Young Writers Society

Jason, Peter and Liz

He struggled forward in the grip of the woman, but she was surprisingly strong. Obviously a shifter... He could see Carmen struggling in the arms of the man he still only knew as 'the gunman'.

The woman turned around, looking at him, "So, Peter. Shall we let these two go in exchange for cooperation from the bird?"

"Falcon! Not just bird!" Damien shouted.

Makes sense, thought Jason, the shock of being caught, and moreover the fear that Carmen would be hurt, prompting surprisingly irrelevant thoughts, They look like they'd be pretty touchy about that kind of thing.

The gunman - Peter - smirked, "Why bother? After all, we could just bring all three of them in and force them to work for us.

Seeing Damien tense, the woman held up one hand, “No. We won’t be able to get all three of them that way, little brother. The bird’ll just fly away and warn the rest of them.”

She gave Damien a sweet smile, “We agree – we let them go, and you help us. Your first order, tell us where the rest of them are right now. Once you’ve done that, we’ll let these two go.”

Jason was torn, he wanted to get Carmen away from these two, especially that psychotic hyena Peter, but the only way they’d be able to get away was if Damien betrayed the rest of the group.

Heather-

They were gone. I had decided to walk in my human form next to Trent's bear form when I noticed that both Carmen and Jason were gone.

"Trent, where's Carmen and Jason?"

Ballow, who had woken up a while later, jumped off Trent's back and shifted. "I saw them playing behind us. I guess it was tag."

"We need to go look for them," said Shade, his eyes were very intense which did nothing but provoke a bad feeling in my stomach. They were in trouble.

Trent:

Trent shifted and looked around. "We don't want to split up." He said as he looked at everyone. "We might not fid the others if we do."

"Good point, unless we say to meet back here in an hour." Heather replied.

"No, it'd be best if we stayed together. That way if something happens to someone we'll all be there to help." He replied.

Heather-

Everyone was in agrrement. "Where could they have headed first?" Trent asked.

"We should go back a bit and find tracks. They should give us a clue to where they are," said Shade.

"I hope they're alright," I whispered as we headed back. Shade morphed into his animal and looked at the ground carefully before heading off in a different direction like a bloodhound.

"Heather, we may need your ears," said Trent. I nodded and shifted into my owl form and took the the skies, landing from tree to tree. Minutes seemed like hours, but my ear slits finally caught something and it came from the direction that Shade was headed.

I tilted my head to try and catch more sound. All I heard was "let go!" before I couldn't get anymore. But the sound was unmistakably Carmen's voice.

I stopped struggling. It just wasted energy, and if there was going to be a fight, I would need all the energy I had.

“No. We won’t be able to get all three of them that way, little brother. The bird’ll just fly away and warn the rest of them," the woman said.

The man's hands flinched, loosing his grip slightly. I wanted to look at his face. Is he distracted enough? Before he could realize his mistake, I squirmed and flipped around in his hands. I scratched at his face and fell to the ground.

I heard a shout behind me as I ran at the woman holding Jason. I bit her leg as hard as I could. Damien must have shifted in the distraction because the woman dropped Jason, trying to hit a bird away from her face. She kicked me off her leg hard.

As I flew through the air, I saw Jason jump at the man. I shifted back into a human as I hit the tree.

My leg burned with pain. I looked down and saw red oozing through my jeans. I had to look away; blood makes me throw up.

Suddenly, someone was pulling me up on my feet harshly. I looked up and it was the woman.

"Stop!" she shouted, holding something cold to the side of my neck.

"Let go!" I squealed, trying to inch away from the hard metal. Everyone paused except the man, who looked aggravated. I felt a strange thrill rise up in my stomache. Please don't throw up!

Jason shifted back slowly, holding his hands up like a prisoner.

"Don't," he pleaded. I made my eyes wide at him. Help!

~Damien~

I shifted back into my useless form. Guns kill, kids. They tend to not like birds very much either.

