“Hey,”Camden grabbed her attention,“I’ll do all the messy stuff. You’ll just eat, okay?”
“Okay,”Alessa smiled at him as he turned to leave.
“Remember,”he said before he disappeared in the trees,“don’t move.”
Alessa sat in their makeshift camp allowing herself to take in all of the information she had just received. Camden had lost both of his parents. He had also technically lost his uncle when Marston came to live with her. She couldn’t believe Marston was his uncle. Alessa had always looked at Marston as a type of uncle-like figure to her. She never thought of his life and family outside of the Manor. She was sad for him and the wife and family he had to leave. It seemed that there was much more to the world than Alessa had ever experienced.
Alessa looked around her. She had seldom been surrounded by such quiet. Camden had quickly faded into the undergrowth and she couldn’t hear a sound from the direction he went. The air was chilled and crisp. Momentarily, Alessa wished the ceremony was in May instead of the end of February. Alessa hoped that Camden found something quickly. She was not anxious to spend a lot of time alone in the woods.
Alessa reflected on her life. She was seldom alone. She was so often surrounded by people, she had become accustomed to constant droning and noise. Alessa allowed herself to relish the peace of the quiet around her.
Suddenly, she heard several cracks of branches and crunching, as if someone was running. She perked up and looked around. Alessa stood, but remained in the same place. Then, she heard a muffled shout. She couldn’t understand what was being said, but she knew it could not be good if anyone had found them in the woods. Alessa strained to listen.
“Alessa, run!”She heard Camden’s voice ring out.
Terror gripped her. If he wanted her to take off and run by herself, he must be captured. She didn’t know what to do. She looked around. All of the woods looked exactly the same to her. She would get hopelessly lost if she tried to run away. Then, she looked up. The tree she was sitting beneath offered several branches and looked perfect for climbing. She could at least spot the source of trouble and try to find a viable escape route.
Alessa secured her pack on her back and began to climb. She lifted herself quickly into the tree and settled on a high branch. She looked around her and saw men running through the trees dressed in all black. She counted three of them, but couldn’t be sure if there were more. She didn’t see Camden.
Alessa heard a sound under her tree. She looked down just in time to see one of the men break into the clearing they had been staying in. At first, she thought he was going to run on into the woods to continue looking, but he turned around and looked up into the trees. In an instant, he spotted her. He smiled leeringly at her. Alessa’s stomach turned.
They want to kill you, either way you look at it.Camden’s words replayed in her head. This man wants me to dieshe reminded herself. With a wavering breath, Alessa pulled her pack off of her back and retrieved the gun from it. She leveled it at the man. He raised his hands in front of him as if to surrender. Alessa reminded herself that he wasn’t going to do that. She pulled the trigger.
The sound of the shot rang out throughout the woods. It echoed in so many directions that Alessa wouldn’t have known where the deafening tone came from if the gun hadn’t been in her own hands. She looked down at the man. She had missed. And, moreover, he looked angry. He reached for his waist. Alessa hadn’t seen a weapon on him.
They always have a hidden weapon, they are never unarmed. Camden’s lesson played out again. Alessa took a deep breath, lowered the gun so that her eyes could see his chest just above the barrel of the gun, and she shot again.
The man stumbled back and looked up at Alessa again. Absolute menace and loathing burned in his eyes. Terrified, Alessa pulled the trigger again. And again. And again. Each shot forced the man to take a step back away from the tree. Each shot lessened the anger in his eyes. Each shot added shock and fear to his expression.
Alessa thought he fell in slow motion as he pitched backwards and landed with a muffled thud on the cold ground. His eyes were fixed upwards. He no longer looked menacing, he looked afraid and hurt.
Alessa closed her eyes and leaned her head against the trunk of the tree. Although the thought of what she had done made her sick, she held fast to the gun. It had saved her life. She wasn’t sure how many more men she might encounter like the one she had just shot, but she was sure that she was going to have to be brave enough to hold onto the gun.
