Man Hunt

Chapter Five - It's them or us

I gasp beneath Aaron’s sweaty hand and my eyes enlarge in shock as I stare from Anna to Robbie and then to Aaron. Surely Anna can’t be right. Surely she just can’t find his pulse, he can’t be dead. They wouldn’t allow that. They couldn’t allow that. This is a TV show, not a death match!

‘’What do you mean?’’ gasps Alex, seemingly in as much shock as I am despite the fact that he had a knife to Robbie’s neck just moments ago.

‘’There’s no pulse. I’m telling you, he’s dead. He’s actually dead!’’ she explains as tears begin to form in her eyes, her arms are shaking.

‘’What?’’ he questions again, running over to Robbie’s body and kneeling down beside it – checking for a pulse himself.

After a few seconds, his face completely drops.

‘’No. No. That can’t be,’’ he mutters.

‘’Why are you acting so shocked?’’ sobs Anna as the other boy comforts her, ‘’you had a knife to his throat a second ago!’’

‘’I was only trying to scare him,’’ begins Alex, ‘’I would never have done it, ever!’’

I turn from the clearing and stare back at Aaron. I give him a look that hopefully sends him the message that I think we should do something. We can’t just sit here and watch. Aaron simply shakes his head and presses his index finger to his lips. I can feel tears trickling from my eyes, rolling down my face and onto his hand.

 ‘’They can’t do this,’’ says the other boy, ‘’this can’t be legal.’’

‘’What do we do?’’ questions Anna with short, jagged breaths – she can barely speak.

‘’We stop playing their game until they end it,’’ he announces, there is no conviction in his tone.

‘’No,’’ begins Alex, ‘’we have to finish it. The only way off the island is the boat and the only way to get to it is by getting the code.’’

‘’So what? We continue killing them!?’’ gasps Anna in complete horror.

‘’This obviously isn’t a television show, whoever is running this won’t let us leave any way but the yacht. We have no choice,’’ replies Alex.

‘’No,’’ argues the boy, ‘’we’re not killing them.’’

‘’How do you think they will react when they found out that we killed Robbie?’’ questions Alex.

‘’We didn’t kill him! They did!’’ argues Anna.

‘’He died as a result of our actions!’’ snaps Alex, Anna actually jumps with fright.

‘’So what are you suggesting we do?’’ questions the boy.

‘’They will think we are psychos when they find out Robbie is dead. They will kill us through fear of us killing them. They won’t see it as a crime, they’ll consider it self-defence,’’ Alex explains.

‘’Oh God...’’ mutters Anna, ‘’he’s right.’’

I desperately want to run forwards and explain to them that we are harmless. We will not fight them, we will refuse to participate and we will end this before it gets even more so out of hand than it already has. However I cannot move, Aaron has me in his grasp and is reluctant to let go.

‘’What do we tell the others?’’ asks the boy.

‘’The truth,’’ begins Alex, ‘’we asked him for his letter, he gave it to us and then he was electrocuted by his bracelet.’’