by Robin Roseau
“No. Are you willing to get that close to me?”
“It’s safe,” May replied. She stepped behind Priya. There was a little jostling, but then I found myself with Aventurine behind me and Carolina walking along beside me, her hand on my shoulder.
I looked up at her then down at her hand. “I’m not at all complaining,” I said. “Mermaid. But does this indicate something about later?”
“Is that what you wanted to ask about earlier?”
“I imagine you would rather tonight’s events were aquatic, but I find it unlikely that is the plan. That’s what I was curious about, I suppose.” I laid my cheek on her hand. She didn’t pull away. “This is something different.”
“You’re right.” She squeezed my shoulder. “You don’t mind?”
“No. The opposite.”
“I don’t know how the event will proceed,” she said. “There are plans, but what plan survives chaos?”
I looked over my shoulder. “Are the two of you… um.” I looked around furtively. “Will I be seeing you again later?”
“That’s possible, but dinner was just dinner,” said Aventurine. “There are no assigned pairings for later.”
“Aventurine is partly correct,” Carolina said. “Dinner was more than dinner. It was an opportunity for us to get to know each other. When we met this afternoon, I knew nothing about you, Taisha. I know more now. We are out of time, but I would like to see your work. Would that be possible?”
“I am only the assistant,” I said. “I have no authority. But I would love to show you, if someone assures me I am not violating any agreements in doing so.”
We arrived in a new room. The human participants were all in chairs, similar to mine, tightly bound. A few people were squirming around, and I heard muttering. But we came to a stop facing another stage. Violet was already waiting. Once everyone quieted down, she said, “Those of you in chairs: what I am about to tell you is not optional. You have been selected to participate in an event tonight. Before I explain it, I want to suggest you consider your reactions carefully. But as reassurance: we have never had a human seriously hurt in any of our events. We’ve had a few scares, a few broken bones. But as you know, our medical ability is well ahead of human abilities. We cannot cure all human diseases, and there’s nothing we can do if you actually get yourself killed, but we can take care of anything less than that.”
“Is this meant to be reassuring?” someone asked. “You’re making me nervous already.”
“I am only trying to say that we place your personal safety as paramount,” Violet replied. “Most spacefaring species have evolved from natural predators. For some species hunting remains critical for mental health.” She spoke about that for a minute or two. I watched the other humans while listening to Violet, trying to judge their reactions.
She reached the crux of her speech. She spoke about the aliens that were here, and then finally said, “We have agreed to host a hunt for them as a sort of team building exercise.”
“They’re going to hunt us?” Priya exclaimed, her voice rising. “Are you kidding me?”
“Yes, Ms. Curtis,” Violet said calmly. “They’re going to hunt you, but you have my personal guarantee you won’t be harmed. If there are any accidents, we’ll make you as good as new.”
I sat quietly, watching the reactions of the other humans – my co-prey, I suppose. I saw disbelief, anger, and I thought perhaps, excitement. A few people tried arguing with Violet, telling her they couldn’t do that.
I sat quietly, waiting, until Priya turned to me. “You knew.”
“Yes, but I’m not a blabbermouth,” I replied. “I think it will be fun.”
“You’re insane.”
“Quite possibly, but I am going to try to have fun.”
“They’re going to hunt us.”
“Have you ever played hide and go seek?”
“What are you talking about?”
“How is this different than a good game of hide and go seek?”
She blinked several times then said, “You’re insane.” She turned back and raised her voice. “What keeps us from just sitting down and waiting?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Violet replied.
“Are you going to, I don’t know… Hurt us or something, if that’s what we do?”
“No. We don’t do that. The rules are simple. No one will do anything to attempt to hurt any other participants. If you find yourself being caught, you may struggle if you wish, but you may not struggle in a fashion designed to hurt the hunters. And you will certainly do nothing to hurt each other. Questions?”
“Do you mean to throw us out in the forest dressed like this?” That came from one of the men.
“No. Clothing and gear are waiting for you.”
She answered a few more questions, and then it was time to prepare.
Herd
Slowly, I could see. I looked around in the evening light. All of us prey stood in a circle, each of us standing before a waist-high pillar that encased our hands. We were dressed identically, in a comfortable but form-fitting black jumpsuit of unknown material. Everyone wore a visor and a small backpack. I already knew what was in it: water, energy bars, and “roughing it” equipment. It rode well, and other than the weight, I would barely notice it.
There were eighteen of us, six of us men, the rest women. Everyone appeared fit. Amanda appeared to be oldest, but she was far from old, and she was in great shape. There were two who I thought might be in high school. I wondered what their stories were.
I looked further. We appeared to be in a rough, hilly savannah. There were trees, but it wasn’t thick jungle. We stood in a clear area of low grass, and there were several clear paths leading away. I saw hills in one direction, and heavier forest of some sort. In the other direction, the ground appeared to descend.
