Hunting

I ran through the trees, feeling the coarse grass beneath my bare feet. I could hear the wind whispering through the trees and the repeated pounding of my feet on the hard, dry ground. All I could see was the moon above, its light filtering through the leaves of the trees as I weaved in between them. I could smell the fresh scents of the forest as I brushed against the bushes and the shrubs. I could feel the hard wood of my bow against my back and the much more fragile arrow I held in my hand. I only had one arrow so I had to make it count.

I paused, listening to the sounds of the forest. Even the animals avoided this particular forest. I closed my eyes to listen harder, not that it made much difference in the meagre light. I stood frozen for an agonisingly long time as I waited to hear something. I clutched my solitary arrow tightly in my hand as I turned around slowly. Kill or be killed. That’s what they had told us when they had pushed us out into the night. Kill or be killed.

Then I heard it, an almost imperceptible noise to my right. I opened my eyes slowly and turned, careful not to make a single sound. I crouched as I stared into the darkness. I couldn’t see him but that didn’t mean anything, he and I were two of the best. And to be the best you had to be able to blend into your surroundings almost perfectly.

I didn’t know if he had seen me yet so I didn’t move, not wanting to give away my position before I was staring at him down the shaft of my arrow. I didn’t see anything but I heard a rustle from directly in front of me. I had long ago learnt to concentrate on where the sounds came from so I knew that the rustle came from close to the ground. This meant that it couldn’t possibly be the wind in this dense wood. I crept stealthily forward, not even blinking. Closing my eyes for even a second could be the difference between life and death. I moved from tree to tree like a ghost, hiding behind the thick trunks as I planned each move carefully. I stepped on a sharp stone and gasped almost inaudibly, but it was loud enough to give away my position.

I dived to the left as an arrow shot through the trees towards me. It missed me by millimetres and if I hadn’t moved, it would have gone straight through my heart. I crouched down behind the tree as I pulled my bow off of my back and notched my arrow. I waited to see if he knew that his arrow had missed. I waited patiently knowing that he was waiting to see if I was still alive or not. My legs were beginning to cramp but I knew that to move could prove fatal.

I heard a twig snap and realised that he thought that his arrow had hit its target, dead on. I smiled to myself as I heard him slowly approach, his eagerness making him slightly careless. I slowly straightened as he moved towards me. I pulled my arm back, drawing the string of my bow tight and ready. I raised the arrow level with my eyes and waited. The sounds in front of me stopped as he searched for my body. I took a couple of deep, calming breaths as I listened intently. I heard him take another step forward as he began to get suspicious. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake now: there was a reason he was one of the best.

I inched slowly around the tree I was hidden behind, my eyes searching for him in the gloom. I took a single step forward as I moved out from behind the tree. He was stood in front of me, his dark eyes glued to the ground as he searched for me. My heart panged painfully as I stared at his dark brown hair in the moonlight. Our captors had a horrible sense of humour. They had caught and trained me years ago for their sick games but he was new. They had only caught him a year ago but he was a fast learner so they had made me train him and teach him how to survive. He had learnt quickly and had rapidly become one of the best warriors here. And I had fallen in love with him.

They knew. That’s why they had pitched us against each other. It wasn’t just because we were two of the best which made it one of the most exciting games they had ever watched. It was also because they wanted to see if we could really kill each other and because they got a perverse sense of pleasure from the thought of us being forced to fight.

But what they didn’t know was that while they were placing bets and watching our fights, we were learning and creating plans. They were too stupid to realise that the longer we were there; the more were going to learn about our surroundings. And the more we fought against each other and trained, the stronger and faster we became. What they didn’t realise was that we were all talking to each other and that we weren’t playing by the rules anymore.

They rarely spoke to each other unless they were placing bets or comparing new captives. They don’t always notice when someone new turns up or when someone else disappears. They never noticed when someone was replaced. They didn’t care – as long as a person had money they were welcome. They didn’t even worry about where the money came from, they wouldn’t care if had be taken from the dead body of one of their comrades. That’s why they didn’t know what was happening right under their sadistic, perverted noses. But that would soon change. They would soon find out just what we were capable of.

But for now I had to give them a show. For now I had to play along with their games, I had to entertain them and continue as usual. But now, staring down the arrow at my soulmate, I wanted to kill them all.

I watched him as he bent and picked up his arrow. He knew he had missed but he didn’t seem worried. I glanced around quickly, trying to catch sight of one of their cameras. They had cameras everywhere to make sure that we didn’t cheat or refuse to fight. They were supposed to be hidden but when you’d been here for as long as I had, you learnt to recognise them. I saw one now, high in one of the trees. We weren’t in its direct line of sight but it was still pointing in our direction.

