Chapter 8

Chase didn't have much time. He untied the branches wrapped around his forearms for camouflage. The branches had blood all over them, the smell of it thick in the air. He winced as he pulled them away and the branches rubbed against his wounds. They had been gnawed away and had taken the brunt of the bite. If he hadn't been wearing it his arm might have been damaged beyond recognition.

There were four large gashes where the canines had poked through the branches, dark red liquid trickled out steadily with every passing second. He took out the rope that he was planning on using to tie up his catch and wrapped it around his arm, making a makeshift tourniquet with a stick. His forehead was matted with sweat and every time he moved his arm he felt more blood writhe out from the wound as if he was watching his life attempting to flee from his body.

He kept tightening and tightening until the grinding of his teeth was all he could hear. Once he saw that the trickling had almost completely stopped he breathed out a small sigh of relief.

Chase was faintly trembling from the pain that seemed to consume his entire arm, every flex of his muscles as he tightened the tourniquet sent pain that was as if he was still being bitten.

Thankfully he had brought some barrow nettles for Elie's blister, he hesitantly put one on his arm only to immediately pull it away as the itching sensation morphed into what he could only describe as having lice inside your body. The leaf mixed with his blood, causing the itch to seep into him and spread along his arm like ants.

Chase took a shaking breath. He put the leather sheath of his knife into his mouth and began wrapping the leaves around the wounds with string. All he could do to express the feeling was to let out a muffled scream, the itching caused by the nettles made it feel like his arm was burning from the inside, he took deep breaths in and out, the scent of the old leather permeated his mouth.

By the time he had covered all four holes there were tears in his eyes and his back was covered in sweat. He had to take a small break afterwards, otherwise he would collapse then and there. The leather sheath had been bitten so hard that the marks of his teeth were now a permanent feature.

His arm wasn't bleeding and the pain had been dealt with for now. So he went looking for his hunting knife, it was the only good blade he had on him even if it was only made of iron, he kept searching for it but the more he rummaged around the grass and undergrowth, the more panicked he became.

Panic turned to frustration, which turned to anger.

"Shit! Shit! Why now?!" After a dozen minutes of searching he stopped, they had to get out of here. His only weapons were a bone knife and blade. Although better than his bare hands, without his spear he was at the mercy of whatever predator they came across. But he couldn't just leave that knife, it was far too valuable when they were on the move.

"It went that way." Elie said in a quiet voice, she was still gripping her knife with both hands, scared that the moment she let go, the blood would make it slip out of her grasp. She pointed in the direction with her arms instead.

He went over to where she was pointing him, it was right around where the deer had found a small treat to nibble on before getting caught, he hadn't thought to look there as it was behind the deer. When he saw the small glint of the blade he ran up to it and picked it up. In doing so he noticed the dead body of a squirrel, the head was gone and the body was torn to shreds, the only distinguishing feature was its tail, that had been left intact. All he could do was gulp and pretend he hadn't seen anything, he didn't want to scare Elie anymore than he had already.

Although she didn't say anything, she had a haunted look in her eye. He would have to talk to her about it tonight.

Chase had lost all feeling in his right arm, so he loosened his tourniquet for a minute to let blood flow through the limb, an intense feeling of pins and needles hit his arm, but at least he could move his fingers around a bit now. A few drops of blood escaped from under the barrow nettles, but once he re-tightened the tourniquet the bleeding stopped.

He went and finished what he had started, cutting the snare and putting the doe into the harness he had made before. Chase gave the carcass a good kick to relieve his anger before dragging it with great effort along the forest floor.

They had to take frequent breaks due to his stamina and to loosen the tourniquet for a minute at a time, although he didn't want to bleed to death, he also didn't want to lose his arm like what had happened to another hunter from the next village over. He unfortunately passed out after making a tourniquet. It saved his life, but he never walked again.

Chase was on edge, every time he loosened his tourniquet he could feel his life dripping away. If his hand was to slip and he was to fall unconscious then it could be the end. He would just bleed out.

Elie was in no state to help him. She just followed behind him silently, if she heard a sound from the forest her head would turn to face it, eyes searching for the source of the noise.

