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I just have to survive until morning. I don’t even have to find my way back to campus in the dark. Stay hidden. Outsmart them.
“Doe, your time begins now.”
A whistle goes and I take off running in the opposite direction of the crowd eagerly cheering me on.
Fuck them all.
I’m not about to make this easy if I can help it, but at the same time I don’t even attempt to cover my tracks or be quiet. I want them thinking I’m going to be an easy target, that I’m a scared mindless little girl who’s as panicked as a deer in the headlights. Only The Holy Trinity knows any different and I expect they’ll underestimate me anyway. Let them all underestimate me. I have no intention of being captured, and if I can help it, I’m not getting shot either.
There’s too much at stake. My prize for winning this challenge is too great. A whole week without any Doe bullshit, able to wear whatever I want, go wherever and do whatever I want…and best of all, no Trinity breathing down my neck or sneaking into my room…those are stakes worth playing dirty for.
I crash through the woodland in a vaguely straight line for a good fifteen minutes, until I’m convinced I’m far enough away from the clearing that I won’t be heard. It’s amazing how quickly my eyes have managed to adjust and my other senses feel heightened too. Or maybe I just have more experience than others when it comes to running from monsters in the dark.
Stopping to catch my breath, I listen carefully and am able to make out the sound of running water nearby. Hopefully from a river or decent sized stream. It’s coming from my left so I take a deep breath and head in search of the source.
It takes another few minutes for me to reach it, and again I’m happy to leave evidence of my passage behind. Broken twigs, a sweet wrapper, heavy footprints in the mud. I waste no time jumping into the icy, black, fast flowing water and battling my way upstream for a further five minutes. The water reaches my thighs in places and the rocky riverbed makes it difficult to stay on my feet in the dark.
Hell, I think it would be a challenge in daylight.
My toes begin to feel numb so I take that as my cue to get out of the water. I climb out on the opposite bank to the one I entered via and take off running through the woods again.
When I reach a fork on the makeshift track I’ve taken, I pause. It’s time to double back, but not in wet shoes. They’ll undo all of my hard work laying a false trail. I slip my trainers from my feet and tie the laces together. I don’t really want to carry them dripping wet, but I don’t want them in my backpack soaking everything else too. I loop them through the straps of my bag and they hang down past my ass out of the way.
Scanning the area through squinted eyes, I search for the perfect tree to climb. If Axel is as smart as he likes to make out, he’ll realise my plan and come looking for me first, so climbing the obvious and far too easy tree is out of the question, but it only takes me a minute to find what I’m looking for. A tree with a sturdy branch that’s about seven feet from the ground. I stretch my arms above my head and jump for the branch, easily grasping it. The struggle now is to pull myself up without using the trunk to brace my feet. I don’t want to risk damaging the bark and giving myself away. I doubt most of the guys hunting me will think to look that closely, but I know at least one that will. And Axel Abbot is the last person I want to find me out here.
Luckily all of my gym sessions over the past year have paid off, and I’m able to hoist myself onto the branch and up further into the coverage of the tree without too much difficulty. I’m not a bloody Strong Woman contender or anything like that, but obsessively punishing my body with gruelling workouts as a coping mechanism for my PTSD has worked in my favour.
I have two options now. One’s smarter, easier, and involves staying in the trees to continue my getaway. The other is crazy and dangerous. So of course that’s the one I choose.
Estimating that probably just over half of my head start time is gone, I carefully pick my way back through the treetops towards the river. A little further downstream than where I emerged, a tree hangs low over the water. It’s perfect. I make my way towards it and carefully lower myself down into the rushing stream. It seems colder than it was a few minutes ago, but maybe that’s because I’m already wet and I know I could have chosen the easy option of staying dry. My teeth chatter at my stupidity but I firmly lock my emotions down. Cold is just a feeling. Like hunger and pain. I can block those out. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.
Lying back and allowing the river to carry me towards where I started is much faster than travelling carefully through the trees, and I think even The Holy Trinity won’t be expecting me to double back and hole up somewhere safe so close to the starting point.
I’m either insane and I’ll be shot forty times in five minutes, or my crazy scheme might just work. It’s too late to back out now, I didn’t get cold and wet for nothing.
I mentally calculate my time in the river as about ten or fifteen minutes. Either way, I don’t have long left. I scramble out of the river and quickly strip off my wet things, pulling on the spare set of clothes from my backpack. Thank god it’s waterproof, the one I used to take out on my SUP with me.
As soon as I’m dressed and my wet things are shoved away, I don’t waste any time climbing a nearby tree, barefoot. I’m less careful this time, able to hear the guys in the distance and knowing they’ll be setting off any minute. My heart pounds in my chest but I have to remain calm. I have to focus. Fear is what will give me away out here, and ultimately, what is there to be scared of? Dinner with a stranger or a weekend in their company probably wouldn’t even be that bad.
But I have a point to prove.
This doe is not about to be anyone’s prey. I won’t be hunted when I can hunt. I just wish I had one of those damn guns to shoot back with.
I begin to move through the trees back towards the clearing. I’m glad it’s not winter so there are still leaves on the trees to cover me, but I am worried that if I move too fast I’ll shake some down and give myself away.
A shrill whistle sounds and my heart leaps to my throat. The guys – closer than I’m expecting – take off noisily, crashing through the woods like a pack of braying asses. I use their cacophonous sounds to cover my movement and edge even closer to the clearing, until I’m able to make out three familiar figures standing in the dim light of the car. It figures that they wouldn’t race off but hang back to make a plan.
“Where do you think she’s gone?” Zie asks. “Do you think she’s made it far?”
“Probably not. The way she took off running she’s probably tripped over a root and knocked herself out,” Kaiden replies with a laugh.
Axel says nothing, his head cocked to the side, considering.
“Are we going to get going? We want to win this one, right?” Zie sounds excited at the prospect. “A whole weekend with Odi in our apartment is worth winning.”
I shake my head at that. Zie can’t even look me in the eye. Would he want me in his company for a whole weekend? It would be uncomfortable for everyone at best.
“Do you think she’ll be headed back to campus?” Kaiden asks Axel.
