SONG TO LISTEN TO: Runaway- AURORA

Everyone is taking off around me, running away from each other. I search for someone in the crowd to go to, but few people remain. I make a beeline for the weapons tent, but stop short as I watch dozens of boys heading in and out. Shouting erupts inside. I can't go in there, someone could kill me.

I turn and run into the forest in a direction I've yet to explore. I hear it takes a full eight hours running at top speed to cross the island. I don't know if it is in fact that big, but I imagine it could be much larger. 35 people can spread out that far, right? 35 if you include Pan and Felix and Nicholas, whose dead now.

Only 32 people, one of which is me. So I guess you can say I'm hiding from 31 other people right now. 31 people, half of whom I know, half of whom I don't. All of whom could kill me.

Nevermind the animals. I remember that damn tiger, and shutter as I continue to run through the dark. As if I didn't have enough to worry about with all the boys.

I turn left and right, darting back and forth. Voices erupt behind me, shouts and cheers. I'm a decent runner, but not the fastest on out there. It would only take seconds to catch me at this speed. I wouldn't even recognise the face of my attacker in the dark.

Walking over to a tree, I attempt to climb up it. No such use, I'm rotten at climbing things. I keep running, looking for a tree I can easily climb.

It's difficult to tell without light. Darkness encases me, and I struggle to not run head-on into a tree.

There's one a few feet up ahead that's knocked halfway down. I run along the trunk and reach into the branches of another tree, pulling myself high up off the ground. My muscles feel as if they are on fire; I'm not known for my strength, nor my agility according to Harry. If I am one thing, it is determined, and though it hurts I'm determined to hide in these trees.

I grab hold of branches above me, carefully walking along the one beneath me like a balance beam. Slipping feet, my hands scratch against the bark as I hold myself up. Once my feet find the branch again, and the leaves of the tree stop rustling I move forward. With each step my heart pounds.

Once I'm close enough to the next tree, I let my feet go over the side of the tree branch. I kick them over until they are wrapped around the next tree's wood. Using all the power my abdomen can muster, I swing my torso over into the next tree. For the few brief seconds I'm upside down, I spot boys running away from where I am. I wonder if they are as frightened as I am.

I move closer until I'm in the center of the tree. Solidifying my spot amongst the branches, and for a brief second, feeling safe within its leaves.

I hear footsteps and peek down. They can't see me, but boys run by beneath the tree. I recognise two of them, Fred and Dominique. There are two more with them who I don't recognise.

Now what? I just sit in a tree the entire time? Three days? I might not die of dehydration, but I might die of dehydration too.

There's no way to be safe. No way at all.

I have to find somebody. I know fifteen people here? Ten? At least a few of them won't kill me for sure. Johnny, Harry, Jared, Max.

I'm about to climb down from the tree, when I feel someone's hands on my mouth. I think my chest might explode, as panic sets in. I reach my hands up to rip them off but no one is there. Even when I turn around behind me, looking I find no one. I felt a hand though, someone was here.

I hear a rustling from beneath me.

"Please, let me stay with your group." The voice has a thick Scottish accent. "I can hold my own."

It's Marcus. He's another one of the News. I rarely see him, and I can barely make out his shadow beneath the trees.

"Listen, you've got to prove yourself." The voice is Gregory's. "We can't let you stick with us."

"I can hold my own." He argues.

"Listen," Gregory's voice turns sour.

I peer down. There a four bodies, the others belonging to Samuel and Keaton, I assume.

"Gregory." Keaton warns.

I hear a scream, and I can't look.

"If you don't scram you will die." Gregory hisses.

Marcus runs.

"Next time," Gregory spits. "I'm going to kill him."

They walk off together, as Keaton boxes Gregory's ears, because how dare he hurt their new recruit and this is the second time he's messed up the plan since the new shipment arrived and it'll be Gregory who dies if there's a next time.

As the voices drift further down, I begin to close my eyes. I only got to sleep for a few hours last night, or this night. There still is no sun.

I know he could draw out the days if he wanted to. Pan's done that before. I wonder if it really is my 19th day here, or if it's my 20th, or 30th. Time seems consistent, but the sun is not.

I can't fight it anymore, as my eyes begin to shut on themselves.

I hear screaming and voices beneath me, that's what wakes me up. I'm not well rested, and slowly opening my eyes takes all the energy I have. The boys run and shout, crashing through the trees below.

I recognise one of the voices. "Fire!"

It belongs to Johnny.

I jump out of the tree, looking around, searching for him in the boys that run past. That's when I smell it. The crisp burning and smoky-air.

