Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 127: Silence

Chapter 127: Silence

Seven days. It took the Reavers from Camp Hell seven days to find the fucker that had run away from them.

If he wasn’t so worried about his woman, Rip might have actually been impressed that the man had led them on a merry chase halfway across the fucking country. However, at this moment, he felt nothing but murderous rage toward the man hanging by his arms from the branch of a sturdy tree in the middle of nowhere.

Rip’s fist slammed into the ribs of the man, shattering them under the force of his hit.

The man gasped, his eyes wide as he swung back and forth like a pendulum. His legs had already been broken as soon as the Rip had gotten his hands on him. He wasn’t willing to take the chance of the fighter getting away for a second time.

They had discovered he was a fighting superpower, but his strength leant more to speed than physical strength. It suited him well out in the open where he could run away, but not so much in the ring, as he quickly learned.

"Do you know how long it takes to skin someone?" asked Rip, handing another blow to the other side of the fighter. He appreciated symmetry, what could he say?

The man had stopped struggling, but that didn’t mean he was going to answer. "Days," continued Rip, not caring about a response anyways. "I mean, if you don’t mind doing a shit job it could be done in a matter of hours, but to do it well, it takes days to make sure that you don’t nick into the muscles or blood vessels underneath."

This time, Rip punched the guy in the stomach, darting out of the way as whatever was in it came out. "I don’t have days to skin you and then torture you to death. You have already wasted more time that I was willing to give you."

The smile on Rip’s face was anything but happy as he leaned in closer to the man. One of his shoulders was dislocated from trying to support the man’s weight while Rip rained down blow after blow.

"Alpha wants this to be drawn out," continued Rip, his voice soft as he spoke to the man. "He wants to use you as an example of what not to do. And normally, I wouldn’t blame him at all. However, you have already made me chase you around for a fucking week, and it will take another week to get back to the camp. That is two fucking weeks away. And that is just not acceptable."

Rip pulled down on the shoulder that was still in its socket, dislocating it as well. Symmetry.

"Enough," snapped out Alpha. "Or you will kill him before we can skin him alive."

Rip let out a sigh, not impressed with the interruption. The entire reason why he was beating the guy was so he could die before the skinning happened. Rip was too much of a perfectionist to do anything other than a perfect job of it, and he just didn’t have the time.

The clock was ticking.

And the chocolate bars were melting in the trunk of the car.

"How about we break every bone in his body and wait until we are back at the camp to skin him alive?" suggested Rip. "That way the other fighters will see the consequences of running away and not just hear about it. Humans are visual creatures. It would make more of an impact on them to see us skin him."

Alpha narrowed his eyes as he thought about what Rip had suggested. It would get his point across in a spectacular manner, and he knew a lot of VIPs that would pay to be able to watch it happen. Maybe they could even start a new thing...

It only took Alpha a couple of seconds to think about all of the ways he could make use of this man one last time, literally wringing out every last penny he could from his hide.

"No," replied Alpha with a shake of his head. "His legs are already broken; he won’t be going anywhere. Untie him and put him in a car. Well save breaking more bones for after. Maybe even put out a survey to see what the VIPs would like to see us do to him. But we won’t kill him now."

Rip nodded his head, not really caring either way. But at least this way, they were heading back home now.

Gripping the man by his waist, not caring about how soft it was since his ribs were little more than floating bits of bones in his torso, he reached up with a knife and cut him down from the branch.

The Reaver hissed as he passed with their prey. Technically the hunt was still on, not one of them had been able to feast on his flesh so the conditions hadn’t been met.

But the hunt could continue for as long as Alpha wanted... as long as it continued back at Camp Hell.

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Another seven days and the Reavers were finally back at the camp. Two fucking weeks, that was a lot longer than he promised he would be away and he was not happy about it.

Rip burst from the hood of the SUV as soon as it stopped in the main parking lot. The smell of death and decay had been floating on the wind for the past day and it was clear where it had been originating from.

He stalked through the gates and into the fighter’s area, not paying attention to the silence that greeted him. They could all die for all he cared and a quick glance around showed that over half of them had.

No, all he cared about was getting to the woman’s area and checking on his woman... his Wang Tian Mu.

"Tian Mu!" he yelled as soon as he hit the second gate, practically ripping it off of its hinges.

Once again, there was nothing but silence.

It was weird to hear nothing after months of there being around the clock crying and screaming every night. This camp was never silent. Not like this.

"Tian Mu!" he yelled again, breaking out into a run.

He frantically looked around at the cages and all of the dead women lying quietly in their cages.

They had always gotten less food than the fighters since they didn’t bring in as much money and going two weeks without food meant that there was nothing left for their body to feed on to keep them alive.

So, it fed on itself.

"Tian Mu!!"