My Dearest 81194

Chapter 17

"Does anyone else have opinions or requests?" Emma asks, everyone was sitting in front of her, "Me! I want to eat more tasty meat!" Mark raises his hand, "I'm sick of eating birds." Rossi whines, "You're all getting greedy." Don folds his arms, "I want pudding!" Jemima raises her hand, "Apple pie for me!" Christie grins, "Pancakes!" Yvette smiles, "Hey! That's going overboard!" Don looks at them, "We can't get you pudding or pancakes but I'll do my best to hunt something delicious." I step forward, "I want to go too!" Dominic raises his hand as he looks at me, "What? Dominic? Go hunting?" Thoma and Lani turn around, "Sure." Ray nods, "Yay!" He hugs mine and Ray's leg, "WHY?!" Thoma and Lani shout, "Dominic has a good sense for hunting." I pick him up, "Sonju and Nat praised me too!" He wraps his arms around my neck, "Then we want to go too!" They look at us, "Thoma and Lanni, huh?" Gilda touches her chin, "Why are you doubtful?!" Thoma looks at her, "You guys won't do anything dangerous?" Emma leans down, "Course not!" They stand up, "Absolutely sure?" I look at them, "Absolutely sure!" They grin at me.

We headed out into the forest, "You get first shot." I whisper to Dominic, everyone else was behind the large tree root, staring at us, he takes a deep breath, I gently push his raised shoulder down and hold his elbow to straighten it out, he lets go and the arrow shot right under one of the birds into the root, "Sorry." He looks up at me, "Don't worry." I smile and pet his head, I take three arrows out of my quiver and shot all three birds when they were flying away, "Let's go pick them up." I flip my bow onto my back, they all stared at me, "Just how do you do that?!" Don gapes at me, I laugh, "As Ray said, it's the weird knick-knacks that make up for my lack of brainpower." I knock his head, we all laughed. We walked to the three birds and picked them up, I pulled the arrow out of them without a second thought and returned them into my quiver, Thoma and Lani cringe when I handed them the birds, "We should head back soon." Ray looks up at the sky, "Yes! I got you!" Thoma shouts, "Woah! On second thought." We saw something wriggling around in his hands, "Thoma?" Lani runs over, we run after him to see the commotion, they keep trying to catch the slimy fish, Dominic lights up and follows the older boys and tries to catch them, "What are these?!" Don grabs one, "They're Goowee!" The three boys turn around, "Goowee?" We were confused, "Is that its official name?" Ray bends down and looks at one, "Of course not. We named it that because it's slimy." They grin, "Is it a fish? Whatever it is, it's gross." I cringe at the slime dripping off it, "But it looks pretty tasty." Dominic looks at one, "Ready. Set." We all launched for one, all of us trying to catch it, Thoma was stumbling around, trying to grab his but it flopped into our packs, "That's it!" He yells. We collected a few dozen and started our way back home, "But there's still the problem of... Who's going to taste it for safety?" Emma looks at the pack of Goowee. 

We all drew straws to see who would be the brave one to take the first bite, "Why?!" Nat looked at his straw, "You'll do great Nat!" I try to soften the blow by patting his shoulder, his expression drooped, "The draw is random so you can't get mad." Emma smiles, "Why me?! There's no way!" He continues to whine, "Those things are slimy, aren't they?" He points at our packs, "Not anymore." Gilda says, "I still don't want to! You can't tell if they're fish or bugs! No freaking way!" He shouts, "We agreed you couldn't get mad." Anna turns around, "No way, or I won't play piano anymore!" He turns around, "You can't do that!" Everyone yells, "We love it when you play piano!" Alicia puts her arms up, "Then I'll keep playing! Just please, someone take my place!" He begs, "Ta-da!" Lani and Thoma step up, "Sheesh, I guess we must step up." Thoma and Lani link their arms around their necks, "We're responsible for discovering Goowee, after all." Lani grins, "Thoma, Lannion." Nat had tears prickling in his eyes while Anna claps, "You guys are crazy." I sigh and shake my head, "I'll do it too." Ray steps forward, "Ray?!" I grab onto him, "You're even crazier." Don deadpans at him.

"Alright. Let's do it." Thoma says, the three boys had a Goowee in front of them as they held their knife and fork, I was latched onto Ray's shoulders, tears nonstop dripping down, they sliced into it and took a bite, I tighten my arms around his neck, they swallow, Anna had a bowl on standby, Don started the stopwatch. "Ten minutes have passed." Don says, "How are you guys? Are your tongues tingling?" I sniffle and rub my nose, "How about your stomach? Does it hurt?" Emma asks, everyone was silent and the three boys haven't said a single word. "Thirty minutes." Don speaks up, "So? Nothing out of the ordinary?" Gilda asks, "You're not holding it in right?" I rock back and forth on my heels, swinging Ray with me, "You can be honest." Anna holds the bowl out, "No, nothing seems wrong." Ray lifts his hand and rests it on my arm, Thoma and Lani were bent over, their hands shaking, "Actually... It's delicious!" The two of them stab another fish and start chowing down, "Hey!" Don looks at the little kids start to eat the Goowee, "Only two pieces per person!" He tries to slow them down, Ray looks at me, then he grabs his throat, "Ray?!" I freak out, he starts to choke and his body convulses, "Ray!" Emma runs over, I help him lay on the floor, "Ray! Ray!" I try to hold back tears, "Ray!" All the kids run over, Gilda puts her hand on his forehead, "He isn't burning up," She says, "Ray! Ray! What's happening!" Tears start to drip down, suddenly he stops and closes his eyes, "Ray?" I whisper and lean down on his chest, I hear his heart, "Can you hear his heart?" Don asks, I nod, some of the kids start crying, "Just kidding." He opens one eye and grins, all the kids sigh in relief, I stand up without saying a word, "Nat?" Emma asks, "I HATE YOU!" I slap his cheek and storm out of the room.

