This is the tale of five orphan friends named Chris, Timothy, Josh, Ben, and Luke. All around in their early to mid-teenage years. They all had lost both their parents due to different circumstances. However, Chris was only a paternal orphan who lived with his mother in an old shack. The others lived in an orphanage which barely received any donations. Only people who ever donated were the ones who still had any humanity left within them but even these once in a while donations were like small blessings that kept it running and provided shelters to orphan children.

Due to corruption and an irregular division of financial assets one side of the country was plagued by poverty, famines, and diseases. Whereas one side thrived and was enjoying an abundance of assets.

The so-called Nobles oppressed the lower class and the rule of corrupted officials soon plunged the country into chaos.

And soon the orphanage too fell victim to an unforeseen incident making its doors forever closed to its occupants and the last remaining shelter for orphans crumbled away and their hearts gradually gave-in to despair.

Some of the children went to find their own way but the four orphans stuck together with each other, they bid one final farewell to their orphanage and moved on to find a new place they could call home. The purpose of their lives wasn’t to live free anymore it became a grinding struggle of mere survival in this cruel world.

Along with four friends, there was a frail young boy named Kevin around seven of age and due to his young age and dire circumstances, his health became fragile.

The youngest friend Timothy, around age thirteen whom they called Tim, was the most affected by losing their home.

The second one was Ben who had a buzzcut hairstyle due to which he was often called “Buzzcut Ben or Big Ben”. He was around age fourteen and was a bit overweight. He had an indolent and apathetic personality as he’s always searching for shortcuts and his habits were considered sloven by the norm.

The third was Luke. He was around seventeen and was much closer to Tim as a friend hence Tim always trusted Luke and as a good friend he kept Tim from completely falling to despair when they lost their refuge at the orphanage.

The fourth one Josh was also around seventeen and was the strongest of the lot. He and Luke were in mostly better physical condition than the others. Josh had a determined personality which could sometimes become obsessive. But he was mostly a mysterious boy, in his eyes was a small glint of hatred for the world which he kept concealed from the others.

*** Author’s Note ***

“The copyrights of the pictures do not belong to me but to its respectful owners. The pictures do not represent the actual characters or objects in the story but show similarity to them and are merely used as a close reference for the story, to strengthen the Environmental Details.”

They knew they wouldn't be able to find any kindness neither from the people nor from the environment and obviously no place to seek shelter. As it was the cold month of November the dusk was fast approaching, so they took the unpaved dirt path to find a village but soon even nature left their side as they saw the black clouds forming above them.

Tim noticed little Kevin was shivering, rubbing his hands against his arms. “We need to find shelter soon, there’s gotta be someplace we can rest for a while…”

Luke glanced towards Kevin with a concerned look as he took off his jacket and put it on Kevin. “It’s not much but it’ll keep you warm for the time being.” Luke softly smiled at him.

“Thank you, big bro.” Little Kevin expressed his gratitude.

Luke: “This doesn’t look...it’s gonna...” he said as he glanced above. Before he could even finish his sentence the lightning clashed with a deafening thud and it began to rain in torrents.

The path they were walking upon was completely surrounded by thick forest on both sides. They were out in the open with no shelter from the rain.

In a desperate need for shelter, they began to run in order to pick up the pace and find any sort of refuge from the cold rain.

“There’s no time, we need to cut through the woods!” Josh shouted.

With no time to think they took a sharp turn from the unpaved path and began cutting through the forest, running as fast as their bodies and the terrain allowed them.

After a minute, Josh felt a sharp sting on his back which made him grit his teeth as if he’d just gotten hit by a stone but the next moment he realized it that the torrents of rain brought a streaming hailstorm upon them. He tried to avoid the hailing ice but there was no way he could dodge a barrage of solid ice. 

Luke knew that Kevin wouldn't be able to run in this raging storm so he picked up little Kevin in his arms and sprinted carefully to avoid falling with the child in his arms.

The heavy rain along with a hailstorm could easily make any man lose his focus but Josh inhaled and focused his eyes. He glanced around and with some luck, he spotted an abandoned shack at almost a hundred meters distance.

