The Hanging Tree (Zianourry)

Chapter Seventeen

We weren't sure what to do other than to keep running. They were following us, hunting after us, with the dogs following close on our trails. It was the one thing that truly frightened Harry more than anything. He had a very traumatic experience concerning a Rottweiler in his neighborhood that had him pinned in a car for four hours at the age of ten.

I wasn't sure what to do as we all ran through the trees. What once was beautiful and tranquil was now dangerous and threatening. I was completely terrified as the other boys pulled me along. We've never been this far into the forest. We didn't know the terrain and we were going to caught. It was inevitable. We were going to meet one of those three rooms. With any luck we'd all be put in the same one.

"Here!" Zayn said, pulling us into a dense grove. We fell inside, our feet getting caught in the mud that threatened to suck us under. I could deal with that. Drowning doesn't sound that bad at all. It did slow us down though as we had to use more effort just to raise our feet for it to sink again in the next spot. I was dying on the inside, thinking about the fact that they were right behind us.

"Keep going." Harry whispered to me, making me realize that I had froze in place. I nodded, grabbing his hand as I forced myself to move again. There were various groans from the five of us as we battled mother earth, sorta like she was telling us to deal with our fates.

"I don't-" Harry started.

"We won't." Niall cut him off. I hoped that we could all believe Niall. Hell I hoped Niall even believed himself.

I wriggled my way out of the mud just as something barked behind us. There against the edge the dog barked madly, the German Shepard having it's teeth bared as it tried to get out towards us. It reached out for the mud but flinched away when it's paw started to submerge. It didn't stop the rampaging barking though, it was a alarm of its own.

Niall was the one who pulled me away from the mud and up unto the flat surface again, along with the others. Everyone stared across the marsh-like area at the dog who was soon joined by others and our pursuers.

"That's a lot of people." Liam said quietly. There was close to twenty people across from us at the other end. I heard the boys cheering beside me, believing we escaped. That was until some of the guys took a few steps into the muddy grove and started trekking towards us. Then I saw one raise his hands and throw something towards us.

"Scatter." I screamed just as the grenade landed in between us. We scattered, each going off in different directions as the explosion went off, the shock of it sending me down a hill. I landed against a tree, groaning from the pain in my shoulder. I tried moving it and screamed from the pain.

I felt trapped, like a gazelle being faced by a pack of hyenas. I recalled this show I watched one time on Netflix, Speed Kills, and the first episode showed just how vicious hyenas can be. They don't just chase down a prey to kill it, no they play with. Run it around and tire it out as they come from all directions. It was a perk of the hyenas, being able to keep up their top speed for three miles. Finally once the prey is tired they go in for the kill. It was false how they were described as scavengers. No, they were pure blooded hunters who enjoyed the chase, much like these guys that chased us. How they scattered us and broke apart our pack. Question was, were we stronger apart then we were together?

I grabbed my shoulder, wincing as leaned against the tree to steady myself as I got up. I heard the crunch of feet destroying the leaves under them and I looked up to see one guy at the top of the small hill.

Time seemed to freeze as I faced my potential killer. Our eyes met as he stared down from the higher ground. He had this smirk of superiority on his face, almost as if he already knew he won. That I was a dead man.