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48
KATELYN
My head is throbbing, my body numb.
He didn’t mean it. Luke didn’t mean it. He will come for me. He didn’t mean it when he said we were over, that we’ll never happen.
I want to sob, but I don’t dare. Buck holds his finger to his mouth to signal me to be quiet.
So I gulp back my sobs. I force my body to move. To follow Buck, to keep my hand secured in his.
I don’t know where we’re going.
At this point, I’m not sure I care.
But I must find that strength that I found that day on that hunt. I must find it and hold onto it, because my life—and Luke’s—depends on it now.
“Go.”
Diamond removes the hood and then repeats the word.
“Go.”
I nod. There’s no use in fighting. I know better.
I’m surprised when she doesn’t take my clothes. I could ask why, but then she may just be alerted to the fact that I’m still wearing them. Best to keep them as long as I can. I don’t need them in this tropical climate, but they at least give me some semblance of modesty. Someone will take them from me soon.
The hunting ground. It’s like a tropical rain forest. It takes up a good portion of the island, and it’s fenced in. Ten-feet-high pickets with barbed wire. No one can get out except through the gate that I walk through now. It’s quiet so far. Insects chirp, and a few birds fly in the air. Tropical birds that are colorful—colorful and happy. Do they have any idea what they fly above? Do they hear the screams of the women in this hunting ground and sing for us?
If only… If only I had wings like a bird so I could fly away. Far away. Of course, I’m not exactly sure where I am. Most likely my wings would give out before I hit another island.
Still…I can dream. I can dream that someday I’ll fly out of here.
That day, however, is not today.
My job today is to survive.
I walk through the gate purposefully, not looking over my shoulder to see Diamond in the Jeep. A few seconds later, I hear her throw it into gear and drive away.
I haven’t been in the hunting ground as many times as a lot of the others, but still I’ve learned to keep all my senses on alert. My nose for anything that smells out of place. Fire perhaps, or some kind of chemical product.
My sight. Today of course the sun is out and it’s broad daylight. I’ll be able to see a lot farther than usual because we normally come here in the dark.
My ears. I keep them perked for sounds. The hunters like to move quietly, so I’ve learned to pick up on the smallest crack of a twig under their foot. The shallowest breath.
Even taste. Sometimes, the humidity is so thick I can taste it, and I know that the men will move more slowly.
Unfortunately, the humidity is not as thick today. They’ll be able to move quickly. Diamond told me all the men on the island will come. That could be three or thirty. I just don’t know.
First things first. I need to find water. I’ve been here before, so I know where a few streams are. I head toward one of them and drink my fill. Then I hide.
The trees are thickest on the north side. I head there.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any caves to hide in. Or perhaps there are and I just never found them. Some of the women talk about their experiences during the hunt. They help each other. But in a way, they’re not helping. The more they talk, the more women use their particular tricks, and the more men figure them out.
I’ve chosen to keep my tricks to myself. Unfortunately, that means if there is a cave or other hiding place like that, I don’t know where it is.
I move as quietly as I can in the thicket. Not staying in one space for too long.
Until—
I hear them. The rustling. They’re not even trying to hide their steps.
They’re coming for me. They’re coming for me in droves.
Then the smells. The acrid scent of their body odor. Tobacco, booze. The alcohol that pours out of their pores.
They’re always meaner when they’re drunk.
This is not a hunt.
This is an ambush.
And I’m frightened for my life.
But damn it, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down fighting.
The first body lands on top of me. I kick and scream and scratch and claw, drawing blood on his forearm as he tries to hold me down. I bring my knee up to his crotch and—
“Bitch!”
He tumbles off me and I jump into a stand.
Another one is on me in an instant. I use an old trick I learned from a self-defense lesson back in high school gym. Before he can trap my arms, I grab the sides of his head and push my thumbs through each of his eye sockets, blinding him.