The trees are all on fire, and they flames are moving closer as I waste time thinking.

I turn around, running. It's light out, if only barely. I can finally see where I am headed and who is in front of me and what is beneath me. Even if it's only shadows.

I dart over logs and around trees, trying to make as much distance between myself and the fire as possible.

I spot Keaton, Gregory and Samuel, running through the pack of people. They nod to each other, and then break off, all in different directions.

I turn, heading in the direction of Samuel, seeing as I have witnessed less of his brutality then of the other boys. If those three are planning on murder, I'm placing my bets on escaping Samuel. We dart forward through the trees, along with many other boys. Suddenly, there is a cliff before us. A wall of dirt trapping us in with the fire. We must be by the waterfall.

With the waterfall still behind us I attempt to find something to pull me up the cliffside.

I grab my hands around the dried roots, which crumble into dust beneath my grasp. The dirt turns to a tan paste in my sweating, panicking hands. Nothing but small stones, and dried dirt to lift me on to the side, and even if there was, it looks like the ledge is 80 feet up in the air. The fire would consume me before I got to the top, if I could climb that high without falling and dying.

Samuel turns towards me, a sour look on his face.

Snow begins to drift down from the dimly lit sky, thick and white. It burns as it hits my skin, and I realise ashes rain down from the sky.

"I'm sorry," the words come out of his mouth, and I don't wait for him to continue.

I run. I run away along the edge of the cliff, screaming. I hear his feet pounding down behind me. He's going to kill me. I keep running and darting before pulling out my dagger and turning to face him. I can't secape him.

I bare my teeth at him, and laugh. "You think you can take me on?"

It doesn't scare him off. He comes stalking forward towards me.

"I'm sorry," he says. He cracks his knuckles. I look him up and down. He has no weapon.

I raise my dagger at him. He moves forward and I slice his hand, blood pools out. He barely winces. He comes at me again, this time I slice him at the arm, ducking out of the way.

I turn and run, but he still follows.

"Charlie!" I hear the voice front of me.

I run towards it. The flames are closing in on us now.

Moving forward, I leap into the boys arms. It's James.

He grabs me by the arm, pulling me along. We move farther and farther. I can hear Samuel behind us, pounding closer.

"I'll take care of him." James says.

"No!" I shout, stopping.

James stops too. He gestures to a hole in the cliff. He boosts me up before I can protest. It's filled with dirt, and is essentially a small, shallow cave. It's almost like being buried in the ground.

I reach out to help him into the small space, but he's running away. I watch as Samuel bounds towards him.

Did James just save my life? Maybe. Am I going to risk my own life to save his?

I hear him cry as what I can only assume are the bones in his body cracking. Trees crash down behind them, but Samuel pays no mind as he slams James into the dirt wall.

James cry out in pain, but this time his breath stops short in his throat.

I pounce on Samuel, who throws me down on to the ground, straight off of him.

"I'm sorry," he says again. He raises a rock over my head. He's going to crush my skull in, he's going to kill me.

Samuel falls on top of me, then rolls over on to his back. He gets up off the ground, and kicks something.

I look over, it's James. He drops the heavy rock, dripping in blood, and turns to run. Samuel picks him up and slams him onto the ground. I pull out my dagger and I slash Samuel in the stomach, without a second of hesitation.

He knocks me into the cliff, as I fall hard into the wall, trying to get the dagger from my grip. I kick him in the crotch, and he lets go of me, tumbling backwards.

"I'm sorry," he says again.

He picks up James off the ground. Hoisting him up, as he holds his legs together. He throws James towards the cliff. James's head hits the dirt wall and he slides to the ground.

In the dim light, I can only see the dark wet trail along the dirt. The red of James's blood looks black.

Samuel picks up James off from next to me and lifts him up. I'm too dizzy to fight.

"I'm sorry," he continues.

My arm springs forward, and I slice the arm that holds James in the air.

He drops James, as blood begins to pool out from him.

I go again, to slice at him. He raises his arms in defense. I slice one, then the other, backing him closer and closer to the flames, which are essentially feet away from us. I can smell the smoke, and I can taste his blood as it runs down my face, like metal.

I slit his arms, and chest and torso. His arms move to cover his face. His back is to the flames. One more step and he's on fire.

"Please," he begs.

I shake my head. "I'm not sorry."

I stab him deep in the stomach. He bends over, as our eyes meet. I can feel his warm blood on my hands. Everything is hot, my skin is boiling in the flames.

He claws at me, as he gasps, trying to breath. His nails rake against the side of my face, down. I shakily move the knife and stab him again. He grunts out in pain. He beats his fists against me as I stab him once more. I don't know if it's him screaming or if I'm screaming. But suddenly the screaming stops.