A quick scan of the area proved that no more men had followed the one that found her. She was worried about how many of them might be in their little hunting part. Hunting. Thinking of that made her remember that they most certainly had captured Camden. She wasn’t sure if they would kill him on the spot or not.
She climbed down from her hiding spot in the tree. She approached the body. In his right hand, the man held a knife. She shuddered to think what he might have done with it if she hadn’t shot him. On his waist, she noticed a small holster that the knife must have come from. Ignoring her reservations, she took the knife and holster off of the body. She was sure that a knife would prove useful in the woods with enemies hunting her down.
She shook her head at herself. Moments ago, she was terrified of taking a life. Hours ago, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Now, she was planning on the next one. She suddenly understood what people felt like when they were desperate. She was desperate. Desperate to live. Desperate to thrive. And desperate to be with Camden.
Alessa determined that she had to go look for him. She had to find their party. If Camden was alive, she had to find a way to release him. There was no way she would ever find the SDL without him and she had no idea how to survive in the woods on her own. She couldn’t allow herself to think of any alternatives.
She started off by heading in the direction that he went when he left their clearing. She tried to stay in a straight line so that she wouldn’t get noticed. Every so often, she looked for something distinctive that could guide her back.
Alessa crouched down behind a tree. She was sure she had heard a noise. She strained her ears and willed her heart to stop pounding in her chest. Then, she saw them. Four men surrounded Camden. His eye was swollen and blood trickled from his lip, but he appeared to be walking fine and looked madder than she’d ever seen him. His hands were secured behind his back. Alessa allowed the group to get almost out of her sight. She was terrified to follow them, but didn’t have any other choice.
As they disappeared around a bend, Alessa began to trail them. She stayed back as far as she dared. They were obviously looking for her. Alessa heard conversational exchanges amongst the men about where she might be. She took great pleasure in that none of their speculations allowed for her to be following them.
Alessa wasn’t sure what she was going to do once they stopped. She would only be able to shoot one of them, the noise would get the others involved immediately. Camden wouldn’t be able to help her if he wasn’t free first. She fingered the knife on her hip. She didn’t think that she could use it to kill someone. It was impossible enough for her to use the gun.
Not sure what she was going to do, Alessa continued to follow. The party appeared to circle around and backtrack. Alessa wondered if they had a certain area of the woods they weren’t to venture into.
The group walked on and on with their silent follower for what Alessa was sure was hours. Alessa was hungry, tired, and weak, but she kept moving. She knew that both her and Camden’s survival depended on her figuring out a way for them to escape this.
“Look, Earl, I think she’s gone,”one of the men spoke into the silence, his voice startling Alessa into a halt.
“She ain’t gonna be goin’no where, Ted. How’s she gonna be gettin’away? She’s not ever been outside the Capitol, she’s not ever gonna know where to be goin’without this one,”answered the one Alessa presumed to be Earl. He punctuated his sentence by jabbing Camden in the gut. Camden stepped u
p to him.
“What you thinkin’you gonna be doin’all tied up, boy,”Earl said to Camden with a mighty laugh.
“Will you all shut up?”A third man said angrily. The laughter died out and the men stood almost at attention facing the one who spoke. Alessa guessed he must be in charge.
“The sun is setting. She will become very cold and very hungry soon and she will make a mistake. As long as we keep her away from the boy, she has no chance. We will find her. Remember, we are to bring her in alive. They don’t care how hurt she is, but she must be breathing. The Sacred Ocean must take her last breath from her body, no matter what. Now, let’s settle down and have a nice, quiet, and relaxing evening, understood?”
The man was answered with an echo of respectful assents. Very methodically, Camden was tied to a tree and the men sat down to camp. They pulled food out of their packs and Earl started a fire.
“I bet you be wantin’some food there, huh boy?”The man called Ted said to Camden. Camden didn’t respond, he only glared at his captors.
