Not this time

Perhaps an hour goes by... it's hard to tell. Jade does her best to focus on her surroundings, listening for any sign that someone may by hiding in wait for her. She'd made it out of the shelter without trouble, and into the woods. For just a moment, she considered following LaShonda, to at least try and explain herself... but the other girl would probably make good on the promise to crack her skull. Maybe there would be another time... maybe there could be some way in which Jade could make amends. But for now, she needs to make some tracks.

Everything feels so uncertain; it didn't exactly feel good before, following the Director's instructions, but at least she'd had some idea of what she was getting into. What were they plotting for her next? Somewhere, in some meeting room with a long mahogany table and monitors on all sides, men in suits were scheming how to get her into a shelter with the next woman on their list - or send the wolves after her for a gang-**** that they would film from all sides and sell as entertainment.

I can't think like that, she scolds herself. I'm not a victim, I'm the Fox. If I start feeling like they're the puppet masters holding my strings, I'm done. I have to believe I can take whatever they throw at me. Girls have made it through this before with their virginity intact... I can do it too. And if they were lying about that, then I'll be the first to do it!

A breeze blows past her, with a strange smell - strange not because it's unfamiliar, but because it doesn't belong here. It's the smell of burning oil. She looks in the direction from which the breeze came, and sees what might be a thin haze of smoke in a clearing up ahead.

The helicopter, she thinks. I'm near the crash site! I should avoid it, there might still be men picking through the wreck - and even if not, they must have sent people in to keep the contestants away. Still...

Curiosity overcomes caution - but not by much. Jade crouches low and approaches the clearing with her stick held at the ready, and soon she's kneeling down behind a low row of bushes, looking at the smoking ruin of the machine. The helicopter is twisted out of shape, its forward canopy shattered, and the ground is torn up all around from where the rotors made contact. Five or six men in gray jumpsuits stand around it, some looking over the ground, some talking to each other, some setting up a perimeter of wire fencing crisscrossed by bright orange strips. They hold strange-looking rifles; some kind of tasers, perhaps? Whatever they are, Jade knows that the last place she wants to be is on the business end of one of them, and she ducks down lower.

I can't stay here long, she thinks. They're tracking my position, surely; they'll alert those men that I'm here any second! Besides, there's nothing useful for me here.

Jade turns and starts to go, when her hand comes down on something metal. She looks down, surprised - it seems strange that a piece of the helicopter could have been flung this far, but in a violent crash with the rotors spinning, it's certainly possible. It seems to be metal box, partly buried and mostly hidden under the hedge. On it, she can make out the letters "EMERG".

Carefully, she opens it - and immediately snaps it shut when she sees what it contains.

Holy shit.

Quickly, she opens it again and pulls out the item within, tucking it up behind her under her backpack and hoping that she isn't visible to any camera at the moment! Then, as fast as she dares to go, she crawls away from the clearing and then gets to her feet and runs, pulling the backpack straps tightly against her to hold her prize in place.

After what seems like ten minutes of running, Jade finally stops, completely out of breath. It's dangerous to run to the point of exhaustion... but she didn't dare reveal what she had found close enough for those men to take direct action. A place without cameras, she thinks frantically, looking around. There! That hollow in the tree, it's just big enough for me. I can pull those leaves and branches in front of it. The Director will just think I'm hiding to catch my breath in safety. They won't let me stay there long if they really can't see me, but I don't need long.

Jade ducks into the tiny opening, barely large enough for her to curl up into and have a little wiggle room to be able to camouflage the opening and then get back out, when the time comes. She pulls up the leaves and other debris until the entrance is almost completely covered, then draws back inside. Only a sliver of sunlight comes in. She feels around the inside of the hollow... there's nothing which could be a camera. Of course, a camera only needs a pinhole, but why would they put one inside a space which only one person could possibly fit in - and a fairly small person at that? Any sort of sexual activity in here, even self-gratification, would be impossible. Thinking about that for a moment brings back those artificial stirrings, the ****-fueled desires which can only be held at bay for so long. This had better not be permanent, Jade thinks to herself. I'd really rather not be a nymphomaniac for the rest of my life!

Slowly, because it can't be done any other way, Jade extracts her arm from the backpack strap and feels her precious cargo slip down from her back with a thump. She snakes her arm around her back, grasps it, draws it up. In the dim light, she can see that it really is what she thought it was.

A flare gun.

She stares at it for a long moment, breathing hard, her heart pounding not just from her recent run. There's no way they'd let me keep this, she thinks to herself. As soon as they know I've got it, they won't just send the men after me; they'll come themselves, take me out of the game. Maybe I should leave it here... is it worth taking the chance of being disqualified? What would I even use it for?

She wraps her hand around the grip, keeping her finger carefully off the trigger, remembering what her father had taught her about firearm safety. Always assume a gun is loaded, she thinks to herself. But, is this one loaded? No, it's not... and that makes sense, you wouldn't want this thing going off from a bump. The flares must have been in the box. So, maybe all I could do with it is wave it around anyway. Except... here, the grip has a slot on the back. There's one cartridge attached!

Jade tries to swallow, but her throat is dry. Carefully, she extracts the cartridge and holds it in front of her eyes, looking at it as if it might go off any moment. Then, with her thumb, she flips the barrel of the pistol down and deliberately slides the cartridge into the chamber, snapping it shut again.

Now, it's loaded.

Jade looks over the pistol, sees that it has a safety switch, and ensures that it's on. Then she puts it down at her feet, and by twisting and worming her arms around, she brings the backpack around to her front.

I have to conceal it, she thinks. But I also have to be able to pull it out in a hurry, or it won't do me any good. I'll only get to use it once - even if I don't fire it, once I show it, they'll know I have it and they'll make sure I don't have it much longer after that. I wish it weren't orange... it'll show on any camera if even a little of it is exposed. I'll have to think of some way to cover it, like I did with my hair.

"My hair," Jade whispers aloud.

She pulls a lock of her hair around, looking at it as if she's never seen it before. It's almost the same color! she realizes. This thing is kind of bulky, but... could I really just hide it on the back of my neck, under my hair? Even if it showed a little, maybe no one would see it; and it would be right there, in easy reach! My dad would freak out if he knew I was handling any sort of gun like that, but let's face it, that's hardly the only thing he'd disapprove of in this situation.

In spite of herself, Jade finds a smile cracking on her face.

Carefully, Jade pushes aside her cover and peeks out from the hollow. No one seems to be there, and she had been listening intently; it's a good bet she's still alone. She crawls out slowly, extending legs which cramp from having run and then been **** into a tight fold for so long. It takes a real effort to stand up straight.

She can feel the new weight, pulling at the hair on the back of her head. The only way she had found to be able to hold the pistol under her hair was to braid a lock of it and feed that through the trigger guard, tying it up into a loop with the only thing she'd had available - the small strip of blood-soaked cloth that she had cut from the mattress, the bit of Kayo that she had taken with her. It had taken at least fifteen nerve-wracking minutes and three failed attempts to finally get it right, and even now she isn’t sure it will hold. On the pretext of pulling the leaves from her hair, she reaches back to give it a gentle tug, then a bit harder... it seems secure, but if she pulled really hard, she could draw it out (and some hair with it, but that seems trivial at this point!).

Jade looks up into the sky, finds the Sun, gets her bearings. Then, she moves on into the woods.