Chapter 17

“What the hell is this?” I hiss at Zie when we arrive in a small clearing in a woodland somewhere. I have no idea where we are because the fuckers blindfolded me for the entire ride, which I’m still raging about, and I don’t recall there being any heavily wooded areas near campus. Plus, it’s pitch black, the guys are wearing black, and the only light comes from the soft glow of the side lights on Axel’s Jeep Wrangler. He could have put the main beam on to illuminate the area better but it’s like he wanted to make this whole experience more terrifying and dramatic for some reason.

It didn’t feel like we were in the car that long, and I should probably just be grateful that the fuckers didn’t knock me out for the ride.

“Shh,” Zie whispers back. “This is where the first task will take place.”

“And that is?”

“Shh.”

I sigh when he turns away from me and looks expectantly at Axel. We’re not the only ones in the clearing and my attention wanders to the small crowd that’s joined us. There has to be around thirty or forty people surrounding me. No, not people, guys. And they’re all staring at me with interest, murmurs filling the air, but aside from their half obscured shadowed faces, it’s hard to make much else out.

I slide behind Kaiden and he chuckles.

“You can’t hide from us forever, little doe.”

“Shut up.”

A throat clears and everyone falls silent. I expect everyone to turn to Axel and for him to take charge as usual, but it’s Harry who steps into the clearing with a torch. I peek out from behind Kaiden and return to my place between him and Zie. Is it just my imagination or have they moved closer? Axel stands on Kaiden’s left and I realise that I’m standing in his usual place. That makes me smirk.

“Welcome, candidates, to the first Hunting Grounds challenge.” There’s cheers and enthusiastic clapping, all very boisterous. “I’m sure you’ve all seen The Doe…” Catcalls and whistles go up and Axel’s jaw twitches. If he hates this so much, why did he sign up for it? “And you all know the prizes and rewards which await you if you win. The first task is simple: hunt The Doe to claim your prize. You all have guns—”

“Exfuckingscuse me!” I elbow Kaiden in the side and feel satisfied when he sucks in a sharp breath. “What the actual fuck?”

“Oh hush, it’s just a paintball gun.” He waves a hand dismissively.

“Just?”

“Don’t be a baby, they don’t hurt,” he scoffs, showing me the gun in his hands. Even in the low light I can tell it’s not a real gun, but it still looks dangerous.

“Really? Can I see it for a minute please?” I ask with false sweetness. He doesn’t notice.

“Sure.” He hands me the gun and I fire it off in front of me without hesitating.

A shrill scream goes up, echoing around the clearing and I grin smugly at Kaiden when he whirls on me.

“She shot him in the balls!” Someone shouts.

“Relax, it’s just a paintball gun,” I sneer. “It doesn’t hurt.”

“I can’t believe you just did that,” Kaiden says, shaking his head. He looks impressed though. It makes my lips twitch but I’m trying to make a point. A shot that powerful times forty? No fucking thank you.

“Be glad I didn’t shoot you at point blank range. I don’t want to be shot by…what? Forty guys? There’s no way it won’t hurt.”

“There’s a simple solution to that, you know.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, don’t get caught.”

“Enough already,” Axel calls out. He somehow manages to sound sharply authoritative and bored at the same time. Everyone immediately turns their attention to him and falls silent.

Wise.

Never take your eyes off the most dangerous person in the room…or clearing. “Jenkins, man up, or fuck off.”

Jenkins, obviously the guy I shot, whimpers. “She shot me in the balls, man. I think I have internal bleeding.”

“Then get your sorry arse to the hospital and get checked out. You forfeit your place anyway.”

“What? Why?” he cries.

“For being such a fucking pussy,” Kaiden says with a laugh, even though I get the feeling he’s deadly serious.

“So the rules are simple,” Harry says, taking over once more. “Hunt The Doe before the time runs out. You’re all divided into teams by the colour of your paintballs so we can easily see which team does best. The winning team, the team with the most shots on target, will get the most points going forward into the next task and can have dinner with The Doe next week. If you manage to actually capture The Doe you get to keep her for the weekend one-on-one to get to know her better and —”

“What if I make it without being caught?” I interrupt. There’s a stunned silence and then someone snorts. I raise my chin defiantly and pin my shoulders back.

