends would also be successful in finding food as well. The more meat we had the better. If we were lucky we would have extra meat leftover that we could save for tomorrow.

I was getting tired though. My body felt weak. I didn't feel well. I stopped a few times because I was having a hard time breathing. I started coughing a few times which I knew was not a good sign. When I heard the water from the nearby lake I realized just how thirsty I actually was as well. I hadn't had much to drink yesterday or even the day before. Just hearing the sound of the water made me more thirsty.

The water was far from being clean. However it still felt good against my dry throat. After drinking I laid down and closed my eyes intending to rest for just a few minutes. Just a few minutes to rest and then I would continue looking for food. I yawned and rolled onto my side. Just for a few moments.

Next thing I know I felt something warm push the side of my body gently. I didn't realize that I had fallen asleep until that very moment that I was being awoken. I still felt drowsy, very drowsy. Then suddenly I was being pushed again. I opened my eyes and nearly jumped up in shock when I saw a huge reddish brown wolf standing over me. My hands immediately went for my gun. I pointed it at the monstrous beast and stopped but stopped short of pulling the trigger.

The huge wolf looked at me in shock but at the same time didn't seem to worried about the weapon in my hand. I had never hesitated when it came to killing an animal before. For some reason though I hesitated when it came to this abnormally large wolf. He was a magnificent animal for sure. Everything from his reddish brown fur to his brown eyes was beautiful. No matter how hungry I was I could not bring myself to even try to kill this animal. So I lowered my gun. As soon as I had he walked up to me with so much excitement that I couldn't help but smile. He sniffed every inch of my body from head to toe and then licked my face so many times I laughed.

I temporarily forgot about my hunger. Forgot about my feeling unwell. He was a strange animal for sure. I'd lived in these woods for the past twelve years. In those twelve years I learned all the animals that lived here. I'd seen wolves before but wolves just simply did not get as big as this wolf was. This wolf was easily the size of a car or a horse. He was also alone which I found to be extremely odd. Something that I learned about wolves were that they were pack animals.

I suddenly remembered the gold eyed, pale skinned people that Emma said she spotted here in the woods yesterday. There was something strange going on here. There was something strange going on in the woods. Something that we had never encountered before.

"Where did you come from?" of course the animal didn't answer. Instead he went and wrapped his body around me and laid down. His warm body felt so against my cold one.

"Don't you have a family to get back to?" He just licked my face a few times.

"Or are you an outcast like me? My friends and I are all outcasts. Nobody gives a crap about any of us. To everyone else we're just trash, thieves, menaces to society. I don't think they understand that none of us chose to be in our situation. We've just been dealt a rotten hand all of our lives. That's why as soon as I have my baby I'm giving him or her up for adoption. Hopefully my baby will have a better life than I did. I encouraged Lisa to do the same when she had her daughter but she wouldn't listen to me. Oh what the hell am I doing telling you all of this. Its not like you can understand me,"

As soon as the tears started falling the wolf licked them away. I was hungry, weak, and tired but with my newfound wolf friend I was happy. I didn't really notice the time passing until it started getting dark. When I finally stood up and started walking away the wolf started following me. "You want to come home with me? There is only five of us left. There used to be a lot more of us but we lost friends over the years,"

It seemed like the wolf was listening to me with rapt attention as he kept up with me. "We all have a backstory as to why we ended up in this situation. We have all experienced things most people haven't. Thirst, sickness, starvation, death. I have witnessed death more times than anyone ever should. My friend Daniel-"

I had a sudden violent cough attack. My chest hurt and I was short of breath. The wolf nudged me and maybe I was just crazy but I could've sworn I saw a look of worry on his face.

"I'm okay boy. Maybe I'm just talking too much. I don't know why when you probably don't even understand me but it feels good to talk about it. My friends and I usually kind of pretend these things didn't happen so we've never really talked about it. Especially Daniel,"

Daniel. All the memories I had been suppressing for years when it came to him suddenly flooded my brain like a tidal wave. Unlike my other friends he was the only that didn't die of natural causes.

"Daniel was one of the first friends I made here. We were extremely close. One day he started to change though. It started when were like 13 years old. He started seeing things that weren't there. He started hearing things that weren't there. Started talking a bunch of nonsense and I saying that I was out to kill him. He seemed paranoid and scared all the time. He would talk and say stuff that didn't make sense. But he was absolutely sure that I was plotting to kill him. No of us understood what was going on and we didn't know what to do so we ignored it. He only got worse and worse. Like he couldn't distinguish fantasy from reality. Then one night while I was sleeping he tried to kill me. He tried to suffocate me. I tried fighting him off but he was so much stronger than me. He wouldn't let go of me so Miguel shot and killed him. After we buried the body we never talked about it. I never talked about it,"

I didnt know why I was talking about it now with an oversized wolf that didn't understand English but once I started I couldn't stop. The wolf nudged me and I felt comforted. We kept walking for awhile longer until eventually I could see a fire in the distance.

"See that cave and fire? That's where I live. It's so far from the trails that no one will ever find it. It's perfect for us,"

I heard the wolf whimper. He sounded like he was sad.

When we got close enough that my friends looked at the wolf in shock.

"What the hell is that?" Miguel was the first to act.

"A wolf," I simply answered.

"A wolf? That's one huge ass wolf. That can't be an ordinary wolf," Lisa added.

"I don't think he is either but I like him and he seems to like me. He followed me all the way home,"

"So we can't eat him then?" Olivia asked.

"No!" I said a bit to defensively for someone who was starving. He was my wolf though and no one would be eating him. I would make sure of that.

"So you bring back a wolf on steroids but not food?" Emma stated.

"I couldn't find anything. Obviously you guys didn't have much luck either. Hopefully tomorrow we can eat,"

It was freezing that night when the fire went out. When I laid down on the hard cold floor my body shivered from head to toe. The clothing I wore was not enough to keep me warm. Then suddenly the wolf laid down around me. His body encircling me tightly. He pressed his head against my body. Then for the first time in many years I fell asleep comfortable and warm.

I slept peacefully until a sudden pain in my stomach caused me to wake up screaming. The baby was coming.

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