‘’We’re back and we brought food,’’ I exclaim as we enter the camp.
At the mere mention of food, the three we left behind in the camp get to their feet and swarm us excitedly. The events of the day seem to have been forgotten, or at least pushed aside for now. Food is our new priority, coping with the hunger. The food provided by the sickos behind this whole thing didn’t last long.
We explain how we came across a pair of rabbits on the way back from the LIS which Aaron managed to catch and kill. It was by a stroke of luck that we noticed them, they had almost got away. It was literally due to the fact that there had been a pause in our conversation that we even heard the rabbits scuttling by. Aaron was quite impressive. He tossed his knife at the first, and snatched mine from my hand and did the same to catch the second.
‘’How long will they take to cook?’’ questions Kate after we finish speaking.
I turn to Aaron as I certainly don’t know!
‘’I’ll have to skin them, and then we’ll have to spit roast them. They should take about ninety minutes, maybe more,’’ he explains, ‘’spit roasting is usually slow.’’
We watch as Aaron grabs both rabbits and lays them across his lap. He holds the first by its hind legs and begins to skin it. I can’t watch for very long. I had pet rabbits as a child and I can’t help but think about them as he mutilates the two on his knee. I look away, running my eye along the perimeter of our camp, just to make sure we have no uninvited guests for dinner.
When the two rabbits are skinned, he sets up the spit roast above the fire. He gets two Y-shaped pieces of wood and sticks them into the ground opposite each other on either side of the fire. He then get’s a longer stick and sits it in the groove of each, so it sits nicely over the fire. He pierces the stick through the rabbits and places them above the fire.
‘’Look at Bear Grylls over here!’’ jokes Kate, ‘’you’re some survivalist! I’ll give you that.’’
‘’I’ve done a bit of camping in my time,’’ he smiles as he slowly begins to turn the spit.
We watch it all as our mouths salivate over the sight and smell of the cooking meat. It feels as though it’s been days since I woke up here. In reality, we’ve only been here for two days. We are all very much in need of this food. We will need our energy if we want to continue this ‘game’.
‘’How long do you think we’ll be here for?’’ I ask as I watch the rabbit – as though in a trance.
‘’Maybe another hour or so,’’ explains Aaron, ‘’like I said, the spit is quite slow.’’
‘’Not the rabbit, I meant how long we’d be on the island for,’’ I rephrase.
‘’Ohhh, I don’t know...’’ he replies, ‘’I’d don’t think any of us could call that.’’
‘’It’s all too unpredictable,’’ adds Kate.
‘’A few more days? A week? More?’’ I suggest.
‘’At the rate things are going, it could be another week. It looks like only one person is being killed every day,’’ he offers.
‘’It might speed up though, as the game progresses,’’ I suggest.
‘’Perhaps, but only if we are willing to kill,’’ replies Aaron.
‘’Can we not go into this conversation again,’’ asks Eve, ‘’I’m sick of it.’’
I glance over at her, she won’t make eye contact. Instead she stares at the floor, refusing to look at any of us.
‘’She’s right,’’ I say before I know it, both Aaron and Kate stare at me. The quiet boy even looks up.
Eve meets my gaze. She then looks away again.
‘’What? She is,’’ I explain.
We sit in relative silence watching Aaron cook the food. When he finally says it is ready, he takes it off the spit and places both of the rabbits on his bag – using it as a table. He cuts them into pieces and sorts them into five piles. It seems as though everything he does is done excruciatingly slowly. The food can’t come quick enough. I would’ve preferred to just have ripped it from the fire and scoffed it from the stick!
He hands me my ration of the rabbit and I shove it into my mouth immediately – as do the others. It is honestly the nicest thing I have ever tasted in my life! Never would I have imagined that I’d eat rabbit, let alone enjoy it as much as I am. I savour each piece of the succulent meat, chewing it more than necessary to break it into pieces that will lodge in my teeth for me to enjoy later.