Chase dragged himself through the forest as fast as he could at first, using whatever strength he had reserved, then once that ran out he began to grow desperate. He contemplated cutting pieces off from the doe, but decided against staying in the forest longer than needed, he couldn't spend time gutting the beast, it would attract anything with a half-decent sense of smell. Without a spear, he couldn't defend the kill, and would be forced to leave the deer behind and escape with Elie on his back. By the time he saw their camp, he was running on sheer willpower. Only after submerging the deer in the river to cool did he take a moment to truly rest.

He took fast shallow breaths and the corners of his vision grew foggy, but after splashing some water on his face and taking a drink he was able to relax. He took deeper and deeper breaths until he stopped feeling light headed.

It was only once he stopped that the nausea hit him and he started retching. Even after he had emptied his stomach, Chase leaned over the river, splashing cold water on his face to keep him awake. Eventually he had to stop as his hand had gone white from the cold.

He put some wood from their stash into the fire pit before lighting the tinder. He was glad that he still had his hunting knife to start a fire with, just the thought of having to move his arm more than he currently was made him feel queasy.

Elie had sat down as soon as they arrived, she was similarly tired from the walk back. Chase went over to her, only to find that she hadn't let go of boner yet.

He reached out to take the blood soaked knife from her hands, "It's fine, you can let go now," Chase said as he slowly pried her fingers from the hilt one at a time, she didn't respond and just watched as he slowly took it out of her cramped hands.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

As they made their way to the river, he noticed that she was limping. "Are you hurt?" Elie hesitated before slowly nodding, Chase got down on his knees and started pulling up the leg of her clothes only to reveal a bruised and bleeding swelling, it was as if there was an apple inside her leg. There was a thin line where the skin had split and blood was trickling out of.

Chase was going to say something along the lines of Why didn't you tell me? or you should have let me know. but he couldn't bring himself to say it. He knew exactly why she didn't speak a word of it to him.

"Next time, tell me right away. Can you do that for me?" Elie gave another silent nod.

From the looks of it, she had been kicked by the deer whilst stabbing at him. But despite the obviously painful wound, she wasn't voicing anything to him. He felt scared when he thought about this, if she didn't feel pain in her leg then the damage might be worse than he'd imagined.

"Does it still hurt? Can you feel it?" He asked nervously. Elie nodded.

"It should be quite painful, does it hurt when you walk?" Elie nodded.

Chase was confused, "Why didn't you cry if it hurt?" Elie wasn't able to answer with a nod.

"There are more monsters, we saw them." She said, whilst pointing at the deer submerged in the stream, "They might hear us."

Chase felt goosebumps. She was right not to cry in the forest, just the thought of a herd of deer with a hunger for flesh was enough to make his skin crawl. The more he followed this line of thought, the more things started falling into place. The carcass they had found by the river. The lack of predator tracks when he found leftover carcasses by the snares. The tracks of a herd around the remains of one of their own.

Chase tried to ignore the sense of dread that was building up by tending to Elie's leg. He placed the last barrow nettle he had on her leg and tied it up with a piece of string. His hand itched and started to numb, but he didn't pay it any mind.

He brought her over to the river and washed the blood on her hands and sleeves, he wiped her face with his left hand sleeve, smearing the spots of blood on her face. Once the two of them were clean enough, they sat by the fire to warm up. Chase kept a close eye on his arm, tightening and loosening the tourniquet as needed. He was still a bit light headed from what blood he had lost, he would need to rest for a few days before he could go out to hunt again. But it would likely take him several weeks for a full recovery.

Thankfully they were able to get the deer. It helped alleviate their need to search for something to eat. All things considered they were very lucky. If even one thing was to have gone wrong their chances of survival would have dropped like a stone in a well. If his arm wasn't protected, if he lost his iron knife, if the deer escaped the snare and even if he didn't have any barrow nettles. Although he was able to act in the moment because the pain was alleviated, if he didn't have any it would probably be impossible for him to drag a dead deer through the woods for hours.

He needed to secure some more to help with the pain. Although it didn't block all of it, he would be able to endure the constant dull ache better than the sharp pain that leaves a man crawling. He examined his wound again and unfortunately it still bled when he loosened the tourniquet, he needed some kind of cloth to absorb it. He couldn't fall asleep without solving this problem first so he decided to tear the arm of the only tunic he had in his possession, the deer's teeth had punched holes through it so he didn't feel much reluctance to wrap it around the bite as tightly as he could. It had already absorbed some blood when he was first bitten. Now it had the job of preventing him from bleeding out.