The pillars released us. I rubbed my wrists for a moment. They didn’t hurt, but it had felt weird. I wasn’t the only one. But then one of the guys said, “All right. We need a plan.” No one argued with him, so he only paused a moment then said, “I can think of three basic plans. We can all stick together; we can break up into smaller groups, or we can by and large go our separate ways.”
“We’re easiest to find as a large group,” one of the other men said.
“We can protect each other,” the first man replied.
“We don’t really need protecting,” Felicia pointed out. “It’s not a real hunt. They’re not going to hurt us. They’re not hunting us to eat us or something. We should think of it as hide and seek, that’s all.”
“How about run and seek?” the teenage girl suggested. She had an accent, Scottish, I thought. “Okay, maybe hiding is a good strategy, but I bet they have all sorts of alien ways to find anyone hiding.”
“That’s a good point,” Felicia agreed. “Some of us may decide to find a good place to hide; some of us may feel it’s best to keep moving.”
“In Boy Scouts,” the teenage boy said, “We’re taught don’t go off into the woods alone, for safety.” He also had an accent.
“A fair point,” said the first man. He tapped his visor. “We’re not exactly alone.”
“I’m just saying,” said the boy.
“It’s a good point,” repeated the man. “What’s your name?”
“Callum.” He pointed. “That’s my sister, Isla.”
The man nodded. “I’m Princeton.” He shifted his gaze. “Does anyone want to argue for remaining a herd?”
“Why are we going along with this?” Priya asked. “I think we should sit down and just wait for them.”
“You do what you want, Priya,” I said. “But I intend to do my best. I think it’s going to be fun.”
“That’s a good attitude,” Amanda said.
“Anyone who wants to give up before we even begin is free to do so,” Princeton said. “For those who don’t want to give up, herd together or split up?”
“Split up,” Felicia said. “There are two basic strategies, and
they aren’t mutually exclusive. As Isla has said, we can either be hard to find, or we can be hard to catch. 18 people together aren’t going to be at all difficult to find.”
“You don’t really think you’re getting out of this alive?” Priya suggested.
“We’re all getting out alive,” Felicia countered. “What is your problem?”
“What Priya means to ask is: do we think we have a chance at running out the clock? Frankly, I don’t think that’s the point. I think doing our best is, or at least that’s my way. I’m here to do my best and try to have fun while doing it. Felicia’s right. A herd is too easy to find. Split up, individual or very small teams.”
One of the men was counting. “Six men and twelve women.”
“Does that matter for some reason?” Felicia asked, sticking her hand on her hip.
“Six teams with a man and two women,” the man suggested.
“Do you think us poor, helpless women need a man to keep us safe?” Felicia replied. Then she looked across the circle at me. “Don’t be offended, Taisha, but we’re together morning, noon, and night.”
I laughed. “Not offering to partner with your coworker?”
“No.”
“Someone needs to take care of Amanda,” I said. “She’s old.”
“I am not old!” exclaimed the woman in question. “Age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance. If people want to form small groups, they should. If they want to go off alone, as Princeton said, we’re not exactly alone.”
“Could I go with you?” Isla asked Amanda.
“Sure, honey,” Amanda said. The teenage girl stepped over to join Amanda. With no further ceremony, they turned and headed for the nearest trail. We all watched them go.
“I’m going that way,” said Felicia, pointing in the opposite direction. “Think you can keep up, Boy Scout?”
“Me?” asked Callum.
“Unless you had your eye on a different arrangement.”
“I can keep up,” he said.
One of the men turned to me. “I’m gay,” I said before he could even ask. “And I don’t need a man to watch out for me.” He continued to turn, and another woman agreed to go with him.
A few people took off alone, including half the guys. A few grouped up. I turned and headed for the path Amanda had taken. I’d gotten ten steps before I heard Priya say, “Hey! Wait for me.”
I didn’t slow down, but she caught up to me. I glanced over at her but kept walking. “I thought you were going to sit down.”
“I didn’t want to be alone,” she said.
I came to a stop and turned to her. “Frankly, I’m tired of your attitude. You’re a real pill. I think you should turn around and go find somewhere comfortable to wait.” I folded my arms to see what she would do.
We stared at each other for ten or fifteen seconds before she dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry. Genevieve and I thought this would be fun, but we’ve been sniping at each other since we arrived.”
“She’s your roommate?”
“It was my idea to come here. She didn’t even look at me, but took off with one of the guys.”
“Whose fault is the sniping?”
“I’d admit full responsibility, but she’s been driving away all her friends, not just me. I was the holdout because I know what she’s been going through. Her father died last year, and her mother isn’t doing well alone.”
“I’m done with your attitude,” I told her. “Either you’re here to have a good time, or leave me alone.”
“How long do you think we’ll remain uncaptured?”
“About thirty seconds longer than they let us,” I replied. “I’m a city girl.”
“I hiked the Appalachian trail,” she said.
“Oh shit, really?”
“Not the whole thing. A week. I think we should get moving.”
“I haven’t heard you promise to be pleasant.”
