Taken

Chapter 9

There were six of us in total and we decided on three roles- the Lulu, the walls, and the finishers. The three oldest girls besides me decided to be the finishers. They didn't mind the possibility of getting their hands dirty. The two younger ones each picked up a long stick in one hand and their spear in the other. They were the drivers. I volunteered to be the Lulu because I didn't want to take the chance of anyone else getting hurt if something went wrong.

We watched the doe's in anticipation on deciding which one to attack. It wasn't till one of the younger girls pointed out a small limp in one of the doe's step as it walked.

With our target selected, we each went to our positions as I started to slowly crawl downhill through the brush and dead grass to get closer to the deer. My heart pounded as each shift in my weight brought a new wave of anxiety hoping not to scare the deer too early.

When I was about twenty feet away from the deer, one of the doe's ears perked up and I knew that it would be only a few moments before they scattered. I had to make my move now.

My upper body rose to a kneeling position as I hurled the spear at the target doe. Luckily it stood unsuspecting as my spear penetrated it's back left thigh. It wasn't deep enough to stay penetrated as the deer scattered, trying to split in different directions to get away from their attacker.

The two younger girls stopped the deer in their tracks with their long poles to direct the deer towards where the finishers were hiding. One reared up at one of the girls but she quickly swiped her spear at it, ushering it to the opposite direction of me.

The deer I stabbed sprung into action just like the others but at a slower pace and a heavy limp decorated by their bleeding wound. I picked up my spear and gave chase to the deer, trying to trap them and make sure none could run back my way as the three of us herded the deer toward the awaiting finishers.

The deer clearly weren't expecting three large girls with spears to pop out of the dried grass in front of them as they stabbed their spears into any close enough. One got away without a scratch while the second had a large hole in their underbelly, scurrying off with a large blood trail tracking behind it. The third and targeted deer went down on the ground with a deep gash in its side and another in the chest just behind its front left leg.

Within seconds the three girls pounced on the doe with the fury of a madman. The doe endured more piercings than Caesar himself but I understood their fear. We could not let this deer escape.

With a sudden thought I traced the blood trail with my eyes to follow the path the second doe made in its escape. When I started to take off, Blackberry shouted after me, "Where are you going!?"

"I won't let it suffer for no reason!" I replied as I ran through the bushes and looked for disturbances in the brush around me.

The blood trail wasn't too difficult to follow as the deer ran in a straight path to avoid its predator and I would make sure to end its suffering once and for all.

I chased the trail for miles until long shadows cast across the forest and I knew the girls would have almost finished dragging the defeated doe back by now. I couldnt keep up on the trail like this for long with night coming upon me.

I sighed with relief when I finally saw it.

The doe laid on a rocky cliff edge with blood splattering on the marble white stone. I didn't need to look down to know that the cliff stood at least three stories tall with the tops of the tall trees just barely in view from the cliff's edge.