We, who Survived

Slowly waking up, I stretched, feeling the cold, empty space where Fern was supposed to be. Snapping my eyes open, I jolted up in the bed, scanning the room frantically until I made out all three hunters sleeping scattered around the bed in their bedrolls. Sighing in relief, I untwisted myself from the sheets and sleepily made my way to Fern. I crawled under the fur cover and rested my head on his chest.

“You took your time,” Fern whispered, moving onto his side so our noses were touching and his arm could wrap around my waist comfortably. In the dim lighting, I could make out the tired smile on his face, his eyes closed shut. Hesitantly, I placed my hand on his cheek, making him open his eyes and the grin disappeared. He looked wide awake now by just my simple actions.

My nerves began to churn my stomach with what my next move was. I knew Zed and Jacob were just on the other side of the room’s bed and I did not want them to see. What I wanted was to show Fern that he meant a lot to me even if we were only together for a bit. We just clicked so much better this way than anyone else I knew.

Leaning forward, I pressed my lips to Fern’s, eyes closed to save me the embarrassment. I felt Fern respond immediately, moving his lips against mine so the kiss was no longer a small one but now a hungry one. He pulled me closer to his body so that it would become deeper, making me moan into it as his tongue dived into my mouth. As he pressed into me, I felt something hard prod against my thigh. My fuzzy mind only allowed me to register it when Fern pulled away for breath. We were both panting. Fern gazed at me, eyes glazed over. He had not realised he was hard. Snickering to myself, I pecked his lips before leaning over to his ear.

“You have a little problem downstairs.”

He knew exactly what I was talking about by the way his eyes widened slightly before narrowing. Cuddling up closer, I felt a confidence I never felt before. I was inching my fingers down his stomach, feeling his heart hammering against his ribcage, mine copying it. When my hand was just hovering over Fern’s crotch, the door flew open and Spark walked in. The door banged against the wall, waking Jacob and Zed up, making Fern and I jolt away from each other. Heat was on my cheeks as I glared up at Spark. I could not believe I was about to do something way out of my comfort zone just a second ago and got interrupted!

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Fern growled, sitting up and pulling me to his side. Jacob was on his feet glaring daggers at Spark, his hands clenched into tight fists. Zed was crouched with one knee on his bed, spear in his hand.

“It’s time for you lot to begin pulling your weight. Go hunt for us,” Spark said smugly, folding his arms over his chest. “Nathan, you are needed in a meeting.”

“Fuck off, Spark. It’s not even sunup and you expect them to go and hunt for you? No way am I even going to a meeting at this hour and I’m sure Maria and the others are not even awake yet!” I stood up, the fur cover falling down as I walked forward to jab my finger into Spark’s chest. I did not even care that I wasn’t even wearing my pants, only just Fern’s long tunic. “Stop being an asshole. These guys are helping our people not serving you, or have you last all your mind?”

Jacob and Fern had come closer, their glares so intense that even I shivered to be on the wrong side of them. Spark had lost his smile, now focusing his gaze on me. As if on cue, Gem and Vector, the zebra, showed themselves. Gem hissing and spitting while Vector pawed at the floor, swinging his head from side to side.

“Get out of our room, asshole. We can go hunting for you and your mangy mutts later,” Jacob growled, taking a step forward. “But no one tells us or the pipsqueak what to do. Remember Sparky boy, if we leave, you die.”

“Fine. There will be a meeting at midday. Make sure you are back by then,” Spark said stiffly before reluctantly leaving our room. Gritting my teeth, I went to sit on Fern’s bedroll, rubbing my temples.

“Fuck, that guy is such a jackass,” Jacob spat as he sat on the edge of the bed. “I feel like we should move out and make a small camp close by so we don’t have this happening again. I swear I will cut his balls off if he barges in here again.”

“We will give him another chance, when he irritates us again, then we sterilise him,” Zed muttered, placing down his spear.

“Agreed,” I mumbled, closing my eyes. “Tell me when you want to go and I will get ready.”

“An hour’s time should be fitting. Get some sleep in before then.”

Now properly dressed for hunting and the cold, we walked out the front door of the base. I had Zed’s hatchet and an empty backpack from Jae. Gem and Vector strolled in front of us, strutting through the snow like it was nothing while we stumbled awkwardly in the drifts. Fern made sure he was close to me, his bow in hand and quiver full of arrows on his back. He had not brought up anything from this morning which made me happy and less embarrassed thinking about it.

“We won’t go out too far, there is no need when there is a big game animal hiding in sight,” Zed said, crouching down and pointing at tracks deep in the snow. They looked like hoof imprints but another set followed closely behind, claws decorating each toe. “We have a Mutie on our hands and by their marks, it will be able to feed your people for a week if preserved.”

“A Mutie, is that like some weird hybrid?” I asked, glancing at our terrain to see if anything was out of place or stalking us.

