Esme put a hand over Miranda’s shaking one. “We’re in this together. We’ll make sure you and the kids are alright.”
“Hey, who stole my nail file?” Yesenia yelled.
“When you find out who took your stuff, help me find whoever took my breath mints,” Kaylin said.
Miranda shook Esme’s hand from hers. “Don’t kid yourself.” She wiped her tears away and cleared her throat. “When the crap hits the fan, it’ll be every man for himself.”
Esme glanced around the camp. Spencer had huddled up with Mary Ann and Kaylin. It figured they would gravitate toward each other. The rich people weren’t convinced they were on a different planet. Spencer planned to be ransomed for money. Kaylin swore this was all some kind of character development for an upcoming movie role. Mary Ann thought this was an elaborate scheme concocted by her friends to prank her.
After he’d finished Miranda’s hair, Danny sat between Yesenia and Min. Both women, who’d previously gushed about his music and were clearly fans, seemed to care more about keeping Danny comfortable rather than preparing for whatever was coming next. Payton and Jack didn’t seem to need or want anyone else’s company.
Then there was Esme, Miranda and Ben in their little group. Esme had stuck by Miranda’s side, helping her when she could and provided support whenever Miranda broke down. Esme was scared out of her mind; she couldn’t imagine going through this with two young kids, and Ben must’ve felt the same because he’d been keeping close to Miranda as well.
“Even if that’s so,” Esme told Miranda. “You’ll still have Ben and me. I mean, I don’t have a lot of survival skills, but I can help with the kids.”
A strangled yell came from where Spencer, Mary Ann, and Kaylin sat. Mary Ann flopped against the ground, seizing. Spencer tried throwing his weight across her in a futile attempt to keep her still, and Kaylin screamed.
In less than a second, Ben was there and flinging Spencer away. “Don’t hold her down! You’ll make her hurt herself.”
“Then what do we do?” Spencer yelled. For the first time, he showed concern for someone other than himself. “We have to help her!”
The group gathered around Mary Ann watching her body spasm and eyes go into her head.
“Should we put something hard in her mouth, so she doesn’t bite her tongue?” Yesenia asked.
Ben held everyone back with a hand. “We’ll have to let it ride out and try to figure out why it happened. Esme, could it be something she ate?”
“Could be. I told everyone not to eat anything. We don’t know what’s poison or what’s safe.”
“Dammit. Spencer,” Ben barked out. “Check her purse for medicine. Maybe she has Epilepsy and missed a dose of her medication or something?”
Spencer grabbed Mary Ann’s designer clutch and emptied the contents onto the ground. He sifted through. “No medicine.”
“No medicine, but there are my mints,” Kaylin grumbled.
“And my nail file,” Yesenia added.
Spencer picked up the items and threw them at Kaylin and Yesenia. “Here, take your shit. Way to prioritize when she’s dying right before our eyes, guys.”
Just as sudden as it began, Mary Ann went still, and opened her eyes. “Oh, my God. That was brutal,” she whispered. “My collar was shocking the hell out of me. How did you guys make it stop?”
Everyone exchanged glances. Min offered, “We found the stuff you stole and gave it back?”
Mary Ann glanced around warily and chuckled. “I’m not a thief. I just…I just wanted a file to fix my nails, and my breath was on fire.” She flicked a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder. “It’s not like we have toothbrushes here. I wouldn’t have taken it if you would’ve shared in the first place.”
“It seems that we have some rules. No stealing from each other. And I think we can’t harm each other either. When Spencer had his little hissy fit his collar flashed orange. I think that was a warning. If he’d tried anything I’m sure he would’ve been shocked. These collars are meant to keep us in line.”
“Thank God,” Min muttered. “I thought they wanted us to fight each other.”
Ben grunted. “Mental note everyone. Don’t steal anyone else’s things or else you’ll be doing the tango on the ground like Mary Ann.” He turned and stormed away.
“That’s so not funny,” Mary Ann called out.