“LOOK! We might find shelter over there!” Josh pointed towards the old cabin and spoke in a loud voice so the others could hear.

Mustering up their strength they reached the old abandoned cabin. It was a normal-sized cabin with two rooms in total. Its condition was rather dilapidated but still, it was better than having no shelter. Drenched in the cold rain and roughened up by the abrupt hailstorm they rushed inside the cabin. One of the rooms seemed like it used to be a living room and the other one was a bedroom. There was also a fireplace in the cabin that they could use for the night.

Luke placed Kevin down on the dry rug of the living room. Due to his frail health, Luke suspected Kevin of a fever as he noticed him struggling to breathe. Luke’s doubt became facts as he placed his hand on Kevin’s forehead which was apparently burning up. His ailment only gave further rise to Luke’s anxiety.

Kevin opened his eyes as he panted. “Big brother…I feel so cold...and my head, it’s hurting...” his voice was breaking, he was barely able to speak.

“Hey. You’ll be fine! Just hold on, okay?!” Luke rapidly searched in his satchel and took out a water bottle. He slipped one arm under Kevin’s head and helped him up. “Here, drink some water.” Then Luke gently hugged Kevin

The heavy rain showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. The others began to settle down. They took off their drenched shirts and squeezed them of water. They kept juddering and squeezing their shirt until they became more wearable. So Luke did the same for Kevin. Josh started a fire out of broken furniture and whatever dry stuff he could find lying around in that dilapidated cabin.

Tim approached Kevin and sat beside him. “Luke you go dry your clothes too, we don’t want you catching a cold…I’ll stay with Kevin.”

Standing in the window Josh looked back and stared at Kevin with slight contempt. “How pathetic...he’s nothing but dead weight…” he spoke in a low voice, keeping his thoughts to himself.

Next moment Luke walked up to Josh. “Hey, Josh, you okay?”

“Just what the hell were you thinking?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“It wasn’t a very good idea bringing him with us, he’s gonna drag us all down.”

“Hey! He’s just a kid, Josh! I couldn’t just leave him out the orphanage. That place isn’t safe anymore.”

“...” Josh kept silent and sighed.

“That kid is my responsibility, there’s no need for anyone to worry about him.”

“I’m just saying but I’ll hate to see you being dragged down by dead weight, you’re a rather capable man Luke but your efforts are wasted. So, where hell would you find medicine in a forest thick as this?”

As much as Luke wanted to argue he knew that he won’t be able to find any medicine around in the middle of nowhere.

*** Author’s Note ***

“The copyrights of the pictures do not belong to me but to its respectful owners. The pictures do not represent actual characters or objects in the novel but show similarity to them and are merely used as a close reference for the story, to strengthen the Environmental Details.”

The next morning, the heavy rain came to stop. The sun had come out but soon the weather became clouded. The squad had run out of food; not that they actually had enough to begin with, in the first place, when they left the orphanage.

So Josh devised a plan to hunt for food. “Alright, everyone. We need to head out for food. Since everyone’s well-rested, I expect everyone to play their part. After all, it’s necessary that we work together.”

Luke walked up to Josh. “Josh, I’ve already thought about how we should play this out. If you don’t mind?”

“Of course not...Luke. Go ahead.”

“So Josh and I will hunt for any animals that we can find, we’ll be needing our proteins. And Ben, you’ll look for any edible herbs and fruits, whatever you can find. This might be difficult since it rained pretty hard last night but try to find some dry wood that we can burn.” Finally Luke looked toward Kevin who was still burning with fever. “Tim...”

“Yes, Luke?” Tim replied.

“You...you stay with Kevin okay? His fever still hasn’t gone down yet. Also, search around the cabin for anything that we can burn and set up the fireplace. We burned whatever we could find in the cabin to make a fireplace since we couldn’t go outside last night. But there still might be something left that we can use.”

“I understand Luke. Don’t worry I’ll take care of Kevin and see what can I find.”

With that Josh and Luke headed out. Walking into the forest for several minutes, Josh took a dagger out of his satchel.

“You have a knife?”

