The mindscape games (on hiatus/possibly discontinued)

Hunted down

Virgil's POV:

Over time I slowly drew out of sleep, and looked around, making sure we were all alive and that there wasn't anyone in sight. When I did I let out a yawn and stretched before cracking my neck. I reached over and shook Patton awake who did the most FREAKING adorable yawn ever and looked to me with droopy eyes.
"C'mon, we gotta wake up the others and get moving." He nodded and stretched, and I began to let myself free of the rope, until I moved over to let Patton free as well. We both climbed down and he turned to me with a wide smile. How was he so awake and energetic already?!
"I know how to wake up Roman and Logan easily!" He told me and I motioned for him to go ahead. "Logie! RoRo! I'm feeling really sad~ can you guys give me cuddles?" He shouted up to them in a pouty tone of voice but not loud enough where it would draw too much attention. I saw the two of them shoot awake and both lunge forward, the two also forgetting about the rope. They clumsily untied the rope and quickly scaled down their trees to tackle Patton to the ground in a hug. "Awww~ Guys! I'm not actually upset I promise, we just needed a quick way to get you two up" Patton explained and Roman looked to him with puppy eyes as well as Logan who did them surprisingly really well.
"So no cuddles?" Roman asked in disappointment, Patton only giggled and ruffled both of their hair.
"Not right now, but definitely later" he promised them,
"I'll wake up Reina and then we can get a move on" I told them and they all nodded. I climbed up her tree and went to look like I was going to whisper in her ear. "WAKEY WAKEY BITCH!" I screamed into her ear making sure I kept my volume quiet enough. She shot awake with a jump and punched me in the gut. I doubled over in pain while breathlessly laughing as I tried to recover.
"Oh my god! Virgil I'm so sorry- Wait holdup, no I'm not sorry! That's what you get you dick!" She yelled at me and I continued to laugh.
"Totally worth it" she rolled her eyes playfully and began to untie herself, we climbed down together and all of us were now on the ground again. Looking up through the canopy, the sun was coming from our left, and by mentally taking note of our position I knew which direction we would have to keep going in.  "This is very important for when we're on the move, I need almost complete silence to strain my hearing enough so I can pinpoint if someone is in the area far enough away for us to hide and wait for them to pass ok?" I told them seriously as we sat down to eat some of the rationed food before we left. They nodded their heads in agreement and I saw them all trying to savor the little amount of food we had. "And watch where you step, one wrong move could end you with a twisted or sprained ankle or even draw attention to us if someone is nearby" I added and they nodded again looking serious and determined. We began to hike our way through the woods, the early morning buzzing with the awaking wild-life. I couldn't hear anyone but for some reason I couldn't shake this gut feeling that we were being watched and followed. And no matter how many times my paranoid self checked, I couldn't find a single sign of anyone nearby. I was probably just overthinking it, to be fair one wrong move could kill us all.

Janus's POV:

    I woke up to Remy shaking my shoulder urgently.
    "Hmm? What?" I asked groggily and rubbed my eyes.
    "Virgil" was all he needed to say to send me wide awake and scrambling to watch the broadcast. On the screen, Lola and Chad had found Virgil and his team and were following them being careful to not do anything to alert them to their presence. My breath caught in my throat as I silently pleaded, please catch on Virgil, you're in danger!

Virgil's POV:

