by Joanna White
He seemed shocked at first, but it didn’t stop him from moving. Immediately, he ducked, turning to face me, and kicked out, trying to knock my feet out from under me. I was way too fast for him as I came around behind him and grabbed him around the neck, squeezing hard. His knees buckled underneath him. Hm…he was weaker than I thought.
He stabbed me in the left leg. I stepped back, out of shock, not pain.
“Didn’t think I could do that, huh?” he taunted.
“Dalex!” a voice called. He turned and grabbed his sword. I followed where it had come from. Sine had caught it where it landed and had thrown it to Dalex, who caught it and aimed it at my throat.
My back pressed up against a tree.
“Let’s get him out of here.” Municx hoisted Lehalx to his feet as another prisoner, named Freh, scurried up to help him carry Lehlax away.
I kept my face impassive, despite how surprised I was. There was no way I would let them kill me, but this was perfect. After all, Hindah told us to have fun with them.
So, that was exactly what I would do.
Sine held his ribs and stumbled over to stand beside Dalex, where he stood in front of me and kept his sword aimed at my throat. “Kill him, Dalex.” Sine grimaced.
“Yeah, boy. Do it,” I taunted him, seeing the hesitation in his eyes.
Gritting his teeth, he shook his head. “N—no. I’m not like you.”
“Give me the sword, I’ll do it.” Sine winced but reached for Dalex’s sword.
“Sine…” Wexx’s voice trailed off, where he stood on Dalex’s other side. His hesitation rubbed off him in waves that I didn’t even have to try to see.
“We shouldn’t lower ourselves to their level, Sine,” Dalex said.
Sine and Wexx stared at him.
I was surprised. Surely Sine and Wexx wouldn’t let me go, not after how many of them I’d killed?
Either way, it wouldn’t matter. If they wounded me, it wouldn’t be long before I was healed and able to track them down, unless they knew my weakness. Which they didn’t.
After only a second’s hesitation, Sine answered. “You’re right, but…”
“He’ll come after us,” Wexx finished.
“Not for a while,” Dalex said, somewhat menacingly. He brought the sword down and jabbed it into my right thigh, twisting the sword roughly. I ground my teeth together, but showed no other signs of pain, even as he ripped it out. Slowly, they backed up, keeping their eyes on me.
“Wait,” a voice said from behind me. Suddenly, I couldn’t see, and someone jerked my hands behind me and tied a rope around them. I tugged at the ropes, but it was too late; I couldn’t see, which meant my strength was gone.
“He will be able to heal his wounds quickly unless you use his weakness,” Municx informed them.
“Which is….?” Either Sine or Wexx asked. It was getting harder to keep track of who was speaking. Voices were becoming distorted.
I tried to see through the blindfold, although I knew it wouldn’t be any use. Once I couldn’t see, I was completely vulnerable.
“His eyes are his weakness as well as his strength. He’s the watchful one, always patient, always waiting, and always observing…”
“He can see through things?” the new boy asked.
A short pause. Municx likely nodded.
“So, once he’s blind he…”
“…can’t fight back?” Wexx finished Sine’s question.
“Or use any of his powers,” Municx added.
“Powers?” a slightly higher pitched voice asked. I assumed it was Dalex.
“Each of them has the same powers, speed, fighting skills, can sense each other, and so on,” Sine answered for him.
Municx grunted. “And they each also have one special ability. It usually has to do with the trait that’s different about them from the others.”
“So, his trait is his eyes?” Dalex’s voice rose in pitch, likely from surprise.
“Yes. If you noticed they all have black eyes, except for him.” Municx had seen me up close then, much to my surprise.
“I was too busy fighting for my life to notice but I’ll have to look sometime when they’re not trying to kill me.” I didn’t need to see to know that Dalex rolled his eyes.
“I don’t mean to break up the party, but can you get through with this already? I’m sure the other Hunter has finished your friend by now and is on his way back, so you might want to hurry and finish me.” I smirked.
“Shouldn’t we then…cut his eyes or blind him permanently? I mean, when the others find him…”
“They’ll just take it off and he’ll continue hunting us, I know.” Municx sighed.
“You should listen to him, Municx. You know he’s right,” I told him.
I could feel his eyes on me.
“He’s just taunting us. He isn’t scared of us at all. He’s enjoying watching us argue. Don’t give him the satisfaction,” Dalex said.
I tried to stop the thoughts from racing through my mind. This one…He was different. He had only been here how long? A few hours? And he’d already figured out more about me than any of the others here, including the Hunters.
Since he knew so much about me, did he know the real reason I was edging them on?
How do you expect him to know that? I thought to myself. When even I didn’t know the answer myself.
CHAPTER 3
AVERELLA
After being dragged for miles and miles, I didn’t feel I had the strength to go on. When a group of men had suddenly appeared all around me, I thought the worst.
I’m going to die without even having a chance of finding Gabriel, I had thought. But then, they had helped me, and I realized they were other prisoners.
