The Headhunters Race (Headhunters #1) (19 page)

I try to stop myself from thinking about it but I can’t help wondering what they’re doing. Is she pampering him? Is he taking an interest in her? Then I think about his expression when I saw him last. About the worry and rage I saw etched in his face just before he fell. I had thought he wanted to kiss me, and I wanted that kiss. Now I don’t know if I’ll ever feel his lips on mine. The only way that might happen is if Joselle comes through. But I’m not certain Joselle really has the means to help us. How will she unlock the door? Or even get to McCoy? I have no choice but to trust her. Trust that she’ll help us escape.

I wonder if McCoy is even worried about me, or if this Misa cannibal has already captured his heart. But he can’t stay. He must have told her that in three days he’ll die if he doesn’t return to Water Junction to get his collar unlocked. She won’t be able to keep him here. Not unless she wants to feed him to her tribe. Maybe that’s her plan, to get pregnant and then eat him.

This last thought is the genesis for my dry heaves. Although, they’re not actually dry at all. The two cups of water I drank come up and leave nothing left. I don’t remember the last time I ate. But I’m glad for it now. Joselle passes me another cup of water. This time I take cautious sips, after I rinse my mouth.

I’m not sure what Gavin and Kurt are thinking. They’ve been quiet as the hours have passed, although I’ve been the recipient of sideways glances from them both. I can’t sit still. I pace. And doze. And stare out the barred door at Joselle, wishing I could speak to her. She stares back and shrugs at me every so often, like she wishes she could talk to me too.

My mind keeps wandering to Gavin and why he doesn’t recognize me. I think I’m afraid he does and as soon as I let my guard down he’ll get the chance to do what he wanted to years ago. He stirs an uneasiness in me that won’t let go. So against my better judgment I decide to question him. “Do you have a sister?” I ask.

He has his hands clasped below his chin, as if he’s holding his head up. “I used to,” he says, staring straight ahead.

I shouldn’t have asked. I should have let it be. I want to scream out that I’m his sister. I want to walk over and strangle him. But I restrain my anger and remind myself this is not the time, while he leisurely spreads out on his skin. I don’t think he recognizes me though. It has been three years since I saw him last. I’m taller, filled out in all the predictable places, and no longer chubby like I was. The prison took care of my weight problem within the first couple of months.

With nothing better to do, I start pacing again. I can’t tell whether it’s day or night. There is no temperature shift in these caves to give me a clue. No natural light, nothing. More food is brought in and it’s my only hint that perhaps the day is approaching nightfall. None of us eat though, and as more time passes my belly groans angrily. But it’s not as if I haven’t had this gnawing in my gut before.

Finally, Joselle peeks through the bars and gives me a little nod as if to say it’s time. She ducks into the main hall, her leather skirt whipping around her knees. I’m not sure what she’s doing. Maybe she needs to retrieve the key to unlock the door.

I breathe in, deeply, and steal a glance at Gavin and Kurt. They’re sleeping, or at least they’re pretending to. I’m not sure what to do about Kurt. I know we can’t trust him, but I can’t leave him here. Even if he is a killer. I have no weapons, nothing to use to force him to my will. Maybe I can convince Kurt that we’ll leave him in the hands of the cannibals if he attempts to take me or Gavin again.

An hour must pass before Joselle finally returns. She waves me over with a frantic hand. “We must hurry,” she whispers. “Now is a better time to go—while they perform the cutting ceremony.”

Her last words cause me to stiffen. I don’t even want to know what a cutting ceremony is because the sound of it terrifies me.

She hands me a vial. “Inside, there are prickers. They have toxin at the tips. The one that paralyzes. Go get your friends.”

I hurry to Gavin’s side, giving him a shake. “Gavin, we have to go.”

“What?” he looks at me like I’m crazy.

“Quiet,” I whisper loudly. “Get up and go to the door.”

He’s disoriented, but he follows orders. I wait until he’s outside before I kneel to wake Kurt. “Wake up.”