Alessa wasn’t sure how Camden was faring, but she was very close to starving. This needed to end and it needed to end soon.
“Well, if you ask us real nice like, we might give you a bit of somethin’. Of course, we might just feed your hide to the wild animals. It’s not like we really need you, we just need you not with her.”Ted guffawed at his own joke. The other men laughed quietly, all except for the leader of the group who ate in silence.
Alessa sat impatiently watching the group as the sun descended behind the trees. Time passed slowly as she crouched in her hiding place behind a tree and accompanying bush. She shifted occasionally to stop a cramp, but didn’t want to move too much for worry of sending out a warning sound. Her legs ached unbearably and her stomach rumbled for food. She hoped that an opening would present itself soon.
As dark fell over the makeshift camp, the men pulled out rolled sleeping bags and, one by one, bedded down.
“Ted, you’re on first watch. Keep a good eye on the captive, he’s smarter than you think,”the leader said.
Ted grumbled, but propped himself on a tree facing Camden and held his gun in his hand. Alessa watched as the other men went to sleep. Earl snored loudly. The man who hadn’t spoken didn’t make a sound in sleep either. But she was most unsure about the leader. His face was away from her and his body remained stiff. Alessa started to formulate a plan. If she waited until everyone but Ted was asleep, maybe she could use the knife to cut Camden free. The only flaw was, she wasn’t sure how far they could get when Ted raised the alarm. She decided to take it one step at a time. Surely Camden would figure something out once he was free.
Eventually, and not believing her luck, Ted started nodding his head and falling asleep. He occasionally woke himself up and would raise his gun to Camden, but he was certainly tired. Alessa slowly began to make her way around behind Camden. She hoped that she wouldn’t startle him. She thought that it was dark enough behind him that no one could see her behind the tree he was secured to. Alessa crept around the trees. She moved painstakingly slow, squinting in the moonlight to see obstacles in her path. Every small sound she made caused her to freeze and reassess the camp, but the men seemed to all be asleep. Finally, Alessa was about two feet from Camden’s back.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”Camden whispered. Of course he knew that she was there. She figured he’d stay alert and ready.
“I’m saving you,”Alessa replied, her whisper barely a breath.
“You should be as far away from here as possible,”his whisper was barely audible, but angry.
“Look, you heard them, I can’t survive without you. They’re right. I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing out here. But most of all, I don’t want to do this without you, Cam. Plus, you promised me a bunny or something, I’m starving. Now, tell me what to do.”Alessa heard Camden sigh softly.
“You have to work on the knot holding me. Then, once I’m free, we have to kill them. All of them, Alessa. If we leave them alive, they will just continue to search or get reinforcements. They don’t have any communications devices that I’ve seen, they must be out of range out here. I think if we eliminate this bunch, we’ll be in the clear.”
Alessa shuddered at the thought of killing four more men, but she knew Camden was right. She was going to do what had to be done. She was going to do what she needed to in order to save herself and to save Camden. Eventually, it would matter. Eventually, the SDL was going to tell her their great plan to stop the Sacrifices and it would all be worth it.
“I have a knife,”she whispered,“I’m going to cut you free.”Alessa began to saw at the rope binding Camden.
“Where did you get a knife?”he asked quietly as she worked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,”she answered. Alessa continued to work. Suddenly, Ted woke himself up again and pointed his gun at Camden. Alessa didn’t dare to breathe. The tree Camden was tied to wasn’t big enough to obscure her completely, but she hoped that the dark helped to cast shadows that would cover her. She heard a soft snore come from Camden. He was pretending to be asleep. She hoped it would fool Ted and he’d relax again.
It didn’t work, Ted arose and began walking towards them. Alessa didn’t move. She was sure if she ran that they would catch her immediately. She didn’t think she could take all four of them out without Camden’s help. Alessa’s chest began to squeeze in panic. Then, Ted bent down to the sleeping bulldozer that was Earl.