“Mommy!” Adam waved his arm, trying to get Miranda’s attention. When she looked at him, he pointed to his wristband. “My new watch is working now!”
Esme and Miranda frowned, both glancing down at their wristbands. Now there were four more screens. Each one with a solid character. “I wonder what this means?” Esme said.
“Mine changed too,” Min said.
Ben held up his hands. “Don’t anyone touch anything until we can figure out what this means.”
Just as he spoke, Adam used a chubby finger to press his wristband.
“No!” Miranda yelled, reaching for him.
The ground slid back as if there was a false bottom and Adam fell into the void. Before Miranda could grab him, the ground slid back into place just as fast and efficiently as it had opened.
“What the?” Spencer backpedaled away.
Miranda dropped to her knees and scrambled to where Adam had been. “Adam? Adam? Baby?”
“Oh, my God,” Esme whispered in shock.
Chapter Six
“No one else touch your goddamn band!” Ben yelled.
Just as the words left his mouth, the ground slid away a few feet from where Ben stood, and out popped Adam. Then the ground slid back into place. If Esme hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have believed it. There was no indication the ground wasn’t real.
“Here I am, momma!” Adam smiled and laughed. “That was fun!”
Miranda launched herself toward him. She picked him up and patted his body down. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where did you go?”
Adam shrugged. “I went in the ground.”
“Have him do that again,” Spencer said.
“Hell no,” Both Miranda and Ben yelled in unison.
“I’ll try it,” Danny said. He pressed on his wristband and instead of being swallowed, a small white ball burst from the ground and landed with a thud next to him. “I think this is for me.” Everyone watched with bated breath as he picked the ball up and shook it by his ear. The contents rattled inside. “Guess I’ll give this a shot.” He pressed a button, and the ball opened.
Everyone angled toward Danny, waiting to see what was in it.
Danny rummaged inside and pulled out a small canvas bag and something that resembled a protein bar. He sniffed the canvas bag then put his mouth to the opening.
“Jesus, it’s like no one here has any common sense,” Ben grumbled.
Danny took gulping drinks then wiped his mouth and held up his bag. “It’s water!” He took another sip, this one longer than the first. “Damn good water at that.” He took a bite out of the bar and chewed. After a few seconds, he shrugged and took another bite. “Tastes like crunchy chicken.”
Yesenia raised her head to the sky. “Thank you!” She then turned back to the confused group. “What? I didn’t want to live off chips and Vodka.”
“What is this thing?” Min pulled what looked like an SD card from her wristband and held it up. Immediately it transformed. Min yelped and dropped it. The item took shape and unfolded to a sleeping bag. “Wow.”
“So you mean to tell me that we could’ve been sleeping on something soft last night instead of the hard ground?” Danny asked.
Ben massaged his chin and paced. “Okay, this is good. We have a disc thing that unfolds to a sleeping bag and an icon for food and water and another for transportation.”
“What about this one?” Yesinia pushed on her wristband, and nothing happened. She frowned then tried again. “I guess it doesn’t do anything.”
“Hold up.” Esme lifted her wristband to her ear. “Say that again.”
Yesinia pressed her wristband and spoke into it. “I guess it doesn’t do anything.”
Yesinia’s voice came out crystal clear. Esme beamed. “I heard you.”
“So our wristbands can do a lot. But mainly get us out of here. Got it.” Payton grabbed Jack’s collar. “Well, I for one want to see if I can leave this place.” She pressed her wristband. “It’s been real, y’all.” The ground opened to swallow her.
“So what are we waiting for?” Yesenia asked. “If this is our way out, we need to take it.”
Ben held up a finger. “Give it a minute. I don’t think it’s meant to take us home. That would be too easy.”
“But—”
Yesenia was cut off by Payton and Jack being spit from the ground just on the edge of the camp.
“Really? Is this as far as that thing goes?” Payton exclaimed.
“What did you see?” Kaylin asked.
