A/N - Hey. I've taken a liking to this story so here is a chapter update for you guys.
Let's get started.
Song used - Jockspot - Your Eyes
The next morning, unlike our other disturbing frantic one the day before, was calm. Warwick woke me up at first light and I let him out of the office to do patrol and whatever other business he had been holding in all night. After doing my rounds last night, I was comfortable that it was only Warwick, Ino, and me here. For now at least. So to reserve on our supplies slowly dwindling food supplies, I also ordered him to hunt.
He was excited about it, tail wagging at the highest rate of speed. I never allowed him to do it often, because I was never sure how far he ventured and what could be out there waiting to have him as food, but for the today seemed safe enough plus it had it's benefits. If he was lucky out there, he'd bring back a couple of dead birds for all of us. And in this day and age, I had to say it was one of my favorite meals even though there was hardly any meat and more bones.
I allowed Ino to sleep in, she seemed to have been a bit exhausted from yesterday. Even as I pulled carefully from underneath her, she wasn't the least bit disturbed. So to occupy myself, I gave the maps Ino had another look while also inventorying our supplies.
Ino had her own hikers bag, but besides the few contents within it she wasn't traveling with much. When she said she was running out of food, she had meant she had completely run out. And as of right now, even my stash was looking grim. The town I had wandered in with that village was my hope to find some more...
Shuddering at the memory of the two men I killed, I firmly stated to myself that we would just have to hope one of the few towns around the area had some untouched goods.
I had plans, big ones with new motivation. Maybe it was the sense of purpose I was getting from Ino that had my imagination roaming, but already I was thinking far into the future. If we were lucky, we could find some loose bikes around that I could fix up enough for transport. Walking in this heat would exhaust us, and this area we were in seemed to get drier by the day.
Unfortunately enough though, it looked like the closer town over was past the lengthy woods we had spent the night in before. And even now, I was wondering if getting that close to that village was worth the travel. It was without a doubt that the people within the group have noticed their people gone. It was only a matter of time before they sent out a man hunt, if they wanted to spend the energy searching for us. Our best bet was to haul ass out of here with no hope of them ever seeing us again.
I frowned as I bounced the ideas in my head.
"Hey..."
My eyes snapped up to Ino's stretching figure in front of me. Her eyes were red, and by my watch- if the time was even right anymore- it was barely breaking 0800. Softly, I replied, "Hey. You can get more sleep, we're not going anywhere anytime soon."
She gave me a sheepish look before mumbling, "I'd like to, but I'm too hungry."
I blinked, surprised. I was hungry myself, but not to the point that it woke me from my sleep. Frowning, I moved to get up to look through my bag. I hadn't bothered to inventory just yet, but I was sure there was another can of beans in there.
"It's alright," she muttered before I could pull myself up from the floor, "I'll wait until later so I can make it last all day."
"While that isn't the worst idea in the world, being as hungry as you are isn't safe," I replied frowning even more, "Sure, we need supplies, but we also need enough energy to get the hell out of here if we need to."
She frowned herself, "Why would we have to leave in such a hurry? I thought you said it was all clear last night."
My heart started to pick up speed as I lied, "That doesn't mean it's clear this morning. We need to be ready to go."
It wasn't completely false, what I was saying was technically true. But the true reason I wanted to leave is because I had an itching sense that village would send people out to search for their men any second. And when they saw what had happened to them, the state of their bodies limp on the ground already corroding, I felt as if they wouldn't just stop there.
I blanched, my blood feeling cold at the memory of the dead bodies.
Part of me, the part that was too used to this world, was screaming we needed to leave. But I wanted to make a plan first before making any move.
"Tayuya..."
Haven't been together longer than 48 hours, and already I cringed at the soft way she whispered my name.
I swallowed, wracking my brain for all sorts of excuses to pull away from this conversation, but didn't have to try hard. Soon enough, I heard a whine at the door.
Jumping up, I rushed to pull the desk away that was blocking the entrance and opened up to find Warwick there, two squirrels clenched between his jaw and blood dripping from his maw.
My relief to see him was completely genuine, despite the fact that he was the perfect escape I was hoping for out of the conversation with Ino. Whenever he wasn't at my side I turned into some completely worried mother. Grinning, I scratched his head enthusiastically, "What do you got there boy? Spoils of the hunt?"
He merely wagged his tail with excitement before hurrying inside and dropping the dead squirrels on the floor. But the second they left his mouth, he grew antsy and began to whine, his front two legs quickly stepping as he stood there watching me. I blinked in surprise, "You got more hiding out there?"
He gave a bark, which I assumed was a very strong yes. I had been around him so long, trained him from the scrawny puppy he was when I found him, to know his behavior enough. Conversing with him almost felt like I was speaking with an actual person, but then again he as my only company for a very long time.
Biting my lip, I gave Ino a torn look.
"What?" She asked, looking worried.
"He has more game out there. Whatever he managed to kill was too much to bring back," I explained, trailing off because thoughts were starting to flood in.
"Are you going to help him get it?" She asked curiously.
"I want to. We could manage to cook it up and maybe dry out some chunks later to save," I answered slowly before frowning hard, "But I don't want to leave you by yourself, and you definitely can't come with us. The heat out there while you're that hungry isn't safe."
"I'll be fine by myself," she answered with reassurance, "You said it was clear, and I doubt anyone wandered here over night. So it's fine. Right?"
The way she asked, as if she was challenging me to tell her the truth, left me even more torn. But fear of the look on her face after telling her what I did yesterday trumped my logic, and I found myself nodding before promising, "We'll be right back."
