I woke up on the ground in a circle. It was dark and there was an open flame next to me. I focused my eyes on the figures moving around me. I tried to roll on my side but my hands were tied. I didn't know if this was because I got caught by people working for Henry or if I had new people to worry about.
“You awake now?” an unfamiliar voice said.
For what I could make out of her, she looked to be in her early fifties. She was kind of fat and stout. Another person emerge from behind her. I could tell it was a man. He was extremely tall. I couldn't make out is face but he didn't seem to be smiling.
“Honey, I said are you awake now,” the woman repeated. I snapped my head in her direction. “What were ya doin' in my woods?”
“Uh, we were hungry,” I scuttled back a little. “Where's Myles?”
“Oh you talking about that boy over there. Cao almost threw his back out trying to tie him up,” the woman said. “He's a strong one, isn't he?”
“Why did you tie us up?”
“Honey, we two were on our property. We have every right to kill you.”
Bells started ringing in my ears. I felt like everything was going in slow motion. “K-kill us? Just let us go and you'll never have see us again. We're trying to get home. We haven eaten in over two days. We were just looking for something to eat.”
The woman watched me a awhile before speaking again, “Cao, untie her and get her and the boy something to eat,” she said to the overgrown man. “Honey,” she directed her attention to me, “It's dangerous out here for a young girl. You shouldn't be out here with your brother like this. Someone could have snatched you up and you'd never see each other again.
The man disappear behind me until I felt his hands on mines. He was cutting the rope off my wrists then he walked off. “I know how dangerous it is out there, trust me,” I replied coldly.
“How old are are you?” she asked.
“Sixteen,” I shrugged.
“Oh, well, I guess you do know how bad it can be,” she smirked. “What's you name?”
“Mason,” I tried looking at anything but her. “And that boy that was with me is not my brother, he's my mate.”
“Oh, I see,” she shook her head. “Come, my cabin's over there,” she grabbed my wrist and pulled me up. “It's cold out here. We don't want you catching a cold. I'm Doe by the way, and that was my boy Coa.”
I tried pulling away from her, but she had a tight grip. I've had enough experience where someone pretended to be nice, only to later show their true colors. I didn't want to follow her because I didn't know if I'd ever get out again. “What kind of name is Doe?” I took my mind off the fact that this women was practically dragging me into her home.
“What kind of name is Mason? You are a girl, aren't you?” Doe countered.
I scowled at the back of her head. I started scratching her hand. I wanted her to let me go. “We don't want your food, just let us go.”
“Honey, you act like we're going to eat you or something. Now stop scratching me,” she yanked my hand and I flew through the front door. I ended up on the hard wood floors on my knees. They were stinging intensely but I kept my reaction to the pain at minimal.
Doe walked behind me and pulled me to my feet. He sat me down at a table and her son sat a plate of food in front of me. There was some kind of meat, potatoes, carrots, and peas on the plate.
Her son jammed a fork in the plate of food in front of me, making me jump. I looked up at him and he was a lot bigger than I thought. His head was shaven and thick. His skin looked rubbery and his hair was oily. His lips stayed at a line. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. He didn't smile, frown, or even speak.
He walked to the other side of the table and placed another plate down. Then he walked out. I watched everything he did. I didn't trust either of them, but I think her son scared me the most.
“Eat up,” Doe ordered. “I'm sure you're hungry.”
I took are hard gulp and picked up the fork, but before I began eating, I asked about Myles. “Where is Myles? Is he okay?”
“He's fine, now eat,” she sat down at the head of the table and stared at me. “I cooked the meat myself. It's fresh.”
I ate some of the carrots before her son came back in the house dragging Myles behind him. I gulped again as he placed Myles in the chair in front of me. He was hunched over. I couldn't see his face but I could hear him groaning. His head flopped backward and I could see dried blood in a line down his face. They hit him hard, no wonder I hadn't heard him say anything. I had to fight pass the urge to attack them both for hurting him. He looked horrible. There were dark circles under his eyes and his lips were severely chapped. I didn't understand why he looked this bad. What did they do to him? Other than the obvious head wound.
“Myles?” I spoke. “Say something.”
“My head hurts,” he said.
“Sorry about that. Cao doesn't like it when people resist him too much. You'll be aright though. No concussion”
Myles's head swerve to the right and he squeezed his eyes shut. He was in a lot of pain. He opened his eyes again, just as Doe placed a fork on his plate. “Peace offering.”
