How long we were there on the forest ground I couldn’t tell. I wasn’t trying to refrain from suffocating. Perceneige was shaking with anger. This was a nightmare. I thought life in the wild had been hell, but this was worse. No clue what was going to happen to us, not a chance of escape, not a friend to ask for help. It was us against them, and they were armed.

I read somewhere that when you’re about to die, your life rewinds before your eyes. Guess I wasn’t about to die. All I saw was the forest floor, Perceneige and the blur of my tears. I wasn’t angry at her though. If I’d stayed in our town, I’d either be Mad, a sex slave, or dead. I was only sad that I didn’t know her better.

Eventually we heard footsteps coming back. A pair of military boots filled my vision. I couldn’t move and didn’t want to. If these bastards wanted to hurt us, I wasn’t going to give them an excuse.

“Look at that crybaby. I must say Perc’, I am sorely disappointed. I didn’t expect you to stay single for long, but to replace me with this? It’s insulting.”

Fuck you, asshole. I kept my mouth shut on the words, but they must have shown on my face. He turned away.

Perceneige wasn’t afraid. She spat again in his general direction. The fucker laughed. The boots disappeared again, and I managed to turn my head a bit. He was grabbing her locks, pulling her head back, whispering something in her ear. She said nothing, which worried me.

“All right ladies. You’re coming with us.” Hans must have gestured to his minion, because in moments we were slung across broad shoulders and carried away, like potato bags.

I shot a glance at Percy, a silent question. Escape? She shook her head. No. We wouldn’t stand a chance. Fuck.

Our captors took turns carrying us. They’d taken our bags, too. Not that there was anything precious in there, but it still made me feel slightly better. Stupid, they could kill us and use our stuff for themselves. But something told me that wasn’t the plan. If they’d wanted us dead right away, we would’ve stopped breathing hours ago.

They wanted to make a show of it, fine by me. For now it meant we were alive. Alive but captives was still better than dead. We’d figure it out. We usually did.

The sun was high when we were dumped on the ground without ceremony. We had reached the border of the forest. There was a road just a little further, and cars waiting near it. I had forgotten about cars. It was eerie, after all this time dwelling in caves and sleeping on forest turf, to be face to face with obvious manmade tech.

If anyone had told me the bad guys had cars, I would have expected jeeps, buggies, or tanks. Not dark green Honda Civics.

There were four of them, shining in the sun and looking freakishly clean. Did these weirdos really take the time to wash their cars before kidnapping us? I glanced at Perceneige. She was chuckling. I’ll admit, I had a hard time refraining from doing the same.

“Nice cars, boys”, I said. I just could not resist. Percy burst out laughing, as planned. That laugh was worth a beating if any was coming.