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I could feel my heart starting to race, as it realized that the attack was imminent. My palms grew damp with sweat, as I moved slowly from tree to tree, until I was sure that I was in the best position for what was about to come next. I watched as the girl walked over to the two men. “Did you tell Nathan what an idiot he was?” she asked the older one.

  “I’m sure no harm will come from what he did,” the man replied.

  I couldn’t be sure, but I wondered whether she was talking about the trip that had been made into the town earlier that day. Was Nathan the man who had led me right to his camp?

  CHAPTER 4

  Nathan

  The cool of the night had started to wrap around us, even with the fire burning brightly. “Don’t you think you should be getting to bed?” I asked Natasha.

  She frowned as her bright red hair whipped across her face with the force of the wind that carried the cold.

  “What are you, my father?”

  “Well, I was just thinking with the discovery you made earlier, that you’d want a good night’s sleep before you started to work out how to fix the problem,” I said with a casual and airy shrug. “We both know that you’re nothing, but a grump when you haven’t slept enough,” I joked.

  She glared at me. I could see her cheeks starting to brighten from the pale snow-white color her skin normally was to a bright red. “You can be such a douche,” she said through gritted teeth.

  I didn’t respond as a noise from beyond the tree line caught my attention. I turned my head and scanned the darkness which surrounded us. I couldn't make out anything in the gloom.

  “Did you hear that?” I asked Natasha.

  “Hear what?” She looked anxiously in the direction that I’d just been looking in. I felt bad, because I could see her inner child coming out in her eyes, as she started to get frightened.

  “I’m sure it was nothing,” I said in the best reassuring way that I could. “It was probably just a fox or something.”

  She nodded, but she didn’t look like she believed me. “Are there even any foxes around here?”

  “Probably,” I said with a small nod.

  I tried not to react when I heard another noise coming from the tree line. It sounded closer. It sounded, as though it was trying to work with the sound of the fire, so that I wouldn’t be able to pick it up. “You should go get some sleep,” I told Natasha, because I wanted her safe and in her hut and not out in the open.

  “Fine,” Natasha said with a huff. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” She started to walk over to the hut that she’d claimed as her own.

  “I’m sure you will,” I said. I watched, as she walked into the hut and closed the small leaf door behind her. I felt a sense of relief knowing that she was at least relatively safer in there than she was out in the open.

  The noise came again and this time it sounded like it was almost on top of me. I turned quickly to face the source of the noise.

  I blinked, as a startlingly beautiful woman came into my view. She had long legs wrapped in tight denim. Her hips curved out and her waist pulled in. Her face was serious, but even so it held a kind of delicate grace that seemed to glow out into the darkness.

  “Who are you?” I asked. I tried to ignore the gun that was in her hands.

  “I don’t want to use this,” she said to me, as her eyes met mine. I could tell that she was serious. I could tell that she didn’t want to use it, but I also could tell that she would if she had to.

  “What do you want?” I asked, as if I was in any position to be making the first moves.

  “You know why I’m here. You probably already know who I am. I want to be fair. I don’t want to ruin any more lives that I have to. I only need to take one of you.” She had a cold look in her eyes, as though she was trying to distance herself from her actions.

  “You’re Bounty,” I said. Bounty was known by all of the old worlders. She had been brought up not by a family, but by The City of Hope as a body. They had trained her from almost birth into the perfect fighting machine who would follow their orders without question.

  “Well, my friends call me Sarah,” she said a little sarcastically.

  “Okay. Well, Sarah, I’m sorry but I can’t let you take any of us. We’ve done nothing wrong,” I said, and I hoped that my voice sounded firm.

  She laughed. “This isn’t a subject that’s open to debate,” she said.

  She walked forward. I made a move to block her way, but then she lifted the gun and pointed it at my knee. “I won’t kill you, but I’ll make sure that you never walk again,” she said dryly.

  I could tell that she wasn’t bluffing. I stood still in horror as she moved past me, far enough way that there was no chance for me to jump her.

  I realized that she was walking towards Natasha’s door. “You can’t take her,” I called after Sarah, but she didn’t even turn back to look at me. She pushed open the leaf door.

  “I’m going to need you to come with me,” Sarah said calmly.

  “Nathan?” Natasha called out, and I could hear the panic in her voice. “Nathan, what’s happening?”

  “I’m going to need you to come with me now,” Sarah said and she reached into the darkness and roughly pulled Natasha out by her arm. I could see Natasha struggling against Sarah’s grip, but I knew that it would be useless. I’d heard that people had broken their bones, before they had broken out of her death grip.

  “Nathan, you can’t let her take me,” Natasha begged me.

  Sarah started to push her out of camp. The distress in Natasha’s voice was waking up the other campers and I could hear footsteps as people left their huts to watch.

  I stared at Natasha. There was nothing I could do. Sarah would kill me before she’d let me take Natasha back.

  No one else from the camp made a move to help, either. We all just stood and watched as Natasha got dragged out into the woods and out of our view. After a few moments we could no longer hear their movements through the underbrush.