His body hits the ground.

Samuel is dead.

I am covered in his blood.

I need to find James.

The flames find Samuel's body, and I step back.

"James!"

I turn around, moving back to James. Kneeling next to him, I scoop up his delicate head in my hands, holding him up to my face. He moans. A tree crashes down beside us. I move him forward and manage to push him in the hole in the wall of dirt. He barely helps me, his speech so slurred I doubt he's even aware he's talking. I try to lift myself into the small space, to no avail.

I let go, and run along the edge of the cliff, as fast as I can. I reach the end, as the fire nearly hits me, and run away.

I'll be back for James, once the fire has calmed down, I will find him.

He saved my life. I couldn't have taken Samuel without him, and I won't leave him to die without me.

I dodge through and around the fire, trees collapsing, crumbling like dust in the wind. There's no way I'm getting out, unless I climb the cliffside. My hands find the wall, but the surface is flat against my palms. There is nothing for me to even try to grab or dig into, and if I can't climb a tree I can't climb this.

Screw it.

My feet pound off the ground as I dart into the trees. The trick to running through a fire, is to keep your legs as high as possible, and your head as low as possible. It's also vital, to look where you are going at all times, because things tend to fall.

I cut diagonally through the forest, trying to escape as fast as I can. I see a clearing and I run too it, narrowly escaping the flames that surround me.

That is, until I feel something collide against my back.

I leap forward, rolling onto my back, rolling back and forth. My shoulder is scalding. I'm burning. I roll back and forth, quickly, until the sensation subsides.

I get up. I reach my right arm towards the burn, searching for the melted fabric. There's nothing there. I spin the cloak around, and the cloak is barely charred. It's slightly black, but the powder comes off revealing the deep brown below.

I have sheer, dumb luck.

The snap of a branch makes me whip around, raising the dagger up in defense. It's some bird, landing in the tree of the forest. The forest that is no longer in flames, and shows no indication of ever being engulfed by the heat.

The trees that once were fallen to the ground now bare bright green leaves.

"Real funny Pan." I look up to the sky, laughing.

The sky is getting dark, quickler than it was light, but it seems that barely anytime has passed since the forest caught on fire. Maybe an hour. Maybe more, but not near enough time for the sun to set. Not even enough time for the sun to rise.

"You're hilarious," I continue to chuckle out. "A fire followed by night. You are clever. That couldn't have even been a half hour of sunlight. Albeit, overcast sunlight."

I continue on walking. Normally he shows up by now, but I know he can hear my words. He tends to hear everything. It's almost as if he has a personal fixation with me. Maybe he's like this with everyone though. He certainly seems to be like that with Johnny.

Where could Johnny be anyway? Who knows at this point? Certainly not me.

I don't think I'm tired, but I am thirsty. The only trace that the fire left is the sweat that poured out of my body.

I have no idea how to find water.

I begin to walk, and seconds turn to minutes turn to hours. Now is when the night should be arriving, but the sun has long since set.

If Pan can play around with the sun, can he play around with time too? How long have I actually been here? A year?

It feels like far less than that, but it certainly feels like more than 19. How long has actually passed?

It doesn't matter. I doubt I'll find water. I lie down on the ground, too exhausted to even think about climbing a tree. If someone kills me during the night, that makes them a coward. Killing someone defenceless, and mutilating their corpse for your own benefit?

Still, I would be dead.

I groan, climbing up into a tree. I never did get a full night's sleep. I've been operating off of maybe four hours of sleep for probably twice as long. It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't been so active.

Since when did murder become an activity?

That's not a thought I'd like to have this late at night.

Doesn't mean I shouldn't think about it.

Maybe I'm going insane. Maybe I'm a psychopath. A murderer. A coward. Reckless, violent, distrustful, disgusting, vile, traitorous, pathetic, cruel, villainous.

Since when did murder become an activity?

Since when did I stop fearing and despising the wicked, and since when did I become one?

Why is my life worth more than the life of someone else? Why can I kill in self-defence?

Was it even self-defence?

~~~~~~~~~

So, welcome to the first night of the Hunt. Did you listen to the song? I thought it completely gave off the theme of the chapter. I kind of like it, and I'll post another song with the chapter tomorrow.

Anyway, what did you think? I did say there would be death. It's only the first day, so I thought I'd start mild. Charlie may now be a murderer, but I've got much worse things to come. Much more emotionally draining anyway.

If you enjoyed it let me know. If you didn't the same.

I'll see you tomorrow, and until then, enjoy the last few days of summer.