Into the Game

Michael wasn’t alone.

There were a dozen players with him, including Mouse. The good news was that he wasn’t with them willingly; the bad news was that he didn’t look good.

Michael’s right eye was swollen shut. His lip was split in three places. His arms were bound behind him and I couldn’t count the bruises, because his dark skin hid the all but the deepest purple ones.

I wanted to help him, but I realized I had bigger problems when Mouse turned towards me.

“She’s over there!” He pointed at the rock I was hiding behind. "Get her!”

Half the men ran at me. I was only a hundred feet away from them, but I was up thirty feet. It would take them a little while to get to me.

I turned and ran. With a map that could track me, there was nowhere I could hide. I stopped. There were too many of them, eventually I would get tired or they would catch me. I needed to rescue Michael and get the map away from Mouse.

I ran back up the path to where I had been hiding. The rock I had been hiding behind was too big to push, and too far from the ledge, but there were smaller rocks I could pick up.

I grabbed a rock the size of a softball and threw it at the closest guy I could see. I aimed for his head, but I got him in the upper arm. He swore as he fell.

I dodged an arrow and hid behind the rock again. I threw a few more rocks over my shoulder. I didn’t know if they connected or not, but I hoped it would slow them down.

I thought about where I was going to go next. I couldn’t go back to the cave. They might be able to back tack how I left, but if I ran back there, then they could physically follow me.

I couldn’t stay where I was. The archers would shoot me if I ran in front of the rock to throw anymore rocks at the climbers. I ducked down and ran up the path.

I didn’t know where to go. There were rocks everywhere, they peaked all over the place, and some were almost two hundred feet up. They had the main path blocked off. I was trapped around all of the rocks; it was just a matter of time until they caught me.

I headed towards the closest peak to where they had set up camp. Most of the rocks were loose, it made climbing interesting. I had to tug on my hand holds before I put any weight on it, otherwise I would take a tumble.

I kept the peak between Michael and me. I wanted to stay hidden as long as possible. I hoped for night. It was late in the afternoon, but there were still a few hours until the sun would be gone.

I heard shouts below me. The men had finished their climb. They stood at the base of where I was climbing. I flattened against the rocks and looked down at them. One of them had a bow and I had nowhere to run.

I grabbed every rock I could reach, trying to find any that were loose. I was only halfway to the top, but it wouldn’t hide me against an arrow.

I found a loose rock and pulled it out. I waited for a cascade of rocks to bury them in an avalanche.

A handful of pebbles fell.

The men laughed at men as the archer took aim. I started throwing rocks at him. They weren’t very big and weren’t going to do any real damage, but it was keeping his bow down.

I started thinking. It wasn’t going to be long until I ran out of rocks. I needed a plan.