“I was in some kind of pod. From what I could tell I was in what resembled a tube system. There’s no dirt under this ground.” She stomped twice. “Just a series of tubes.”
“Well, one of those tubes might lead us out of here. Try it again,” Yesenia said.
Payton pressed her wristband. This time nothing happened. She frowned and tried again. “I don’t understand. I’m pressing the same button.”
“Maybe you’re doing it wrong,” Spencer said. He pressed his wristband and disappeared, only to reappear ten feet away.
“Will that happen a second time?” Ben asked.
Spencer pressed his wristband again, but nothing happened. “Hey! It doesn’t work now.”
Ben ran his fingers through his hair and muttered under his breath. “I think they—whoever they are—are getting us familiar with the technology. They want us to test out the buttons so that whenever our time is up, we’ll be ready.”
Esme groaned. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t think of how this nightmare would end on a good note.
“But the transportation doesn’t work two times in a row,” Payton said.
“Maybe there’s a limit on how often you can use it, or we have to wait a certain amount of time between uses?” Esme offered.
“Payton and Spencer, you guys try the pod icon every minute,” Danny said. “We need to find out how long we have to wait before we can use it again. My guess is that this information will become very useful sometime soon.”
“But why isn’t it taking us very far?” Min asked. “We’re still stuck in this little area.”
For the first time since they’d awaken Esme saw the strain in Ben’s face. “Because they don’t want us to leave yet.”
“Wait. Why would whoever has us here restrict how often we can use transportation?” Yesenia asked. “I don’t understand that part.”
A sickening feeling settled in Esme’s stomach. “Because they’re giving us a chance to get away from whatever will be after us, but they want us to use it sparingly.”
* * *
By the middle of the next day, the group was more divided than before. They’d woken up to one solid line on their wristbands. While no one talked about what would happen when there were no more lines, it seemed to be on everyone’s mind.
Nervous tension crackled in the air. Every sound made Esme startle. She expected someone to jump out of every bush. Esme wasn’t the only one who eyed the wristband every few minutes. It was the elephant in the room. They were closer, but closer to what?
“We have to come up with a game plan,” Ben said when they were sitting down for dinner.
The food balls had delivered plenty of water and a substance that wasn’t much to look at and didn’t have a smell, but didn’t taste half-bad. If Esme closed her eyes, she could imagine she was eating pulled pork, minus the bar-b-que sauce or gravy.
“You mean a plan for when the wristbands hit zero—or the equivalent to zero?” Min asked.
“We don’t necessarily know if it will zero out, start over or just go blank,” Danny pointed out.
Ben nodded. He chewed his food thoughtfully. “You’re right. But what we do know—or at least think we know—is that something is going to happen. And soon.”
“I’m going to wait right here and demand that whoever has us, contact my mom,” Mary Ann said. “I have on three thousand dollar high-heels, and there’s no way that I’m doing,” she waved her hand in the air, “whatever this is. You all can go hiding in the jungle, but I don’t have the time or willpower for any of this.” Mary Ann lifted her arm to sniff under her armpits. ‘It’s high time that I took a bath and got out of these clothes.”
“I offered you the use of my bar soap,” Min ground out.
Mary Ann scoffed. “Yeah, like after the entire camp already scrubbed it over their disgusting bodies. If you were a real friend, you would’ve given me your gym clothes.”
“I had on a suit and heels. I had to keep them for myself.”
Mary Ann rolled her eyes. “Selfish.”
Yesinia scowled. “Min isn’t your friend. You were only trying to be nice so you could use her.”
“Whatever,” Mary Ann pouted.
“My mom and dad will pay the money to get me out,” Spencer interrupted.
“Well, I’m doing whatever it takes to land this role,” Kaylin said between chewing. “My agent wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble if I wasn’t lined up for a huge role.”
Payton groaned and shook her head. “You guys are as good as dead.”
“Us?” Spencer chuckled then inclined his head toward Miranda and her kids. “If this were a survival situation, those three would be the first to go.”