  I could barely even take in the air that my lungs were burning so furiously for. I didn’t deserve to breathe. My best friend had been taken and it was my fault.

  CHAPTER 5

  Sarah

  The walk back to The City of Hope was going to be a long one. It didn’t help that the girl I had taken was struggling with me every step of the way.

  We walked through the night until the sun started to lift itself over the horizon and then I brought us to a stop.

  “Are you tired?” I asked her, as I turned to look at her. She looked tired. She had dark circles under her eyes and her shoulders were slumped in on themselves.

  “Like you care,” she said to me bitterly. She dug her foot into the ground and then started to kick her foot into the small ditch she had made. I wondered whether she was imagining that it was my face.

  “Well, actually I do care,” I said. “If for no other reason then it’s because you won’t fetch good money if you’re looking close to death.”

  She snorted at me. “That’s all you care about, isn’t it?” she asked with narrowed eyes. “You don’t care about the fact that I’m a human being just like you. You don’t care about the fact that I have every right to live my life the way I choose. All you care about is getting your pay check. Do you even know what they do to us after you’ve handed us over? Have you ever even once asked?”

  I could feel her judgment of me washing over and into my body. I didn’t blame her for thinking the way she did of me. It was true that some bounty hunters only cared about the money, but that wasn’t true of me. She couldn’t understand that I was doing this for the only bit of family I had left. She couldn’t understand that my family had been persecuted just like hers.

  “Aren’t you even going to defend yourself?” She asked. She looked half amused by my lack of response.

  “I don’t see why I should have to,”

  I pulled my bag off of my shoulder and pulled out a small blanket that I’d folded up at the bottom. I held
it out to her. “It’s not much, but it might make your sleep more comfortable. I’ll keep guard, so you don’t need to worry.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “Right, because it’s really the wild animals that I should be worried about.”

  She took the blanket from me in a quick snatching motion and shook it out, so that it was laid flat on the ground. She positioned herself on it and quickly fell asleep. That was no surprise to me, because we’d already covered many miles of the journey we were making.

  I left her to sleep until the sun had fully risen and then had started to sink again. It was pointless making our journey through the day. The heat was too much for somebody who wasn’t used to it, and I could tell from the girl’s pale skin that she’d spent more time underneath a canopy of trees than she had frolicking in the sunlight.

  “It’s time to go,” I finally said to her gently, as I put my hand on her shoulder. She shifted my hand off of her and sat up quickly. “You’ve slept the day through. You should have had enough rest to travel on through the night now,” I explained, as I waited for her to stand up and fold up the blanket I’d given her.

  “What do they do with us once you’ve handed us over?” she asked me randomly. Her voice didn’t have the same steely edge that it’d had earlier. It sounded much softer and almost childlike.

  I looked at her and considered what I should say. “They offer you a choice,” I said, because it was the truth.

  “What kind of choice?”

  “You can be chipped and put in the system, or you will face the penalty of death,” I explained.

  “That doesn’t sound like much of a choice,” the girl said stuffily.

  “They are giving you the choice about whether you will live or die. I think that it the most important choice any person could have to make,” I said seriously.

  “I’d like to know your name,” I said, when it was clear that she had nothing else to say to me.

  “Why?”

  “So I know what to call you.” I said.

  I put the blanket back in my bag and swung the bag over my shoulder. I could feel the cool touch of my gun pressing against my stomach from where it was being held in my jeans. I gave her the nod, so that she knew we were setting off.

  “Natasha,” she said after a minute or so had passed.

  “I’m called Sarah, but I’ve heard that I’m known among your people, as the Bounty,” I said, to show her act hadn’t gone without appreciation.

  She nodded. “I know who you are.” She didn’t look at me when she spoke. She just kept her eyes facing forward.

  She walked slowly, but I didn’t mind that too much. We had a long walk and I didn’t want to have to carry her for the last part of it.

  “You know, if you chose to get the chip implanted, then you can become a proper member of society,” I said.

  She shook her head. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” I replied quickly.

  “How many people have you handed in that you’ve later seen as a functioning member of society?” Her voice was full of condescension.

  “Well, the earth is a big place,” I started and she just snorted in response.

  CHAPTER 6

  Nathan

  I could hear the others around me talking. Their conversations filled up the air with an uneasy buzz, as everyone tried to work out what had just happened and more importantly, why it had just happened. I felt a hand reach out and land on my shoulder. I stood unmoving. I didn’t care about who had chosen to comfort me, because I knew that it wasn’t Natasha.

  “We need to talk,” I heard Eric’s voice say close to my ear. “We need to talk now,” he added, when it became clear that I wasn’t in a hurry to move.

  I nodded, but I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I was in shock over what had just happened. My entire body felt as though it was suddenly made of lead. Every footstep I took away from the crowd and towards Eric’s hut felt more laborious than it had ever before.

