Man Hunt

Chapter Ten - They're going to kill you Alice

‘’We’re back and we brought food,’’ I exclaim as we enter the camp.               

At the mere mention of food, the three we left behind in the camp get to their feet and swarm us excitedly. The events of the day seem to have been forgotten, or at least pushed aside for now. Food is our new priority, coping with the hunger. The food provided by the sickos behind this whole thing didn’t last long.

We explain how we came across a pair of rabbits on the way back from the LIS which Aaron managed to catch and kill.  It was by a stroke of luck that we noticed them, they had almost got away. It was literally due to the fact that there had been a pause in our conversation that we even heard the rabbits scuttling by. Aaron was quite impressive. He tossed his knife at the first, and snatched mine from my hand and did the same to catch the second.

‘’How long will they take to cook?’’ questions Kate after we finish speaking.

I turn to Aaron as I certainly don’t know!

‘’I’ll have to skin them, and then we’ll have to spit roast them. They should take about ninety minutes, maybe more,’’ he explains, ‘’spit roasting is usually slow.’’

We watch as Aaron grabs both rabbits and lays them across his lap. He holds the first by its hind legs and begins to skin it. I can’t watch for very long. I had pet rabbits as a child and I can’t help but think about them as he mutilates the two on his knee. I look away, running my eye along the perimeter of our camp, just to make sure we have no uninvited guests for dinner.

When the two rabbits are skinned, he sets up the spit roast above the fire. He gets two Y-shaped pieces of wood and sticks them into the ground opposite each other on either side of the fire. He then get’s a longer stick and sits it in the groove of each, so it sits nicely over the fire. He pierces the stick through the rabbits and places them above the fire.

‘’Look at Bear Grylls over here!’’ jokes Kate, ‘’you’re some survivalist! I’ll give you that.’’

‘’I’ve done a bit of camping in my time,’’ he smiles as he slowly begins to turn the spit.

We watch it all as our mouths salivate over the sight and smell of the cooking meat. It feels as though it’s been days since I woke up here. In reality, we’ve only been here for two days. We are all very much in need of this food. We will need our energy if we want to continue this ‘game’.

‘’How long do you think we’ll be here for?’’ I ask as I watch the rabbit – as though in a trance.

‘’Maybe another hour or so,’’ explains Aaron, ‘’like I said, the spit is quite slow.’’

‘’Not the rabbit, I meant how long we’d be on the island for,’’ I rephrase.

‘’Ohhh, I don’t know...’’ he replies, ‘’I’d don’t think any of us could call that.’’

‘’It’s all too unpredictable,’’ adds Kate.

‘’A few more days? A week? More?’’ I suggest.

‘’At the rate things are going, it could be another week. It looks like only one person is being killed every day,’’ he offers.

‘’It might speed up though, as the game progresses,’’ I suggest.

‘’Perhaps, but only if we are willing to kill,’’ replies Aaron.

‘’Can we not go into this conversation again,’’ asks Eve, ‘’I’m sick of it.’’

I glance over at her, she won’t make eye contact. Instead she stares at the floor, refusing to look at any of us.

‘’She’s right,’’ I say before I know it, both Aaron and Kate stare at me. The quiet boy even looks up.