They had taken their time as we walked, introducing themselves to me, but I was so tired and disoriented, I only remembered a few of them. There was an older man, and if I understood correctly, his name was Municx. He seemed to be the one all the others turned to. I assumed that he was like the leader. There were two other men, both not quite middle-aged, who seemed to be the ones most eager for a fight. One was burly, and the other one was skinnier, yet taller, although he still appeared just as strong as the burly one. Their names were Sine and Wexx, but I couldn’t remember which one was which.
There was another man, middle-aged, who appeared to be the only other leader other than Municx. That man, whose name I thought was Lehlax, spoke of his wife, and how he had been inside the prison for eleven years. His son had also been taken, but he didn’t say anything else about it. Sine, who I eventually figured out was the tall one, told me that Municx had been here for decades, and knew the most about Zagerah, which was why all of them looked to him. He was also the only one who had been here for that long.
Before fighting with just two out of the ten Hunters, the odds of ten men against the hundreds of other prisoners who were scattered throughout Zagerah seemed impossible. In my mind, the men had all made it sound as if the prisoners stood no chance against the Hunters.
As I stood there in front of the red-eyed Hunter we had managed to capture, two of the prisoners debated whether they should kill him, or not. I sighed and then walked away.
Something didn’t feel right. I was uneasy that I’d fought him and still didn’t know what his face looked like. The whole thing… disabling him, using his weakness against him, and then him…taunting us, none of it felt right.
All I had to do was find Gabriel and keep him alive. How long we could survive in this place, I had no idea. I started to think I was in over my head here, rushing to get arrested just to do what? What exactly could I do, anyway?
Make sure he stays alive?
I could barely do that for myself, much less try to keep someone else alive too. With a heavy sigh, I shook my head to try to rid myself of the thought.
“Dalex!” a voice called. I turned to see Wexx and Sine following me. No part of me wanted to know what they had decided to do with the Hunter, and I wasn’t
about to ask either.
“We should go.” Sine winced and placed a hand on his ribs.
“Municx?” I asked.
“He went to help Lehlax and Freh,” Wexx explained.
“Is Lehlax going to be okay?” I asked. It felt odd lowering my voice to sound more like a man, but since I had lied and told them that my age was nineteen, I hoped that they didn’t think anything of it if my voice sounded odd to them.
“Maybe, maybe not. Depends if they can get the bleeding stopped, and then if it stops, if it will get infected or not…” Wexx’s voice trailed off.
I felt a pang of sympathy, and my heart contracted. All I could was hope and pray that Gabriel was safe. My ankle caught on something and I tumbled, but held a hand out. It slammed against the trunk of a tree and I bit back a yelp. The last thing I needed was a stupid mistake giving me away, but it was so dark here, the forest was hard to see. Darkness was cast over everything like a blanket and it was so odd to not be able to see any further than a few feet ahead. “Does the sun ever come up?” I frowned, hoping that it did. Personally, I preferred the sun to darkness.
“Yeah, only for a couple of hours, though,” Wexx answered.
I nodded. We continued walking until I felt I was about to collapse. I was used to being hungry, but not used to going too long on so little and doing so much. My entire body felt bruised and everything ached as if I had been scraped raw. We finally decided to take a small break as Sine went to go search for food. I sat down underneath a tree and leaned my head back, sighing.
“You alright?” Wexx sat down beside me.
“I’ve been kidnapped, dragged along a dirt road, thrown into a prison where crazy men hunt and try to kill us. I’ve had to fight one of them, almost killed him, and you’re asking if I’m alright?” My voice rose in irritation. I swallowed deeply, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
Wexx lifted his shoulders in a shrug, but the movement seemed heavier than something so casual. “You get used to it after a while. Too used to it.” He sighed.
“I can tell,” I muttered.
He chuckled mirthlessly. As he leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes, I looked at him. He was just a few years older than my real age, with stubble on his cheeks. His hair was short, which was kind of unusual, seeming as men usually kept their hair longer, or at least shoulder length. Not that it mattered inside Zagerah.
I couldn’t tell what color his hair was. Everything looked silver in the moonlight, which was another thing I could not wrap my mind around. Rather than the two moons constantly dancing around each other, there was only one, and it stayed still. It was a flat grey color, which cast the world in a pool of grey and silver.
“Where’s the other moon? How did they do that?” My eyes stared at the moon, as I tried to figure it out. There were still stars, but they looked different, as if they were in a new order than before.
Wexx clicked his tongue and gestured to the sky. “Oh, that. Municx and some of the others seem to think there’s this clear energy surrounding Zagerah outside the borders. It’s hard to see, and the only reason why they think it’s there is somethin’ to do with the flying creatures in here.”
“Flying creatures?” I swallowed.
He chuckled. “Don’t worry. They’re harmless. You rarely see them ‘cause they fly high over the tree-line. Anyway, this… dome of energy or whatever, we’ve assumed they can control it somehow. It can’t move, but they can use it to decide how much sun and moonlight are let inside. I don’t understand it, but it’s almost like they’ve created a fake moon, sun, and stars overhead.”
I nodded. “How much longer till dawn?”
“They don’t stop hunting us, ya know.” As he spoke, he kept his eyes closed.
“What makes you think I thought they did?” I frowned.
