Reid should be exhausted but he finds it hard to rest. Twice more they have lured hunters into a trap and twice more they have succeeded. Every time he returns to the pack to make sure they are all right and report progress. The kids are growing more and more optimistic, and while Reid is glad to offer them some hope, he knows they won’t be able to keep this up much longer.
The worst of it is, despite his need to protect her and evade Leila’s demands to help, it’s getting harder to say no to her. When he returns after the third kill, as smooth as the first two, he finally gives her the nod.
Ashley looks like she is about to argue but Reid cuts her off. “You’ve done a great job, but I want you to get some rest. Leila, you’re up.”
She shouldn’t be smiling at him like that. Not when it’s likely she won’t be coming back. But she is and he answers her eagerness with a grin of his own.
“I need a break.” Marcus collapses with a bottle of water and an energy bar. “Half hour, tops.” Reid looks up at the sky, trying not to let the position of the sun bother him. It’s getting late in the day. They might get in one more ambush before they have to hide again. But Reid can’t do it without Marcus. They are the only two of any size in the group and Reid doesn’t want the smaller kids going into a fight without the psychological support of Marcus behind them. Not that it means much, really. The hunters could care less. Still, if it makes the kids braver when they are standing up to face one of the enemy, he’ll wait a half hour.
And yet, he wants that ambush. More than anything. And while he knows he should be nervous this is working so well, he shoves that aside in favor of the satisfaction of knowing because of him and his friends, three hunters aren’t around to kill kids anymore.
So, he waits, listening as Milo and Cole argue over who is going with Reid this time while the rest of the kids huddle together for comfort. Not all of them are as eager to take up arms but he’s okay with that. Reid only wants fighters with him when he faces the hunters. When this ruse finally runs its course and they are forced to try something else, the rest of the kids will have a chance to strike back whether they like it or not.
He’s still at a loss for a large-scale victory. Picking the hunters off one by one feels good but he knows a big success will do more for the pack’s courage as well as perhaps making the hunters more cautious. Reid figures if he can prove to the creatures the kids are just as deadly as they are in their own way, the endless hunting might back off. Maybe even long enough for Reid to get back to searching for a gate in the fence.
He’s grown to hate the fifteen-foot-high stretch of chain link that keeps the kids in this deadly circus. Pulsing with enough power to kill them, it hums its deadly life into the ground, a thin but impassable barrier keeping them from escaping back to the real world.
Reid is also pretty sure the fence has a second purpose. To keep the hunters in. He has no doubt they are man-made, as much as the rest of this constructed mini-world they're all trapped in. Some kind of created crossbreeds, spliced DNA and magic beans for all he knows or cares. That’s not what he finds interesting. It’s the question behind the fence. It may mean whoever made them is as afraid of the hunters as the kids are.
He has no way of knowing for sure, at least, not yet. But Reid is determined to find out. Just as soon as he kills enough hunters to make it possible to think about something else.
The half hour break goes by quickly, the sun falling further from the sky. Cole nods to Reid, the lowering light flashing from the cracked crystal of the boy’s watch. Reid grins at him. Guess he and Milo worked it out. They are both coming with him. Reid is immediately in action, pulling Milo up, then Leila while Marcus groans his way to his feet.
Reid turns to Alex. “We’ll be leaving as soon as we get back. Make sure everyone is ready.”
Alex salutes like a little soldier. Marcus snarls something under his breath but Reid ignores it, ruffling Alex’s blonde hair. “See you in a bit.”
He heads for the trees and the kill ahead. Reid is barely in the undergrowth when his mind switches back into battle mode. Leila jogs beside him, keeping pace. “Remember,” he says, feeling the first real fear he has since he inhaled the dust of the dead hunter, “you’re going to be alone out there. You have to pay attention.”
“I know what to do.” Her voice is soft, breathing easy. “I can run faster than you think.”
Reid has no doubt there are things about her he doesn’t know, including how fast she is. He’s never been in a position to see her run. She’s been so protective of the other kids, making sure no one gets left behind. For all he knows, she was a track star too in her other life. Her real life. He can’t bring himself to consider what they are living right now is real.
The part of him allowing such thoughts is looking forward to seeing Leila prove herself while his fear surges higher, knowing when she does it will be because a hunter is coming to kill her.