“I doubt that’ll happen,” someone shouts. I throw a withering glare in the general direction the voice came from. “I’m assuming I get a head start, right?”

“Of course,” Harry replies. “You have an hour, and the challenge lasts for a further six. If you’re able to go all six hours without being captured…” he tails off uselessly. “What do you want?”

“Out of this bullshit?”

“That’s not happening,” Axel says low in my ear, making me jump. “Pick something else.”

“I want to be left alone.”

“Fine. Twenty-four hours alone time.”

“A week.”

“No.”

“Fine. Two days then.”

“Twenty-four hours.”

“But—”

“But if you also manage to avoid being shot by a single bullet, I’ll give you your week of peace.”

“Really?”

“Really, little doe. You have my word.”

Axel’s word doesn’t mean shit, but I’m not about to point that out to him and risk him taking the deal off the table so I hastily agree. I thrust my hand under his nose and, even though he gives me an amused smirk, he shakes my hand.

I ignore the tingles his touch sends through me. It’s just familiarity. And loathing.

“So if I make it back uncaptured and unmarked, I get a week to myself not being bothered by any of you?”

“Those were the terms.”

“And I have an hour head start?” I check.

“Yes.”

“And you have no way of tracking me?”

Axel hesitates. “I won’t if you leave your phone and watch behind.”

I grin, pleased that I managed to get him to confess to tracking me with my phone. I should probably be grateful he didn’t have me microchipped like a damn dog.

“Can I grab my backpack out of the car?”

“Sure. Your time is about to start so don’t hang around.”

I don’t wait to be told twice, diving into the back of the Jeep and snatching my black bag from the back seat. I’m just glad I thought to pack some supplies, despite not really knowing what to expect. At least I’m dressed head to toe in black which will help me hide in the darkness of the forest. I toss my phone and watch onto the seat, noting that it’s a minute to midnight.

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.

“I doubt she could find it.”

“She has a pretty good sense of direction. All those years playing in the woods back ho—oof!”

Kaiden’s trip down memory lane is cut off as Axel slams him back into the bonnet of the Wrangler and he gets right up in Kaiden’s face.

“Don”t talk about the past,” he snarls.

“Alright, alright, keep your hair on! I was just saying…”

“Well, don’t.”

“Fine,” Kaiden snaps back.

“I’m going to take off and look for her. I don’t trust some of those guys to play by the rules if they find her,” Zie cuts in, sounding worried all of a sudden. “Especially The Gods.”

“If they so much as breathe out of line, they’re dead,” Axel seethes.

“You can kill as many people as you want, but if they get their hands on her first and you’re too late, their deaths will be pointless anyway.”

“You’re just bitter because you couldn’t protect her from The General.”

“And you did?”

“Better than you.”

“Enough of this bullshit, you two,” Kaiden chastises. “There are still people around that could hear, and we need to be a united front. No one is going to hurt Odile. But if we’re doing this stupid game, we’re doing it properly. So let’s split up and go after her.”

“I’m going to wait,” Axel announces, causing my pulse to spike. He knows. But he can’t. Surely.

“Why?”

“Odile isn’t going to get caught by any of those morons. She’s far too smart and incentivised for that.”

“So you’re just giving up?”

“No. Kaiden, you wait here in case she comes back to try and take the Jeep. It has GPS and her phone inside so it would make sense she’d want either item to find her way back to campus. Zie, you go hunt those fuckers and make sure they’re planning to stay above board.”

“And you?”

“I’m going back to Trinity. I’ll wait for her to return but grab her before she’s on campus and that way we’ll win.”

I smirk to myself in the dark. Nicely vocalised plans there, Axel. But I won’t be playing into them.

I wait for the two of them to take off and for Kaiden to climb into the car. He starts the engine and a moment later I hear music playing. Obviously he plans to use it to stay awake, but I doubt Axel would approve of his decision. For one thing, he can’t hear any noises outside the vehicle. For another, with the heating on in there, Kaiden will probably fall asleep within the hour.

I settle back against the broad tree trunk and get comfy. This is going to be too easy.