Amidst the smoke

Chapter 4

Riley's Point of View

The engine revved beneath Riley's grip and she felt her stomach twist in fear.

"Never mind Jamie, this was a bad idea." Riley went to swing her leg over the bike to get off but was stopped by two firm hands.

"That's just adrenaline, you're mistaking it for fear. It's just like riding Whirlaway, except your hands are the main controller, not your feet." Jamie put his hand on the break, making sure Riley was pointing the bike the right way,

"This is nothing like riding a horse!" Riley screamed over the engine, into her brother's ear. Jamie grinned.

"Ready?"

"No!"

"Three...Two...One!" Riley's breath caught in her throat as the bike shot forward. The wind whistled past her ears and her hair whipped behind her. It was amazing.

"Woohoo!" Riley laughed but was cut short when she saw the end of the driveway come into view. Which one was the break again?! Riley could just hear Jamie yelling at her, something about her right hand? Riley quickly twisted the right handle as hard as she could, the wheels spun so fast the bike did a wheelie and fell backwards, throwing Riley to the ground. 

"Riley! Riley are you okay?!" Riley groaned and sat up, half of her head was warm, she dabbed it with her fingers, they came away red and wet. Jamie, or three of him, ran towards her and helped her stand.

"I...told you...it wasn't like...riding a...horse." Jamie chuckled and, despite the blurry pain, so did Riley. She couldn't wait to hear the telling off her brother would get for splitting her head open.

Riley groaned and put a hand to her wet forehead, she traced the slightly risen scar, left behind by the the six stitches needed to keep her head together. Her fingers came away wet but clear.

'Water or sweat.' Riley assured herself as she slowly looked around. She was sitting on a relatively comfy bed in a completely bare and dark room. Riley went to sit up but found her right wrist zip tied to the side of the bed.

'Bear.' Riley reached for the knife she kept on her belt, her fingers closed on thin air. Starting to panic Riley went to take off her shoe, planning on using the blunt pocket knife, her shoes were gone. Dread was slowly filling her body, what if whatever was smart enough to catch her had gotten Bear? What if he was injured? What if he was... Riley whimpered and pulled at the tie, feeling the plastic cut into her skin. Something twinged in her right shoulder, she turned her head and saw ugly, black plastic thread poking out of her skin in a surprisingly neat line of stitching. She also found that her bra and top had been cut. Riley growled in annoyance, sat down and tried to remember what had happened before she woke up.

"Spidermonkey, then we met Robert. He hurt me....I broke away? Got to a house...a shed?" Riley looked around the room, she didn't recognise anything. Suddenly Riley remembered something, she reached up and took out the clip she had been using to keep her hair up. She examined the edge of the clip before searching for a nick in the metal of the bed frame, it was old and creaky, it must have at least one dent. Riley found one just within her reach and set to work scraping the edge of the clip against the slightly sharp-edged dent in the metal. Riley didn't know how long she spent sharpening the clip, all she knew was that her muscles were screaming in pain. Suddenly, her hand slipped and the clip jerked forward, cutting into her finger. Riley winced, sucked away the blood, and began cutting away at the plastic zip tie. She refused to give herself a break, thinking only of Bear and what could have kidnapped them. Her fingers cramped and turned stiff, the clip slipped through her fingers.

"No!" A clinking sound echoed around the room as the clip fell to the floor. Riley leant forward and examined how close she had gotten, the plastic that was left was probably three millimetres in width. Riley grit her teeth, stood up on the bed and pulled as hard as she could, the clear plastic became stained a pinkish red as it cut deeper and deeper into her wrist. Finally, just when Riley didn't think she could take anymore, there was a snap and Riley fell back into the wall. She stretched out her arms and legs, wiped what she could of the blood onto the mattress, picked up the clip and slowly walked towards the door. Riley reached for the handle, but before she had even touched it, the handle turned and the door slowly opened. Riley jumped back in a sort of crouch, ready to fight the wild-eyed monster that had abducted them. But instead of being met with the rolling bloodshot eyes of a killer like she had expected, Riley ended up looking into two deep pools of melted dark chocolate. Riley frowned and looked her kidnapper up and down. He was a little taller than her, with dark, kind of long, wavy hair that was only just a shade lighter than his eyes. The boy was wearing a fitted black t-shirt and jeans, Riley scowled when she caught sight of what was in his hand.

"That's mine." She said, looking at the leather jacket annoyedly. The boy, who didn't seem to know what to do with himself, threw it to Riley who quickly put it on, not taking her eye of the him, "Where's Bear?" Riley demanded, the boy's silence was making her uncomfortable.

"He's fine." The boy said slowly.

"Like hell he's fine! If you don't take me to him I'll cut your throat open." The boy looked at the shiny clip.

"With a clip?" The boy smirked.

"Give me back my knife if you'd prefer it that way." The boy chuckled and went to say something when he caught sight of Riley's blood dripping hand.

"You're bleeding." Riley sighed and laughed airily.

"No kidding, maybe if you hadn't zip tied me to a bed I wouldn't be."

"It wasn't my idea to tie you up." Riley glanced behind the boy to see if anyone was behind him.

"Then who's was it?" Riley tried to think how many people she could take on at once, if they were all his height and muscle build she could be in trouble.

"Chief's." Riley raised an eyebrow, "That's his name! Well, it's what we, and you, call him." Riley snorted.

"I'm not calling anyone 'Chief'. Who else is here?" The boy thought for a second.

"Well, there's Doc, he's the one you need to thank for fixing you and your jacket. There's Chief, he's kind of in charge. Hacker works on the computers, electricity and all that stuff, he's like a technician, engineer and computer guy all in one. There's Bruiser, he's like Chief's bodyguard, he...deals...with strays and hands out the punishments if someone doesn't pull their weight. Scout....Scout is kind of just the odd-job guy of the group. He doesn't have a specific role, honestly I don't know why Chief's kept him around." The boy suddenly turned around.

"What?" Riley asked.

"I'm not meant to say stuff like that, could get me in trouble. Chief likes Scout, not enough to give him an actual role but enough to keep him." Riley said nothing, there was a few seconds of awkward silence,"I'm Archer by the way, the Hunter. I get the food and also get sent to do perimeter checks and stuff too, I'm pretty good at being quiet." Riley smirked.

"Prove it, shut up." Riley leapt forward and quickly pressed the sharp point of the clip against Archer's throat, wincing slightly at the painful twang that echoed through her arm, "Make one wrong move and I push this in as hard as I can, you probably won't die, but it'll hurt like hell and with any luck you won't be able to talk."

Don't have anything to say.

Toodles,

Human, Out.