Reid continues to war with his need to keep her safe and the knowledge she won’t let him talk her out of it. He is so wrapped up in his growing concern he almost fails to notice someone is chasing them. Reid instantly veers into the woods and waits, his friends right beside him. He thinks he is ready for anything. Still, he is shocked when he sees Alex round the quick bend and pant his way toward them.
Reid ducks out of cover, eyes scanning the path behind the boy. Alex pulls to a halt, hands on knees, concerned but not terrified.
Not being chased, in other words. Reid’s not sure why that worries him.
The others emerge, gather around. Alex pants a few breaths, eyes huge, anxiety obvious, as he struggles to speak around his lack of wind.
“Just breathe.” Reid reaches for the boy, looks him in the eye. “Alex, breathe.”
Alex nods, gulps. Blurts out, “Ashley.”
Leila bends closer. “What about her?”
Alex drags in another struggling breath. “She’s gone.”
Reid’s heart flips over. “Did anyone see her?”
Alex shakes his head. “No. I only noticed because I wanted her to help me with one of the kids. He’s pretty scared. I figured maybe she could calm him down, like Leila does.”
“And?” Marcus cuts in.
“And,” Alex says, “she was gone. I looked for her, sent a couple of kids into the woods a ways, but there’s no sign of her.”
“Damn it.” Reid straightens and lets Alex go.
“Sorry,” the boy whispers.
“Not your fault, kiddo.” Reid turns to his hunters. Cole and Milo both look worried, their sticks bobbing toward the dirt. “We have to go back.”
“Why?” Marcus looks down the path, a horribly eager expression on his face. “She probably went looking for privacy. You know. Bathroom break.”
Alex is shaking his head. “I thought of that. Waited as long as I could before I came after you. She’s gone, Reid.”
“Let’s go.” Reid starts back toward camp, a sick feeling in his stomach. Where would the girl have gone? If she came after Reid and the others, Alex would have run into her along the way. He knew their route and so did she. So, where? And why?
Someone grabs his arm, turns him around. Marcus is scowling. “I’m going to keep going.”
“Not alone you’re not.” Reid pulls his arm free.
“We’ll go with him.” Cole and Milo are right there, courage shining in their faces, one deepest black the other pale but brothers in arms no less.
“Me too.” Leila joins the boys. “You go with Alex and find Ashley. We’ll get the job done.”
Reid wishes it were that easy. “I know you could,” he says. “That’s not why we have to go back.”
“I’m not going back.” Marcus backs up a step, madness brimming in his eyes. “I’m going to kill a hunter.”
“Listen to me, you idiot.” Reid lunges forward, grabs Marcus, shakes him. “Until we know where Ashley is, we can’t risk it.”
“I don’t understand.” Leila exchanges a look with both Milo and Cole before returning her gaze to Reid.
“If they have her,” Reid says, “if they took her, what do you think that means for the others?”
Leila’s face crumples in understanding. “You think the camp is at risk.” Her panic makes her tremble. “We have to go!”
“I don’t know it for sure.” Reid keeps his own voice level despite the worry that rises with hers. “But we have to find out first.”
Even Marcus caves at that. Reid leads the way, setting a heavy pace, trying to keep his footfalls soft while his heart pounds over everything. Either the girl did wander off, in which case he’ll happily kick her ass, or they are in very serious trouble.
It’s not like Reid hasn’t been expecting the hunters to fight back, but he expected a direct attack at him or the others in their hunting party. He never considered they might be watching the rest of the kids. And that makes the sick feeling in his stomach worse. In doing what he has to do to save them, he may have killed them all.
Reid runs on, wishing he was faster, lengthening his stride as best he can in the undergrowth, leaving the others behind. Not that it matters. He doesn’t make it a minute running when he hears something jerking him to a halt.
Someone nearby is crying.
Damn, the timing is terrible. A lost kid, maybe a newbie, or on their own and terrified. He needs to go back to the pack, to make sure they are safe, but he can’t stand to leave anyone behind.
“We have to check.” Leila has just reached his side and keeps moving. Reid goes after her, the others close behind.
As the crying continues and gets louder, the ball of anxiety continues to grow in Reid’s gut. The voice behind the tears sounds familiar. His anger mixes with fear as he connects the weeping to the tall girl with the long auburn hair just as he rounds a thick tree and sees her in the distance.
