If you haven’t read Part 1 make sure to read it. I’m uploading on mobile so I apologize.
I clamor over branches, trying to work my way deeper into the woods as inaudibly as possible. I hear the men thrust themselves into the tree line, boots snapping twigs in their rush.
I’m glad that I’m wearing all black.
It’s impossible to keep quiet as I move through the carpet of decaying leaves and wood. Every sound is amplified in my ear drums to a deafening volume.
I need to hide. Cold sweat is covering every inch of my exposed flesh. I’m so afraid.
I start wracking my brain, every horror film I’ve ever seen flickering before my mind’s eye.
Up. People never look up in the movies, then they die from some alien hanging off of a ceiling. I need to go up.
I can hear them coming, sweeping the area, kicking bushes and shouting to flush me out.
I turn in a full circle, trying to find a tree that will be difficult to climb. I grew up climbing trees, barns and one time a large round hay-bale that my dad grounded me over.
I tighten the strings on my backpack, I don’t know why I hadn’t thrown it away already. The scrap of nylon fabric felt like the only thing tethering me to sanity right now.
I chose a tree with smaller branches, hopefully ones unable to support the weight of a grown man.
I hoist myself up, legs swinging up as I seat myself, straddling the branch.
Keep going up. As high as you can go.
My inner voice is shrieking now, as if it senses something that I don’t. I can hear them coming, flashlight beams swinging, casting eerie shadows within the thicket.
I climb until I reach a place where another tree had fell and was now leaning against the other tree for support.
I see the massive unearthed rootball, where a lack of grip had allowed it to be ripped free by gravity. The gnarled clump rested on a shelf, close to where I had stopped climbing. Almost perfectly horizontal, it would hopefully help conceal me.
I start trying to wedge myself between the two trees, trying to cover myself with leaves and sticks. My hair gets caught up in the thin fingerlike tendrils and I choke back a scream.
Screams around here were ripped away by the wind; the reason my mom proffered the sharp clang of a dinner bell when gathering up.
I can hear the men now, at the base of my tree. They’re talking to each other but I can’t make out what they’re saying. Just that they sound heightened, enraged.
The other voice sounds sullen, as if maybe he’s giving up the chase.
I hear the other voice shout, they just sound like changing moans in the wind.
My hair is still snagged, eyes stinging with tears I don’t dare try and unwind it now. Something slithers over my hand and without registering I jerk back.
Tears spring into my eyes and where my hair is stuck lets out an explosion of small sticks. Tears spring into my eyes as they lash my face and neck.
My heart plunges straight to the ground with the falling debris. Which will surely shower the two predators below.
As if on cue a flashlight beams snaps towards me, I hear shouts of excitement. I should have gone to sleep instead…
Sorry this took so long! Part 3 is in the works and will be out sometime in the next week.