  I reached the hut after a short but endless walk and stepped through the door. A small flickering candle was lighting the otherwise darkened hut and I just stood waiting. I felt numb. I felt like none of it was really happening to me and I was just watching it play out through some strangers eyes.

  “I can’t lie to them,” Eric said to me gravely. “I wish I could. I honestly wish that I could keep you out of this, but if any of them found out, then they would never trust me again. You do understand that, don’t you?”

  I nodded. I was still unable to speak.

  “I don’t know how they’re going to react to the news. Have you thought about what you’re going to do yet?” He asked. “Of course you haven’t,” he said quickly and without judgment. “Look at you, you’re completely stunned.”

  He slapped his hands together, decision made. “Listen, you stay here. I’m going to go talk to the others. You need to process what’s going on.” And with that he walked out of the shelter.

  I sat down. Well, I collapsed under the weight of my own body. I stayed close to the ground, unmoving, as l listened to Eric addressing the crowd outside. At first there was a heavy layer of buzzing distorting his voice, but then everybody became silent and I could hear him as clearly as if he stood next to me.

  “The Bounty had been to our camp and taken Natasha,” Eric explained, and then he paused so the news could sink in. “It’s a great tragedy and a great loss,” he continued. “It had come to light that Nathan spent some time in the farming village earlier in the day.” The crowd started to become louder again and Eric paused. “We should not judge Nathan. He was attempting to do his best by us and sell some of the wares he had made.”

  The crowd started up again and I waited for Eric to start talking out a plan, but he didn’t. Instead, I heard footsteps approaching the hut and then he appeared at the door. “How are you doing?” he asked me, when he’d come in and sat down beside me.

  “I’ve been better,” I managed to croak out.

  Eric nodded at me in an understanding way. “You know, we’re going to have to move on from here. We can’t risk us staying and the Bounty coming back.”

  I thought about Natasha. “She won’t be able to find us if we move,” I argued.

  “Nathan, it is my greatest hope that Natasha finds a way of escaping her captor, but that does not mean we can risk other people’s lives on only a hope.”

  I nodded. I could understand what he was trying to explain to me, but it didn’t make any difference to my stance. “The Bounty only took Natasha. She could have taken more, but she didn’t. What if she only needed one?” I offered. It was a possibility that she would never come back to the camp and Eric had to acknowledge that.

  “You may be right, of course,” Eric said. “I cannot risk people’s lives on an assumption, though. We must do well by the many, not the few. After all, that’s what had gotten the world into the sorry state of affairs in the first place.”

  “I won’t go with you,” I told him. I could hear the emptiness in my voice, but I meant every word. “I can’t just accept the fact that she is gone and that it’s my fault. There is no justice in that.”

  “I never expected you to come with us,” Eric said and he sounded almost sad over the fact that his beliefs had been proven right. “I know that you must do what is right by Natasha and I applaud you for that.”

  I nodded. “I hope that one day we might meet again,” I said.

  “If we are meant to, then we will,” he said flatly. But then he smiled.

  I stood up and brushed off the dirt that had clung to my pants. Eric stood up beside me and for a moment there was awkwardness, where we both knew that a goodbye was almost upon us.

  “I’ll miss speaking with you,” I told him honestly and then he pulled me into a short hug.

  “I’ll very much miss speaking with you too,” he said with a warm smile. “You have a very bright head on those shoulders, just like your friend. I hope that you find each other, because I�
��m sure that together you will do great things.”

  We walked out of the hut and Eric headed over to the crowd without saying anything else to me. I thought about going over with him, but I knew that the public opinion of me wouldn’t be very high after they all learned and once they took in that they would have to move.

  I let myself look at the scene and I mean really look, so that I was sure that my brain had taken in every last detail of the home that I’d shared with my friends. Then I turned and walked out into the woods.

  CHAPTER 7

  Sarah

  We’d travelled about the half the journey when I let Natasha take another rest. It was closer to dawn than midnight and I knew that she would probably be exhausted. I got out the blanket for her and noticed how she didn’t even have the energy to snatch it off of me.

  The hours passed quietly. I was surprised by how little wildlife we had encountered on the journey so far. I had been under the impression that this was active land and that several species of animals had been through years of breeding programs to ensure their survival. I’d read about it in one of the publications that they kept in The City of Hope’s central building.

  I was starting to think that, perhaps, it would be safe for me to sleep as well, when I heard a soft noise in the distance. I softened my breath to barely a whisper, so I could listen while seeming not to. The soft noise was falling in a pattern, it was clear that whatever was moving was doing so on two legs. I stood up, so that the attacker had no chance of catching me off guard.

  A small movement to my right caught my eyes and I turned to look, but all I could see was the flat open desert that led out close to The City of Hope. A noise to my left forced my head to swing back and for a moment I felt dizzy.

  The noise came closer. I was sure that whoever it was thought that they’d managed to confuse me.

  A small change in the air behind me let me know where they were. I dropped low and sent my leg swinging out. I felt them make contact, before I even saw the person they were making contact with. I jumped up and on top of him, so I could pin his arms to the ground.