hungry trees

the smoke englufed us before the bombs did, and we only had about three minutes to run before our beautiful little world was destoryed. our little district was no more. i dodged an explosion, and stumbled into the arms of fletcher kingsby. he grabs my hand and pulls me off into the forest, when we finally did arrive in the forest , he stared at me. "are you alright?" he pulles me into his arms. "im fine. i think." i whisper. he pulls back and wipes some blood off my forehead. "We need to keep going." he tells me. i nod, then we start to walk. we were probably the last ones safe. which frightened me. two 16 year old kids were able to get out of the clutches of the gamers, but the rest of our district wasnt. nice. suddenly, we heard a noise coming from a bush. "if its an animal, kill it." i tell fletcher. he sneaks up and grabs it. it was a person. i boy actually. about twelve. "you two got out too?" he asked us. we nodded. "anyone else?" "no." his face turned upset. "my little sister..and mom." he whisperes. "come on, we need to hunt." fletcher turns to me. "we cant just leave him." "then lets go." fletcher sighs and its a sign to keep quiet the rest of the way. except the boy, who we've learned is named leeth doesnt stop. "my dad used to always take me out into the woods to hunt. ooh, we've seen this tree before. oh wow, look at that bird." and on and on and on. "you wanted  to take him." fletcher whispered, amused. "i didnt know he would be this annoying." i whispered back, elbowing him in the ribs. "hey, leeth, how old are you?" fletcher turned and asked him. "14." he nods, and we keep walking.

later on though, it gets colder, and fletcher hands me his jacket. "i dont want it." "leeth has a warm sweater, i have a long sleeved shirt on and you only have a dress on. and its not too long." i sigh and pull on the jacket. it goes over my knees, but it was big on fletcher as well. i pull it closely around me, unconsiously smelling fletcher on the jacket. "we need to find shelter." i tell him. "oh! i know where a cave is!" leeth starts to run. "leeth! wait up!" we call to him, and chase him. he trips and as we get to him, hes looking up at something. we both look up, confused, and see a huge bear like thing. except it has human skin. and empty eye sockets, but big ears. it had four arms and three legs. it looked fast, and scary. suddenly, it sniffed the air with the two holes on his face. its mouth had been sewn together, so it couldnt make a noise. it krept closer to us, and we started to run. fletcher didnt though. he grabbed a big stick and whacked the thing with it on the leg. it was about two of him. but it didnt matter. he still shoved the stick through its head. and when it dropped dead, he cut it open with that stick. i walked over, carefully and saw it had the insides of a deer. "what is this thing?" "a muttation. there must be millions." fletcher tells me as leeth walks up. "eden, help me pick this up." i get down and help, its skin feels like a snakes, but there are no scails. we trudged along the flat ground to the cave. i drop the thing onto the ground and look at fletcher. "leeth, start a fire." fletcher tells leeth, looking at me, when leeth does, fletcher goes to walk up to me, but sees a backpack. he runs to it and looks inside. i follow him. he pulls out a radio, some pop, an ice pack, food, and a sleeping bag. he digs deeper, but only comes up with a blanket. "what a bag." i smile. he turned the radio on, and got up, offering me his hand. i took it, and he pulled me close to him and we danced.

after our dinner, we settled down. we opened the sleeping bag and put the blanket on top of it. leeth used the backpack as a pillow and i sat awake looking for another one of those monsters. at about four, fletcher let me sleep and stayed awake. at about six, he jumped up and awoke leeth and i. "shh!" he pointed out into the forest. i figured it was just another one of those monsters, but it wasnt. it looked like a human reptile. except it had sharp claws like piranha teeth. its eyes piercing blue. its teeth looked jagged and sharp. this thing was shaped like a man. but it had scails on its body. i ran to the back, looking in every pocket, finally i found a knife. i handed it to fletcher, and he ran out, before he could cut it's head off, it scratched his face. he fell, and before i knew it, i had ran and grabbed the knife, stabbing it in the stomach, then slashing its head off. it crumpled to the ground as i helped fletcher up. "are you alright?!" leeth ran towards us. "that was amazing eden." fletcher whispered. i nodded. "we should keep moving." i told him. "lets hurry into the village thats near by. we can get stuff." leeth told us. we nodded, and started to walk.

when we arrived, it looked like ours had. broken and empty. everyone taken. then i saw her. she looked leeth's age. she was crying in the middle of the broken road. i walked over to her. she was in a pink dress and had long blonde hair. "are you okay?" i asked her quietly. her head jerked up and i saw damage on her face. she was scraped up and bloody, but beautiful. one of her eyes were closed. "who..are you?" she asked me. "im eden. thats fletcher and leeth. and you?" "ember." i helped her up. "would you like to join us?" she nodded. "theres no one left. the gamers took everyone. but me. i hid under my mum's dead body." she whispered. i nodded and took her hand. "lets find clothes." we searched every house and came up with two new sleeping bags, some  leather leggings, a sweater, a knife, bow and arrow and matches. we packed them into the bag we found, ditching the things that were in there except the radio and the knife-that was now in fletcher's hand. "my dad taught me how to use this thing." i told them, holding the bow and arrows. ember got the knife, because she was also skilled in killing things, and leeth got the matches, for he knew how to make fires. i changed into the leather pants, and put on a green t-shirt. ember stayed in her ruffly pink dress, pulling the overlarge sweater onto her though. we trudged back into the woods, knowing we wouldnt be safe otherwise, we started to search for shelter, and water.