"Stop!" I said, seeing the desperate look in both of the other's eyes. My body screamed, Shift! Shift!, but I knew that the others would die. "I don't know where the others are. After I..." Words, words. What are the right words? What am I supposed to say, "er...ditched them, they must've moved on. I don't know where they are."

The woman smiled cruely. I felt sick. This is what you get for helping people. You get hurt.

"Let them go and I'll find them for you." If all of them are together, they might live. But three against a pack of hyenas...that's be suicide.

Jason, Peter and Liz

Dammit! Jason thought, I wasn't fast enough! For once in his life, his ocelot form hadn't been able to help. He'd been free to act, but Carmen had been held at gunpoint. And he couldn't let her be hurt.

He hung his head, unable to meet her pleading eyes. He couldn't help her here, things were down to Damien now. Or him, if he chose to join them. But he couldn't do that, not when they'd threatened to hurt her. He could do nothing, now.

Peter gave a sadistic smile and looked to his sister, "Come on, kill her." Shifter or not, she'd scratched him, and he wanted her dead for that. Also, he wanted to see how the ocelot boy would react. Peter had seen the look on his face when Liz had caught the otter, and he knew it would be priceless if they blew her brains out.

But Liz shook her head, although she kept the gun in place, "No, no. I like the sound of this offer." She said, referring to Damien.

Peter spun to her, an incredulous look in his eyes, "You don't seriously believe him, do you? After he attacked you?"

"No, I don't believe he'll do it. Not without the proper...motivation, at least." Her eyes were cold as she smiled, "Peter, get the shock collar from the van." With a grin, he nodded and ran back in the direction of the van. Liz looked back to Damien, "Now, this collar's been designed to be flexible enough to stay on any shifter. This is the price you pay for breaking an arrangement before it's finished. You'll report back within two hours, or we'll shock you into unconsciousness. There's a tracking device in it, so we'll be able to find you as well."

Then she turned back to look at Jason, "You," she lifted up Carmen, who struggled in her hand, "And her will be allowed to go as soon as Damien has his collar on. And then the fun begins!" She laughed like a little girl for a moment, "We'll wait here while until Damien's two hours are up, and you two and your friends can get as far as you can from us. Then we'll come after you." She smiled, "Hunting is such fun!"

I looked down at my leg. It was still bleeding. The woman kept shifting my weight around so it was impossible to stay balanced on only one leg.

We're going to be hunted!? We should have stayed in New York...

There's no way we could escape... Even if we did, Damien wouldn't be able to get away and we can't just leave him to these people. Maybe Trent could cut it off him? Maybe we could all take them together?

But then I thought of the man's face. His cheek dripped with blood from my scratches, and the way he looked at me sent shivers through my spine. He had it out for me now.

We're doomed.

I tried to meet Jason's gaze, but wouldn't look at me. Is he mad at me?

Jason

He could only watch, hating himself for being unable to do anything to help Damien, to help Carmen.

And now they were going to be hunted.

After a wait that seemed to take hours, Peter returned to the clearing, a flexible looking metal band held loosely in one hand. Damien wrinkled his nose in distaste at the sight of it, "I am not going to put that on."

Liz shrugged, looking up as she pushed the barrel of her pistol against Carmen’s chin, “Fine. I suppose you can refuse, and then you can run because we’ll kill you all if you don’t. But then I guess she won’t get much say in the matter, will she?”

Trembling with rage, Damien snatched the device out of Peter’s hand, earning a dirty look and a feral growl in the process.

As Damien clipped it around his neck, Peter suddenly broke out in a grin, “Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, Liz…I told them you wanted them.” A half circle of hyenas – much larger in both numbers and sheer size than the pack that had appeared in New York City – emerged from the trees around him.

A look of rage flitted across Liz’s face – the first real emotion she’d displayed since she’d arrived. Then she returned to her eerie smile, “Fine. I guess we’ll start early, then.” She turned back to Jason and Damien, addressing the otter in her hand as well, “You all have two hours.”

