24. Moonlight

A month has passed since that last encounter. Though you had immediately turned around at the sound to your frustration you still couldn’t make out anything. You thought the branch snapping at least confirmed that there was indeed something out there until the feeling of being watched went away the next day. And for the past month you have not felt it return. The men had left in early April so it’s now early July. The days have grown quite hot. Dex had theorized before that so many meteors coming down may have damaged the ozone layer. The summers were beginning to feel just as brutal as the winters.

You wipe the back of your arm across your sweaty forehead as the sun beats down mercilessly on you. You know if all has gone to plan the men should have reached the city a couple of weeks ago and are hopefully on their way back now. You ended up deciding not to wait for Dex and simply moved the clothes line pole over near the cabin and secured the other end of the line to the outside wall. You’re doing laundry again and feel far more relaxed than you had last month.

The days have grown much longer and you don’t expect the sun to set for another couple of hours. Just enough time to dry the last batch of clothes. You’re quite exhausted from your day. You wish you hadn’t taken your washer and dryer for granted so much before all this happened. When you're done you go inside and lay down in bed only intend to close your eyes for a moment. You wake up slightly disoriented sometime later. You sit up rubbing your eyes in confusion they readjust. It’s completely dark outside and the only light inside is from the moonlight coming in through the windows.

You can’t believe you fell asleep for so long. You get up and light the lantern, when you’re done you pick it up and go to grab the laundry. As you’re pulling the clothes down you glance up at the moon and notice just how dark it is out. Wondering how long you were out for you quickly glance at your watch. “Shit” you mumble under your breath when you see it’s slightly past 2 am. You quick your pace and try to get the clothes down quicker. You become aware of the fact that you not only left your rifle inside but you also had taken your boots off earlier and are currently standing barefoot.

You pause for a second wondering if you should go inside to grab one of your weapons before finishing up. There’s only a few pieces of clothes left up so you decide to just try to grab them as quickly as you can. Throwing the last article into the basket you’re carrying under your arm you turn around to go inside. When you turn around you instantly feel your heart drop into your stomach. In the corner of your eye you happen to catch a small flicker of light coming from the distant tree line. You slowly turn your head and confirm that there is indeed a glowing light coming from inside the tree line.

You know it has to be from a campfire. But if Dex and Jack had returned this early they would have just come straight to the cabin not camp out in the forest. You can’t see anything other than trees and shadows in the fires light but after staring for a moment that sickening feeling of being watched returns. You quickly hurry inside and slide down to the floor after barring the door. You lean your back against it and burry your hands in your face. The feeling you had been having on and off for months wasn’t from the type of animal you had been expecting.