Page 56 of Villainous Fate

We’ve been moving for about ten minutes when I hear Saint’s frustrated yell. He must’ve found our camp.

Our empty camp.

He will now have to decide to try and track us, falling farther behind on his mission, or go back to his next clue.

Decisions decisions.

I turn, glancing to see Finn and Deacon’s reactions, and see smiles from both of them.

“I love ruining that asshole’s day,” Finn whispers triumphantly, and for the first time, he shows a bit of his cards.

Not a fan of Saint. Check.

We take a second to bask in the moment before continuing on our way, keeping our eyes on the skyline and treetops, looking for our next clue.

Twenty minutes later, we see it.

At the top of a hundred-foot tree is a bright red envelope. At first glance, I assume climbing the tree should be no problem, but upon closer inspection, it appears that many of the limbs have been hacked off or sliced through, ready to break with the slightest pressure.

“I can climb,” Finn states, moving to before Deacon stops him.

“We only get one shot up and one down. We need to look at your path. Every branch will break once it has been used, so you won't be able to go up and down the same way. We can’t all go, but I think if we do this right, two of us can climb while one navigates from the bottom.” he says, already trying to put together a path that will work.

Finn turns to me before asking, “You have any problems with heights, or is it just the swimming?” There is a teasing humor in his tone, and it makes me smile.

“No issues with heights. I’m rather good at climbing,” I respond, understanding that he and I have volunteered for this one while Deacon strategizes.

“We should use the rope we have left. If we get through this, it will still be usable later, but if one of us falls, we may not be able to finish,” he says, his voice giving away the gravity of a hundred-foot fall.

“Alrighty then. Let’s do this,” I say as Deacon points out our path.

Chapter 29

Deacon

FinnandMarcusdoan exceptional job retrieving our next clue. We hit one small snag on the way down when a branch snaps before they could move off of it. Finn dropped a good foot before Marcus was able to grab his arm and pull him back to the stump that remained.

Being on the ground for the climb was helpful from a team perspective, but I hate feeling like I’m not contributing, so I did everything I could to guide them back to safety. The next clue gave us our directions to what was referred to as the decision center.

We spent half the day following the steps listed on the envelope, walking in what feels like circles half the time until we finally approach our last turn. The maze opens up to a giant circle at the center. From our entrance point, I can see four other paths in the opening that lead to this location.

That must be how the other groups are accessing the center.

Stationed on a platform at the center of the maze are four women, kneeling in a single file line. Bound, blindfolded, and gagged. Each is wearing grey sweats with black tennis shoes in addition to a large color-coded sign bearing the name of each team they belong to around their neck. North, South, East, and West.

Their faces are obscured by the thick blindfolds covering their eyes and mouths, but the stains on their cheeks have etched lines onto their skin revealing the tears that have fallen since they were left here. Even from a distance, I can smell the blood clinging to them like a death stench.

What happened to them? How did they end up here?

Tentatively we step up to the platform, each of us looking to the other for what to do next.

Certainly, these couldn’t be the items we needed to retrieve?

Humans?

There are strict rules in our society that have been ingrained in us since our Awakening. We cannot be found out. Our species cannot be revealed. Any human who stumbles into our world, or knowledge of it, is eliminated, never to be heard from again.

No exceptions.

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