Kurt bolts upright, an arm across his face as if to block a surprise blow. When he realizes it’s me, he relaxes.

“Do you want to get out of here?” I ask.

“What do you think?” he spits.

“Do you see this vial?” I ask, holding it up in the light so he can see it. And before he knows what I’m doing, I push the pinky nail of my free hand into his neck, near his vein. “It contains the toxin that paralyzes. And I have one of the prickers against your neck. If I don’t get a promise that you’ll leave us the minute we’re free of this place, then I’m sticking you here and now, and you can be jerky for these cannibals.”

There’s not much light to see by, but I swear Kurt’s face drains to the color of death. If that’s even possible for a black guy.

“I promise.”

I push my nail in a bit deeper. “You promise what?” I say through my teeth. I want him to know I mean business. Even if I can’t believe a word he says.

“I promise I’ll shove the minute we’re outside this hell cave.”

Joselle leads us down a series of winding tunnels that smell of earth and burning wood. Our shadows dance on the walls of the torch-lit passageways as we attempt to keep our steps silent. There does come a moment when I think Joselle might be playing us—when she backtracks after a wrong turn and almost immediately backtracks again. When I’m thoroughly confused about where we are, she finally comes to a halt at an entrance with steep steps leading down. “Take this path until you come to a choice of three ways. Take the one on the right and follow it out. There will be two guards,” she says, nodding at my vial. “Use your prickers.”

“Wait. What about McCoy?”

Kurt pushes past us and heads down. Gavin follows right behind. Both are eager to exit the clutches of the cannibals. How can I blame them? But I’m not leaving without McCoy.

Joselle pushes me toward the stairs. “He will be waiting at the three ways. I’ve already sent him down.”

I turn to her. “Aren’t you coming?”

She shakes her head, her eyes on me, only she’s really staring into a void. She catches me off guard by wrapping her arms around my waist. She’s just like her brother. I return the gesture, tears welling in my eyes. I’m certain she’d have come with us if Jake were alive.

When she steps back, she tries to smile. “Kill King,” she says and sprints away, leaving puffs of red dust in her wake. I press on, eager myself to be as far away from this place as possible and longing to see McCoy again.

The steps are narrow, barely big enough to fit my feet, like the craftsman who carved them out did so in a hurry. I hear the faint echo of Gavin and Kurt’s steps somewhere below me. Counting the stairs keeps my mind focused rather than flailing from one thing to another. I get to sixty-seven when I reach the bottom where I can move faster on the semi-level path. At times the ceiling and walls of the cave seem to close in. That’s when I turn to breathing in a rhythmic pattern. In. In. Out. Out.

Soon whispers carry to my ears from somewhere up ahead. I distinctly hear McCoy and Kurt quietly arguing although I can’t yet hear what they say. Two corners later I see the three ways, the doors that lead in different directions. The alcove is well-lit. McCoy and Kurt stand by the one on the far right, both stiff with tension. Gavin is resting on a nearby rock.

“
Now
we can go,” says McCoy, tilting his head arrogantly. He grins in greeting and takes a step toward me but stops short, as if he realizes there’s no time for more than a smile because we’re still in mortal danger. “You got the toxin? Joselle said she’d give it to you.”

I nod, patting my jeans pocket where the vial is safely tucked away.

“We’ll make plans once we get closer,” says McCoy, stepping through the doorway.

Kurt is on McCoy’s heels, with Gavin behind him. I bring up the tail, in case anyone has any ideas about starting something with McCoy. Several minutes later we stop at the edge of an underground stream.

“Joselle said to make plans here to take out the guards,” says McCoy.

I step forward with the vial. “She said to use the prickers to paralyze them,” I say, carefully handing one to McCoy while keeping one eye on Kurt and Gavin.

McCoy holds the pricker up and away from his body. “We need a decoy.”

Gavin slinks away. I think his pathetic behavior is all an act. Or maybe he really is a weak human and all he can do is wait until someone is unguarded and vulnerable before he strikes.

