Chapter 5

Nate sat up in a tree rolling a smooth stone in his hand. He was bored out of his mind. It was the second day and a combination of hunger and fear for his own safety made his heart grow callous to the constant screams of other prisoners off in the distance. There was no game to be found. No small animals to hunt, nor was there a way of catching small animals even if they existed on this reservation. All he had to eat were the berries he'd found in a bush. He had no idea if they were safe and was too hungry to be cautious. 

He found it hard to believe the jailers would allow for something like this. Why stick them in this reservation to be hunted like animals while not even providing them with the opportunity to eat and replenish their strength. He could only imagine their goal was to have them weak and sluggish so they'd be easier game for the hunters.

It was true what that fat warden said, they weren’t human anymore and now they were being hunted like animals. “Bullshit!” He cursed, clenching his fist tightly.

He felt surprised when something slithered out of his mind and into his clenched fist. He heard a crack come from his hand. Surprised, he opened his palm to see what happened. The palm sized rock he held in his hand was shattered to pieces. He had picked up several rocks and stuffed them in his pocket as a make-shift weapon against others. It wouldn’t do much but it would provide him with an edge.  He let the shattered pieces of rock sprinkle out of his hand.

That weird sensation he felt right before the rock burst happened two other times. Once at the hospital when he thought he saw the demon’s face in the woman officer. But the first time was when he fell out the eighth floor window of his apartment. As he neared the floor he held his hands out in front of him as if that would lessen the impact somehow.

Something snaked out of his mind and suddenly he bounced off the air three feet away from hitting the floor. He felt his mind tear in two when he did that. Blood spurted out of his mouth and nose as he blacked out.

“Is this telekinesis or something?” He wondered. He took out another rock and tried to do the same thing as before. For minutes he stared at the rock in his palm but nothing happened.

Two times he used that power he was feeling fear. But just now he was feeling anger when he crushed the rock. “Is it tied to emotion somehow?”

With this new revelation in mind he tried to make himself angry. He vented all the frustration he felt. His parent’s death. His little sister being torn to pieces. Being blamed for their murder. The demon that got away with it all. Being brought to this hell-hole and now being hunted like an animal.

He felt something snake out of his mind and the rock suddenly shattered to dust. The dust burst apart and entered his mouth, nose and eyes. “Ack!” He coughed to get the dust out of his mouth brushing his face off.

“Success!” He pumped his fist into the air once he had himself cleaned off. That snake like feeling was definitely the key to his power. He focused on that feeling. This time it was more pronounced. He could feel it was energy that came from his mind, traveling down his arm and into the rock.

He focused on manipulating that energy. Instead of infusing the energy into the rock to make it shatter he propelled it out of his hand. Slowly the rock levitated up. It hovered one foot above his hand.

“Awesome!” He exclaimed.

He spent the next hour practicing; making rocks float using his power. His max was using two rocks, anymore and his concentration would collapse.

The sounds of other prisoners in pain rang in the distance but Nate was used to it by now. It was just another sound of the forest.

After three hours of playing with the rocks he felt his head throb in pain. Nate put away the rocks and massaged his head. It hurt painfully, it was like his brain was being dragged across a lane of broken glass. Climbing down the tree he looked for a bush to conceal himself. His mind was tired and he needed skeep.

It was still daytime when he fell asleep, he knew it was dangerous to fall asleep now, especially with the hunters still hunting but the pain was just too unbearable. His mind blacked out.

He woke up the next morning with a hand on his mouth and his body being held down. “MMM!” His yell was muffled. Panic surged through his heart as various scenarios played out in his head.

“Be quiet.” He heard a familiar voice say. Nate looked up into the eyes of the bald Nazi prisoner.

Once he made eye contact the Nazi prisoner held his finger to his lips and let go of Nate. “Stay here.”

Nate was about to argue when he heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. “The scream came from around here. Where he at?”

Nate glanced through the bushes and saw a group of ten or so hunters. Around them were several white and Asian prisoners. The Nazi prisoner spoke, “I looked but I- “ 

Smack!

“Did I ask for your opinion, slave?” One of the hunters said. He was an ugly young teen with a pimple ridden face. He smacked the bald Nazi prisoner again.

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The Nazi prisoner looked down not meeting the gaze of the young teen. “Little one’s feisty. Takes after his father.” A mature woman laughed.

“But he looks like his mother.” Another man quipped.

The woman smacked the man on the arm as the other hunters laughed. Nate noticed these people looked wealthy, the way they walked and talked, as if the whole world was beneath their feet.

“The hunts ending in a few hours, let’s not waste any more time.”

The group moved on. Nate remained in the bushes too afraid to move. He stayed there for hours waiting for the end of their three-day stint. Finally the sound of claxons sounding in the air was like sweet relief to him.

“We ask that the hunters now leave the premises.”

Nate still remained in hiding. People walked by him chatting amicably about their ‘hunt’. He noticed these people weren’t separated by race. No, there were blacks, whites, and all other races participating in the hunt. Only separated by the colors on their vest. Red vests and blue vests.