Chase still had work to do, so with great effort he walked over to the deer and dragged it out of the water. The deer had bled out long ago and any blood that remained was washed away by the river.

The body was now cool to the touch. He took out his bone knife and cleaned it before starting to skin the deer. He had some trouble with its head, but he managed. Once all the skin was removed he set it out to dry. He gutted the deer and buried the guts to prevent the smell from attracting predators.

He would normally eat the guts within the hour so that there wasn't a risk of poisoning. However, too much time had passed for it to be safe, even if the chances were slim, getting ill could be a death sentence.

Chase cut the meat into strips and hung them on a branch over the fire to smoke. He tried to get as many of the strips as he could over the flames, they had to eat as much as they could, and what they couldn't had to be preserved. He put a large slab of meat, enough for the two of them, on a skewer. There was no seasoning to pair with it, nor any other food for that matter.

The smell of deer cooking filled the air with its meaty aroma. Both of them patiently waited for the outer layer to cook, before Chase cut a small slice off and handed it to Elie. It was too hot in her hands so she threw it into her mouth and immediately started awkwardly blowing and chewing the meat. She had burnt her tongue, but with every passing chew she seemed to regain some spirit.

Chase was glad that she was showing some positive reaction to the food. He had seen what a bloody fight could do to a person's enjoyment of things, he knew some friends from his militia days that couldn't enjoy food for weeks after a battle. It would sap at their morale and if it went on for long enough, it could stick with a man for life.

Chase cut off a piece for himself and tried to enjoy the texture and aroma of the meat. He still wasn't used to not having a sense of taste, although he still got some satisfaction from the smell and motions of eating. The lack of flavour was frustrating.

Eventually their appetite was ignited and both of them started to ferociously dismantle the meat, fat and cartilage of their meal. By the time they finished Elie lay on the ground in contentment, seemingly revived from their ordeal.

Chase looked at the carcass, trying to figure out how he could keep it safe from scavengers as well as mask the smell. He dragged himself to his feet and put the harness around the deer.

He found a small ditch at the base of a tree that was suitable and set up another fire from his woodpile; he used whatever they had saved up to build a small smoker. He surrounded the edge of the fire with fresh bushes that wouldn't burn, but that could starve the fire.

He dismantled the straps for his shoulders and used the rope he salvaged to wrap it around the branch hanging over the smoker. He readied himself before starting to hoist the deer up.

At first he was able to manage with one hand but soon it got harder and harder. Just as he was getting close to tying the rope around the branch of another tree his hand slipped. He felt a burning sensation as the rope ran through his fingers, which quickly stopped once he grabbed onto it with his other hand. A stabbing sensation assaulted his arm despite the barrow nettles.

"Elie, come here for a moment. Quickly!"

Elie limped over before grabbing the rope and pulling with Chase.

"Tie it." He groaned.

His hands were starting to slip as his grip gave away. Eventually he felt the rope grow taught behind him and he slowly eased himself off the burden.

Chase took a look at the knot that Elie had made. It was clumsy and barely held, so he tightened it up and started getting the fire going. Once small billows of smoke started he stopped tending to it.

Once the tension left his body all he could do was stumble to their shelter. Elie followed after him.

"Dad, what's it for?"

"That... It's going to cook the deer for us."

Chase crawled into the shelter with Elie struggling to follow after him. His deliriousness made him feel like he was on a rocking boat. Chase rested his hand on Elie's head gently brushing her hair, his mind was blank and he could feel himself falling asleep.

"You're such a good girl Elie. Such a good girl."

His vision was starting to flicker and pop as he entered an unwilling unconsciousness that gave him relief unlike any other.

"I think I'm going to sleep for a bit." He said, before suddenly slumping back like a puppet without strings.

Elie got scared, "But it's not night time." She said, trying to shake him awake. "Dad. Dad." She repeated nervously.

Chase didn't respond no matter how much she pushed or pulled at him. The only thing giving her some sense of security was the faint rise and fall of his chest.

Elie eventually curled up by his side as close to him as she could before she too, let the exhaustion of the day take her. She tried to comfort herself by dreaming, maybe she could see her friend.

She was waiting for them to visit again.