We all look at Kurt. His jaw flexes while he considers his options. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

It was the only choice he could make and he knows it. We step silently the remainder of the way until we come to an opening that spans into the forest. I’m amazed that the tunnel led to the opposite side of the desert mountain range since I had expected to be spit out into the desert again. I focus on the guards, whose dark silhouettes are bathed in the faint glow of firelight.

McCoy gives a thumbs up to signal he’s ready. I do the same and we both take up position just inside the cave entrance, one on either side. Kurt returns the signal with a thumbs up behind his head as he exits.

“Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!” Kurt bellows, and my mouth drops in horror.

But his method works. The guards surround him, spears at either side of Kurt’s gut and their backs to us. McCoy has the pricker in his guard’s neck almost instantly. It takes me another two steps to catch up. They both go down in a heaping mess. McCoy drags his guard behind a bush several yards away. Kurt does the same with the other and we ransack what we can from their supplies.

We don’t get much but what we get is important. Two wooden water containers, two spears, a machete-type blade, and two more vials of prickers which McCoy stuffs into his pocket. One knife which McCoy promptly hands to me and I’m grateful, and a package of dried meat that nobody wants.

Safely out of the cave but not safe from the cannibals, we agree to go to the southwest end of the mountain range before we split up the supplies and send Kurt on his way. No one wants to spend another second in cannibal territory.

McCoy and Kurt snatch the torches.

Gavin whines because he doesn’t have one. “I need one so I can get back to Millers Creek.”

Kurt’s mouth hangs to the ground, almost as low as mine does. “Are
you
crazy?” he asks.

McCoy looks as worried as I do that we’re about to lose Gavin. “I don’t really think you want to go back through cannibal territory. Not for a few days anyway. We’re getting our haunches back to Water Junction, where it’s safer.”

“Dude, you’re probably better sticking with us,” says Kurt.

I glare at Kurt, with my hand on my new cannibal knife. I think he realizes his mistake, because his brows furrow fleetingly and I think I see him mouth a curse word under his breath.

“Kurt’s right,” says McCoy. “Best to stick with us.”

Gavin thinks about it for a minute and I get the feeling that in the heat of our escape he forgot he’d have to cross over cannibal territory to get back to Millers Creek. I’m still waiting for him to ask why Kurt kidnapped us in the first place, but maybe he’s taking his cue from me that I haven’t questioned it. After all, I was kidnapped too. Or maybe he’s too overwhelmed by our cannibal experience to remember it now. But I’m certain the discussion is coming and I’ll have to be prepared for it when it does.

Gavin swallows hard. “Fine. I still need a torch.”

I’m taken aback when Kurt offers his. I must have scared him good. Or maybe all he cares about is not upsetting anyone so there aren’t any setbacks to our escape.

Once the torch issue is settled we run for our lives. I stick close to McCoy and his light. Each of us takes a turn at one time or another, miscalculating our footing in the dark. A couple of times I pay for it dearly, with a bruised cheek and a cut on my elbow. I don’t know how much time we have or if the cannibals will even spend time and resources coming after us. I don’t think any of us are willing to find out.

We run for hours. My stomach aches with hunger, my mouth and throat are parched. Exhaustion is beginning to take a toll on me. Six days on the run, evading killers, bears, cannibals. It’s all becoming too much. I’m not sure how much more my body or my mental health can take. But the reality is that I have to keep moving and keep fighting if I don’t want to be dead.

Dawn breaks over the mountains by the time we reach the southwest corner of the range. We stop at the creek. McCoy and Gavin snuff out their torches. I find it ironic that this is almost the exact spot where I made my torch two days before. Each of us fills our bellies with water. I splash a handful on my face, rub it clean, and rinse off. But what I need now is food and sleep. First we need to take care of Kurt. His presence makes me nervous. Especially since he’s already proven he’ll do what it takes to force me or Gavin to return to Water Junction with him.