Back into the woods

After running for a few minutes, Jade puts up her hand and they stop, leaning over to catch their breath.

"We don't... (pant) want to run ourselves to exhaustion," Jade says. "We need to keep some energy in reserve."

"Yes... of course."

"That thick bush - let's rest over there. No one could sneak up behind us through that."

Kayo nods, and the girls sit down with their backs against the bush. THey're totally exposed at the front, but with a good view for a reasonably long way, and it would be impossible for anyone to approach from that direction without being seen.

"Here's your pack," Jade says.

"Thank you... here is some of the food I took from the cabin."

"Good thinking. Eat something now, we'll need the energy to climb that hill."

Kayo opens the food bar, starts to put it in her mouth, and then stops and narrows her eyes at it.

"Yeah, pretty sure those are dosed too," Jade says. "But again, we don't have much choice. We could make it three days without food, but not if we want to have enough energy to get through this. I've been looking for other sources of food on this island, and there don't seem to be any that are reasonably easy to get to. I saw a few coconuts near the beach, but we don't have anything to open them with. And we don't have time to catch fish or anything like that."

Kayo sighs, and bites down on the bar. "It seems wrong that they would do this to us," she says.

"We each signed those fifty-page contracts. There was so much small print in there, they might have said anything. I'm sure we consented to it in there somewhere. Come on, let's keep moving, we slept away a lot more of the day than I wanted to. Here take this, and be on the lookout for a better one."

Jade tosses Kayo a stick about four feet long, somewhat bent but still sturdy enough to swing. Kayo takes it uncertainly.

"Don't hesitate to use it," Jade says. "And if you do need to, swing for the side of the knee, as hard as you can. The men will try to protect their groin by instinct, so you should be able to get a good shot in. Don't go for the head, they're taller than we are and it's easy for them to block it."

"I will try. I... have never hit anyone before, not even playfully."

"These men want to rape you. You need to stop them. A hit to the knee won't kill them, but it will make it so you can get away; even if you don't knock them down, you'll make it so they can't run after you. Here - take a swing at that tree. Right now, as hard as you can."

Kayo swings.

"Okay, that was pathetic," Jade admonishes. "If that had been one of the men, he would have grabbed that stick away from you and used it to pin you down by the neck while he plowed you. Try again, and this time, mean it."

Kayo swings again.

"Come on, Kayo! That tree wants to bend you over and fuck you up the ass! Crack that son-of-a-bitch!"

"I'm trying!" Kayo wails, and swings again. This time, the tree shakes a bit, and drops a few needles.

"Better," Jade says, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We'll work on it. When the time comes that you need to do it for real - and you can pretty much count on it - you need to channel that emotional rage. Turn that fear and frustration into a weapon. It's all we've got."

Jade nods, and wipes the tears from her eyes. "Okay. I will try."

"Then let's get going. If there was anyone around, they would have heard us, so we need to move quickly and quietly. And make sure you don't drop the wrappers from your food bars, we don't need to be leaving clues."

The girls travel in silence for a time. With the Sun high in the sky, it is difficult to determine direction, but by sticking to ground that's generally sloping uphill, Jade is able to stay on track. After about an hour, or so it seems, the girls come to a clearing and can see the high hill in front of them.

"What is that?" Kayo asks, pointing up at the hilltop.

Jade squints a bit, and sees a thin line which seems to extend downwards from the top of the hill. "It looks like a cable," she says.

"For electricity? For the cameras, perhaps?"

"I don't think so... the cameras I've seen haven't had exposed cables on them, I think they're battery-powered. And if we can see it from here, it must be pretty thick, much more than a power cable would need to be." Jade considers for a moment. "I think it's a zipline."

Kayo's eyes go wide. "You mean... we are meant to ride down it?"

"Maybe. Look how far it goes - if we did use it, we could cover the same ground in a few minutes that would normally take us half a day. We could get ahead of everyone, assuming no one else has used it."

"But... we don't know where it would take us. It might bring us to a place where ten of the men are waiting for us."

"We can decide whether to use it when we get there, we were climbing the hill anyway," Jade points out.

Kayo turns her eyes to the intervening ground. "Those woods are very thick," she says. "We will be able to hide well in them, but so will others."

Jade nods. "I'd say it's a sure thing that we'll get ambushed at some point. And the map doesn't show any safe houses between here and the high hill."

Kayo pulls out the map, studies it. "We are here, I think. There is a safe house off to this side, which of course would be the other side in truth."

"That's far enough out of the way that we might as well not even bother with the hill."

"Perhaps we should not. We have the map and we know how to read it; we do not need to be able to see the whole island from above, not anymore. It is your decision, Fox... I trust your judgement."