Chapter Six

After facing a trauma Gin Moreno will never forget, he begins to wonder what value his life really has to offer. Well, now it's his time to prove it. Will it be him or them?

They were crouched down behind the counters for who knew how long. Not long ago, the lights on those who had anklets started blinking, but the light was dim and slow, making them think they were just now finding their way out of the storage facility.

“Do you think they can track us in here?” Anna asked worried.

Natalie shrugged. “We don’t even know what they’re using to track us. I still say we jump them. Maybe we can take it from them.”

That won’t work, Gin thought. Whenever attention was not on him, which was always, he messed with and tugged on his own without any luck. The plastic around his wrist would not stretch and it did not have a way to loosen.

“They seemed to have a hard time finding us back there,” commented Gray. “Maybe their thing just blinks like ours.”

“So then they’re blinking right now. Meaning when they get closer, they’ll know where we are.”

“Right, so we should probably get moving. Like seriously, we need to haul a*s the second these start.”

“But what if they have GPS or something?”

“Then we’re fucked.”

That was something they likely already knew, but hearing it said aloud was not comforting at all, and seeing the looks of worry on everyone’s face only made the mood seem much grimmer. These kids can no longer plan for a future. All they could do was hope.

A minute passed and the blinking stayed at it’s slow pace, but the light got brighter. They were getting closer, yet they had no way of knowing how close they truly were. Would they be seen as they made for an escape?

“I think we should stay here,” Ezra said as he sat with his back against the wall and his knees close to his chest. The others were still crouched but were looking out one of the smashed windows to check if their escape route was clear. “We don’t know how close they are or what they’re using, but they’re probably close enough to see us out in the open like that.”

Natalie sighed and swept glass away from the floor before sitting down. “He has a point. There are a lot of buildings here and they’re not very smart. If they couldn’t find us just down the hall, but probably won’t find us here.”

“Gin and I might be small enough to hide in the cabinet,” Anna said as she pulled open two of the cabinets.

“But you’re pretty fucked if they check in there,” said Gray. “There’s no way you could run away. They’re kids, we can out run them if they find us.”

Ezra couldn’t help but chuckle slightly as he sighed. “I’m 18 years old. Why am I so afraid of kids?”

“I don’t know about you, but Mary Bell scares the s**t out of me,” Gray said in a joke like tone despite being serious.

“Oh, I saw a video about her,” Natalie whispered much louder than she should before being hushed by the others. The blinking had gotten faster. They huddled close together in the darkest corner and waited. With each moment, the speed of the blinking slightly increased until the footsteps started to appear. From the sound of it, the Hunters had split in groups.

The gravel grinding beneath their feet gave away their location. They were much too close for comfort.

“What’s even the point?” A female voice sighed. “You saw them. There’s no way we can win.”

“I don’t care,” stated a different voice. “I just wanna go home.”

“We all do. That’s why we need to look for a Collector.”

“No way, Penny. Those guys are creepy. Besides, Trev has done this before so I’m listening to everything that he says.”

“But he’s the reason we’re stuck here!” She shouted with her voice shaking with fear.

“Shhh!  Now they know where we are!”

His attempts in hushing her had failed. They could hear her body crashing to the ground then kicking in a fit of rage. “There’s no point, there’s no point!” She kept repeating.  “We can’t sneak up on them, they’ll always no. There’s no hope, there’s no hope, there’s no hope! We’re going to die here and I hate waiting for it. I’m just going to kill myself instead!”

The group sighed in disbelief when Gray rose to his feet. Natalie tried to reach her hand out to pull him back down, but he smacked it away and went outside the building to find two young children sitting in the middle of the road. One foot at a time, he slowly started approaching them with his hands held up. “We can help you,” he assured them.

Tears were streaming from the girl’s face and even though the boy was trying his best to be trust, the horror was obvious on his face. Both were as pale as a ghost and looked as if they hadn’t eaten in days even though, as far as Gray knew, they had only been there for a few hours.

The girl quickly shot to her feet and pulled a box cutter from the back pocket of her shorts. Her knees were buckled and her arms shook violently as she held the short blade towards Gray. “Give us your bracelet.” Her order sounded more like a beg. “I mean it!” She screamed frantically and started slicing the air.

Gin and the others got up to watch the altercation through the shattered window.

Gray took a single step back. “I would if I could, but it’s kinda attached to me.”

“Cut it off!” She swung the blade around more rapidly before her partner came to her aid. He grabbed onto her arm and whispered something into her ear to try to calm her down. Her anger shrunk, but her tears were flowing faster than ever. “Please,” she begged.

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

Those words caused her anger to resurface. “What kind of man are you? Choosing your life over a little girl’s!”

“Little girl? You’re f*****g psycho,” Gray panicked when she started taking steps towards him. “The Collector, the Collector,” he shouted to get her attention. She stopped in her path. “What are they collecting? If you’re scared, we can go get it for you.”

Penny turned around to look at her friend who took a few steps closer.

“Those bracelets,” the boy said much calmer than his friend. “We need those bracelets if we ever want to be released, but you need them too. So why in the hell would you try to help us?”

“Kid, I have no idea what’s going on, but helping you might just help us figure it out.”

The two young teens looked at each other. “Promise?”

Gray extended his pinky. “I pinky swear. If I break it, she can cut off my pinky and whatever else she wants. Just please, tell me what I can do.”

“We already found the Collector,” the girl said as she wiped away her tears. “But he’s a really scary man. His tongue is split and eyeballs are dyed black.”

“Both his arms are tattooed completely black and his face is covered in piercings,” the boy added. “He was wearing a green hoodie soaked in blood last time we saw him.”

“Split tongue, black eyes, piercings, tattoos?” Gray repeated. “Did he have blonde hair with both sides shaved and a long pointy nose?” The kids nodded. “Holy s**t, I know him.