She smiled, and it was an amazing transformation. Her smile broadened, and she laughed. “What?” I asked.
“I’ve been told I have a killer smile,” she replied. “And it was written all over your face.”
“Don’t let it go to your head. I speak about five words of French. Say something nice about me.”
She laughed again then spoke a few sentences in French. I caught a few words, but not enough to have a clue what it was. Then she switched back to English. “Are you going to ask me to translate?”
“Did you really say something nice?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“This transformation better be permanent,” I said.
“It is,” she said. “I hope.”
“All right then. And whoever said you have a killer smile was right.” I turned, and we began walking. “What does your husband say about you going off with your friend?”
“Nice try,” she replied. “Did you want to guess again?” She nudged me. “No boyfriends. No girlfriends.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not because I’m a bitch,” she said. “I can be a bitch, but everyone can, in my experience. I think today I had cause.”
“I understand why you feel events today gave you cause to be a little nasty,” I replied. “Keep going?”
“I’m half in love with Genevieve.”
“Is she even gay?”
“Pan,” Priya replied. “When we met, she was dating the most stunning woman you can imagine.”
“I can imagine pretty stunning.”
“Yes, well. She likes stunning women and hunky guys.”
I looked over at her. “Tried your smile on her?”
“Let’s just say: she knows how I feel.”
“You’re torturing yourself, then. Is wanting to get into her pants the reason she hasn’t succeeded in driving you away?”
“No. Well, I don’t know. Maybe. Caring about her is why she hasn’t driven me away yet, but this trip might do it. Are you always that crude?”
“I work in tech,” I replied.
“What has one to do with the other?”
“There aren’t a lot of women in our company. Four of us.”
“You, those other two woman, and someone else?”
“Amanda is the boss’s wife,” I said. “Felicia, me, my immediate supervisor, and the CEO’s executive assistant.”
“What does that have to do with being crude?”
“Self-defense.”
“Ah. I think I understand now. Do you have a girlfriend?”
“I’m married to my job,” I replied. “Twice the work for half the pay and all that.”
“Seriously?”
“Only half serious,” I said. “I think I’m being paid fairly for my level of experience. But I’m not sure men can help it. They look at me and see-”
“Hot babe,” Priya interrupted.
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
“That’s what they see,” she asserted.
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” I replied. “I want to be taken seriously. What do you do?”
“I’m a model.” I looked over at her. She was watching me, I thought perhaps to judge my reaction. “You don’t believe me.”
“You’re being coy about something.”
She offered her smile again. “I’m a former model, when I was 16.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, but only in a store. This store liked to use humans instead of manikins.”
“I’ve seen that a few times.”
“Oh, they had static displays, too, but me and the other models would sit or stand in the display cases. And I spent a summer in China.”
“As a model?”
“As a sort of model. I was a hired foreigner.”
“I don’t know what that implies.”
“It is considered prestigious if foreigners endorse your business,” she said. “So, some places hire foreigners to do just that. Sometimes it’s to give a talk at some event, and they might hire more foreigners than Chinese.�
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“Is that what you did?”
“No. I was told to look as French as I could and hold up a small sign extolling the virtues of the business of the day.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Sometimes it was for the business itself. Sometimes it was for a particular product.”
“Did it pay well?”
She laughed. “No. But they paid our expenses, and the place I lived wasn’t horrible.”
“What do you do now?”
“I’m an assistant manager for a bus tour company.”
“In Paris?”
“We give tours throughout France, but I’m based in Bordeaux. Have you ever been?”
“No. This is my first trip outside North America.”
“Americans.”
“Careful,” I warned her.
“You are an interesting people,” she continued. “The most powerful country in the world, but you can be so insular.”
“I’m not insular. I’m young, and no one has ever offered to pay me to hold a sign.”
“Would you have done it if they had?”
“Probably not. I wouldn’t be comfortable.”
“Do you think I was?” she asked. “Do you think I enjoyed knowing the shoppers were comparing me to the girl beside me? No matter how good I looked, there was always someone in that display case who was far more attractive than I was, a better body, better hair, prettier.”
I didn’t respond. We walked for a minute or two before Priya said quietly, “I wasn’t trying to judge.”
“I know Bordeaux is wine country, but I don’t know where it is.”
“Southwest France near the Atlantic Ocean. It is on the Garonne River, which empties into the Gironde Estuary.”
“Okay. I know where France is. I know where the Atlantic Ocean is. I’ve never heard of the other two.”
“Unless you know France, most people haven’t. The Garonne begins life in Spain then flows north into France then turns northwest. It passes through Toulouse and Agen, then Bordeaux.”
“What is an estuary?”
“I don’t know other estuaries, but the Gironde resembles a significant widening of the river, but it is now at sea level. It is 80 kilometers to the open ocean.”
“But there are tides?”
“Yes, and the water is brackish, meaning it is a mix of salt and fresh water. The tidal currents can be extreme. Imagine 80 kilometers of water flowing through areas that may only be a few kilometers wide.”