Nothing.
There isn’t a sigh of relief. Right now, we’re not called, but they’ve already changed the rules by holding two hunts in two days. Anything could happen. Maybe we’re all going to be let out at the same time. Maybe we’re going to be stuck on a night hunt.
As time keeps moving, everyone slowly turns back to their meals, and we finish breakfast. I drop my plate through the slot in the wall and make my way back to the bunk I’ve been sleeping in. I don’t dare call it mine. My existence here is temporary.
Dropping into it again, I close my eyes.
There are times in your life when you can’t help but think,Is this actually real?Most of the time, I’d like to think it happens during good moments. Moments that feel too good to be true. For the unfortunate, it happens during nightmares.
My brain feels like a broken record. Every hour at least, the same thought keeps scrolling through my mind.This can’t be real. How did this happen to me? What did I do in life to deserve this?I suppose that’s better than the constant chant that I’m going to die the next time I’m called up.
Honestly, it’s a damn miracle that I lived. I wouldn’t have if I’d been spotted. It’s dumb luck that someone else was caught first. In reality, they probably didn’t have someone like Malcolm to give him all kinds of pointers. No one told him how to make it out alive.
They sentenced him to death alongside the people who brought him here.
On the one hand, I get it. Survival of the fittest. If that guy dies, I get to live another day. I can’t say I wouldn’t be that person.
“Hey.”
I open my eyes. Malcolm stands over me.
“You okay?”
“Not even a little,” I mutter.
He gives me a smile. “Are you injured?”
“No.”
Malcolm nods. He drops to the floor at the head of the bunk and rests his head against the wall.
“How have you lived through this for so long?” I ask. “I can’t imagine living with this hanging over my head every single day.”
“What are my options? Lie down and die? Then they kill me in a manner out of a horror movie?” He shakes his head. “As lame as it might sound, the easiest way to stay alive is to remain in the middle of the pack and run—don’t be the first they see and don’t be the straggler. I refuse to allow myself to die like this.”
“So every day you fight to live. What kind of life is that?”
“The only option I have,” he answers.
Someone crawls through the bunk next to mine and lies on his stomach facing us. “Has anyone ever escaped?”
Malcolm shrugs. “No idea. I imagine they won’t announce it if it happens. They keep track of who returns to the barracks aftereach hunt. I don’t know if there are trail cams. I’ve never slowed down enough to look, but maybe.”
“Do you know where we are?” A second voice asks. They’re behind me. Must be on the bunk at my back.
“The weather is turning cold, so I’m going to assume we’re north somewhere. The only signs I’ve actually seen are the ones leading back to the barracks,” Malcolm answers.
“If you were to make a run for it, which way would you go?” the guy in front of me says.
Malcolm shakes his head. “I’ve made a few observations in the months I’ve been here, and that’s the complete unconcern on the side of the hunters and those who guard the barracks’ doors. From this, I glean that wherever we are, we’re far removed from civilization. No one is going to stumble upon this operation accidentally. So if we think about this logically, it’s not a matter of just surviving the hunt when we’re let out and running away. It means that wherever we are, we’re a long way away from another human—or one that isn’t involved in this. Which means we not only need to survive the hunt but also the forest. On our own. With no food and no weapons. No first aid. Nothing. For who the fuck knows how long.”
“It’s just as much a death sentence as being here,” I say.
Malcolm shrugs, nods. “Yes. We can also assume that no one has made it out alive. Otherwise, I’d like to think that they’d have told someone their story and this place would no longer exist.”
“There goes that hope,” someone mutters.
“Have you ever fought back? Against a hunter, I mean,” the guy behind me asks.
