We can’t just stay here. We can’t just hide in the trees and hope no one finds us. I scan the landscape once more, the little of it I can see from where we’re crouched in the trees. Ellie is rifling through the pack, after a minute she throws it down and I hear her exclaim,

“Pathetic! How do they expect us to survive?”

“They don’t,” I say sharply, “it’s not a contest, not really. They’re just making bets on who will die last. They don’t expect it to take more then a few days.”

“But what about the last one alive…” Ellie stammers, “maybe they would let you live.”

I glance back at her sharply, hand automatically going to the knife at my belt, “You bought into this crap? You really think they’d let you live if you happened to survive this? Why the hell would they drag a street rat back with them? What do you expect them to do, throw a party for the survivor?”

Ellie frowns at me, but Gus is nodding in agreement, “she’s right,” he says grimly, “rich men don’t give a shit about street kids. They’ll just stick around to see who's left and leave the ‘winner’ to die in the desert after they all congratulate one another on winning their bets.”

Ellie pulls the brim of her battered top hat down over her eyes, as if it will shield her from all this, “that’s great,’ her voice is choked, and I realize she’s trying to hide her tears from us, “we’re going to die.”

In that second I feel a surge of something, some long lost emotion. Pity. Something I haven’t allowed myself to feel in a very long time. You can’t afford to feel sorry for anyone on the street, it’s kill or be killed. You don’t share the bread you steal, you need it to survive. You don’t help the kid being dragged down the alley by the gang, in case they take an interest in you as well. There is no three musketeers “one for all” garbage. It’s just you. But somehow this is different, somehow I feel it now, and my stomach sinks a little when I realize I’m getting attached to these two. A luxury I can't allow myself.

Ignoring the niggling little warning voice in the back of my head, I crouch down by Ellie and seize the brim of her hat between two fingers, tilting it up so I can see her big brown eyes. They’re filled with tears, and she blinks at me in surprise.

“Ellie,” I say evenly, “we’re not gonna to die. We’re going to show those bastards a thing or two.”

Gus says behind us, “How?”

I straighten up and grab the leather bag, slinging it over my shoulder. My eyes skim the surface of the desert again, drawn to the mountain once more. It’s like a magnet. It bothers me.

“They’re here somewhere, those men. They’re watching us. There must be a base somewhere.”

“There’s nothing,” Gus says.

“No,” I shake my head, “look, I remember them saying when they pulled us out of the room…pack your bags. That’s what he said to the other men.”

Ellie’s eyes grow wide, “one of them was talking about getting a shower. She’s right, there must be a building around here somewhere.”

I point to the mountain, “I'd guess that it’s up there, hidden someway.”

Ellie and Gus both look up at the mountain, heads tilting back, eyes widening. Finally Ellie breathes, “That’s going to be a really long climb.”

“And what’s to stop them seeing us?” Gus says, “if we want to get up there, and why do you want to get up there?”

My finger tighten around the hilt of the knife, “I’ll find the chap responsible for this little dog fight and I’ll kill ‘em, and whoever gets in my way. Then we’ll going to stock up on whatever food and water there is up there and find a way out of this place.”

“And what’s your big plan then?” Gus says, planting his feet on the ground in a way that clearly says he’s not going anywhere with me, “just charge in there? We’ve only got one knife and a piece of rope. Shall I lasso them?”

“Maybe you can cut them with your lightening wit,” I snap back, “and if you don’t want to come that’s fine. Stay here and get chewed on by the ridgebacks.”

Instantly Ellie and Gus are both looking this way and that, eyes wide. Gus stammers, “those stories are exaggerated. They can’t be that big…”

“Doesn’t matter,” I hiss, “we’ve still got people and animals that want to kill us down here. You got a better plan?”

Gus is silent, and for a minute no one says anything. Suddenly I’m hyper aware that the sun is slinking slowly down towards the desert sand. It’s going to be dark soon.

Gus says,"Well what now?"

“Wait till it gets dark and then head for the mountain.”

Gus looks exasperated, “If it’s dark how will we see where we’re going?”

I shoot him a look, “there'll be a moon. It’s necessary to travel in the dark so they can’t see us,” I point up at the mountain, “the other teams, and them. We’ll camp at the base of the mountain when we reach it, tomorrow at dawn we start climbing.”

Ellie says timidly, “won’t they see us climbing?”

“We’ll have to go up the back of the mountain and hope they’re too busy watching the carnage beneath them.”

“Sounds like a plan with a lot of holes,” Gus grumbles, but he falls silent when I give him another dark look.

