(Note: So, from what I can tell, Nothingsp will try to write the sections from Jon's perspective, and I'll write for these guys. Make sure you read what he's written if you want the whole story so far)
Cautiously, Jack walked up to the small hut. Barely constituting as a home, the farmhouse spoke of deep poverty and rural living. Jack gave it ten to one odds the hut would have dirt floors.
Even before he opened the door, he smelled it. The very thought of the possibility made him gag, and he almost ran away right then and there. Gritting his teeth, he opened the door.
Two bodies, an old man and woman, lay on the dirt floor, blackened blood slowly oozing from their fatal wounds. Both of their faces were frozen in a expression of surprise.
Jack immediately threw up, his dinner slashing back down into the dirt and mingling with the black blood. The entire house smelled rotten, and Jack was forced to turn away from the smell.
"Jesus!" He managed to croak.
Gathering himself, he put his sleeve over his face and walked back in. Trying not to look at the bodies, he examined the rest of the cabin. Bare wooden shelves, toppled over and broken. Wooden table, with two broken chairs next to it. Shattered pottery.
Feels like I walked into a crime scene. Jack thought to himself. Gingerly stepping around the dark bloodstains, he examined the next room. The feather bed was broken, and the wool sheets torn. Aside from that, nothing else.
Sighing, Jack walked outside. From what he could tell, someone had ransacked the place, but was long gone by now. Feeling a sudden surge of both rage and helplessness, Jack fell back onto the hard wooden walls of the house.
What now? They obviously couldn't stay here. Even if the people who had done this were gone by now, who could say they wouldn't return?
Suddenly, Jack heard a rustling noise. Spinning around, he brought his rifle to his shoulder.
A dark figure stood at the tree line, staring at him. Before Jack could get a look at him, he fled into the forest, disappearing before Jack could take a shot.
"Shit!" Jack shouted. As fast as he could, he sprinted back to the camp.
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"No time." Jack breathed. "Bandits or soldiers or some shit, hell if I know. Killed the people inside the cabin, old couple. One of them saw me, we've got to get the hell out of here."
"Oh Shit." Rachel said.
"Wait a second-" Jon started.
"NO. FUCKING. TIME." Jack roared. "They murdered the people in that house! God knows how many of them there are, or what weapons they have. We need to start moving, NOW."
Rachel and Jon seemed taken aback by Jack's outburst, but Sam nodded. "Grab your stuff and let's go, Rachel." The girl nodded and quickly grabbed her pack.
"Okay, let's move! Quietly, now." Jack said.
Silently and cautiously, the group moved away from the farm, moving as quickly as they dared. Multiple times, they stopped for minutes at a time, silently listening for any movement.
Two hours later, Jack was ready to collapse from all the tension. As soon as they reached a small stream, he stopped.
"Alright, I think we're in the clear." He said, sitting on a fallen log near the stream.
"You sure?" Jon asked. Of all of them, she had struggled the most, trying to navigate the dense forest with a completely alien body. Jack had to give the guy turned girl thing credit. Had it been him, he was sure, he would have given up.
"Yeah, I think so. I figure that if they were going to attack, they would have hit us by now, and in any case I don't think they'd think we'd be good enough targets in any case."
"I'm not sure, Jack." Sam said. "Hell, I've only been like this for two days, and even I can smell our trail all throughout this forest. I think if they have any half decent trackers, they'd be able to find us in a heartbeat."
"So what do you think we should fucking DO!?" Jack asked with a bit more vitrol then he intended. He saw Sam flinch from the brief outburst and instantly regretted it.
"I'm sorry." Jack said after a few silent seconds. "We're all tired, and we need some rest."
"I'll agree to that." Jon replied.
"We need to find some sort of defensive position." Rachel said. "I mean, I know I'll pretty much be useless in a fight, and Jon, I'm sorry, but I don't think you'd be much of a fighter either."
"I'm not entirely sure about that." Jack said. "Once you get the hand of that body, those talons of yours look like they could do some serious damage."
"Unfortunately, Rachel's right, at least for now." Jon said bitterly. "Hell, I don't even know how to piss yet."
"Yeah, that took some getting used to." Sam piped in.
Jack took a look at the surrounding terrain. The forest had something of a clearing here, as the stream cut around a small rock formation. The formation itself consisted of a small ridge overseeing a rocky bare space. Looking up and down the stream, Jack saw that the flow actually broke up around the beginning of the formation and cut around it here and behind the formation. The stream rejoined to become a veritable river about fifty yards past where they were, though it looked to be impossible to tell how deep it was. As far as defensible positions went, this one seemed to hit the jackpot.
"Okay, here's how it's going to work. Sam, you stay down here. You're bait. Rachel, Jon, stay back behind him. I'm going up on the rock with my Winchester. You two act as my spotters. You see anyone try to cross that stream, yell up to me. If things go bad, both of you get the hell out of here, you understand me?"
"Sounds like a plan." Sam replied.
"Now what?" Rachel asked.
"We wait." Jack said, settling in.
