I was scared; I’ll admit it. I knew it was rational. I mean, I was a fifteen-year-old girl who was being sent off to kill monsters who could take down grown men with ease. Still, my mother would be disappointed if she knew this fear that has taken place in me. Easy for her to say, she had never had to venture into that forest. Never had to protect herself from the worst danger possible to imagine. I sighed, turning away from the mirror I’d been staring at. Tightening my low ponytail, I walked out of the bathroom door. Mother was waiting at the kitchen counter, cooking eggs. That was unusual, but I guess she wanted to be remembered by me in a good way. In case I didn’t come back. I scoffed, storming out of the front door without even acknowledging her. At least once I come back – well, if I come back – I would be considered an adult. I would finally be able to move out. To get my own place; maybe live with Calyx, my boyfriend, who my mother most certainly does not know about. I walked out onto the street, a smile flickering onto my face before fading almost immediately after as I remembered why I was there. Where I was going. Now frowning, I continued down the street, heading towards the forest. I was met by a crowd of roughly two hundred, but the only people who made me smile were Ingrid, Lazar and of course Calyx. I greeted my two friends with hugs and gave Calyx a quick kiss before we began making our way toward the edge of the forest. Mayor Jones was a frail old man. He didn’t care whether I lived or died; he only cared about not being torn to shreds by the monsters. Behind where he was standing was a table. Covering it were backpacks and guns. Our group walked up to the table, each of us shouldering a backpack and grabbing a gun. We made our way to the markers positioned two meters away from one another in a line. Tall poles with little flags that had our names written on them. I looked up and found the marker with my name. Sefafina Leafe. The other three found their markers and stood behind them. I looked straight ahead. My hands began to shake. We had agreed to meet up underneath the Willow where we all used to play, before all the monsters came. “Begin!” Mayor Jones’ coarse voice swept across the crowd of people. I took off sprinting. Running faster than most of the other teenagers there. I had always been a fast runner. I navigated my way easily through the forest, my memories from my childhood leading me. I remembered running through these trees, ducking between them with Calyx, Ingrid and Lazar. Playing tag or just running for the fun of it. I remember my father used to play with me in this forest. In no time, I was leaning against the familiar Willow, my gun in my hands, ready to shoot if any monster came near me. A week. That’s how long we had to survive in these woods. The trees rustled to my left and I lifted my gun. Lazar came crashing out of the bushes and I dropped my gun to the forest floor, sighing in relief. “You’re the first one?” Lazar asked me, lowering his own gun. I nodded. “Yeah.” I looked up and scanned the tree for the best branches to climb. I spotted a lowish hanging branch that looked thick enough to support my weight and jumped, grabbing onto it tightly with my hands. I pulled myself up, which was harder than I expected due to the extra weight in my backpack, and swung my leg over the branch. Once I had balanced myself, I stood on the branch and reached for another thick one positioned above my head. I climbed up and waited for Lazar to follow me. He was struggling, so I held out a hand to help him. He gripped it and I pulled. While I was still pulling him up, Calyx ran into view. He spotted me in the tree and relief washed over his features. Ingrid followed him. I climbed up a bit higher and Lazar followed, giving them more room to climb up the tree. I climbed until I found the platform my father had made for us. He was one of the first to go when the monsters appeared. Soon all four of us were sitting on the platform. I was surprised it still held our weight. I unzipped my backpack to find what was inside. “Seriously?” Ingrid said, already ahead of me. “Utensils only. No food or anything!” There was a growl down on the forest floor and Calyx leapt forward and covered Ingrids mouth with his hand. Cutting off her complaining. We all sat frozen, praying that the creature would disappear or, at least, couldn’t climb trees. Just then, we heard a chorus of screams coming from somewhere to the right. Our heads all whipped towards the sound. The screaming continued for roughly five minutes. We just sat still. By the time it had stopped, I had tears running down my face. I was trying to keep my sobs from being audible but was failing. Calyx scooted across the platform over to me and pulled me into a tight hug. He held me tight until I stopped shaking.
I pulled back and looked at the others. “We should probably move,” I whispered. “We don’t know I these guys can climb trees or not, and I’d rather be somewhere I could run if needed. Ingrid shook her head, “I’d rather be somewhere where we know the land. We should just stay here.” The boys both agreed with her, so we stayed. The boys climbed down the tree a few hours later, planning to go hunting for something to eat tonight. Ingrid and I stayed in the tree, cleaning up the area. I tried to be annoyed that the boys were doing the hunting while us girls stayed at home cleaning - it was very sexist - but I couldn’t. We worked silently side by side. We almost finished when we heard a growl again. We both immediately froze, but Ingrid let out a squeak in terror. I looked at her, and her eyes were wide open. Hopefully they couldn’t climb trees. I prayed to any higher being out there. Begging them to help us. Obviously, there was no higher being, because we heard the monster climbing up. Its growls were getting higher, and we could hear the claws raking the tree bark. Ingrid glanced at me before darting into the canopy of trees, leaping from one to another. I followed, using smaller branches above my head as handholds. We ran, and could hear the monster behind us, still growling. I didn’t dare look back. I could hear the monster getting closer. We stumbled along the branches, moving as fast as possible, but I could hear it catching up. I looked down at the forest floor, wondering if I could jump without breaking my legs. “Ingrid!” I yelled up to her, praying she could hear, “When I say to, jump off the branch. We can’t outrun it like this.” She gave no indication that she heard me, but I just had to hope she had. The monster was getting closer, I could hear it snapping at my heels. “Now!” I yelled, and we jumped. I landed and rolled. I had read in a book that it would lessen the impact. Ingrid wasn’t so lucky, as she landed, I heard a snap and she cried out in pain. I turned to look at her and found her crumpled on the floor. I glanced up but couldn’t see the monster. It must’ve been too smart to jump down. Obviously we weren’t. I struggled over to Ingrid. She had tears running down her face. “Do you think it’s broken?” She asked me. I sighed and nodded. “I heard it snap, so probably. We should get back to the tree and wait for the boys to get back.” She nodded and I helped her stand. I slung her arm around my shoulders. We set off walking, her leaning heavily on me. By the time it got dark, we were still walking. It was eerie being out in the forest after dark. Any creak or rustle would freak us out. Eventually, we made it, hobbling the whole way. Ingrid wouldn’t be able to climb the tree by herself. “Stay here.” I whispered to her. I sat her down and made quick work of climbing the tree. I hoped the boys were up there. “Where the hell have you been?!” Calyx asked as he pulled me into a hug, not bothering to keep his voice down. “Ingrid is down there with a broken ankle, and I need a rope to pull her up or something.” I moved towards the backpacks we had discarded, then fished through it until I found the rope. I handed one end to Calyx who securely tied it to a branch. I began my climb down the tree. When I reached the bottom, I dropped the rope and moved over to Ingrid, helping her stand once more and helping her over to the rope. I tied it around her waist. “You’re going to need to use your hands and good foot to guide yourself up.” I told her, “We’ll pull you up from the top, but try to help us as much as possible.” Ingrid nodded and I climbed up again, my arms aching from having pulled myself up and down so many times. Once I reached the top I grabbed onto the rope and Calyx and Lazar followed. We began slowly pulling Ingrid up. We heard a couple of ‘ouch’ ‘s but otherwise, it was a silent process. Once we had finished pulling Ingrid up, we told the boys what had happened while Lazar wrapped Ingrid’s ankle. It was the end of the first day. One out of seven days. How would we make it through the week?