“Earl, watch the boy, I gotta go relieve myself,”Ted said quietly while shaking Earl violently.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, whatever,”Earl answered, his eyes still closed.
“Earl, you awake, I gotta be goin’now.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it, get goin’”
As soon as Ted cleared the camp, Alessa sighed a breath of relief. Earl rolled himself to face Camden, but was back asleep within seconds. Alessa began working on the ropes again faster than ever. Finally, she felt them break free and Camden’s hands pulled away. He didn’t move from the tree though.
“Alessa,”Camden said quietly,“how many shots have you fired?”
“I’m not sure,”she replied.
“Think carefully, this is life and death, how many shots have you fired?”Alessa thought back. She had fired one shot in the house. Then, she tried to remember how many times she had shot at the man while she was in the tree. Closing her eyes, she remembered that awful moment. She shuddered involuntarily at the thought.
“Six,”she answered,“once in the house and five a little while ago.”
“That means you have two left. Listen to me, I have to get to my bag or take one of the weapons off of these guys. You have to take out two of them. That means no misses. You will have the surprise. It needs to be a clear kill shot. Then, the next person to move is your next target. I’ll take the head guy. You start with Earl and then take out whoever you see next, Ted or the quiet one. Whoever moves, you shoot. If you can’t shoot, you run up to them and stab them straight in the neck. No wavering, Alessa, you have to do this. For both of us.”
Alessa steadied herself. She took a deep breath and tried to quell the storm bubbling up in her. She thought of how she would prepare for a long swim before she became afraid. She cleared her head so that she could think of nothing but the water surrounding her. She would do that now, she would clear her head so that she could just do what had to be done. She could think about it later. She set her pack behind the tree and pulled the gun out. She resettled the knife in its holster on her hip.
“Ready?”Camden asked.
“Yes,”Alessa answered, although she was sure she wasn’t.
Camden rose quickly and silently and moved to the leader of the group. Alessa started towards Earl. She leveled her gun at his head. She heard Camden and the leader start to scuffle. She moved her finger the fraction of an inch that it took to set off the gun. The noise shattered the silence. Her ears rang and she wasn’t sure what was go
ing on around her. She looked to the quiet man, the one who hadn’t said a word all day. He groggily turned towards her and started to rise. She raised the gun to meet him and moved her finger ever so slightly again. The pop sounded quieter this time, she guessed because her ears were becoming attuned to the noise. The man dropped instantly to the ground, his silence continuing.
Arms wrapped around Alessa’s middle. She twisted herself to see her captor, she hadn’t heard anyone coming. Her ears still rang from the shots. Ted’s face was right beside hers. She pulled the gun around and pushed it to his shoulder. She pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. She was out of bullets. She slammed the gun against his head as hard as she could. He stumbled backwards, but didn’t fall. He held his head and looked at her, that same menace she had seen before filling his eyes. Next thing she knew, Camden rushed up to him.
“Look away, Alessa,”Camden said loudly, managing to speak over the ringing in her ears. Alessa complied. She could hear some evidence of a scuffle and then a thud and silence. She turned back slowly. Camden stood behind Ted’s lifeless body. A thin red line ran across Ted’s neck. Alessa turned away again.
She felt Camden’s hands on her arms. He turned her around to face him. His eye was almost swollen shut and his lip was cracked and bleeding again. The ringing in her ears began to fade to a dull buzz.
“Are you okay?”Camden asked seriously. Alessa just stared at him. How could she answer that question?“Alessa, are you hurt?”She shook her head, she could answer that one.
Camden pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her. He smoothed her hair down her back and rocked her from side to side. Alessa surveyed the damage around them. Four men lay in eternal silence at their feet. She wasn’t even sure that Camden did to the leader, his form was still in the stiff position he had slept in.
The Fourth Ceremony: The Sacrifice Trilogy Page 21