Death

One could hear the sounds of nature in the distance as Michael slowly drew his bow back, 'Remember to always hold your breath when you aim and exhale as you fire' a snippet of a memory resurfaces to the forefront of his mind as he aims at the elk across the way.

He closes his eyes for a brief moment, then slowly his eyes open again but this time with a eerie sharpness to them, and he releases the taut bowstring.

TWANG

The arrow pierces through the elks' head, and the body drops instantly. "Good job Mike", "Always on point with you, huh haha," "Always making the critical shots." Michael turns around smiling and looks to his friends Jordan, Xavier, and Kylie. "Thanks, guys."

As he walks over to the elk, Jordan climbs down the elevated hunting cabin the three of them had all been inside of.

"Hey Jordan, are you getting the quad runner?"

"Sure, am bro."

"Alright man, can you bring back my hunting knife with you?"

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Ooh ooh ooh, bring my other tea bottle as well, thanks," Kylie yells.

Jordan sighs and shakes his head, "Sure, Ky."

A few moments later, Michael could hear in the distance the low roar of the quad being started up and moving at a moderate speed on the trail they took to the cabin. He turns toward the noise but stops frozen.

Twelve feet to his right was three large coyotes, while another two showed up behind just behind them.

Xavier and Kylie see him stop in mid motion.

"Hey Mikey, you okay, buddy?" Xavier yells out to him.

Michael slowly raises his right hand, yells back, "toss me the glock."

"What!" Kylie exclaims, "Why?"

"Just do it, Ky!" Michael turns his head and yells.

While he happened to turn his head, the coyotes broke into a sprint towards him. "Shit!" Michael breaks out in an outright run away from the five animals.

"MIKEY!" Kylie turns to Xavier, "where is that stupid gun at!"

"I think it's with Jordan."

"Son of a..." Kylie bolts down from the cabin with a long knife in her hand after the coyotes and Michael.

Jordan, while riding the quad, comes up to the cabin and looks around, looking to where Michael went off to since he wasn't near the elk anymore. "Hey Mikey, where did you go off to buddy?"

"Jordan, he went northbound, there is five coyotes chasing after him, and Ky took off after him with her knife!" Xavier yelled down to him.

"Shit!" Jordan starts the quad back up and turns the tires toward where Michael and Kylie went, tires spin quickly as he guns the throttle down, and he quickly goes off in search of them.

Back with Michael, though, he is bobbing and weaving through the woods and trying to think of a way out of this while the coyotes were dogging his steps every moment. He looked back for a split second and didn't see the tree root in front of his right foot. Michael trips over the exposed root and falls toward the forest floor, then rolls away a few feet and is stopped by a tree.

The coyotes took the chance and jumped toward Michael, preparing to end the young mans' life. He looked towards them and braced himself to eventually receive the bites from the small pack of animals. One coyote bites down onto his left ankle while another bites his right shoulder.

"Ahhh!!!"

Michael tries to push, pull, punch, and kick the coyotes off of him. A third coyote comes in to take a bite of his throat. He sees this one coming in toward him quickly and manages to throw the one biting his shoulder off of him, grabs hold of the third coyote by the muzzle and back of the neck and with a quick turning of the head of the animal, snaps the canines neck.

For a brief moment, he was sad that an animals life was ended like this, but soon reality came rushing back into him and renewed his efforts to get rid of the remaining four pack animals. The coyote that was thrown away just moments ago came back with even more vigor after watching a pack mates life be snuffed out by the human. Its hackles were risen and ready to avenge its brethren.

The final two coyotes stalked around him and lunged at the same time, one towards his neck and the other towards his thigh. Michael was able to protect the attack to his neck with his forearm but not to his thigh.

This was the scene that Kylie happened upon as she came crashing into the small clearing. Tears in her eyes as she freezes up at the frightening scene, the grip on the knife tightens as she tries to think of a way to help her best friend.

Micheal happens to see her on the edge of his peripheral vision. "Damn it, Ky, run and call the police!"

"I can't just leave you, Mikey!"

With a resolve in her mind she runs and jumps onto the coyote gnawing on his left ankle with the knife poised and ready, coming down swiftly and pierces into the neck of the beast and twists the knife. Quickly, the light in the coyotes' eyes dim, and there ends another of the coyotes' lives.

Seeing that she killed one of the coyotes, she looks up to go after another one. "NOOO!!"

What she had witnessed was the animal that had originally bitten Michaels' shoulder, biting down onto his exposed throat.

'Is this this really the end... truly, I had thought that I would have at least many more years before I died... I totally regret not taking Kylie up on that offer yesterday of spending the day together now...'

And there ends the life of Michael Cassius Julii.