The Hunted

Chapter 4- Fate

The silence came back and I started feeling cold again. I opened my eyes to see that everything was normal, the freezing cold had returned. I was confused and felt uneasy. I immediately left that place.

I kept striding away and eventually my pace slowed down. In that moment of peace among the whispery winds, the rustling trees and the snow covering the ground as far as my vision went, I looked at the rising sun, the dawn of a new day. I thought about how it all happened. I fought with my best friend over the question that whether he should have a bigger share of my company. It seemed so wrong to me at that moment that I denied it, swore at him and left in my car.

While I was driving the car along a rather deserted road, a man stopped me, broke the glass, put a gun to my head and told me to get out of the car. A person driving by called out and tried to stop the man but he shot him in the chest three times. I tried to run but he hit me in the head with the back of his gun. I watched as he dragged the passer-by's body and put it in my car's driving seat. I lost my consciousness and all I remembered was that he put a black cover over my head, took me to a hangar and flew me to the forest in a plane.

A sudden surge of pain in my arm snapped me back to reality. The makeshift bandage didn't help much, I had to seek medical help. I was feeling drowsy, I needed to find a safe place to rest but it didn't seem like that wish of mine would come true. Which place could be safe with that pathetic hunter lurking around?

••••••••••

After 2 months,

Hunger, insatiable hunger clouded my mind. I found a safe shelter near a frozen river. Making it my hideout, I tried to find food but didn't get anything. The dead bodies I found around had everything but food. I had gotten an army-issued Sabre knife, an axe, some good clothes and some useless spare parts.

The wound on my left leg was healed up but my dislocated elbow seemed to be infected, it never stopped hurting but I got used to the pain. Through the two months I've been here, I encountered the hunter a few times but always managed to escape unscathed. I was pretty sure that he didn't know about my hideout. Oddly enough, I never encountered any other animals after my first day in this place.

I had traced almost every path, trying to find a way out of there, but searching for two months didn't lead me anywhere. I got out of my small cabin, roamed around, still hoping to scavenge some food. I walked around for thirty minutes, looking at the sky, which was portending a heavy snowstorm. The surroundings didn't change a bit since I first saw them.

Suddenly, a wolf came running towards me and before I could do anything, jumped and bit my injured elbow. I fell down, the wolf dug in deeper and shook its head, trying to break the bone off. Two more wolves came in from behind.

I struggled a lot and instantly, pain was replaced with immense rage. I bellowed like a wild man, took my knife out and stabbed the wolf right in its temple. It died at that second, I pried out its teeth, got up and drove the other wolves away.

My elbow's condition worsened, blood flowed out of the cuts and covered the snow and my clothes in its red colour. The pain was unbearable. My thinking process was being hindered by the unimaginable pain. I would've died if I didn't do anything.

I gripped my knife firmly, took some deep breaths and pushed it deep into my wound. I clenched my jaw tightly, I had to muffle my cries or else I'd be risking giving away my location to the hunter.

With one quick movement, I pushed the knife down and my upper arm got cut off and fell limp on the ground.