Hunted - ON HOLD

Hunted - Chapter Five

OK, here is the next chapter of Hunted. The cover is actually new, I did it myself. :) tell me what you think. Vote, Comment, and Enjoy!

This chapter is dedicated to neley-nele because they were my first fan! Thank you so much!

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It was mid afternoon and Angie, Keeto and Kogee were back at the ruins. Angie was sitting under the peach tree and the tigers were beside her. Kogee sat up.

    “Angie you are too loud and noisy in the forest. We are going to teach you how to walk silently.”

    “First, you must place each foot slowly down on leaf covered ground, pushing the leaves down gently instead of crushing them flatly.” Keeto said.

    “Second, listen to the sounds of your surroundings. Jungles filled with wild animals, birds, and insects are not silent, but constantly changing, noisy places, and if you use these background noises, they can mask the noise you are bound to make. An example would be to make a step while a monkey is calling, or a Parrot is sounding off, so their noise covers your own,” Kogee added.

    After a couple of hours she had finally gotten the hang of it. She wasn’t a master at it yet, but she was close.

------------------

    That night, she worked her way toward the hunter’s campsite, wanting to get a closer look for herself. Keeto and Kogee were not with her. She got a lot closer to the camp than before and saw Hank lying on top of a blanket on the ground sleeping. Seeing nothing of interest, she backed away slowly. CRACK! The sound seemed to echo loudly into the forest around her. She winced and her eyes shot toward Hank. His eyes snapped open and he was on his feet with a gun in his hands in a split second.

    “Who’s there!” he called out, advancing closer to her slowly.

    Angie turned and ran. Not watching where she was going, she tripped over a root and fell, hitting her head on a rock. She lay there dazed and dizzy. Two thick boots came into her view. She looked up with blurry eyes to see a triumphant face. She struggled weakly to get away. He grabbed her arm and yanked her up. When she still tried to pull away more frantically he held her to his side squishing her arms to her sides as he reached around behind him to grab something. A strange sweet scented cloth was suddenly placed on her nose and mouth. She began to get really sleepy and felt herself droop in his arms before all went black.

-----------------------

    When she woke up, her eyes were hard to open, and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton balls. She tried to lift her hand to rub her eyes, but they wouldn’t move. She blinked slowly in confusion and looked down. Her wrists were tied behind her back and ankles tied together. Looking at her surroundings, she noticed that she was in a tent. She sat up with difficulty and saw a blanket shoved into a corner.  Hank came in. He crouched and looked Angie over.

    “Who are you?” he asked.

    Angie just blinked, her mind still hazy and groggy.

    “Okay, rephrase. What is your name?” He said this slowly, as if she was stupid.

    She opened her mouth and tried to say her name, but no words emerged. She lightly cleared her throat and spoke again, “Angie!” Her voice came out as a yell, and jumped in surprise despite herself. Stuart looked slightly amused for a split second before morphing back into the emotionless statue he usually was.

    “Why were you spying on my camp?”

    Angie shrugged hesitantly.

    “Really?” He pulled out a small knife from his belt and started fiddling with it to intimidate her.

    Angie swallowed hard, staring nervously at the knife in his hand she then said in a small wavering voice, “I-I was curious.”

    He just looked at her, his eyes gauging whether or not she was lying. Finally he blinked, grunted and nodded.

    “Where do you live?”

    “In the jungle, I ran away from home.”

    Hank looked thoughtful; then smiled a cold smile.

    “I guess no one will miss you then,” he said dangerously.

    She saw him suddenly lunge toward her and cover her mouth again with the scented cloth before she slipped into unconsciousness.

------------------

    She woke up slowly to the uncomfortable feeling of being jolted and bumped. She opened her eyes, but still couldn’t see anything. Slowly, as her mind started working again, she realized that she was blindfolded. Her ankles and wrists were still bound too. She wiggled to gauge how much room she had. From the feeling, she concluded that she was wedged between two crates and on something moving. The vehicle she was on jolted again and Angie’s head was banged into the corner of a crate painfully. She winced from the impact. Angie lay there brainstorming ideas to get out of this mess she brought on herself.

    “That’s it!” Angie exclaimed out loud in a moment of clarity. She carefully hooked the bottom of her blindfold on the edge of the crate and pulled her head down to pull the blindfold off. After multiple tries, she finally got both eyes uncovered. From the angle she was in, she could only just see the trees passing quickly above her from the corner of her eye. Well, at least I’m still in the jungle. She thought hard about how to get her hands untied, but eventually when no easy solution was found she gave up and started thinking of Keeto and Kogee. She felt really guilty and upset that she didn’t even leave a note to tell them where she was going. Oh, I hope they can track me down and help me.

    Angie was so consumed in her thoughts she didn’t notice when the vehicle she was on stopped jolting and bumping and the ride becoming smoother. Deep in her thoughts, the lulling noise of the engine and warm sun pulled Angie back into dreamless sleep.  

-----------------

    When angie awoke next time her wrists were now bound in front of her but her ankles were freed and she was lying down on a metal surface. she sat up and looked around her confused. She was in a metal room with six small round windows; three on one side and three on the opposite wall. nothing else was in there except for a metal door. ‘When did I get in here? Where am? How did they untied and re-tie my ankles and wrists?’ she thought to herself. She got up and walked to the windows and looked out. What she saw made her scream.

    The door suddenly opened and in sauntered Hank.

    “Did you have a nice rest?”

    Angie looked at him in disgust, but the terror she felt showed in her eyes.

   “What was the scream for?” Hank asked slightly concerned. If she was injured in anyway, her price would go down.

    “We are in the sky! We’re all going to die! This isn’t natural! How are we even up here?!” Angie continued muttering to herself and shaking in fear, her body curled up into a little ball on the floor.

    Hank watched all of this with some worry and fascination. It seemed like she forgot he was even here. Slowly he walked up to her and crouched down, studying her glazed expression thoughtfully.  He reached out and lightly touched her shoulder.

    She thrashed and gave a bloodcurdling scream at his touch and lashed out at him. He jumped back surprised and startled. She crawled away from him and huddled in a ball, panicking. He looked at her and pulled out his handkerchief. Reflexively, when Hank started walking toward her, Angie freaked out and thrashed around fighting him and his efforts to subdue her. Hank somehow got his arms around her and clamped the cloth on her face. Angie struggled as hard as she could to not breathe in the chloroform, but it was no use. Hank waited until her movements stopped and she lay limp on her side before pulling away.

    “Good grief,” Hank thought to himself as he shook his head in disappointment at the girl. He stuffed the handkerchief in his pocket and let the plane cabin, closing the door and locking it tight.