Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 124: Life, Death, Happiness, and Insanity

Chapter 124: Life, Death, Happiness, and Insanity

It was a hot night at the end of the summer as I tried to find a comfortable way to sleep.

Summer at Camp Hell was... well... hell.

Unwashed bodies, feces, urine, and other bodily fluids I chose not to identify smelled all that much worse in 40-degree weather.

Flies were becoming as attracted to living bodies as they were to dead bodies, and I now had to keep my eyes open for eggs and larvae every time I closed a new wound.

Speaking of... The innocent girl, the one with the two boyfriends, died a month ago.

Her John, or whatever name they called the VIPs, stuck the knife in a little too deep one night, and she died before I could heal her.

Her men took it hard.

Less than a week later, they ended up killing each other in their cell.

Alpha thought that they had beaten the crap out of each other and eventually died because of all of the fighting had made them go insane.

I knew otherwise.

The pain they had inflicted on each other was nothing compared to how they felt inside when their other half died.

They knew there was no point in living in this world without her.

And here, death was a mercy most were denied.

I heard the buzzing in my ear before the fucker attacked.

I slapped my arm, not caring about the pain. Raising my hand, I saw the squashed mosquito, blood splattered around the dead body.

It was, somehow, incredibly satisfying killing the thing. They had taken enough of my blood; it was time to give some of theirs back. Only about a million left to go.

"Tian Mu," whispered Rip harshly as he strolled toward me. He weaved in and around the cages as if he couldn’t see the other girls. I loved that about him. He only ever had eyes for me.

"Something big has happened, and the Camp is being shut down," he continued as he came to a standstill in front of my cage.

"I can only assume that they aren’t sending the camper home," I chuckled. I probably should be more concerned about my fractured thoughts and new twisted sense of humor, but I really couldn’t bring myself to do so.

I had also long come to the conclusion that I was never going to leave this place alive.

I had mentioned it to Rip once, my idea of how to get away from Camp Hell, but he shot me down so hard that I never brought it up again.

However, what convinced me most to drop the idea was just how scared he looked at the idea of us escaping.

"No," he replied as he remained standing, his back to my cage. His head seemed to be on a swivel as he searched the woods around us. "One of the fighters got out, and a hunt has been called."

"I hope he gets away," I muttered under my breath, but it must have been loud enough for Rip to hear.

"You don’t understand," hissed Rip, snapping at me for the second time ever.

My head jerked back, hurt that he had spoken to me like that.

It was until he crouched down in front of me and I got a good look at his face.

The man, whom Alpha was scared of, looked terrified.

"All of the Reavers will be leaving here to hunt for the male. All of us," he started.

"Okay?" I failed to see how this was a bad thing. If all the Reavers were gone, there would be no fights, and the girls would be safe. It seemed like a win-win for all.

"Without Reavers, you will be stuck in your cage, without food or water, vulnerable to anyone that finds you and can get your door open."

I swallowed loudly, suddenly having this fighter that ran.

"We, the horde, won’t stop until we find him. Days, weeks, months... years. We won’t stop until he is dead. We can’t."

Weeks without food or water? In this heat? We wouldn’t be able to survive that long.

"I’ll bring you what I can," continued Rip as he stood back up and turned away from me. It was almost like he was trying to hide something. "Listen to me. You need to survive; do you hear me? I will come back. The fucker couldn’t have gone that far; I am hoping that we will only be gone for a few days, a week at the most."

I nodded my head, lost in my own thoughts.

Could I last that long without food and water? I mean, it was possible but not probable. If there was rain, I could drink it as it fell, but the unnatural heat during the day would cause me to sweat more, dehydrating me at a faster pace.

And what if a VIP came around? I doubt their treatment of us would be that much better than the Reaver’s. They were all cut from the same cloth, after all.

But most importantly... did I really want to fight?

Death was a mercy, one that I wanted almost more than anything else.

Rip stalked away from me, getting me what he thought I would need to live while he was gone. I had no idea what he was talking about with needing to hunt or whatever.

-----

Time must have passed as I contemplated whether life or death would make me the happiest because before I knew it, Rip was back with a bag over his massive shoulders.

"Here," he grunted. He crouched down and opened the bag. Inside were easily 20 water bottles, various granola bars, and even a few chocolate bars, too. "I know it isn’t a lot, but I couldn’t grab anything else without rousing suspicion."

I nodded my head, not knowing if that was the proper response, as he fed me water bottle after water bottle into my cage. What little room I did have was now overtaken by the supplies.

"Your cages are far enough apart that no one should be able to take these from you, and whatever you do... don’t share."

Once again, I nodded my head. Everyone here hated me, so why would I be willing to give them my supplies?

"I’ll be back as soon as I can, Little Bird," he whispered, gripping my hand through the bars and giving them a kiss. "You have to stay alive until I come back. Please. For me."