As the boy in front of me rose slowly and glanced around slowly. When his eyes passed over me, one of his eyelids fluttered down slightly in a barely perceptible wink. I felt relief wash over me as I realised he had done it. Neither of us would die tonight. I saw him rub his mouth with his hand as if nervous. I saw him swallow and I counted to five in my head as I waited for his signal. He continued to search the forest as if looking for me. Just as I reached five I saw his minute nod and I stretched the arrow back as far as I could. I aimed the tip of the arrow at his wonderfully well defined chest and took three slow breaths. My aim was deadly accurate and I never missed, I had to rely on that small fact to save my boyfriend’s life. On the third breath I fired.

The arrow sliced through the crisp night air, encountering no resistance as it flew towards its target. It hit him just as he began to turn to face me again. It pierced the left side of his chest in what looked like a fatal shot. I felt tears pouring down my cheeks as I watched his body jolt with the force of the arrow and fall in slow motion.

It seemed to me like he took an impossibly long time to hit the ground. I slid the bow back onto my back and walked slowly towards him. I wanted to run over to him and fall down beside him but that was what they wanted. They had advertised this match as an epic battle to end all battles. A fight between lovers, to the death. They wanted me to betray my emotions – it would make them laugh. They wanted to gain entertainment from my pain, from my suffering. I crouched beside him with my back to the camera as I took his hand to check his pulse. I almost jumped when I felt his close his fingers around mine. His eyes opened slightly and he looked up into my face.

“Don’t worry,” he breathed, his lips barely moving, “I’m fine. You missed my heart and hit the padding, just play along and make sure that the others are ready in time.”

“I will.” I whispered as I kissed him gently and slid his arrow down the front of my tight black jumpsuit. We had been gathering arrows like this for months. They never noticed that only one of the two arrows was ever found. They also never noticed that the ‘dead’ bodies no longer made it the whole way to the incinerators.

“Remember,” he whispered bringing my attention back to him, “kill or be killed.” That phrase, the phrase they said to us every time they set us against each other was the phrase that I had drilled into his head when he had first come here. Kill or be killed. If you showed mercy to your opponent, either your opponent would kill you or they would kill you.

“Kill or be killed.” I repeated as I felt his pulse slow beneath my fingertips. The drug did that – it gave you all the symptoms of being dead without actually being dead. We had found a supply of it about four months ago and that’s when we had started planning. I watched as his eyelids fluttered shut and his hand relaxed in mine. His pulse stuttered one last time before fading away. I placed my hand on his chest as I lowered my head and let the tears fall onto his unmoving body. His blood felt hot and sticky under my fingers. Although the padding had prevented the blow being fatal, if he didn’t have a real wound they would get suspicious. I snapped the arrow still sticking out of his chest and tossed the wood aside. The flint was still buried in his chest, but they wouldn’t bother pulling it out and he would need it when he woke up. Also, it was preventing too much of his blood from leaking out of his body.

I knew that they were watching me and that it wouldn’t be long before they came to collect his body and take me back to my cell. It didn’t matter – we were nearly ready and I would go gladly. I kissed him on the lips once more before I touched my lips to his forehead and stood up. There was a time when I’d had no choice but to kill my rivals. Even the sweet boy in front of me had gained his reputation by killing. It was only recently that we had secretly managed to change things.

I heard them coming long before I saw them. They were crashing through the trees noisily. They never had to be quiet and so they had never developed the skill to move soundlessly through the dense trees. I smiled to myself slightly as I realised that this would make things so much easier for us. I stood with my head held high as they approached, tears were still gently sliding down my cheeks but they were just for show now. They had to believe that I had just destroyed my heart by killing the man I loved. They had to believe that they were still in control and had made me do the unthinkable. But not for much longer.

“The reigning champion wins again.” The dark haired one said roughly as he grabbed hold of my hand and raised it into the air. My expression remained emotionless as he shook my fist in the air. It didn’t matter; I was notorious for never celebrating my wins. It was one of the things they found amusing about me. One of the things they found interesting about me. The dark haired one snapped the metal bracelet back onto my left wrist as they led me back through the trees. I heard the cheers and the hollers as we passed the door to the betting room. We were two of the best so they had been betting high on both of us.

They led me back to the cellblock and opened the door to my cell. I obediently walked in and held my arm out for them to take the chain off of my bracelet. Then they shut and locked the door before heading back to the betting room for drinks and celebration. I just turned my back on their retreating figures and walked over to my bed. I pulled the mattress up and there, hidden in the soft material were the arrows we had been collecting for months. I pulled the arrow out of my jumpsuit and added it to the pile before replacing the mattress and sinking onto it.