“It is like an animal that has mutated to contain two different species in it. But unlike the Crawlers or Gem and Vector here, it’s a newer breed still trying to adapt and evolve,” Jacob explained, picking at a loose string on his jacket.

“By the shape of the prints, the Mutie is a mix of a large deer and feline. Basically, an omnivore.” Fern stood up after studying where the tracks led off. His expression was determined, mist coming out of his mouth as he spoke. “Stay close.”

We carried on, walking in a smaller, close-knit group. Fern was in the front, Zed and Jacob on our flanks and I pulled up the rear. Occasionally Fern would crouch down and examine the tracks before leading us either in the same direction or in another, going past buildings with cracked walls and snowed in doorways. When we stopped again, snowflakes were falling lightly onto the ground. The temperature dropping significantly.

“I don’t think we can go further with this or the snowfall will cover both our tracks and the Mutie’s,” Zed sighed, leaning on his spear as we rested. My feet were numb from walking and my body trembled from the cold. I couldn’t take much more of this either.

“Zed has a point, either we head back now or carry on until the tracks are lost and so are we,” Jacob stated, pulling the hood of his fur jacket up. His cheeks were red-tinted.

“I guess we-” Fern began only to stop when we heard crunching of snow as something heavy came closer. Gem’s ears immediately flattened against her head as she began hissing. Even Vector was in a defensive position.

“Something is following us,” Zed whispered, doing a slow turn before stopping, facing me and Fern. “To your left shoulder, turn slowly and notch an arrow to your bow. Nathan, move slowly towards us.”

I did as told but Fern’s movements were too fast, catching whatever was behind me, attention. I heard the arrow release before being knocked down into the snow. I heard the sound of bones cracking and popping before I saw, in the corner of my eye, a giant black cat with plating on its back sprint past us. Zed and Jacob running close behind.

Fern got off me with lightning speed, helped me up then notched three arrows to the string. He let the arrows fly. The beast roared. Coughing and gasping for breath, I turned quickly towards the sound.

Its form was black, a sore thumb in the white, pristine background. Thick, devilish horns sprouted from the sides of its head, covered in knotted, dying grey vines. Its head, covered in matted and torn fur, was a grotesque picture of a moose and panther’s skulls morphed together with four red, beady eyes glaring daggers at us as the arrows bounced harmlessly off its flanks.

Fern did not let that little action deter him. Zed and Jacob got in close with the large cat I had now identified as Gem. They lunged forward with spear tips and claws, gaining the Mutie’s attention as it swatted at them and tried to pierce them with its horns. Fern pulled out a larger, sharper arrow from his quiver, the tip coloured a sickly green. Poison.

He notched it, took aim and let it loose. The arrow sliced through the air in slow motion, spinning. The two hunters and Gem jumped away, falling into the snow just as the arrowhead made contact with the creature’s head, cracking into its skull right between its eyes. It roared, muzzle to the sky before it stumbled and crashed to the ground, snow dust flying into the air around it. Blood dripped from its wound, between its wet nostrils and staining the snow red. Its chest rose three times before ceasing. The animal was dead.

Fern turned around, dropping his bow so he could engulf me into a hug. Worry was clear on his face when he pulled back, looking me up and down.

“When I saw it charging us, I was worried it would hit you. I’m sorry if I crushed you when I tackled.” Fern kissed my forehead. Just watching as the guys worked had adrenaline rushing through my veins. I gazed up at Fern, smiling yet still struggling to fill my aching lungs.

“That...was awesome! You need to teach me how to do that,” I exclaimed, hugging Fern before letting go to crouch down as Gem made her way to us. She looked just like her Rock Cat form, only now the size of a Sabretooth Tiger. Her two top canines now stuck out to show themselves.

“Hey girl, what’s happened to you?” I scratched behind her ear, a loud purr beginning to resonant in her chest. “Will she ever go back to her original size?”

“Not as long as she is with you. Vector will be the same when his time comes. It’s just something that happens when the person they bond with is in trouble,” Jacob explained as he cleaned his spear of blood in the snow. “But now that Gem is bigger and stronger, we can get her to help pull the corpse back.”

Glancing behind him, I noticed Zed working on tying rope made out of vines around the beast’s shoulders. Everything was so surreal as I watched him work. The Mutie, in death, looked so peaceful yet frightening, as if it would rear up and attack but when Zed tied the final knot, it still lay quiet and dead.

“Come on, we need to get Gem hooked up and move on before that bastard of a human begins to give us shit again,” Jacob said sourly, glancing around us. “Hurry up.”

Fern snorted before grinning and patting me on my back, brushing his shoulder against mine as I stood up.

“He has a point. Come on, Kitten.” I nodded. We made our way to the Mutie’s corpse in comfortable silence.

“I wasn’t kidding about what I said.”

“What about?”

“About you teaching me how to hunt with a bow.”

Fern stopped and glanced at me with a curious look in his eye before a large grin took over his features. “We can get to it as soon as we have time, I promise.”