Man Hunt

Chapter Fourteen - I am Dead

When I wake, I immediately spot Kate and Jack sitting on one of the logs beside each other. They are facing me, watching me as I sleep to make sure I am OK – presumably. I don’t spot Aaron and I feel as though my face frowns slightly, which Kate seems to notice because she explains that he has gone hunting for food. I nod my head and pretend to be unfazed by his absence, secretly though I wish he had woke me up and taken me with him.

I climb from my sleeping bag and sluggishly approach the duo. I take a seat next to Kate and she smiles weakly at me. ‘’You OK?’’

‘’Fine,’’ I nod.

‘’Nightmares again?’’ she asks.

‘’Mmhmm.’’

‘’About what?’’ she questions.

‘’I keep having flashbacks of how we got here. First I saw Niamh and I get abducted, then we were taken to some building and just now I saw our bracelets being put on. It ended with us about to be sent to board the planes that took us here,’’ I explain, the two nod as I speak – taking in what I am saying carefully.

‘’I’ve been having some too, but they’re all way too hazy, I can’t decipher anything and I forget most of it when I wake up,’’ she explains.

‘’Mine are so vivid, it’s like I’m living the moments again.’’

‘’Have you learnt anything about the people that run this thing?’’ she asks.

‘’We’re not the first people they’ve done this to. I think they do this annually,’’ I explain as I recall the man’s words.

Both of their jaws drop; Kate’s quite dramatically, Jack’s only slightly.

‘’What?’’ gasps Kate, ‘’how do they get away with it?’’

‘’I don’t know.’’

‘’Do the survivors not tell someone?’’ she questions, ‘’surely they tell someone!’’

I shrug my shoulders and repeat, ‘’I don’t know Kate.’’

‘’What if there are no survivors?’’ she asks.

‘’Kate.’’ I say, slightly angry this time. She jumps back slightly.

She stares at me for a moment in shock and what could be sadness.

‘’I’m sorry, but don’t say that. They must drug the survivors so they have no memory, like they did already to us.’’

‘’Think about it,’’ begins Kate again, ‘’nobody knows where we are...we don’t even know where we are...’’

She is beginning to panic, I can tell by the tone in her voice and her shaky mannerisms that she is losing the one thing that gets me through the days here, that helps me turn a blind eye on the horrors that we witness each day – hope.

‘’I might find out if I have another flashback,’’ I suggest, trying to be more positive.

‘’We’re going to die,’’ utters Kate. Jack places his hand on hers and she looks at him. I can tell that there are tears threatening to pour from her eyes, this island is beating her.

‘’I promise you Kate, we are getting off this island alive if it kills me,’’ I vow and only afterwards do I realise the tragic irony in my poor choice of words.

She nods, although there is as little conviction in her nod as there is in my promise.

We sit quietly for the next thirty minutes or so, waiting eagerly for Aaron’s return. I know each of us is hoping that he brings something back with him, we really need the energy. As we wait, I go through the details of my flashback in my head.