We wait until the sun is almost all the way down, and the mountain casts one long dark shadow over the desert beneath it. It’s the perfect cover to travel in. The moon hangs above us, just a thumbnail of silver, but it’s enough to see by. I hiss at them to stay in the shadows and go as quiet as they can. We dart from one clump of straggly trees to the next. The stretches of desert between them seem to take forever. We’re so exposed. I try to go as fast as I can but my feet keep sinking into the sand, making it slow going. We pass silently by one group of trees where  another group is camping out. Two boys and a girl, from the looks of the backs of their heads anyways. They’re nursing a small fire of embers, and I can smell the tantalizing odor of roasting meat as they turn something over a spit. They caught a rabbit. Just for a second I think about stopping and stealing it, but then I urge Ellie and Gus on and we slip away quietly. The other group doesn’t look up once.

The last stretch of desert seems to take hours to cross. The mountain looms closer and closer, looking more and more ominous in the dark, the shadow becoming darker as we near the base of it. I tilt my head back and try to calculate how long it will take to climb it. It’s nearly impossible to say in the dark. The one thing I can tell from here is that, happily, there are trees dotting the mountainside all the way up, the same scraggly dessert trees growing closely together. That should hide us from view while we climb.

“What now?” Gus breathes, tilting his head back to try to take in the entire mountain.

“Now we camp out in the trees and we wait till morning. Then we climb.”

 Orange light shines through my eye lids. Someone’s shaking me persistently, and I swat at them and mumble curse words.

“Molly,” a voice hisses, “we have to go. It’s dawn.”

Sitting up with a groan I rub my eyes, “Shit, I forgot where I was for awhile. It was nice.”

The sun is barely up and it’s already blazing down on the desert, sending heat waves rising up in shimmering patterns. I squint out over the landscape, trying to see if there are any other teams up and moving around yet. The team camping out in the trees aren’t that far away, and it wouldn’t do to have them sneak up on us or spot us accidently.

“Fall back into the trees more,” I mumble, “get ready to…”

My lips feel numb suddenly, and my words trail off into nothing. I can’t remember what I was saying, all I can think about is the thing that suddenly pops its head up over the sand dune. It’s miles away from us, it would take over ten minutes to get to us, but that doesn’t comfort me the slightest little bit.

“Molly?” Gus is saying, and then he turns and looks where I’m looking, and his voice trails off too. Ellie is the only one to say anything that makes sense,

“Oh shit,” she says, “Oh shit!”

The creature coming over the sand dune, walking…no, lumbering toward us, is colossal. It’s gigantic. The head, clearly as long as my body, is lupine. Its snout is long and ends in a lizard-like set of nostrils. Even over the distance I can hear its snorting breath. A pair of sharp looking horns crests the top of its head.  As it comes nearer more of it is revealed. Whatever it is walks on its hind legs, holding a pair of long arms that end in razor like claws, up close to its scaly body.  There’s a snapping noise as it moves, and when it finally crests the top of the sand dune I can see what’s making the noise. The tail of the creature starts thick and ends whip thin, and it lashes it back and forth each time it takes a step forward. It turns its head this way and that, nostrils flaring, green eyes searching the sand.

“Shit,” Ellie says again, and her voice is shaking, “what is that?”

“I think…I think it’s a ridgeback,” Gus whispers, “Oh god, they weren’t exaggerating.”

The ridgeback turns its body to one side, eyes darting this way and that, and we get the first glimpse of the sharp plates of bone that line it’s back.

“Yup,” I manage to stutter out, “ridgeback.”

“What do we do?” Ellie whispers, “can it see us?”

“Don’t move,” Gus hisses, “it hasn’t seen us yet. Maybe it will keep going if we stay still.”

“It’s heading straight for the mountain,” I growl, “if it keep coming this way it will see us.” My heart is beating almost out of my chest now, and my hand slips on the leather bound handle of the knife, slick with sweat. I’ve never been this scared. Never. I can fight men, I can even fight a group of men. But this thing? This monster? There’s no way.

Ellie whispers frantically, “What do we do?”

“I don’t know,” my voice cracks. I can’t tear my eyes away from the ridgeback as it gets closer. It starts to pass the last clump of woods before crossing the stretch of desert before the mountain, and on the breeze we hear a faint shout. My heart leaps, a mixture of excitement and fear.

“The others,” I whisper shakily, “the other team we passed last night.”

Ellie’s face is sheet white, “Oh no!”

The ridgeback turns now, faster then it should be able to, and lumbers into the trees. More shouts now, more screaming.

“Go,” I gasp, “let’s go now, up the mountain!”