I sat on my sheets, staring up at the ceiling, I felt my tears rolling down the side of my face, I heard the door click open, "Nat?" I hear Ray's voice, I stand up and saw about to walk out of the room, "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that," He grabs me, "Never do that again. Do you swear on your life?" My voice was quiet and my head was down, "I promise." He holds me tight, there was a loud bang and rubble started to shower lightly on us, "Ray?" My hands shoot up and grab the back of his shirt, I felt his hand go to the back of my head, pulling it into his chest, "We need to go, now." We saw everyone run into the 'bedroom' grabbing their packs and bows, "Into the secret room, now!" Emma runs forward, everyone following her.

We went into the secret room that lead into the cave behind the piano, we all crouched down, hearing the thudding footsteps above us, "Hey, Ray. Are they humans or demons?" Mark asks, "From the sound of their footsteps, they're humans. Probably pursuers from the House. From which direction did you hear the explosion?" He asks, "The hatch where we first entered." Emma answers, "This is bad. We have to get out of here. It's not safe anymore." Ray says, I felt him squeeze my hand, "We have the abandon the shelter?" Anna asks, "Our home..." Nat's eyes were wide, "I was looking forward to the vegetables." Jemima looks down, "Our lives are more important." I hold my finger to my lips, "Right, as long as we're alive we can manage." Emma nods, "Fourteen, we're missing two." Gilda looks at us, "It's Don and Rossi. They're likey in the monitor room, on guard duty." Lani says, Ray and I stood at the edge of the secret room, "This way! Don!" I call out, Rossi and Don light up, running into the room, I saw a person in a mask run into the room, I slide my foot out and release three arrows, they all land in the doorframe in a line almost creating a wall, the pursuer stopped and flinched, "Go, go, go." Ray pulled my waist and the two of us ran after the rest of the group, the piano closed back up, "Thank goodness!" Gilda hugs Don, "Hurry, there's another exit past there!" Ray says as we meet back up with the rest, "Come on, let's go." We reached the cave, "Don't worry, it's our usual game of tag." I smile but I felt my heart beating uncontrollably, "Right, stay calm, keep quiet but quick. So they won't find us." Emma nods and holds a lantern, "Let's go." Ray says.

We started running through the tunnels and passageways, "This way!" Christie was leading us through the maze, "Next is this way." He points, "Amazing." I whisper, "This is our playground! We're almost there. We'll head one level up, walk a bit more and go up again to get out." He grins, we start running, "We're almost there." He pants, suddenly one of the pursuers dros down and held a gun in front of us, we all skidded to a stop, "Why? We just want a normal life like everyone else." Emma speaks, "You never had any of that to begin with. Give up. We know where the two entries are." He says, "How did you know there are two?" Christie asks, "That's how shelters usually are." He points the gun at Christie, "Good. Emma, follow me." Christie grins, "Dominic, I need you to back up for me." I whisper, he nods, Ray stood in front of us to ask as a cover, "Ray!" I shout, he slides to the side and I fire three arrows, one at the gun, one that skimmed right past his hand to make him let go, then another to shoot the gun down the cliff, "Now Dominic!" I look at him, he lets go of his arrow and he shoots his leg, I run forward and kick the side of his torso to make him buckle, then I force my bodyweight onto him and push him down the side, "Nat..." I turn around and saw Don, Nat, Lani, Thoma and Ray with blood trickling down their noses, "PERVS!" I shout and grip onto my skirt, punching them all on the head, I didn't have time to change out of my skirt, everyone else was lucky, they had the time to change while I was sulking earlier about Ray, "My pants are in my pack! I didn't have time to change!" I blush bright red, "Guys! There's another way out"! Christie held a lamp.

"Run! To the forest over there!" Ray points, all the kids run with Don and Gilda, the three of us stayed back to survey the hatch and if there were any other pursuers, we nod and start sprinting to the forest, "No..." My eyes widen as we reached the edge of the wasteland, our family all sitting down in a clump with pursuers around them, "It's over." One of them looks at us and fires bullets into the air before pointing it at us, we closed our eyes and expected the worst, I felt Ray grab me, "I love you." He whispers, my eyes shoot open, I look at the forest, "Look." I pat Ray's chest, there was a demon and it screeched out before lunging at the pursuers, eating them, they tried to shoot it but nothing was stopping the demon, the three of us ran around the massacre and to our family, "Dominic! Run!" I yell as I saw him try to fire an arrow, it missed just shy of its eye, "Damn it!" Ray yells as he jumps up, turning around and shoots the demon's eye, it screams in pain and throws its hand on the ground, I stumble over the tremors and cracked earth, "Nat!" Ray reached out to me, "Ray!" I yell as my fingers brush against his, he grits his teeth and leans forward grabbing my wrist and pulling me after him, all of us were panting and gasping for air as we jump over roots and rocks, is this the end of the line?