Big Game by Daniel Smith

Author:Daniel Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

The president was a snorer, which was funny at first, but grew annoying after a while. As the night went on, his grunts and snuffles competed with the cold wind that whistled around the plateau, bringing the snow. The fire was warm, though, and we were well protected under the overhang, and despite my efforts to stay awake, my eyes began to close. I shook my head, slapped my face, and walked around for a bit. I went out into the cold air beyond the overhang, collecting more wood, but nothing stopped the drowsiness. I was exhausted, and as soon as I sat down, my mind began to cloud over.

Eventually I lost the battle, and sleep smothered me, bringing strange visions. Hamara looking down at me, disapproving, while Dad hung his head in shame. The ATV, crushed by a tree, damaged beyond repair. Fireballs raining from a coal-black sky, and Patu’s dead eyes staring at me as I struggled to draw the bow. The images all mixed together in a nightmare that sloshed like heavy water in my head, and through it all, there was that grunting noise.

Myygh! Myygh!

That’s what woke me up. A long, loud grunt that startled my eyes open. For a second I didn’t know where I was and I stumbled to my feet, gripping the bow that had been across my lap. The morning air was cool and fresh, and there was still a fluttering of snow in the air. The fire had burned right down to embers that could only manage a weak glow in the gathering daylight. Bleary-eyed, I looked about as last night’s events came rushing back to grip me like an icy fist. It was as if a hand had punched right through me and grabbed my insides and started to squeeze them tight.

But there was light behind the thick clouds, morning was here, and that meant we only had to last a few more hours before Dad would come looking for us. And the man in the suit had said that the president’s soldiers would be looking for us by dawn. Rescue was on its way.

I looked down at the president, lying on his side, and I still couldn’t quite believe that the actual President of the USA was right there, huddled under my old blanket. When the noise came again, though — that long, loud grunt — I realized it wasn’t coming from him. He was breathing heavily, but not snoring anymore, and —

Myygh! Myygh!

An elk! That was the sound of an elk calling!

My brain finally kicked into gear and I dropped into a crouch, looking out across the plateau, squinting through the snow that danced in the wind. The covering that had fallen in the night was powdery and thin, made patchy by the darkness of the rocks that protruded from beneath it. Each breath of fresh mountain air stung my nostrils, and every time I exhaled, it rose in wisps around my face. I stayed that way, scanning

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