Man Hunt

Chapter Twenty Six - Very Valuable Information

As the boat pulls back up to the dock we departed the godforsaken island from, the sky is starting to turn a very dark shade of navy blue. There is still no sign of the rising sun, but the sky is less black than before. I don’t even try to think about what time it is. I don’t want to know. If my body knows how long it has been up for, I fear I will simply collapse with exhaustion. It has definitely been close to twenty four hours.

I climb from the boat, stripping off my life vest and taking both the tazer and the large wooden oar with me. I clip the tazer to my belt; Aaron has his dagger attached to his. He insists on taking the oar off me and reluctantly, I allow him to.

‘’Are we about to do what I think we are?’’ asks Aaron for what must be the tenth time since I explained the plan to him.

Personally, I have not yet decided if what we are about to do is quite notably brave or just downright stupid.

I nod my head, ‘’I believe we are.’’

He breathes in, and then exhales deeply.

We move back along the beach, Aaron is still sopping wet from when Niamh forced him to take an unwanted swim.

‘’I still can’t believe you didn’t kill her,’’ he says once more, sounding almost annoyed with me.

‘’I’m not murdering. I got through this whole thing so far without doing so, I will keep it that way,’’ I reply.

‘’Still though,’’ he responds as we approach the door leading back towards the building we awoke in – light pours out onto the sandy beach from it.

‘’I beat her with that oar and threw her into the water, she is as good as dead,’’ I explain.

‘’Why did you give her the lifejacket though?’’ he questions.

‘’So she had some chance, nobody deserves to drown.’’

‘’She’ll starve to death instead,’’ he explains.

‘’So be it.’’

We enter the doorway and begin up the large staircase, as we walk I cannot believe we are returning towards danger when we had been given the chance to escape. Countless times the thought occurs to me to turn around and run. We escaped once; we may not be so lucky the second time.

My calves burn as we ascend the stairs, my entire body aches. I am so tired; emotional, mental and physical fatigue urge me to halt however I refuse to give in. I will ensure that the people that run this get what is coming to them. I must ensure that Man Hunt stops entirely. No more children will have to go through the horrors that I myself had to face. I will end this once and for all.

When we reach the top of the stairs and enter the corridor, we find what we are looking for. I stare in through the glass into the room we saw earlier. The computer chairs still remain empty. It looks as though nobody has been in the room since we passed through last. I spot the half eaten biscuit and the cup of tea or coffee beside it.

Aaron stops in front of the glass and we both stare in. He then looks to the oar in his hands uncertainly, and then his eyes fall on me.

‘’Are you sure we want to do this?’’ he asks.

I nod.

‘’There’s no turning back now,’’ I explain.

‘’Then let’s do this.’’

I step back and Aaron stares at the glass once more. He takes a deep breath and swings the oar behind him. Then – almost like a baseball player – swings the oar through the air and smashes it against the glass of the window separating us from the people that are behind this.