Sweet Revenge

Harder and Harder

With a small child this was going to be more difficult than I had thought it would be. She had been abused so badly that almost any sudden movement or sound scared her into a freak out moment. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I couldn't abandon her and I absolutely was not going to kill her. The rules of this stupid game didn't matter to me and I wouldn't be playing by the rules regardless. If I could save those that needed it than I would and if I had to kill to survive or to protect those that needed it than so be it.

I motioned to pick her up and get us down the tree once the sun was up and all the sounds of wild animals eating and fighting had been gone for at least a couple hours just to be safe. She had jumped at first but then gave me a look like she didn't mean it, I felt for the dear girl and motioned for her to get on my back which she did. We climbed down with ease and then she climbed off my back at the bottom of the tree.

"Can I help you to not be scared anymore?" she glanced into my eyes for a moment and then back down to the ground where she was moving dirt around with her shoe. "I'm here if you want to talk to me and I'll protect you as long as you follow me, if you choose to not talk than I'll be alright with that also. We'll figure all of this out as we go, just let me know what works best for you when and how you can." I wasn't looking at her anymore and wasn't ready for the tight hug that I got out of nowhere from her. I looked down and noticed her grasping the blanket I had wrapped her in tightly in her hands as she hugged me. I wasn't sure how to help her but I wanted to so badly.

I decided that we would make our way back to the waterfall so that I could properly search the tunnel and maybe find us some shelter until I could get her talking again. I needed to at least get her clean and some proper sleep if we were going to make this work. Her name would be nice to know but the smell had to be dealt with right away or she would attract wild animals or something. We didn't see anyone on our way which was kind of eire and made me feel like we were alone in the woods now until that stupid buzzing started again, this time starting off with laughter....

"I'm so glad that so many of you survived the night!" more laughter in a high pitch quality which was horrible coming from an ear peice, "there are 29 of you left and tisk tisk to my hired help," she sounded humored, "must not have been very smart because my hounds devoured them, more money for me.... maybe I'll hire some of you since you're smarter than them anyways." it sounded like she was shuffling some papers around or something of that sort and then clomp really loud in my ear. I was guessing she dropped her microphone and now was fumbling to pick it up. "You now have twenty four hours until the gate will be opened for the second half of the game. I see a few of you gathered by the fence and I will only warn you this one time that you do not want to leave this area. There are worse things than those he'll hounds that you all met last night and I have a nice collection of things that go bump in the night, tread carefully my dears... ta ta for now...." screeching and then silence again.

I got to my feet and helped my new companion to her feet before hearing some type of electricity type sound that I couldn't quite place at first... oh no... a power surge?? then BOOM!! We could see fire coming from a tower behind us on top of the cliff, I was guessing that this was the group she warning not to continue with the plans they had made before she spoke. I had to keep little miss from looking any longer after I noticed the body parts falling from the sky.

"I warned them...." came into our ears, "make sure to stay away from the fences if you don't want the same fate. Good luck on your adventures today and follow the rules... there are 25 of you left by the way!" she was starting to get on my nerves but I had no choices to remove her from our ears at the moment.

I kept us as close to the cliff as possible but when I started hearing water I decided to start looking for something to hunt and found some herbs plus roots in my search which would go perfect with some rabbit or pheasants if I could find either or both.

I found the hole in the tree I had hid myself in the day before and put the little girl there, "I'm going to do some hunting so we can eat but I'll leave all of this here. Please stay as quiet and still as you can be so no one finds you. I'll be back soon." she hugged me and then got herself comfortable for while I was gone.

It didn't take me long to find four nice sized rabbits and two pheasants, now I had to find a place to cook them that we wouldn't be noticed. I was going to investigate the tunnel a bit further since I knew she was safe where I had left her. I tracked my steps back to the hole in the tree just to make sure she was alright and found her sound asleep underneath the leaves. She wasn't making any noise so I left her in the safety of the tree and worked my way to the water flow so I could find the opening behind the water. It took me a moment because I wanted to mark my path back to her.

As I got to the water falling over the cliff I was a bit nervous at first, what if someone was in there and I just left that little girl all by herself? Then again.... what if something worse happened if we didn't get ourselves inside of somewhere? I decided to go in and investigate the tunnel instead of finding some other place for us to hide away. The torches had went out so I was guessing that my last visit had been like that because of the mystery man that had shown me this place accidentally.

I wished that I looked further last time I was here when I got into the first room, it had a shower that was beautiful and a tub of warm water that overflowed onto the floor and drained into holes in the wall. I went into the second room and it looked pretty similar to the first but when I saw the inside of the third room I knew we would be coming back here after I retrieved her from her safe little cubby hole.

Feeling that no one was coming in here and giving warning that we would be returning I started a rabbit stew and got the pheasants set up in a rotisserie style and then I rushed off to retrieve my little friend and get her to a safe haven to eat and get cleaned up. This would be the perfect place to get her comfortable and hopefully talking, I needed to know her name at least.

When I got back to the tree I had left her in, I found a large duffle bag in front of the hole she was still asleep inside. Though this worried me a bit, I knew that the woman had said she had us GPS'd or something so she must be sending us gifts for certain accomplishments. I slung the duffle bag over my shoulder, grabbed everything I had left with her and picked her gradually so I could try to keep her asleep as we traveled to the cave entrance. I was glad that she was still sleeping as I approached the waterfall but I would have to wake her up to get us in without soaking us both thoroughly.