Man Hunt

Chapter Eighteen - Rearing to Fight

I stare at the forest floor from the tree branch I am perched on. Myself and Kate have climbed a towering evergreen in a cluster of giant trees and we are both resting with our backs against the trunk and our bodies lie across branches. I haven’t said a word since we climbed up; I just stare at the ground which is meters below us. There is an uncomfortable silence, in which I find myself thinking about what I will do when I see Aaron next – the traitor.

I picture the two of us standing opposite each other, glaring into one another’s eyes. I imagine myself running towards him with a dagger in my hand, and him attempting to intercept my blow. Somehow I am stronger than him and I send his dagger flying from his grasp. Then I stab him, just as Jack was stabbed and watch him bleed out at my feet.

Next I watch him run towards me. He slashes his dagger at me again and again yet somehow I manage to dodge his blows. I am in some way quicker than him, and none of his blows come close to me. As he swings at me once more, I dive beneath his arm and get past him. Before he can turn, I kick him in the back and he falls onto his stomach. I stand on his back and force him into the ground. I then jump and plunge my weapon into his back.

‘’I’m sorry about Aaron,’’ says Kate eventually, after I play through endless – and quite unrealistic – scenarios in my damaged mind.

‘’So am I.’’

‘’Are you alright?’’ she asks.

‘’How could I have been so stupid? How could a guy like him have fallen for a girl like me? Especially as quickly as he did.’’

‘’Alice there’s no way you could have known,’’ she begins comfortingly, ‘’the only reason I knew was because I saw his instructions when I was looking for the water in his bag. If it wasn’t for that stroke of absolute luck, we’d still be with him.’’

‘’I can’t believe him; he had me convinced the traitor was you and I really was convinced. I’m sorry,’’ I say apologetically.

‘’It’s fine Alice, like I said before, there’s no way you could have known.’’

‘’You can call me Ally,’’ I say and she smiles weakly, ‘’and thank you.’’

I think about everything that Aaron has said and done since we arrived, now that I actually know he is the traitor, it seems like it should have been obvious to me from the start. He was the first to emerge from his room at the beginning, he calmed us all down, he kept order when Robbie and Eve began bickering and he reminded us quite often that it was a television show, despite how he knew it wasn’t.

How did I not realise sooner?

Right from the beginning he basically controlled everything we did. He made the decisions. He appeared as though he kept the piece. He is the one who found the instructions which – conveniently – nobody else was around for! Although it was both I and Kate that nominated him as leader, he took on the role very quickly.

‘’Do you think today is our last day here?’’ I ask Kate.

‘’If not today, then tomorrow,’’ she replies with a nod.

I glance over at her, she isn’t looking at me so she doesn’t notice my eyes fall on her. She looks as miserable as I feel. She lost the boy she loves today, and although I did too, Jack is gone permanently, and he was actually a good guy – unlike Aaron.

‘’What about you Kate? Are you alright?’’ I question.

She nods her head slowly; she looks as though she is holding in tears. It seems the reality of Jack’s death still hasn’t fully hit her. Like everything on this godforsaken island, Jack’s death happened so suddenly, and due to the nature of this place, we were forced to move on very quickly in order to keep ourselves alive. Now that we have stopped and appear to be safe, we have time to think and time to think leads to thoughts that I really wish didn’t flash across my mind.