But even as I was saying the words, I knew I was making a stupid mistake.
X
Warwick had traveled farther than I would have liked to do his hunt. Each step I took away from town and from Ino left me wanting to run back, but after getting so far there was no point turning around. The only thing I could do now is to hurry up and haul whatever he killed back so she wouldn't be alone for too long. With the blanket we had and some rope it wouldn't be too out of hand with us both hauling it through the almost dessert like area here.
The land was dry here, drier than where we first wandered. The broken city I was in was too dangerous to stay. The buildings were unstable and collapsing randomly all the time. But the buildings weren't the real problem. The people who stayed there were.
The reason I felt so strongly about everyone ready to kill whatever that moved, humans included, was because of that damned city. The groups that started to form, the bloodbath that rained from every corner of that place, left a lasting impression.
It's how I lost my parents...
So I left, and luckily while I stumbled out of there I managed to find Wick. Small thing as he was back then had him trapped under some building rubble as I was passing by. His whimpering was just loud enough to grab my attention, and I'm so thankful I did.
As a kid, the last thing I wanted to be was alone in a nightmare that became real. And while he wasn't the quietest puppy back then, he quickly learned. And became my best friend.
Away from the past, and into the present, it was dangerous here in it's own way. I had no clue where we were, but the heat was something that I wanted to get away from. Me and Warwick alone drank through provisions of water gallons at a time, with Ino included it was even more.
I told her I would help to find whoever she was searching for, but my plans stretched further into the future as her as a new member a part of the pack. I wanted to go more north, where it was cooler. Maybe a place where we could melt ice for water so it wouldn't be such an everlasting problem. The last bit of rain that came down was probably two weeks ago, and thankfully it was hard enough to grab more than enough water to last us.
But we were struggling now. Along with food. We needed to leave this place.
Warwick barked and darted ahead, and I saw a flock of crows scattering as he ran. I began to jog, seeing a massive lump limp on the ground. It was bigger than I thought, and already I was dreading the quick work I would have to do to remove the hide and attempting to cut chunks out to preserve later when we brought it back. But I had to try. Two squirrels wouldn't last us long.
I came to a slow stop as my eyes widened.
"A fucking bear, Warwick? Are you kidding me," I breathed out in absolute disbelief.
He looked proud, and I didn't want to disappoint him, but there was no way we could haul the animal all the way back to town. It was entirely too heavy.
But we needed the meat. We had a total of three cans left of beans before we started to go through the dark path of starving to death.
"Fuck," I whispered, frantically wracking my brain on how to effectively take advantage on such luck as I sank to my knees next to the animal. It wasn't a full sized bear, skinnier than most and probably had been starving itself which I'm sure that's how Warwick took it down, but it was big enough to last us awhile if I could manage to dry out the meat properly. And soon.
But whatever I decided to do, I had to do now. The game would attract other animals, and I doubt a pack of wolves would share.
That's when I saw it.
A deep broken off piece of wood that could have only came from an arrow deep within the hide of the bear. And there was a few of them.
A chill ran through me, because the wounds looked fresher than I would have liked.
Pulling out my knife, I whispered frantically, "Alright, Wick. Keep watch. We can't take the whole thing buddy, but I'll get as much as I can from it."
He snorted, not sounding at all pleased, but it was the best I could do. At least in pieces we could jog back and get to Ino. I had officially decided we needed to get the fuck out of here. I had no clue who tried to take the bear down, but all I could think about now was that they were probably tracking it and heading right for us.
And closer to town.
X
I managed the messy work, but it was slow and more of a hack job. The meat would taste grainy and disgusting when it came time to it, but if it kept us from starving to death I didn't give a single fuck. What I wanted to do now was pack up and leave.
Which was why we were running back. Full fledged and in a hurry. My instinct were telling me to move faster, and I was going as fast as I could with chunks of meat weighing me down in my bag. But that wasn't an excuse, I needed to get back to Ino.
We needed to leave.
Fuck plans, fuck having a relaxing day, we needed to go.
My entire skin felt prickling underneath the flush from the heat. My heart was hammering besides the excretion of running. My muscles tense. Breath shallow. Ready for what almost felt like was about to jump around every corner.
It's amazing how after just a short time of living in a different type of world how in tune you get with yourself, with an unknown seventh sense, but I wasn't stupid enough to deny what it was telling me to do.
To leave.
We needed to leave.
As soon as the town was in sight, I shouted, "Go get her, Warwick. Make her pack."
He didn't answer, only sprinted ahead of me a second later.
I kept running, quickly falling behind. I was pushing myself way past the limit, I felt like I wanted to pass out any second with sweat drenching me from head to toe, but I ground my teeth and forced myself to push faster and harder.
Because whatever I was afraid of was now right behind us. I could feel it on the back of my neck.
And right on cue, a heard a fire shot of a gun in the distance that sunk my heart.
Because it wasn't coming from behind me...
But instead from the town.
Honestly the only point it stopped right there was because it was an effective break to the chapter. I already have what I want in my head and plan on continuing to write so look out for the next chapter.
I'm slowly starting to progress to the actual story, which is good compared to my long slow progressions. I kind of want this more fast pace so we're trying something new.
Also check out the song. Was my favorite of the week.
Read review, tell me what you think. Is there enough Tay/Ino moments? Do you wish for more conversations where shit isn't popping off left or right? Let me know man, I'm always shifting and changing based on your ideas. You guys keep me thinking of new possibilities and I wish to make this entertaining for everyone.
Just know it isn't like my other stuff. So bear with me.
Love you fools. Shy out.