    It was mid-day now and we came across a clearing, I had everyone halt and told them to wait as I quickly went around checking the perimeter. Giving a relieved sigh i motioned for them to relax and they did so immediately.
    "We'll rest here for the rest of the day, rest up you guys, I'm gonna go see if I can track anything to hunt down for actual food" I told them and they nodded.
    "You need anyone to go with you?" Roman asked and I shook my head no.
    "I can handle myself the best out of anyone here, I'll be fine. Although if you do hear me shout or scream, that's probably a bad thing" I told them and they nodded to show they understood and started to settle down to rest. I left my backpack with them only keeping my knife on me and started to wander, trying to spot any sort of fresh tracks. I was a bit far from our resting spot now when out of nowhere I was grabbed by a large beefy hand roughly clasping over my mouth and the other held tightly onto my neck as they yanked me back against a rough and tall persons chest. The hand over my neck quickly moved to wrap over my torso and arms locking me in place as I struggled to try and escape. The fake and high-pitched giggle made my blood turn to ice in seconds as Lola came into view from my side. My eyes widened and my body slumped in defeat when I saw the metallic bow and quiver resting idly on her shoulder.
    "Finally, I thought you'd never leave them alone" she spoke and I furrowed my eyebrows at her, not giving up a fight anytime soon as I wriggled against what I assumed to be Chad's strength while trying to shout muffled curses at her. "What? Not happy to see me? I see you've noticed I got a bow unlike yourself. And that you and your pathetic group don't even have any weapons to begin with" she taunted and I almost sighed physically in relief. The dagger was still hidden out of sight on my hip, meaning I still had a chance whenever they let down their guard. "Now I'd really love to stop your heart with this bow and arrow, but I think Chad has been itching to finish what he started when we first crossed paths" Lola told me and my eyes widened in fear and realization. I was going to be choked to death and suffocated slowly. "Whenever you're ready~" she almost sang to her partner and stepped back as if to watch, the second his hand left my mouth I went to scream at the top of my lungs.
    "HELP-" I shouted, before being cut of by the wind being knocked out of me, Chad had swung me around so quickly and had thrown me harshly against the back of a nearby tree trunk. I coughed trying to regain my breath when his hand grabbed my throat and hoisted me in the air, with another slam I was back against the tree trunk with his suffocating grip around my esophagus. I kicked, trying to hit something and clawed at his hand to desperately try to claw it away, but my hands did nothing, and my feet only kicked open air.
    "Virgil!" I heard Roman shout and I looked out of the corner of my eye to see them all standing there watching mortified as I was choked, Lola knocked her arrow quickly and aimed the arrow at all of them,
    "Take another step and I crush his wind pipe right here and now!" Chad barked at them and I gave them a look to tell them to listen.
    "So Virge, who did you think I should kill next? Reina would be an obvious choice considering how close you are, but I'm curious if I killed one of these three instead? How about the nerd? He looks injured already, or I could maybe even kill the pathetic freak, he seems to be the most cared about here" she threatened and I felt my blood begin to boil, my head was spinning and my vision was beginning by to blur from the lack of air. Your weapon you idiot! Your weapon! My brain screamed at me, I acted to look like I was losing consciousness as one hand slipped to pretend to lay limp by my side where my dagger was holstered. Chad was too preoccupied looking at me with his maniacal wide eyes as he watched intently the life leave my eyes. With one swift motion I unsheathed the dagger and brought it down into his skull. A broken and quick scream sounded from him as his eyes rolled to the back of head. He released me as his body backed up, he was dead before he even hit the ground. Not having time to recover, I grabbed the knife and attacked Lola, we tumbled on the ground for a moment or two until I had her pinned underneath me with the dagger pressed against her throat. I pleaded with my tear filled and pained eyes at her "please don't make me do this" I tried to communicate to her, I couldn't use my voice, knowing the e second I tried I would loose control. But she just thrashed trying to get free, screeching in rage at my sudden upper-hand. She was attracting too much attention, there had to have been someone who'd heard us by now. Closing my eyes tightly, I stabbed the knife into her skull like Chad and brought it out letting it fall to the floor. I looked to them in exhaustion and let the sickening and skin crawling coughs begin to echo out of me as I collapsed, the Adrenalin fading painfully quick, my body racked with the hacking coughs as my body curled in on itself. I felt hands urgently grab me and my body was sat back against a tree stump. Through my barely hazy vision, I saw Logan seriously and quickly examining my neck, he held a cold and calculated face, but his shaking hands around my neck said something different.
    "Don't try to speak, god knows what damage has happened to your vocal chords" he told me quickly and I nodded to show I understood. No matter how hard I tried to get air into my lungs, I felt so incredibly breathless. "Don't breathe in through your mouth, use your nose only" he ordered and I started to do so, instantly relaxing when fresh air filled my body. "Your vocal chords are only barely damaged, however it will take a bit to heal properly along with getting your wind pipe completely healed again." He told me and rummaged through his bag, and pulling out medical supplies. "Someone get him, his water" he commanded and Roman handed it to me where I took large greedy gulps from and coughed weakly when I finished. Logan then gently wrapped my bruised and tender neck gently with gauze and secured them in place. "Roman you're the strongest out of us, you'll need to carry him while we're moving" Logan commanded and I raised my hand up to stop them weakly. I shook my head and winced at the horrific pain that wouldn't fade away in my throat. I pointed to Logan and made a hand motion to signal to give me the pen and paper he had. He got it out in a hurry and I scribbled down on the paper. Leave me, they looked at it confused and Logan shook his head at me. "We're not going to do that" I scribbled down on the paper again. I'll slow you down, we've already wasted too much time here. I wrote down hopelessly, Patton started to cry and hid his face in Reina's shoulder as he began to cry softly. "Even if you slow us down or not, we're not leaving you behind. C'mon Roman pick him up and let's go" Logan stubbornly ordered and I weakly hit Roman's shoulder in protest as he scooped me up. It was so hard to keep my eyes open now, it felt like weights were pulling on my eyelids and were slowly getting heavier. Through my blurred vision I knew we were moving through the forest and at a fast pace. Unable to remain awake I felt my eyes finally close and I slipped into unconsciousness.