After thirty minutes passed another claxon sounded. “Good fight prisoners. The hunt is officially over, make your way back to the starting point and claim your reward.”

Nate made his way out the bushes after hearing that. On his way back to the starting point he saw several other prisoners, they looked at him in surprise but didn't speak to him.

When the hunt started three days ago, Nate counted about two hundred prisoners. But now there was barely a hundred. He also noticed there was no black survivors.

Two people approached him. It was the White Nazi prisoners from this morning. “Bad luck Nemo.” The bald one said.

Nate detected a trace of pity and sadness coming from their voices. He felt anger at them, an instinctive reaction when looking at their tattoos and what they represented. But then he remembered how they saved him back there at the hunt. He turned to them surprised. “Why’d you save me? I thought you hated blacks?”

“Out there in the real world… maybe. But we were stupid and naïve. In here we’re all slaves.” The young teenager spoke. The bald Nazi nodded along.

“Why am I the only survivor?” He asked. He meant the only survivor of the black race out of the thirty or so that arrived.

“They were the flavor of the week.” The bald Nazi said.

“What?” 

“Every week the people who run this place allow a hundred people to play ‘The Wild Hunt’. These hundred players are split into two groups; blue and red. These two groups are then given a ‘protected’ class. This week the blue group was protecting the White class. The Red group was protecting the Asian class.”

“Wait, I saw Asian’s amongst the blue group.” Nate said interrupting the bald Nazi.

“Let me finish. These two groups go off and hunt. Red group will protect any Asians they come across and kill everyone else. The blue group will do the same, except they’ll protect the White class. After three days are up the survivors are tallied, if red group killed more than they win half their money back, if blue team wins then they win half their money back as well.

Keep in mind these hundred contestants paid millions to outbid others to get a chance to play this game. Most do it just for the thrill, not caring about winning or losing. Some even collect ears, even though they don’t need to. The admins pin cameras to the vests of the contestants so they know how many each team killed yet still some decide to take trophies from the victims they kill.

What you saw, Asians being in the blue camp even though the blues were protecting the White class. This is probably the most despicable thing. The blues will often collect pretty women and sometimes even men of the enemies ‘protected’ class and use them as their play things. Once the third day arrives they’ll kill the men and women to get the points.”

Nate was reeling from all this information. Everyone’s heard of the sick things that went on in Black Watch Asylum. There were even leaked videos of the things that go on here but each video was debunked as a fake, now that it was happening to him he couldn’t believe it.

“And we’re the criminals?!” Nate said enraged.

“Calm down Nemo.” The young teen warned pointing at the walls of the starting point. Nate noticed the cameras and grew silent even as his anger raged.

“Now, every week they switch who the ‘protected’ class is. We were lucky this time but next week it’ll probably change. The flavor of the week also changes each week. This time the blacks were the flavor of the week so those who hunted black prisoners would receive three times the points of a normal prisoners worth.”

“This is so fucked up.” Nate said under his breath. “Why would prisoners play this game? Why don't they fight back against the hunters?”

“You've seen the blue and red vests worn by the hunters. They aren't just for show, these vests are practically life vests. Any prisoner that tries anything will be shocked to death through the collars around their necks. Hunters are all influential millionares so the owners of this prison take their safety very seriously.

As for why prisoners play, well, we play for that.” The bald Nazi pointed at the guards who came out of a door and headed towards the survivors with a black remote in hand.

Nate grew nervous as he remembered what that black remote was capable of. “Calm down.” The bald Nazi said. “Those who survive the three days get a year’s worth of tokens. Tokens are required if you want to eat.”

Nate felt a bit of relief after hearing that but what the bald Nazi said next made him curse his luck. “Don’t get too excited. The amount of tokens is visible on your collar and there are ways of transferring tokens to other prisoners. Since your part of Little Africa, you’ll have to transfer most of your tokens to them.”

“Hell if I will.” Nate snarled.

“You don’t have a choice. They can’t take your tokens without your approval but they will torture and beat you until you accept the transfer. Those loners who don’t choose a group will often find hardship and be hunted down by the other gangs. Their only hope is to donate some tokens to a gang in the hopes they’ll get protection from that group.”

The guards approached them black remote in hand. They pressed a few buttons while aiming the remote at their collars then walked away. A voice sounded in his head telling him he had a thousand and ninety-five tokens.

The two Nazis began entering the doors, Nate walked after them. The doors closed behind them engulfing them in darkness. The doors opposite suddenly opened.

Nate felt like it was the first day again when he entered and all the prisoners stared at him. Only this time there was a certain look in the their eyes. They were assessing the survivors, determining which ones were ‘loners’ that they could bully and force into transferring over some tokens.

Leo walked over to Nate. Nate looked at the two Nazi’s who were walking towards their group. “Thank you.” Nate said to them.

The two men looked at him and nodded. “You’re a survivor Nemo. Just keep your head down and try to avoid being out at night. Avoid the blood dens as well. And of course, try to stay away from the Wilderness. Good luck and good fight.” The bald Nazi said to him before walking away.