Esme picked up the closest rock within her reach and hurled it at Spencer. It bounced off the side of his head.
“Ow!”
“I’ve seen Miranda working her butt off to make weapons, and you don’t have the sense God gave you to duck,” Esme seethed. “You think you’re going to outlast her?” A crazy chuckle bubbled in her throat.
Miranda put her hand on Esme’s arm and squeezed.
Spencer frowned and rubbed his head. “I don’t need to survive out here. Once they find out who my dad is, I’ll get saved.”
“How old are you? In your late twenties and you’re still waiting for daddy to bail you out of everything?” Payton rolled her eyes. “Pathetic.”
Spencer clenched his fist and leaned toward Payton. “I outta…”
Jack was on his feet, angling himself between Payton and Spencer. He growled low, baring sharp teeth that gleamed in the night.
“You outta what spoiled brat? Get your throat ripped out?” Payton chuckled. “It’s okay, boy. He’s a mouthy coward.” She rubbed Jack’s ears, calming him down.
“Enough!” Ben said. “We’re all going to die if we don’t get it together.” He scrubbed a hand down his face and raked his fingers against stubble. “I think we should make sure we have everything we’re planning to take, either on us or close by. We need to get a good night’s sleep. I have a gut feeling that we’ll be waking up without a lot of time on our hands.”
“Do you think they’ll swarm us or…?” Yesenia asked. Her eyes were full of worry.
Ben glanced around the camp. “Well, I don’t think they’re keeping us corralled and giving us time to learn this new technology only to ambush us while we sleep. I think that once our time here is up, we’ll be free to leave. The food, supplies, transportation, it’s all to give us a fighting chance. I…I think we’re in a game or something.”
Hearing it out loud should’ve alarmed Esme, but it was something that had been on her mind as well. Every time she thought about their situation she arrived at the same conclusion. She was a rational person for God’s sake. She had a Ph.D. under her belt and worked at one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. She shouldn’t believe in alien abductions. But here she was, living in one.
“So they want us to win?” she asked.
Ben shook his head. “They didn’t give us this stuff to
win. They only intended for us to make the game interesting enough to last a little while.”
Miranda gasped. “Another icon just appeared on my wristband.” She looked at Ben. “Should I press it?”
Everyone glanced down at their wristbands.
“You have the kids to watch out for,” Ben said. “I’ll check this one out.” He pressed the icon, and another ball popped from the ground — this one red. Ben leaned over, picked it up and opened it. He held up little packages then opened one, revealing what appeared to be white gauzy material. “First aid supplies.”
Esme wrapped her arm around Miranda’s trembling shoulders.
“This doesn’t change anything,” Min said. “First light we get up and try to leave.”
“Together?” Spencer chuckled. Esme was beginning to hate the way he sounded, irritating, condescending and know-it-all. “If I were going anywhere it wouldn’t be with you losers. Let’s be for real. If someone were hunting us, the mother and kids would hold us back. If I were leaving, I would be going on my own.”
“I’m heading out by myself,” Payton said. “I have a better chance of surviving this on my own.” She glanced at Miranda. “No offense, but the asshole is right.”
Miranda went from trembling to shaking. “I-I don’t need any help. Me and the k-kids will be fine on our own.”
“The hell you will,” Ben said. “You’re coming with me.”
“I’m going with you too,” Esme said.
“Your funeral,” someone whispered.
That night Esme stared at the foreign sky and prayed.
Chapter Seven
As Xrez dressed for what would be his first time in The Hunt, he kept a watchful eye on the hologram that projected on one of the walls of his room. Not all hunters had access to a private suite with upgraded amenities or the live feed to study prey before the games commenced.
This luxury was reserved for those who’d paid the extra credits to upgrade to elite status. There were also hunters who didn’t need, request or want the advantage that the live feed gave them. Those opportunistic hunters went into the game to catch whatever they could—blindly.
The Game Warden's Mate: An Alien Abduction Romance (The Hunt Book 1) Page 5
