Blake pushed forward into the woods, closely followed by Eliana. He was glad to have run into another human, but he couldn’t help thinking that he was going to have a hard time getting her to trust him. It hadn't escaped his attention that she regularly checked she was still in possession of her gun. He had already experienced how trigger happy she was. Well, it wasn’t as if she was trying to kill me. We have only just met, and I suppose to have survived a week in this place, you would need to be pretty cautious. He didn’t give it any more thought and the pair pushed on through the woods.

“So, what do you do for work?” He asked just wanting to make conversation and feeling slightly awkward around his newfound companion.

“Work?” Eliana’s forehead wrinkled as she answered.

Blake nodded. “Yeah.”

“Uh well, I’m in marketing.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie. She did occasionally promote things with her work. She didn’t feel like explaining about her real job just yet. Maybe once she got to know him a little better, she would tell him everything.

Seemingly not wanting a return to silence Blake pressed on with his questions. “Marketing, okay. Do you like it?”

“Yeah, I love my job.” She meant it.

He smiled. “That’s the important thing I suppose.”

“What about you?”

“I work in a shop.”

She laughed. “What kind?”

“A bookshop. I know I should probably find something that pays better, but I enjoy the work, so I haven’t…”

“No, that sounds nice. Do you read a lot?”

“Yeah, I love books.”

Eliana gasped.

Blake didn’t realise what had happened at first. I wasn’t expecting that response, I know it isn’t exactly that interesting, but… The gasp was quickly followed by a thud and a rustling coming from behind him. He stopped dead in his tracks and spun around wondering what was going on. Eliana was already nowhere to be seen. It was as if she had disappeared into thin air. The only sign was the nearby branches of the undergrowth swaying as if she had run through them, but there was no sign of her in the distance.

He shouted at the top of his lungs. “Eliana!”

There was no response. Just as he was starting to wonder if she had decided to ditch him, he heard a gunshot ring out in the distance. It had come someway to his right. That must be her. He started running in that direction without a moment’s thought. He’d ran about a hundred meters when he came across her gun lying on the floor. He picked it up and noticed the drag marks on the ground coming from the side and leading straight ahead of him. She must be in trouble. He ran as fast as he could following the marks on the ground. He couldn’t see her, but if she was being pulled along the floor it wouldn’t be far before she was out of sight in the undergrowth.

Then he saw it. Panting heavily, he tried to work out what the hell it was. Eliana was hanging from one of the things many tentacles. She looked to be unconscious, there was a small amount of blood dripping from her head. The creature had the base of a leafy shrub, but with a torso that resembled a human. It had no arms or legs, but it did have multiple vine like tentacles, some laid across the floor and some waiving in the air. Several thoughts rushed through his mind as Blake tried to decide his best move. He lifted up his arm and pulled the trigger. Bang!

The smell of gunpowder hit him. It took him a second to check the result of his actions. It was his first time shooting a real gun and the recoil had taken him by surprise. He looked over the top of his slightly shaky hands, it had hit the creature square in the centre of what appeared to be its head. A green liquid substance oozed from the hole, but the creature continued to move.

The noise from the round seemed to bring Eliana back to consciousness. She opened her eyes and realising her situation, let out a panicked scream at the top of her lungs.

A tentacle flung up from the ground and shot towards Blake so quickly he didn’t have time to react. It wrapped itself around his right hand. He managed to keep hold of the gun, just, but before he knew it, he was lifted into the air and was being swung around Just like Eliana. He looked down at the creature’s core and quickly realised why Eliana had now started to scream. Its entire chest had opened like a mouth, and she was being pulled towards it.

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Blake awkwardly grabbed his knife with his left hand, pulled himself up just enough to reach above himself and began to cut away at the tentacle. The creature let out an uncannily human-like cry and another tentacle lifted from the ground and flew at him. It was too slow. The vine was cut, Blake crashed to the ground. Rolling to the side he fired several shots at the creature. He kept on firing even after it had dropped Eliana and ceased to move. As the gun clicked being out of ammo, he got to his feet and ran over to her.

She had curled up into a ball when she’d hit the floor and was now lying completely still. Worried she had slipped unconscious once again he gently touched her shoulder. There was no reaction, so he checked her breathing. Phew! Still breathing. Then he started to unwrap the tentacle that was still wound around her wrists. Just as he had it mostly off, she sat up with a jolt and yelped in surprise.

“It’s okay, I was just getting this off.” He said pointing to the tentacle.

