raising you, pup (DisContinue)

chapter two

The light wasn’t burning her eyes anymore, so she risked crawling toward the front of the cage. Gazing out, she took in the scene around her.

Scraggly people moving about with an urgency that frightened her. She should feel happy though, those people who tormented her were currently being carted away. And yet...she couldn’t help but shiver from thinking about what was in store for her. The men that crowded her space looked dangerous.

She needed to go. Now. When everyone was distracted. The ginger who screamed threats at everyone earlier had his head down. His cronies were busy making him happy by working fast and efficiently. Her body leaned forward, she crouched down on her toes, arms braced on the ground in front of her. Deep breath. Count to three. She couldn’t think about it, if she thought too hard then she’d chicken out, or wouldn’t go as fast and get shot.

So that’s exactly what she did. Eyes screwed shut she counted to three and leapt up. Her body slammed into someone else. A huge wall of a person who reached out to grab her. Those goddamn instincts of hers kicked in. Her hand shot out to grab at a knife strapped on his thigh, held securely on a sheath.

A second later and the man had a machete pushed into his side, down to the hilt. The sound he made was god awful. Brought attention to them both. A chorus of shouts rang out around her. The blood that rushed to her ears made it difficult to tell what they were saying. She wasn’t sure if they were telling her to get down or if they were organizing to kill her.

She stood there and watched the panic swirl around her. The panic on her part forced her legs to move. She had to forget the men training rifles at her back. All that was on her mind was sprinting into the woods and dodging between the cover of the trees.

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Jacob kept his head down. Fingering the radio at his side. Waiting for John to pass the buck off to him, making him call Joseph. Or The Father himself wanting to speak. Not a conversation he was in the mood for. Right now he was convincing himself to walk over and coax the girl out.

When he looked up next he almost walked over right then, the kid had her head peeking out. Staring at the woods. Probably debating her chances on if she’d make it or not. Jacob wanted to see her try. See if she’d make it, or how his men would react when he hadn’t given explicit orders to keep her alive or shoot her. Sounded like a good enough training exercise.

Jacob put his head back down, kept drumming out a song on the metal of his car. He rolled his shoulders back, looking at the boots that would occasionally cross his line of sight.

He saw it before the scream reached his ears. The movements she made were fluid. Practiced. Jacob smiled. Color him impressed. The girl could hold her own. But underneath it all, he was still pissed. That was a good man. A man who went down because he let his guard down around a girl who looked like she would collapse any second.

Jacob strided toward the commotion. “Everyone stand down! Back up!” Jacob looked over his men. He began to do what came naturally, delegate. “I want two teams to escort those men back to John. The rest of you go back to the compound. If you haven’t heard from me by morning then call Joseph.” They followed his directions obediently. Leaving Jacob to stare at the spot where she once was. Situations like these always got worse. Joseph needed to start learning when to pick his battles.

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Her feet moved fast over uneven terrain. Rocks and fallen trees acted as perfect cover. It made it easy to run for five minutes into the woods, then allowed her to circled back. When she got closer to where she started she slowed her pace. Pushing her body lower to the grass she stayed still. Waiting. Playing the long game. Whoever decided to hunt her would most likely be skilled in the forest. Meaning her biggest hand up right now was the element of surprise.