Nobody says a thing while we eat; the only sound is the noise of our chewing and occasionally someone groans with pleasure over the food. My portion seems to disappear too quickly, but I lick my fingers afterwards, ensuring I lick every inch the rabbit meat touched.
‘’Wow,’’ exhales Kate as we sit around the fire once we’ve all finished.
I smile, ‘’that was beautiful.’’
‘’Oh God, it really was! Thanks Aaron,’’ adds Kate.
‘’Thanks,’’ I add.
‘’Thank you,’’ says Eve, the quiet boy nods his head in respect.
‘’It was no problem, honestly,’’ he replies modestly.
The rest of the day goes by quite quickly. The sun is going down before we know it and we decide to let the fire die down. We sit around it for as long as we can and simply watch it slowly burn out.
I sit beside Aaron, he wraps his arm around me and I lean against his chest. He is warm, and simply his presence makes me feel slightly warmer. The others are scattered around the fire, none say a thing about Aaron’s arm – the obviously don’t care that there is something between us.
‘’You OK?’’ he whispers into my ear as I lean against him.
‘’Yeah, considering...’’ I reply.
‘’I’m sorry about what I did earlier, but you know I had to,’’ he explains.
I nod my head slightly, I don’t know whether or not he notices, but he squeezes me slightly. I wish I could just pause this moment. I don’t want to go to bed, I don’t want to wake up tomorrow, I just want to stay here by the fire with Aaron forever.
‘’We should go to bed,’’ suggests Aaron – speaking to the group of us, ‘’I’ll take first watch.’’
‘’Oh no! Not again,’’ I argue, ‘’you won’t sleep again! I will take first watch.’’
He tries to argue, but when the other members of our group agree that he is not going to be taking the first shift, he smiles and gets to his feet.
‘’Fine,’’ he mutters, sounding defeated, ‘’but wake me up after an hour!’’
‘’Will do,’’ I lie and he rolls out his sleeping bag and climbs inside a few meters away.
The others do the same, climbing into their own sleeping bags and they locate themselves around us. Eve gets up and sits beside me where Aaron had been sitting. I smile at her, I don’t start a conversation. About half an hour passes, and the sound of snoring pollutes the area and then Eve turns to me.
‘’How do you do it?’’ she asks.
‘’What?’’
‘’Be nice to everyone, there’s so much shit going on...how are you so positive?’’ she elaborates.
‘’Trust me, I’m just as angry as you are about all this.’’
‘’Well how do you keep yourself from taking it out on those around you?’’ she questions.
‘’Because I learned long ago that taking your anger out on those around you helps no one,’’ I explain.
‘’Well, I’m sorry for being a bitch,’’ she says.
‘’No, no! You’re fine,’’ I assure in a whisper and she smiles slightly.
We sit quietly by the fire, it is nothing more than a few glowing embers, almost dead. I can feel my eyelids slowly sinking as they heavy with exhaustion. It has been both a physically and mentally draining day, and tomorrow promises to be the same, or possibly worse!
Stay awake Alice!
After about five more minutes, my eyes basically force themselves shut and I am consumed by my exhaustion and fall asleep. Despite how much I need a peaceful night’s sleep, my slumber is haunted by an assortment of images and flashbacks – only too vivid.
***
The van bounces quite violently and I am thrown about in the back of it. I slide around in the back, smashing into the walls. With each smack, I wail in pain however no sound comes out. I want to scream. I want to shout. My mouth is numb.
What’s worse than the numbness affecting my body is the darkness. Because of the bag over my head, I have absolutely no idea where I am. Even though I wouldn’t be able to see outside of the van anyway, something about the darkness is extremely unnerving. I can feel tears trickling down my face beneath the bag. I shut my eyes. Even though I am already in darkness, it seems less frightening when my eyes are closed. It is more natural, more comforting.
They’re going to kill you Alice.
No.
Rape.
Stop it.
Torture.
Please.
Murder.
The tears flood from my eyes. I still can’t believe this is happening. I’ve heard stories of child abduction my whole life – it seems to always be on the news at some point every year. I never thought it would happen to someone I know, let alone happen to me!