“Yes, of course, Luke. What? Did you expect to hunt with a broomstick?” Josh looked around the trees. “There…” he pointed toward a firm and long tree branch, “We can use this…” He jumped and grabbed onto the branch as to break it down. He jumped down with a one and a half inches thick branch which was around two feet long. “This will do…”

For the time being Luke was watching Josh who firmly held the branch and began to slice off at one end of the stick in a slant position. Soon he ended up with a sharp-pointed tip.

“Josh?” as Luke was watching toward Josh.

“Here…” said Josh as he passed the pointy branch to Luke. “Your broom-shtick is now a DIY hunting spear.”

“Uh-Thanks, I guess…”

“Okay, Let’s finish this before we get stoned by another hailstorm.”

“Of course.”

After walking around for a while Josh spotted his prey. “Well, Well...there, look.” He pointed toward a hole diverting Luke’s attention toward it. “Judging by the width of the hole, I think it might be a rabbit hole.” Saying so Josh unsheathed his dagger, firmly gripping it. “Usually we would’ve used a trapping net or something to immobilize it, but we’ll just have to rely on our instincts and reflexes now. Get ready Luke, we better not f*ck this up because I’m definitely not relying on that Fatso to feed us tonight. And besides, don’t you have a sick kid to take care of?”

“I understand, Josh.” Soon a rabbit hopped out of the woods and went inside its hole. Since both Josh and Luke were behind the cover of a large tree trunk the rabbit couldn’t notice its hunters.

“Now these little punks like to dig tunnels so there’ll be two ends of this hole. Not to mention that little Mrs. Doe and daddy Buck like to have babies every month...so do it properly and we might just have enough for everybody.”

“I see...okay…but how do you plan on luring it out?”

“Well...do you have any fruits with you?”

“Little bit of an apple I guess…”

“That’ll do, we can use it as bait.” Luke passed the apple from his satchel to Josh. Josh sliced two pieces of apple, took one himself and gave the other one to Luke. “Here, squeeze a few drops on a leaf or something and place it near the hole, this will lure them out.”

“Hmm…”

“Alright, I’m gonna stand at one end and you at the other…And Luke…”

“Yeah?”

“...Don’t hesitate to strike, just trust your instincts.” Josh’s eyes were focused and his posture was determined, he gave the heads up and Luke moved up to his position.

Soon the naive young rabbit took the bait and the moment it popped its head out from Josh’s side he swiftly jabbed the dagger into the hole and pulled out the dagger with a rabbit impaled on it as its blood dripped down to the grip of the dagger. “Got you…” said Josh as he lifted his dagger with a smug.

The hunt was merciless but Luke knew they had no choice. Their survival depended on whatever they could find. Focusing upon their prey they managed to hunt four rabbits.

“I think that’s it…there doesn’t seem to be any more in there. And even if there were, they definitely won’t be popping out of there any time soon.”

“Alright, I suppose. Well, let’s head back before dark then.”

They used one of the empty satchels to collect the meat. They had merely walked a few feet away when the unexpected guests arrived.

“Oh f*ck…” said Josh as his eyes were wide open from shock. He abruptly gripped Luke’s wrist and bolted towards the large tree, taking cover behind it.

“Josh--” before Luke could even finish saying his name he heard several aggressive growls from beyond the trunk sounding closer by the second. He cautiously peeked out of the cover only to see the terrifying sight of a pack of wolves who had arrived for a hunt. This is the moment they realized that the hunter had become hunted.

“F*ck, I should’ve known...the scent of blood...lured them here. But I didn’t expect there would be wolves in this area.” Josh cautiously glanced out of the cover to grasp the situation, there were three wolves lurking out in the open sniffing around for the scent. One of the wolves sniffed the blood near the rabbit hole and kept staring right into it waiting for an opportunity then he abruptly shoved his snout into the hole and pulled out a rabbit firmly gripped in his jaws. The rabbit struggled to escape from the fangs of its predator but soon bled to death.