I pulled the bow off of my back and stoked the wood lovingly. They never took our bows off of us – they were our trophies, our prized possessions and it was part of the game. The better you were the better weapon you had. When you killed an opponent you had the option of keeping their weapon. I had won my bow about a year ago and I had treasured it ever since. It never failed me.

I sighed as I hung it on its peg on the wall. Not long now, I thought to myself as I drank from the bottle of water next to my bed. I stood up, stretched and walked to the bars of my cell. I took no precautions to be quiet and the blond girl in the cell next to mine heard me and followed. We reached the bars at the same time and a small folded piece of paper fluttered to the ground in front of me. I stepped on it and carried on walking as if I was only stretching my legs. I subtly dragged the paper with me until I reached my bed. I sat down again and discreetly picked the note up. We’re ready and waiting for your signal. It read. I tapped the hard heel of my boot against the floor three times and the sound echoed around the cellblock. It meant ‘read and understood’, a code we had come up with so long ago.

There were only around twenty of us here and I had been here the longest. They were always bringing in new ones to replace the dead but they had no idea that the ‘dead’ had stopped dying months ago. Now we just had to wait for them to get drunk. They always drank lots after every game, either celebrating their win or trying to forget their loss. They had a game about once a fortnight and in between games we were all expected to train. But to train, we had to interact with each other and that had given us ample opportunity to plan ahead. Now everything was falling into place and we just had to wait.

We estimated that it took only a mere hour for them all to have drunk a significant amount of alcohol and so I counted. After an hour I tapped my heel five times against the floor and as one, we stood. We hooked our bows onto our shoulders and filled our makeshift quivers with our collected arrows.

A long time ago I had discovered that the cell doors had a design flaw – if you kicked them in a certain place the metal buckled and the door would cave under the pressure. It was then just a simple process of kicking the door until it fell out of the frame. Nobody had bothered to replace or reinforce the doors because they had made an example out of the poor girl who had tried to escape this way. She had been brutally murdered in front of us all as a warning. But they had never even considered that we could all work together to come up with a plan. A plan that would turn the tables on them.

As one we kicked the doors to our cells until they fell with a crash to the floor. There were no guards in here the night after a game – they were all too busy celebrating. I took the lead as we crept silently towards the door leading outside. We didn’t know if anyone had heard the sounds of the cells doors crashing off so we had to move fast. We crept towards the betting room slowly, looking out for the others.

A hand grabbed my elbow as my boyfriend materialised next to me leading the warriors who had lost their fights and so supposedly died. They were all carrying their bows but none of them had arrows. We quickly split the arrows with machine-like precision before falling into position and striding confidently towards the building in front of us.

We burst through the door with our bows drawn and pointing into every corner of the room. The ruddy laughter and chat died as they caught sight of us stood in the doorway.

“All of you outside, now!” I called into the silent room.

“What are you going to do about it?” The old white haired one called out angrily from his position in the middle of the room as he took a couple of steps towards us. I smiled to myself – they were so used to being in charge that they couldn’t even comprehend a situation where they weren’t. I just smiled serenely at him as I fired an arrow straight into his heart. He stopped shocked as he began to fall. He was dead long before he hit the ground.

“Did you forget what you trained us to be?” I asked into the shocked silence as I smoothly loaded another arrow into my bow. “Did you forget that we are the best of the best? Did you forget that you made us kill the weaker ones so that only the strong remained?” I could see the truth dawning on their stupid faces as they realised all the mistakes they had made over the past few horror-filled years.

“Now,” I said slightly calmer as I met the eyes of everyone in the room in turn. “Everybody out.” They stared at me dumbly, trying to come up with a way to regain control of the situation. I sighed as I raised my bow once more. I aimed at the dark haired one, the most sadistic and cruel of the gathered monsters. I let loose another arrow and he fell dead.

Finally the rest of them got the message and began filing out of the room. They gathered in a protective circle outside, surrounded by all of us. “We are going to give you a ten second head start before we chase after you.” I said calmly as I stood next to my partner and surveyed the group. “Run!” I shouted as I waved my arms at them for emphasis. They all scattered like frightened rabbits as they took off into the forest. I could clearly hear every movement they made as they crashed through the undergrowth. I laughed – they didn’t stand a chance.

I counted to ten in my head before raising the arm holding my bow into the air. Every single warrior was watching me as I spoke. “Kill or be killed.” They all echoed what had become our war cry before running almost silently into the trees as I moved my arm quickly downward.

I grabbed hold of my love’s hand as we walked after them. We were in charge here; we didn’t have to run into the trees chasing after them. We were there to oversee everything and to make sure that nobody got away. They all had to die because that was how things worked here. Kill or be killed.