Countd0wn

Chapter 1: A Lone Wolf

Ivy wakes up, screaming slightly. I jerk up upwards, twitching as I grab my rifle from the side of my sleeping bag. Soon after she sits up, she begins to cry. I shuffle out of my sleeping bag and move over to her, kneeling down next to her.

"It's ok...it's alright, you just had a nightmare." I say to her, lightly stroking her back, trying to calm her down as she sniffles.

She turns to me and looks up, tears still streaming down her red, slightly freckled, 8-year old face. "I...I was alone...and I saw Mommy...she was...eating..." She can't say any more, and I don't blame her. She puts her hands over her face and starts crying again.

I try to calm her down quickly, while occasionally looking around into the dark woods, trying to catch anything that might be moving. I'm worried that her crying might attract one of those things. It's not her fault, but I'd rather not have to deal with one of them again.

I look down at her again, and stare at her, giving her my best smile. "Hey, listen. How about you sleep right next to me tonight, ok? If you have another nightmare, I'll blow it away, ok?" 

She looks at me and smiles, one that's way too innocent for a person in this situation, one that makes my heart pang at the time that we had before everything went to hell. "Hehe. Glowman."

I roll my eyes playfully at the cute nickname she had given me, and I pat the ground right next to my sleeping bag. She scootches over, and cuddles up against me. I hold her with one arm, and point the rifle out into the woods with the other. I stay up for the rest of the night, half-asleep, and half-awake, watching the darkness.

When I wake up, the sun is shining through the trees, and casting sunbeams onto my face, making me squint. I look over and see that Ivy is still sleeping, and I decide to give her a few more minutes. 

I move my hand away from her slowly, and move out of my sleeping bag, standing up and stretching. As I look around, I suddenly hear rustling in the woods, and I raise my rifle quickly and aim it where I heard the noise. As I look through the scope, I can see a deer, it's black eyes staring back at me, standing stock still.

I move closer, hoping to get a clearer shot through the foliage, and move through a bush that surrounds our small campsite. As soon as my finger tightens on the trigger, the deer leaps away and out of site. I sigh, and my stomach growls at the loss of a good meal. I look back at our firepit, and see the last few pieces of rabbit. Looks like that's our breakfast.

I relight the fire with wood from our now dwindling pile, and begin to cook the rabbit over it. The smell of food soon wakes up Ivy, and she yawns and looks over at me. I smile. "Morning, sleepyhead."

Ivy stands up and gets out of the sleeping bag, and shuffles over to the fire. I don't like when she moves all groggily in the mornings. She looks like one of those things when they're docile. "Rabbit again?" Ivy asks, her young and sarcastic tone clear.

I cut off a slice of meat with my knife and hand it to her. "You guessed it." She grabs the meat and starts to much on it. Ivy was opposed to the idea of eating animals at first, but out here, you learn to be less choosy with your food quickly.

After breakfast, I notice how weak the fire is, and how undercooked the rabbit is as well. I stand up, and put on Dad's hunting jacket, as well as slinging my rifle over my shoulder with my backpack. "Where are you going?" Ivy looks over at me, her eyes full of fear.

I walk back over to her, and kneel down, looking into her eyes. "Listen to me, Vee. I gotta go get some more wood for the fire. I don't want you to get sick from the meat. I'll only be gone a few minutes, ok? I promise." 

I pull out the Glock from my backpack, and hand it to her. She takes it, the grey pistol looking large in her hands. "Now, remember what I said about guns?"

She looks at me, then repeats what I told her, like she's saying her ABC's. "Keep the safety on unless you wanna shoot, aim low for kickback, don't close your eyes, and press the button on the handle to reload."

I smile at her and pat her shoulder. "That's my Vee." I stand up, and look back at her before I start to walk. "Keep the fire burning, and don't leave this spot. Got it?" Ivy nods, and she runs up to give me a hug. I give her one in return, and start to walk off into the woods.

I make it to the spot where we gather our wood, and use the axe that we managed to find to chop up the wood, and I start to pile them up into my backpack. As soon as I've gathered enough, I hear a low growling somewhere to my right. I freeze, and slowly pull my rifle into my hands.

I stand up, and see what's growling at me. A large grey wolf stalks out from the trees, and stares straight at me with it's yellow eyes, it's mouth caked with foam. But that's not the worst part. I look up and see that the wolf has bony protrusions on it's back, and what appears to be elongated claws. It's infected.

I aim my rifle at it slowly, hoping to get a killshot immediately, but it seems to predict that and lunges at me, knocking me over and making me drop my rifle behind me. It pins me to the ground, and I push it's head and mouth away from me, it's growling increasing as it snaps it's jaws and scratches at me. 

Then, I realize that there's no other way out of this, and decide to do it. I close my eyes, and focus on getting back to Ivy, and I feel the energy rush through my hands, and blast out through my fingers, blowing the wolf off of me.

I stand up, and look down at the green plasma that's between my fingers, and I keep focusing on Ivy. The wolf stares at me, and lets out a mix of a howl and a roar, and lunges at me again. Then, I charge up the energy in my hands, and shoot it forwards in a small explosion, putting a hole right through the wolf's chest.

The wolf collapses to the ground, twitches twice, and then finally goes limp, dead. I breathe heavily, and try to slow my heart rate, then watch as the green glow of the plasma begins to fade back into my body, and finally disappear.

I look over the small clearing, and avoiding the dead body of the wolf, I grab my backpack and rifle, and head back to Ivy.