Luke noticed his meat satchel was dripping blood but by the time they noticed that blunder, it was already too late as the wolves already had their attention locked onto them. “Oh crap, no…”

“F*ck! Run!” Josh and Luke bolted at full speed but they already had their predator in hostile pursuit. Josh knew that they won’t be able to outrun a pack of three wolves out for blood. He devised another plan to survive the fight. He looked toward Luke who had the satchel. “LUKE! PASS ME THE SATCHEL!”

“HERE!” Luke threw the satchel toward Josh who quickly caught it in mid-air.

Josh took out a dead rabbit and sliced its gut, spilling blood. He then tossed it back and fortunately, it caught the attention of one of the wolves who stopped to bite it down but the other two were still onto them. As Josh kept running he bent down and grasped a fistful of dirt in his hand. The wolf closed the distance between its prey and aggressively leapt at Josh.

Josh took a sharp turn back and shoved the dirt in the direction of the wolf’s eyes to blind it, who had just lunged at him. As the wolf was struggling to gain his sight back, Josh tightly gripped onto the wolf’s hair and skin under its snout, bringing it down to the ground from mid-air. He pressed his foot against the wolf to hold it down whilst keeping his grip firm and repeatedly stabbed the dagger into its throat running it through the wolf’s neck to its stomach, ruthlessly gutting his predator. The wolf chasing behind them abruptly came to a halt as it witnessed the brutal execution of its companion. Josh glared at the other wolf with his blood-smeared face as he breathed heavily, the warm blood dripped from the tip of the dagger. The wolf howled and ran away to retreat.

Luke stood in silence as he witnessed Josh’s formidable determination and courage, it almost seemed terrifying. His eyes were cold and emotionless as he recovered his breath but even in such turmoil, he was calm. Luke called out Josh, “Hey… Josh? Josh?”

“I’m fine…what about you?”

“I’m okay, we better head back…” Suddenly an ominous feeling ran through Luke’s gut. “If the wolves were here then...they might be around the cabin too! That’s why it was abandoned! No...we should head back quick. It’s not safe there anymore! We have to warn the others...” Luke firmly grasped his blood-soaked wooden spear from the hunt and hasted back to the cabin with Josh.

After several minutes of restless sprinting, they finally reached the cabin and the dusk was fast approaching. They slowed down near the cabin to catch their breath but soon that ominous feeling took over Luke as he heard the same hostile growling but this time it came from inside the cabin which gave an instant rise to Luke’s dreadful apprehension. Josh went towards the bedroom window of the cabin and Luke slowly approached the side window which connected to the living room.

What he saw inside, filled his heart with terror. It was an absolutely dreadful sight that made his heartbeat come to halt. A large wolf was already gnawing at Kevin, his stomach was torn open. The child was lying in a pool of his own blood, mercilessly butchered by the bloodthirsty beast. "No...Kevin…" To Luke, it was an utterly horrifying and gory sight that made this mind go numb but at that very moment, he felt a surge of crude rage which made his blood boil with fury.

The wolf noticed the human standing in the window glaring at him. The wolf paused his meal and glared back at Luke with its blood-smeared face. Aggressively growling with hostility the wolf stepped forward as the fresh blood from its sharp fangs continually dripped onto the floor.

Luke clenched the wooden spear in his hand and recklessly vaulted inside from the open window.

As the wolf pugnaciously pounced at him with its fangs wide open.

Luke braced himself and strengthened his grip onto the spear. He waited for the right moment, bawled his warcry and plunged the spear through the wolf's jaws and forcibly jabbed it right into its throat and swung the massive canine with all his might onto the sharp wooden stake that protruded from the broken chair, barbarically impaling the wolf upon it.

Luke was trembling uncontrollably with both anger and fear at the same time. He rushed towards Kevin and took the lifeless body of the child into his arms. “Ah-I...I’m so...sorry...Kevin…” His voice was breaking up and tears started incessantly streaming down his eyes. Consumed with hatred and despair he screamed. “GODDAMMIT!”

*** Author’s Note ***

“The copyrights of the pictures do not belong to me but to its respectful owners. The pictures do not represent actual characters or objects in the novel but show similarity to them and are merely used as a close reference for the story, to strengthen the Environmental Details.”