You’re going to die Alice.
The minutes seem to stretch into hours, it feels like we’ve been driving all night. The latter part of the journey isn’t as bumpy as it was at the beginning, and I manage to prop myself up with my back against the wall of the van. I break down a number of times throughout the journey as my mind runs through various scenarios that may await me – I cannot decide which is the worst!
The truck comes to a sudden stop which makes me lose my balance and I fall. The side of my face smacks the floor of the van and I cry out in pain. There is silence as the engine cuts and I then hear the sound of muffled voices from outside the van. The talking continues for about thirty seconds and then the van door slides open.
‘’What have we hear?’’ chuckles a husky male voice.
‘’Found her and another girl on the rougher part of the city, they’ll make good candidates,’’ replies the male from earlier with a similiarly evil laugh.
‘’Good work, they’ll be happy with you for this,’’ says the first voice again and then the door is slid closed.
The engine starts up again and we move once more. I slide across the floor and hit into the wall once more. We only drive for about two more minutes until we stop again. There is more muffled voices – only they last for longer this time – and then the door slides open. I feel groping hands lock around my upper legs and I am tossed over a man’s shoulder.
‘’You did well tonight, how many do we have now?’’ asks a third voice – again it is deep and harsh sounding.
‘’That’s all ten of them now, we should be good to go in a few days.’’
‘’It only took you a week to get them, you did well,’’ continues the newest voice.
‘’Thanks.’’
I feel a sudden change in temerature, I have entered into a much warmer place – a building? There is a sound of a door shutting behind us, we have in fact entered a building. I am carried over the man’s shoulder for a few minutes and then I am placed down onto a hard suface.
The bag is removed from my head and the light floods my eyes. I am sitting in a huge white room with bright fluroscent lights lining the ceiling. I glance around the room, there are ten other beds lined up in a row. The beds are empty, however people are being brought in as the seconds tick by.
My arms are shackled into constraints either side of me. I am far too weak to try fight against the people tying me down. I feel like I am in a dentist chair. I am forced to lie back on my back. I glance to my left, a girl is on the bed beside me. She looks how I feel, dazed and disorientated. I don’t recognise her, she must be on the red team.
‘’So these are the candidates?’’ asks a familiar voice, although I can’t quite register where I recognise it from.
‘’Yes, every second bed is on the blue team starting from this one here,’’ explains the husky voice while tapping the end of my bed, ‘’now we just have to decide who the team mutes are.’’
‘’It doesn’t matter really, these two will do,’’ responds a third voice.
He is referring to myself and the girl.
‘’No, not them two,’’ argues the somewhat familiar – yet for now anonymous – voice.
‘’Why not?’’
‘’I think the mutes should be guys, it will make my job easier. The group would be unproblematic if the stronger characters can’t have an opinion. They will be able to be herded, like sheep,’’ explains the familiar voice.
‘’Good point,’’ replies one of the men.
The man slaps my leg and they start to make their way down the room. As he does this, a scream sounds. For a moment I think that the scream is coming from my own throat. Next I believe it is coming from the girl beside me. But I quickly realise that the scream seems to be echoing throughout the room – coming from everywhere at once.
***
I jolt awake and I realise immediately the scream has sounded from my camp. Unfortunately, it is not from my nightmare. Instead, it is coming from one of my fellow members. I frantically scan my eye over the camp, it is almost completely dark as the sun is yet to rise.
‘’Aaron!’’ I scream, ‘’Kate!’’
‘’Alice!’’ they reply in unison somewhere close.
The scream sounds again, this time further away.
‘’Where are you?’’ I yell again and get to my feet.
I begin at a sprint to where I can only hope their voices are coming from. There is another scream and then I trip. I land hard on my stomach, smacking into the ground winds me momentarily. As I get to my feet, a hand grips my shoulder.
‘’Alice,’’ says Aaron.
‘’What’s wrong?’’ I ask, getting to my feet with his assistance.
‘’It’s Eve...they got her.’’