Ashley lies on the trail, legs stretched out behind her, dragging herself along with her hands. Her sobs are so loud Reid is sure the hunters will come to investigate. As the thought crosses his mind he reaches out and grabs Leila to keep her from going any further. The rest of the group stops to watch.
“We have to help her!” Leila pulls against Reid. “Something’s wrong.”
“I know,” he whispers to her. “Leila, think. Stop and think. What does this feel like?”
Tears well in her eyes, her lower lip trembling. “A trap.”
They all turn in silence and watch Ashley pull herself another arm length before collapsing full out on the ground, fists beating the dirt as she continues to sob so hard her whole body shakes.
There is something odd about her legs, the angles all wrong. A small patch of red pools next to her knee and Reid knows the truth. She is bait. Both legs snapped into compound fractures. Unable to run any longer, left behind for them to find and try to rescue.
The hunters are here and know what Reid has been up to.
“She’s suffering.” Leila’s face is slick with silent tears. “We have to help her.”
“We can’t.” Marcus’s voice is flat and dead. “We have to get out of here.”
“Reid?” Milo’s chocolate eyes reflect back the boy’s need. “Are we going to just leave her?”
Reid knows the right answer. Yes. They have to, especially if they want to survive. If they want the pack to survive. Reid’s fear for them is stronger than ever. If Ashley was taken from the vicinity of the hiding kids, that means the hunters know where they are and can pick them off at their leisure. They have to go now. They have to.
And yet, before his eyes float the faces of all the kids he’s lost to this disgusting game. The two boys he never knew but whose deaths he was witness to. Mustache and Scar, the human poachers who tried to help him and their ill-fated helicopter pilot, brought down by a missile to keep the kids from escaping. Carly and Trey, neither of whom he had a chance to care enough about though their deaths still cut him deeply. Little Eric with his broken arm, face blank in the cold water where he drowned. Megan, so tiny and frail, who finally had the courage to take his hand and speak up before the hunters laid her out on the street, making her their meal in the light of an obscene bonfire.
And, finally, Drew. Again he wishes his friend were there. For some reason Reid always thinks Drew would know what to do. Maybe because he usually did.
Reid can’t shake off the dead though he knows even if he gets to Ashley there’s no way she can run with two broken legs. She’s dead whether the hunters kill her or not. The only thing Reid can offer her is a quick end.
In his mind, Drew begs him to not let the hunters eat her.
It makes up his mind.
“Stay here,” he says, his knife sliding free, and leaves them behind before anyone can stop him, his dead friend cheering him on.
He is almost to Ashley when she lifts her head from the path and sees him.
“No!” She screams. “Reid, no!”
He feels motion behind him, a rush of air, and turns just as a hunter leaps on him, claws flashing. Reid has the knife in his fist as they tumble together to the ground, feeling the kiss of the talon’s bite as he twists away. Reid forces the blade between himself and the hunter just as they impact the trail. The creature dies over him in a soft hiss of a glittering powdered cloud.
It enters Reid’s lungs, fills him up, roars through him like a freight train. He is on his feet, senses so sharp he knows exactly where the other two hunters are without having to look for them. Rage bubbles in his blood, spikes through his muscles and drives a bellow of defiance from his throat.
Leila and Marcus stumble toward him, heading for Ashley before Reid can warn them off. The other three boys crouch by the side of the trail, totally vulnerable. The two other hunters leap onto the path, one going straight for Alex. Reid is running before he knows his legs are moving, tackling the hunter and bearing its body to the ground, the knife ready. Someone is screaming while Reid snarls into the hunter’s grinning face, its shark teeth snapping at him, claws descending, when his blade finds the hunter’s heart and kills it.
Reid collapses onto the path in a puff of powder, more of it coating his eyes and going up his nose. He turns to see Leila and Marcus fighting off the last hunter, swinging rocks while Alex, Cole and Milo jab at it with their sharpened sticks. Reid’s intense focus, fed by the mysterious powder, tells him the creature is playing with them.
He sees it when the thing decides to strike, absolute clarity in the minute adjustment of the hunter’s muscles telling him it is ready to pounce.
Before he can attack in return, Milo breaks through the hunter’s lazy defense and drives his stick through its side. It howls in rage, striking out, snapping the weapon in half, jerking the boy to his knees from the impact.
To Reid’s shock, the hunter takes one look at the wound in its side and runs.
***