I ate some more carrots then waited for Myles to eat something. He picked up the fork and ate some of the potatoes. He then jammed the fork in the meat. He looked at it carefully. “What kind of meat is this?”
“It's premium meat,” Doe said, “eat up.”
“What is it. It smells funny,” Myles replied. “I can't eat something and I don't know what it is.”
“Boy, meat is hard to find here. We did what we had to do to get this meat,” Doe said sternly. “Eat!”
I picked up my fork and broke off a piece of the meat. Myles stared at his looking indecisive. He shook his head, “I'm not eating this. Mason, I need you to get up from the table. We're leaving.”
“What,” I whispered to him. “We might as well eat first. It seems like that's all they want.”
“I'll explain later. I need you to get up, we're going.”
“The young lady is hungry,” Doe placed her hands on Myles's shoulders, “let her eat first. Besides, its dark out there and we're deep in the woods. Just stay until the morning.” She smiled at me, revealing crooked, yellow teeth.
Myles shrugged her hands off of him coldly, “we're not eating your food. Mason, get up from the goddamn table!” he shouted. “We can't eat this food,” he stood and held out his hand for me.
I stood and took his hand. We were about to walk out but Doe stood in the way. “Is this how you treat people who let you in to there home and tried to feed you. I've never met such rude children before. Cao!”
Cao stood behind us with a knife in his hand. Still his face was expressionless. It was like he didn't have a mind of his own, like he didn't have emotions.
“Cao honey, show these bad eggs to your room. I'll be back there in a minute.” He reach down to grab me but I turned and kicked him in the groin. He keeled over and dropped to the ground. Myles pushed Doe so hard that she fell backwards on her ass. She was spewing curse words at us while we were running pass her.
Cao recovered quickly and began chasing us. Myles and I darted trees and bushes in the darkness, hand-in-hand. We were both getting tired. Myles, stop and we took a short break, but then, Cao came out from nowhere. It took a lot out of me not to scream. For someone so big, he was extremely fast.
“Come on,” Myles started running again. Not once did he let my hand go. Before we knew it, we were back at the road that the man and put us off at. We looked around for Cao. We didn't see him. We walk in the middle of the road and still did not see him. We thought that we finally lost him.
Unfortunately, we were wrong. Cao ran out from the wood towards us, with Doe in tow. Myles pulled me behind him and roared at Cao. He still didn't show any emotion. “Mason, whatever happens, I want you to run.”
“Run for what? I like a chase,” Doe replied. “It'll be just like hunting.”
“If you lay a hand on her, I'll—”
“You'll what?” she cackled. “Cao, you get the boy, I'll get the girl.”
“Freeze!” a man shouted and a bright light blinded us. I wanted to grab Myles's hand so we could run, but I couldn't see him. “The old lady and the giant need to take a few step backs. “This is the Council Guard, I repeat, this is the Council Guard,” he shouted.
“As for the other two, put your hands up. You are in violation of the Councils' order. Mason Faye ad Myles Crawford, get on your knees and put your hands behind your heads,” one man said through a bullhorn.
I began breathing heavily. It was over a dozen guards out here. It was dark but I could make out their tailor uniforms perfectly. They were all dogs of the Council. Everything seemed like it was going in slow motion. It was like the ground vibrated when my knees hit the ground and they enclosed you in. Two of them grabbed my arms and kept me in place. Myles was struggling against the four that tried to keep him in place.
Out of everyone I would rather see, Keegan walked from behind a group of guards, smiling. He had a riffle in his hands and he twirled it like it was a toy. He stopped in front of me. “You just can't stop getting in trouble, can you?” He smirked. “Naturally when my father told me that you two ran away, I had to bring you back.”
I spit on his boot, “piece of shit!” I shouted. He retaliated by giving me one swift kick in the face. My head slammed back. I struggled getting back on my knees, but when I did, I could finally taste my blood. I could feel my lips swelling.
“Mason!” Myles roared. “Your going to pay for that Keegan!”
“Pick her up and put her in the truck,” Keegan ordered. “Him too,” he pointed to Myles. Myles kept struggling. I could see him changing. He could barely contain himself. He threw the guard with so much force that he hit a tree. He clawed at the other three. Keegan ran to him, raised the riffle and slammed it down on his head. Myles went limp. The last thing I saw before the guards shoved me in the truck and dragged Myles unconscious body into another truck, was the other guards shooting Doe and her son.