She pulled the last of it off from around her wrist. “Is it dead, did you kill it?” She asked, still breathing heavily.

“Yeah, it’s dead.” He glanced over to the creature.

Her gaze followed his and she confirmed for herself the thing was dead. The human like body of the creature was slumped to the side in a pool of its green blood. There wasn’t the slightest sign of life coming from it. Seeing this she calmed a little, then threw her arms around Blake.

“Thank you! I really thought that was it. If you hadn’t found me…” She let go of him for a moment, wiped the tears from her face, before holding him once again.

“It’s okay I wasn’t going to leave you. One minute you were there and the next, gone. I heard the gunshot and ran over.”

“Thank you.”

She squeezed him. He knew the reason was from relief that situation was over and nothing else, but she smelt so nice, and this was the first time a girl this pretty had held him like this in a while. His heart started to beat a little faster. I probably shouldn’t be enjoying this that much, not at time like this. As soon as he thought that Eliana let go and backed off from him a little. She seemed to have gotten a hold of herself now.

“Sorry, I…” She was sounding a little uncertain again.

“It’s okay, that thing was terrifying! It’s no surprise you’re a little shook up. If that had been me, I’d be the same, I’m sure.”

She glanced down at her side and seemingly remembered she had lost her gun. She looked at Blake realising he was now in possession of it.

“Oh this. You dropped it when you hit your head, I guess. Here.” Blake turned the pistol handle towards Eliana and passed it back to her.

“Thank you.”

She took the gun back and placed it in the holster on her hip. She instantly looked a bit more comfortable. She touched her head, then looked at her hand.

“I’m bleeding.”

“Yeah, I think you hit it pretty hard when that thing was dragging you along. You lost consciousness a couple of times. Want me to look at it for you? You’ll have to talk me through it, I don’t know how to do much more than clean it.”

“Please.”

She rifled through her bag and found the first aid kit again. She opened the kit and gave him something to clean the wound.

“Here, you’ll want to wash it out first and check how bad it looks. If it isn’t deep, we can probably leave it at that.”

“Right.”

Blake knelt beside her and gently parted her hair and washed the blood away, trying to get a good look at the cut.

She winced as the antiseptic touched the wound. “Ouch!”

“Oh sorry! Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, it just stings a little. Please continue.”

It didn’t seem that bad at all, just a shallow superficial cut. Blake continued to clean out the cut and when he was done, handed Eliana back the bottle.

She took it back and began to put it away in the first aid kit before looking back to Blake. “Thanks… How does it look?”

“Not too bad, it doesn’t seem deep. I think you were lucky. It’s already stopped bleeding.”

“Phew.” She said getting to her feet.

“Are you sure you’re okay? I mean what about concussion or something?”

“I’m fine.” She laughed. “I know the symptoms. It just aches a bit where I was hit, but I feel okay. Don’t worry if I start feeling off, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay… I suppose you know better than me.”

He wasn’t so sure, but she didn’t look too bad for someone that had just been knocked out. There wasn’t much more that he could do other than keep an eye on her out here anyway.

Eliana noticed the concerned look on his face and smiled “Are you always like this?”

“How do you mean?”

“Worrying about other people you barely know. I don’t know if I could have run in and faced that thing, like you did.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Blake laughed. “That’s the first time something like that has happened to me. I heard the shot and before I knew it, I was running in that direction. When I saw it well, I didn’t have time to think about anything else, I just had to help. I’m sure you would have done the same.”

She wasn’t so sure. She had to survive and make it back from here somehow. She couldn’t risk not getting back. But she did feel better about her companion now. She smiled warmly at him.

“Thank you. I think you saved me.”

Blake got back to his feet and looked around. The creature was definitely dead, but he didn’t feel like hanging around the area. There was always the chance there could be more of them close by.

“Are you okay to walk?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m totally fine.”

“Good. Let’s get out of here. I don’t want another one of those things to find us.”

Eliana didn’t need any convincing about that. “Agreed, let’s go.”

Blake turned to Eliana as he slung his backpack on his shoulder. “Let’s keep a closer eye on each other, just in case. Last time I didn’t hear or see it. I only noticed you’d gone when it fell silent.”

“Sure.”

She agreed, but she wasn’t sure that if it came to it, she would choose to put herself at risk to help him. I don’t think I could… I pretty sure that he’s a nice guy, but I have to get back to my daughter, whatever that takes.