Stranded

Chapter 21 ~ Hannah

I look around the site again. No sign of Jack's group, they must have moved to castle rock.

"By God!" I here Sophie yell in a half broken voice. I ran over to her, past the rock to where the water is. I stop dead in my tracks staring at the corpse.

Simon is lying in the water, dead to the world. There are wounds all over him, and blood swirls around him in the water.

"They killed him...." Sophie mudders as she covers her mouth with her hands.

"We've.... We've got to get out of here.... Warn the others...." I say, my mind moving slowly like I'm in mud.

The boys have just killed someone. Not an animal for survival, not in self defence, because it's obvious Simon had no weapon from the wounds.... For.... For "fun."

"We've got to get on move," I say. I feel like I'm watching myself grab Sophie and pull her towards the forest.

Then we start running like the devils on our tails.

***

"CASSIE!!!" I hear my named screamed as I spin to face the gate that opens to the forest, as does everyone else. Hannah and Sophie run onto the sand, there faces such a mixture of panic and horrified that I can't even begin to guess what may have caused it.

The two of them skid to a stop and Sophie bursts into hysterics, collapsing on the ground, and muttering about someone being dead.

"Theymurderedhim," Hannah mumbles so fast I don't even catch a word. I think she's about to faint.

"Calm down," I say grabbing her shoulders forcing her to look at me. "Calm down. Get the children inside. Meeting," I say to the other girls who are staring at us.

The girls do as I say getting the kids that were outside to prepare to go up the mountain and witnessing this event are shepherd into the huts as several of us try to calm Hannah and Sophie down.

It doesn't take long for everyone to get into the main hut.

"What happened?" I ask. Sophie and Hannah begin to tell us what they saw through breaks in their voices.

The entire group is silent with shock.

"They killed him," Alexia repeats.

"Ye-ye-yes," Sophie manages to say.

"If they murdered one of their own...." Selene starts before dropping off. No one want's to think what this might mean. Or want to use Simon as an example, everyone knows he was one of the more decent boys.

"Then who knows what they'll do to us," I say, forcing myself to finish the thought. "Or Ralph's group."

"Rachel's with them," Olive says, her tone worried.

"That was her choice, but...." Alice drops off.

What will they do to her?

"We will need more girls watching the fire and the children for protection.... We'll move our main camp to up there, a little more than half of us will stay here.... We won't be the ones to start a war, but we'll have to be the ones to finish it, preferably with no deaths," I say, trying to make myself think like a military leader. I am petrified, but I force myself to control my expression and my voice. "The boys have strength in numbers against a single person, especially if they create a ring. We don't need a ring to kill a pig, we don't need a ring to capture a boy. We will need a place to keep prisoners and something to tie them to a post with...."

We all try to continue planning, but it isn't long before I demise the meeting and leave everyone to their jobs and thoughts.