Throughout the following week, Sophia abandoned the idea of ever getting any good with the slingshot. That was just a fact. Ren had finally begun to pity her, and instead of trying to teach her to use it, they took their extra time to explore the woods.
Sophia and Ren never went toe far on foot, not really. But, they did go far in the tree tops. The forest was packed together so tightly with oak trees, that it was easy to jump from one tree to the other. So long as you didn't place too much faith in the skinny branches.
"Hey, look. Down there." Sophia whispered to Ren, pointing down below. His amber eyes followed her finger, to see the partially rotting flesh of a zombie. It was stumbling along, tripping over tree roots, and growling lowly.
Without another word, Ren grabbed the slingshot which had been tucked into his pants. The bag of pebbles hung from a belt loop, and he easily found one of the sharper ones he and Sophia had made from breaking chunks off of boulders. Rolling the stone between his fingertips, he leaned back against the tree, and held his breath.
Pulling the rubber back, Ren let the stone fly, which imbedded itself into the zombie's head, and in a gross squish, it popped out the other side, and the zombie fell to the ground. Not moving.
"Nice aim, wish I could do that." Sophia sighed, then looked towards the sky. The sun was nearly straight above them. "It's probably almost noon. We should head back." Preparing herself, she refused to look at the ground. If she did, then she wouldn't jump. With hands outstretched, Sophia pushed as hard as she could, snagging a branch of another tree with her hands, and in the same scry moment, she wondered if she was going to fall. And hen nothing happened, she swung her legs over until the rested on a thinker branch she could walk on.
"Show off!" The boy laughed, sticking his tongue out. He was decidedly worse than her at jumping through the trees, but in the words of Bella they both made 'decent monkeys, except they needed to work on their talking.'
"Hey, so…Renny," Fear grasped her stomach and Sophia paused. This question had been bugging her for awhile. "Do you think we're going to keep staying in the windmill?" Ren ignored the nickname, and stopped to stand next to Sophia.
"I'm not sure. I know that Bella just wants to keep running. To get away from… where my mom died." It was quiet, and the truth was in his words, but even Ren didn't want that to be the only reason they ran. Sure, Bella made a good case on going north where it was a lot colder, but, that had problems all by itself too. "But… I think she knows that we're the safest we've been in awhile here." Ren shrugged, before a grin took over his features. "Whoever gets back last doesn't have to cut up worms." And, they were off.
**Sophia**
Finding themselves back at the windmill, Sophia's stomach growled, and her eyes wide. Bella had set up a small fire pit while they were gone. Their pot was hung up by a strong branch going through the handles, then each end was balanced and tied to bigger sticks so it hung over the fire. At the base of the fire, there were a few kind of flat rocks, and some kind of meat was sizzling on it.
Obediently, Sophia took the small bag off of her back, and pulled out the plants that Bella had sent them out for in the first place. Burdock, that was what they were called, and they had to be boiled, sometimes twice to get rid of the nasty flavor. And that was what the smaller kids thought was going to be their evening meal, and maybe that can of beans they found a while back.
"Woah, Bella! Where'd you find fish?" Ren grinned, suddenly much hungrier than he was going to pretend to be. Not a huge fan of the stupid plants, he wasn't going to eat more than he had to, but now, he was drooling.
"There's a lake about a mile that way." The tall girl pointed over her shoulder. "But, you two need to be careful too. I came across an abandoned camp, not very old. There's people around." And, just as she said that, there was a howl, a very deep howl. Four others quickly joined the howl, and all three froze. "Both of you, inside."
They ran off in a flash, quietly closing the door, then running all the way up to the second floor. Royal was sitting in the window, and cooed at them, as if asking where they were all day. He flapped his good wing, before turning his head about 180 degrees, towards the sound of more howling.
Ren and Sophia carefully walked over to the window, afraid. They couldn't see anything, trees too think to see beyond four trees inwards. But, that didn't mean something could be out there. The howls were a long way off, and thankfully, they were getting less common.
"Do you think its wolves?" Bella was still below, but she was clearly working faster. It was still daytime, which was when the older girl insisted if they have fires, it was then. They couldn't risk light attracting things in the forest.
"I didn't know wolves lived around here. But what else could it be?" They were quiet after that. Listening for any indication that whatever they were, if they were getting closer. After perhaps 20 minutes, Bella snuffed out the fire, and brought the food upstairs, letting the kids find a distraction in edibles.
Watching her younger charges, Bella didn't want to admit the fear she was feeling. When she was scouting for water, she can across a camp. Although, it wasn't abandoned, it was ravaged. Blood was everywhere, as well as huge paw prints and a couple torn limbs. As far as she could tell, the canines, had their territory to the north. Behind them, there were more and more gunshots. They were trapped. But, for the moment, the windmill was safe. Hopefully one of the dangers would move on soon. However, for now, this was where they were. And she would take advantage of the shelter.
"Here ya go." Ren gave her a piece of crudely cut up fish. They only had one knife, and she laughed at the handiwork before gratefully biting into the bass. "Bells, could you tell us a story?" She froze, and looked to the kids. That's what they were. Kids. They were so young. How could they survive, they weren't even teenagers yet. They wanted a story. This was her little brother, the same who finally was tall enough to ride roller coasters a year ago. Innocent eyes laid on hers.
"Of course. Let me just finish eating first though, okay?"
AN: Hey everyone! Yes, we're finally getting to the plot. Sorry, took a little more of a set up than I thought, but I hope you all are enjoying it so far. After a couple chapters, the time jumps are going to be a little bigger. Let me know what you think, and thank you for all the favorites and follows! -Z