Don't Forget to Breathe

Panic

Sam stood, still trying to locate the direction that the gunshot had come from.

 “Come on Marie, RUN!!!” Sam heard John slurring as he stumbled towards the shelter of the cabin, practically dragging Marie behind him. She watched Marie trip and fall in one of the holes the many ground squirrels had dug in the clearing, clearly twisting her ankle as she went. Marie cried out and Sam instantly jumped up and started at a dead sprint towards the her fallen friend. Another bang echoed through the clearing and one of the older girls dropped after she was grazed in the arm.  

Sam reached Marie and dropped down to a squat to pull one of her arms over her shoulder and lift her up. Marie was clearly drunk, and it only added to her confusion and fear. “Come on ‘Rie, we need to get you inside,” Sam said.

“Sammy, I don’t know if I can walk,” Marie said her lip quivering.

“You have to try, it’s now or never ‘Rie.”

Sam and Marie started to hobble to the cabin where most of the crowd now resided. Step by step, Sam guided Marie. It was only 30 yards to the cabin, but it seemed like the longest trek Sam had ever taken and time had slowed to a dead crawl. Another bang Sam felt a sting on her lower calf as she was grazed with a deadly projectile. At this point her bun and fallen out and her hair streamed down in long wild tendrils.

“Boys come look at this,” a loud voice boomed from the forest. “We got ourselves a Child of the Mountain.” The culprits stepped out of the tree line and into the clearing. Their faces were cast with the fire and mixed with the darkness they looked like hellish ghouls. Sam didn’t recognize the men and she didn’t care. She and Marie had made to the small water pump shed that sat next to the cabin and Sam set her friend down out of the line of sight of the trio across the clearing.

“Stay her ‘Rie, I am going to try and get help,” Sam said.

Marie gave her pleading look, trying will Sam to stay with her eyes. Even drunk, Marie knew that there was nothing she could say to dissuade Sam once her mind was made up. Sam turned from Marie and peeked back around the corner to the men who cause the danger.  Out of the three men that stood in the clearing, one appeared to be in mid to late fifties, the other two that flanked him were in the late twenties to early thirties if Sam had to guess. They were talking and she could pick up pieces of the conversation. Things like “child of the mountain” and “wolves” made there way over to her hiding spot.

Wolves…. that was impossible. Wolves hadn’t been seen on the mountain in years. Sam pondered the sheer mention of the animals. What the hell does that have do with shooting a bunch of defenseless people in the woods?

The men came closer towards the cabin and she could here there conversation more clearly.

“I knew we would get a couple shifters tonight but never thought we would find a full-fledged Child of the Mountain,” one of the younger ones said. He was an average build with mousy brown hair and dressed a button-down flannel and cargo pants. He had a rifle slung across his back and his demeanor was that of a sloth, intent on his path but inefficient in practice.

“I know, but that hair is unmistakable. My father talked about ‘em all the time.” The older man had short grey hair slicked back and stubble covered is lined face. “They’re cunning creatures, but if we catch her before she finds the pack, we can nip it in the bud.” A blood-chilling smile sprouted on the leader’s face, and it had that exact effect on Sam.  

“How do you know she hasn’t found them yet?” Again, the younger one seemed dumbfounded.

“Cus, she would have shifted here and now to protect the pack and obviously she didn’t. We wouldn’t be breathing if she had,” the old man loaded a new shell into the chamber of his rifle and gave the two accomplices a dirty look. “Now, instead of yabbing on, I suggest we find her and get on with tonight. This one is going to be hard to hide. Next time think before you shoot you dumb-asses,” he uttered in a clipped tone while walking towards the cabin.

 Sam swallowed hard and army crawled her way to the underbrush as quietly as possible. She was stuck in the woods with a bunch of lunatics who were shooting kids because of some shared delusion and it sounded like she was a priority on their list.  She knew she still has Marie’s keys and if she could get out to the front she could get down to the neighbors and way to contact law enforcement.

Ok, she thought to the Jeep and hopefully our salvation.