“Most people come here expecting a little bit of a break when the sun’s out. I can tell you they don’t give us one. They don’t get tired, they don’t need rest, they’re unstoppable. So, you can forget it. If you’re going to get any sleep in here, you’re going to have to face the fact that you could be killed at any moment, when you’re awake or asleep, during the day or night, got it?” He finally opened his eyes and looked at me.
I looked at the ground. Something kept me from meeting his gaze. I felt more downhearted than ever, as if maybe coming here had been a huge mistake. Fortunately, before I could let my thoughts run away from me, Sine came and motioned for us to go.
“I found some fruit.” He grinned from ear to ear.
I looked at him for a minute, but even Wexx looked excited too, so I decided to try and see what the big deal was about fruit. Usually, at home, I went and picked fruit all the time, especially when food was getting low. There were always plenty of fruit trees, so it was always in abundance. Sometimes it was all we had to eat.
Not in here.
“Do you think it’s good to eat?” Wexx asked.
I looked at the round, yellow fruit and I recognized it easily because it grew near my house. “Yeah, it’s safe.”
They both looked at me with expressions that asked how would you know?
After a slight pause, I said, “My sister used to pick fruit all the time for us whenever food got low. This was something we’d eat all the time,” I informed them. It felt weird talking about myself to two men and referring to myself as my own sister. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the complicated thought.
Sine shrugged and took a huge bite. Wexx did the same. “We should pick extras to keep, in case we can’t get any game,” Wexx said through a bite.
Sine nodded in agreement. I didn’t object. Briefly, I wondered if we would ever catch up to the others, but decided it was better not to ask. The fruit was about medium-sized and bright yellow, or at least I assumed they were yellow. It was hard to tell with the lack of light. They smelled and tasted equally sweet, which reminded me of home. We packed them in some old bags that Wexx and Sine had made and, judging from their ragged appearance, quite a while back.
I wondered how long they’d both been in here. It was a brutal reminder that no matter how much we ran, how many times we outsmarted the Hunters…That even if I did manage to find Gabriel, it didn’t mean we would be getting out. Despair hit me suddenly and more than anything I wanted to cry.
I didn’t.
We continued walking for what seemed like hours and kept talking, eating, and resting to a minimum. The sun finally came up. I never thought I’d be so glad to see it.
One thing I didn’t understand was when they had explained to me that if someone had Hunter potential they would take them and make them into one of the Hunters. Although, Sine and Wexx said, no one they ever knew had.
I frowned. “Wait, so if you evade them for years, they supposedly will turn you into a Hunter, right?” When they both nodded, I continued. “Municx has been here the longest… most of his life. If he’s survived this long, wouldn’t that mean that he has Hunter potential and that they should have taken him by now?”
Wexx shrugged. “Technically, yeah, but they haven’t. Municx was the last one to ever know a prisoner that became a Hunter.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Yeah, he never talks about it, or even says how he knew the guy, or which Hunter he is, but it was the last time. I think it has to do less with how long you can survive in here, and more or less how you survive in here.” Sine ducked under several branches, seemingly unaffected by his own words.
“It must have been horrible for him.” They both glanced at me, Sine with a surprised look on his face and Wexx with a frown. I cleared my throat. “Um, so even though he’s survived this long inside Zagerah, because they haven’t taken him yet, he doesn’t have Hunter potential? How do they determine that?”
Sine blew out a breath of air and shoved a branch out of his way. “Who knows?” he called back.
Wexx glanced at me. “I don’t think we’ll ever know how their minds work. They enjoy chasing us, enjoy
toying with us. They’ll prolong killing us as long as possible, so they can enjoy it more. You’re lucky if they show mercy enough to kill you as soon as possible.”
With that, he followed after Sine.
I rushed to keep up, especially since my stride was so much shorter than theirs. “So, are we headed anywhere in particular or what?” For a while, we’d grown silent, but I couldn’t take it anymore. The trees rose on either side of us, forming a dark, foreboding forest that sent chills skittering up my spine. Overhead, the gray moonlight barely filtered through the leaves, and my feet crunched the branches and lower brush painfully loud as I walked. My entire body throbbed and my leg muscles badly ached, making me wince with every step.
Sine ducked beneath a branch with a shake of his head. “Not really. I mean, there are a couple of places that would be safe for us, but we can never stay in one place for too long. If we do, they find us, and we die. That’s it. So, we keep moving. We never stop. The grounds are big enough for us to travel hundreds of miles and still have hundreds of places that we’ve never seen before.”
Ever-so-slowly, it began to become lighter outside and I realized that the sun was slowly starting to peak over the horizon. With the rising sun, I took advantage of what little light filtered in through the trees. Wexx’s hair was a light brown, as were his eyes. Sine, on the other hand, had black hair, defined muscles, and sharp cheekbones. Hunger was plain to see in his features, though, and I was sure as time went on, mine would look the same way.
After all the adrenaline from fighting had dissipated, I had more time to think about the direct consequences of rushing inside Zagerah. My main concern had been for Gabriel, but I never once thought of what the situation inside the prison would be like, or even if I could find him at all.