Luke's POV
"Clara, come here." I grab Clara's hand and pull her behind a rock with me.
She's a sobbing mess and I place a hand over her mouth to muffle her crying. "Shh." I tell her. "You have to be quiet."
Clara shakes her head and continues to sob, putting her head on my shoulder. I try to keep her quiet so I can listen to any other sounds in the forest. The man ran out of bullets a while back. Either that or he just stopped shooting. I'm hoping for the first.
I try to catch my breathing to minimize the sounds we're making and I try to help Clara catch hers as well.
"C'mon, baby, breathe in, breathe out." I whisper to her, looking into her eyes. "We have to be quiet."
Eventually she stops sobbing and the forest is absolutely silent again. It's an eerie, suspenseful silence like one you'd experience when watching a horror film.
"Where's Grace?" Clara asks quietly.
"I don't know." I answer sadly.
As we were running from the house, it was chaotic. I could hardly keep track of anything and somewhere in the mess we lost sight of Grace.
"Okay, are you hurt in anyway?" I ask her.
"Just some scratches and bruises." She mutters.
"We're gonna climb a tree." I tell her.
"What? Luke, are you stupid?"
"We can't out run this guy forever." I tell her and stand up, walking to the nearest tree. "Now, come here."
Clara walks towards me and I lock my fingers together, crouching down. I look up the tree then back at her. "Now step on my hand and I'll help you start. Climb up and I'll be right behind you."
She's shaky and nervous but she grasps the tree then steps on my hands. I push her up the tree until she grabs a branch and can start climbing on her own. I follow right behind her, shimmying my way up the tree. It's very painful considering the wounds I have in my shoulders but I push through it.
"Luke?" I hear Clara whisper down to me.
"Yea?" I respond.
"I can't go up any further." She says and I can hear her voice shaking. She's always had a fear of heights.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, there's no more branches to climb up."
"Alright, sit there. I'll be up in a second."
I look up to see her sit on a tree branch, placing one leg on each side and leaning against the trunk. I grit my teeth from the pain coming from my shoulder and climb up to sit next to Clara. I sit on the tree branch, my hands gripping it to prevent me from falling.
"What now?" Clara whispers.
"I really don't know." I answer honestly.
So we sit there in silence. The only sounds that can be heard is the wind and our soft breathing. Occasionally I hear the crunch of leaves from down below, hopefully from an animal not a person.
"Psst." I hear a soft voice call.
My body freezes up. I look at Clara with wide eyes and her body is tense as well.
"Luke, Clara." The voice calls again.
I slowly turn my head to look where the voice is coming from. Grace is sat perched in a tree a few trees away from us. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion at the sight.
"Grace?" I ask.
She places a finger over her mouth, telling me to be quiet. She begins to climb over smaller branches and through leaves, trying to make her way over to us. She looses her balance at one point and almost falls out of the tree, which causes her to let out a string of curse words. I make a face at her to tell her to be quiet and she sighs, nodding. But she was too loud and now it's too late.
A gun shot goes off that disrupts the silence of the forest. I clasp my hand over Clara's mouth to prevent her from screaming and I bite the inside of my cheek to prevent myself. We both watch in horror as Grace's face contorts in pain then she slowly falls out of the tree. I hear her body fall to the ground with a sickening sound.
I listen as I hear the leaves on the forest floor, signaling that there's someone right by us. The footsteps are slow and Clara and I sit there in silence as the footsteps go away.
I remove my hand away from Clara's mouth and she lets out a chocked sob. I let tears fall down my own face and I wrap my arms around Clara in a hug. It's very difficult, considering we're on a tree branch, but I make it work. I let her silently sob into my shoulder as I stroke her hair and cry along with her.
When both of our sobs begin to stop, I wipe off the excess tears from my face and push the stray pieces of hair away from Clara's face. I place a soft kiss on her forehead before speaking up. "Let's get out of this hellhole, yeah?"
I begin to climb down the tree and Clara does the same. It's a lot easier climbing down than climbing back up. And it also puts less pressure on my injured shoulder.
When I get to the bottom, I softly step down to the ground, being careful not to make too much noise. I look up and wait for Clara to be in arm's reach and when she is, I grab her waist and help her down next to me.
"Let's go." I grab her hand and we begin to run.
I pick a direction and we just run without stop. We don't change our path or try to go any other way. We just run in a straight line without stopping. I can feel the branches whipping me once again and ever now and then, I trip over a rock or a fallen branch on the ground.
I feel dizzy and every inch of my body aches with pain, making running difficult. I find myself struggling to run straight and not tip over and fall to the ground. I keep a firm grasp on Clara's hand and I put my other hand out in front of me to block branches and to help keep my balance.
"Oh my god." I hear Clara mutter.
"What?" I slow down a bit.
"No, no, no. Keep running. Look ahead, I see light." She points in front of us excitedly and she begins sprinting off.
I struggle to keep up with her and I let a grin spread across my face. There actually is light ahead. I see a wall of small light flecks peaking in through dense trees and bushes. I begin to run faster, eager to get out of this forest.
"Stop!" A voice yells behind us but we ignore it.
I realize that it's most likely the madman that has been hunting us down and he most likely has a gun he could shoot us with, but I don't see the point in stopping. If we stop, he'll shoot us. If we don't, he'll shoot at us. We have more of a chance of getting out if we just keep running.
A gun in shot off towards me and Clara but it doesn't hit either of us. We continue running as the light gets closer and closer to us. I hear a pained scream from behind us and I don't dare turn to see what horror is happening back there.
We reach the end of the forest and we practically jump through the bushes and trees, and into the morning sun.
~~~~~
so this story only has like one more chapter then an epilogue omg i'm gonna cry. the rest of the story will be in Luke's POV as well bc he's a badass and i love him
