NADINE'S P.O.V
We were out of food.
Caine tried to hide it from me when he brought out the bag of chips and handed it to me but I had seen what we had and I knew we were out.
When we got to the last cave, I was exhausted to say the least but I was glad because it meant we had gotten somewhere.
He led me to where they had buried their food but as soon as we got there, I knew something was wrong. We had a gardener at home and I could always tell whenever he had planted something because of how the ground look. It seemed very similar in that moment.
Caine dug it up and it was empty. He tried to hide it but I could see how frustrated he was.
"Well, at least we know that people are alive right?" I went for the optimistic approach but it didn't seem to work on him because he just turned away from me.
"We have to keep moving."
"We could spend the night here," I argued but he stopped me.
"We will starve. We don't have anything to eat. We need to keep going."
I wanted to protest but as my stomach rumbled, I knew he was right so we kept walking.
Perhaps it was my privilege speaking but I had never gone hungry before and I wasn't sure how I would deal with it.
We found some berries that we snacked on but so far, we were out of luck and Caine was adamant that we didn't hunt, at least not yet.
The sun was beginning to set and we were yet to find a place to sleep for the night. The caves had only gotten smaller and smaller the further we went and I wasn't sure if we would find anything before the sun finally set.
I didn't dare tell Caine how worried I was, he already had a lot on his shoulders as it was.
It also didn't help that I could feel the remnants of a cold coming along. I tried to hide it but getting into ice cold lakes was beginning to have its effect and I wasn't the only one feeling it. Caine had sniffled twice already.
We managed to stumble upon a decent sized cave and we settled in but I couldn't fall asleep. I just sat there, staring at the sun while next to me, Caine sniffled and shivered from the cold. He had given me his jacket to wear and I knew he would be too stubborn to take it back.
Before I could stop myself, I poked my head out of the cave. It was dark and loud and we were close enough to the woods that I didn't need to wander far. I didn't need a lot of wood, just enough to get us both warm for a while.
I moved extremely quietly so as not to wake Caine or myself and gathered just enough wood for a fire.
Caine had a lighter in the bag and that was what I used to set it up. I put it near the sleeping bag and let out a sigh of relief as my hands and feet began to warm. Even Caine who was asleep, inched closer to the fire.
It cast a soft glow in the otherwise dark cave. I knew it wouldn't last for long but it was good enough for now. I climbed into the sleeping bag next to him and allowed myself to drift off to sleep.
"Are you fucking insane?" the sound of screaming woke me up and I saw Caine furiously putting out the fire. "Do you know what you've done?"
It was still dark out, Caine was no longer in the sleeping bag. He had grabbed both bags and thrown them over his shoulders. The fire was off as well.
"What are you talking about?" I was half asleep and delirious but he pulled me to my feet and started folding up the bag.
"You set a fucking fire. What part of rules do you not understand?"
"It was just a fire. We were both freezing. Nothing happened. Can we go back to sleep?"
"Listen."
I paused. I couldn't hear a single thing. The night had gone completely quiet and peaceful "There's nothing."
"Exactly. Since when do you know a forest to be quiet? We have to get out of here and we need to do it fast."
He didn't give me a chance to respond before he started to tug me out of the cave. I didn't even protest or fight him, his panic was enough for the both of us.
"I'm sorry," I whispered but he ignored me. "I was just trying to help. We were both cold and I didn't want us to get sick. We don't have access to medicine."
"Well now, we may die. I hope you're happy about it."
My cheeks burned a bright pink color. I should have left him to sniffle and get sick under there. All I did was try to help and he couldn't at least be grateful for that.
"You don't have to be so rude about it. I already feel bad enough as it is."
He stopped in his tracks and turned to me. "I don't care how bad you feel. You put our lives in danger. We could have died and it would have been your fault."
I tried to say more but he held up a hand to stop me. "We can't keep doing this. We need to get to safety now before it kills us."
"I can't even hear it. It may not be here."
"If you can hear it then you're already too late."
He looked around carefully, his eyes assessing everything before landing on a particularly sturdy looking tree.
"Get in the tree now," he warned. "And this time, if you come down, I swear I will fucking kill you, Nadine."
With a shove, he pushed me up into the tree before climbing up after me. I didn't fight him, mainly focused on getting as high up as possible.
Once I was situated on a sturdy branch, I turned to Caine. He was right next to me, our bags in his hands as we tried to make as little noise as possible. A part of me thought it was a little over the top.
I opened my mouth to speak but he held up a hand to his lips before pointing down. I risked a glance and there it was, underneath us, sniffing.
My heart beat furiously in my chest. I wanted to speak but I couldn't. I was sure it could hear my heart pounding, was sure it would look up and see me. it looked around, crouching down before pouncing. I hadn't even noticed the bird perched on the log until it had grabbed it and dug its teeth into it.
I thought I was going to pass out or throw up but before either could happen, Caine turned me to him.
He cupped my cheeks and pressed his lips to mine.