She tossed Carmen through the air. She shifted mid-flight and landed, human form, in Jason’s arms. Damien shifted a second later and took flight, while Jason put one of Carmen’s arms over his shoulder and led her as fast as he could out of the clearing.

He only spoke when he thought they were out of earshot, “I don’t think we should try to find the others. Damien will warn them anyway, Peter and his sister are counting on that. We stand a better chance of survival if we head straight to Tennessee, as far as we know, those two don’t yet know about that plan, and it’s the best meeting point. Besides, we don't really stand a chance of finding the others in two hours without luck on our side.” He closed his eyes, “I want the safety in numbers as much as you must, but I just don’t see any safer option than this way.” He sighed, “I…I’m sorry I couldn’t help you back there, Carmen.”

"No problem. It all worked out, right?" I winced and looked down at my leg, then looked around the expanse of woods around us. "Sort of." I laughed because it felt like the only thing I could do.

"Oh God. do you need help with that?" Jason asked, noticing the blood on my jeans. I lifted up the leg of my pants and saw a huge gash on my calf. I gagged.

"I can't look at that!" I turned away, feeling an uneasy feeling in my stomach. In a couple minutes, I felt a tight pressure where it hurt. I glanced down and his shirt was wrapped around the cut.

"That should stop the bleeding," Jason said.

"Thanks," I smiled as he helped me up. I tried putting pressure on it, and it seemed better. "Okay, we better get going..." I trailed off, looking up into his eyes.

It felt like he was about to lean down and kiss me. I actually almost leaned up myself, but then I heard a twig snap. We both jumped about ten feet in the air and turned. A bird flew away...

Damn bird.
r
"Yeah, uh, we really should get going. We don't have long," I said, slipping my hand into his and squeezing it momentarily.

"Alright," he agreed. I let go of his hand so we could shift to move quicker. We would have to.

Heather-

They were being hurt and we were hiding in the trees. We should have helped! Shade checked to see if it was clear and tilted his head, the sign for us to go.

We all went out just as Carmen and Jason were about to shift.

"Carmen!" I screamed and hugged her tight. "Your leg! Your hurt! I'm so sorry!"

"Heather, it's okay," she said.

"Right now we need to get out of here," said Jason. "And fast."

***I'm lost***

*** so far Camren and Jason were captured and threatened in order to get Damien to join Liz and Peter's side. Now the bad guys are gone and we all came out to help Jason and Carmen and since Heather and Carmen are friends (I guess) Heather freaked out for a minute. And we are here.***

Trent:

"I agree. The faster we get out of here the safer we are." He replied. "We'll need to book it for at least two days taking just enough time to rest and all."

"Their hurt." Hearther said.

"I can carry one, I'll be switching between bear and human. In doing that I can go for days without stopping. But I know the same isn't right for some of you. I just know a bear can go on forever, long as I'm not hungry." He replied as he walked over to Carmen and gently picked her up.

Heather-

Oh how I wished one of us was a doctor. I didn't like the look of Carmen's leg and Jason looked pretty bad as well.

"Are you going to be okay Jason?" I asked him as he walked in human form. He nodded.

"I'm going to be fine, but we may need to find a hospital for Carmen."

"So we still are going to Tennessee?"

"Sure."

Trent shifted and was able to carry Carmen on his back. "I guess I should shift and hitch a ride," said Jason. I smiled and nodded. He shifted into the ocelot and hopped up on Trent's back and sat beside Carmen.

It was nice to give my wings a break and walk on my legs, especially on the grassy turf. I saw Shade walking beside me.

"So, we still have the same plan?" he asked. I nodded. "For the better. If we get to a secure location and be prepared for them, we may have a chance for survival."

"But we only have two hours."

"All the more fun."

"I take it you've done this plenty of times?" I asked. Shade nodded.

"Too many."