Page 129 of Kill Feed

60:00

Then the warehouse doors at the far end of the room begin to open, spilling moonlight and cold air into the gaps. The rolling doors climb higher, revealing the forest bit by bit.

When the warehouse doors fully stand agape, the timer starts ticking down.

59:59

59:58

59:57

Nobody waits for it to hit fifty-six. Bodies surge toward the open doors, disappearing into the beyond. Mason takes charge almost instantly as he barks to his group, “Stick together! We find the nearest station first, take a flag, and get the fuck back.” His followers practically trip over themselves trying to keep up.

We move in an instant. There’s no time to waste, considering that we no longer have a map of the forest nor the location of the flag stations, so it’s pure memory and instinct from here on out.

And after a while of running, jogging, then walking, every shadow and tree line blend together, with the only source of light being the full moon above us, shining down like a massive torchlight.

Amani wraps her arms around herself, half shivering from nerves and the cold. Jumping whenever a branch snaps somewhere in the distance, or bugs fly past her head.

“Are we almost at the flag station?” she finally asks, gaze fixed on me and honestly… it’s the blind leading the blind because I have no fucking clue.

“What are we supposed to do if a hunter shows up?” Lucas now adds before the silent treatment I exude swallows them whole.

“We run away,” Amani interjects.

“That’s the plan?” Lucas exclaims, almost disappointed.

“What else are we supposed to do, fight them?” she bites back.

A noise pulls my attention, and I stop walking, both of them nearly smacking straight into me.

“What—”

“Shhh,” I state, holding up a hand.

The forest falls silent, with only the leaves rustling somewhere nearby. Another crack echoes before an owl launches from a nearby branch, gliding between the trees before disappearing into the canopy.

“Jesus Christ.” Lucas breathes, and we start walking again.

After climbing a steep slope littered with roots and loose stones, Lucas jogs up beside me.

“Shouldn’t we be running? I mean, we’re on a tight schedule,” he says, tapping on his watch.

“No. We should save our energy for when someone’s actually chasing us,” I reply, eyes forward. “It’s only been fifteen minutes.” The ideal plan would be to find a flag station within the next fifteen and use the half hour left to navigate back to home base. In theory, this works. Accounting for that, we will probably at some point start to run into trouble. Fuck, maybe we should’ve found a flag station by now.

Lucas opens his mouth, but before he can argue, the sound of footsteps brings us to a halt. I reach for the hunting knife I never discarded, which is now tucked into my waistband.

The footsteps get closer, and a figure appears beyond a tree. I’m ready to stab a motherfucker, but I’m met with the perplexed gaze of dark eyes and pitch-black hair that consumes the night.

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Leo exhales.

Amani immediately lights up, “Oh my God, Leo!”

Before he can escape, she rushes forward and throws her arms around him, and to the guy’s credit, he actually smiles. He hugs her back briefly. “I guess it’s good to see you too.”

Lucas steps forward. “I thought you said Kill Feed was fake, man.”

Leo releases Amani and shrugs. “Yeah, well, what can I say?” Then his gaze slides past them.