Boulder, CO

Kanima leant agenst a nearby tree and groaned. Why wouldn't it stop, what was it? She began slipping to the ground and fell into s sitting position with her back agenst the tree. How long would she be able to take this before her brain turned to mush? It felt like any second now. She looked up and saw the hunter with the girl and the boy, Raziel, unconscious. Oh crap, she didn't want to be unconscious. Who'll the others take her with them, or leave the her for the hunters to find. Stay awake, please, I can't black out now, the worst time. Stay awake. she kept repeating that over and over in her heads. Her eyelids were dropping. Damn. She wasn't going to do it. Her eyes closed and the noise got fainter. It still hurt but soon it wouldn't. It stopped but the thing was that she was still conscious. Her eyes fluttered open. She shakily stood. The world was spinning around her. Then she seen a new person emerge. He smelt human... Hunter. She was still leaning agents the tree. She took a step forward trying the balance on her foot. The world hadn't stopped spinning, quite annoyingly and her hearing was messed up. Everything seemed to sound distant. Stumbling she yelped, fell face down and softly moaned.


This wasn't supposed to happenMason thought They weren't supposed to be in pain. It was only supposed to distract them. He looked at one unconscious and one barley conscious Alter. He picked up the device and turned it of then threw it as far away from the Alters as he could from where he was. They probably heard him. So what?
He caught sight of the hunter lying unconscious. Then watched as he got up, grabbed a girl and held a knife to her throat. The hunter looked like he was going to kill the girl. Maybe, just maybe, Mason could reason with them. If the hunter let the girl go, both Mason and him could walk away. That seemed reasonable. What of none of them listened. Well, it was worth a shot.
Stepping slowly out Mason looked at the hunter, he recognised him. It was Riley. Mason had memorised every hunter that worked for the institution. He didn't know if the Riley would recognise him.
"Please, let the Alter go. I mean, they can't be hat bad, they haven't killed you,"he said to Riley then turned and spoke to the Alters"Please, if he lets her go, will you let us go?"
Then the seriousness of the situation hit him. He had made a rash move, the Alters could attack him. Why didn't he think of that.Stupid, stupid, dumb-ass.Calling himself names wouldn't help. He promised if he got out of this alive, he would think long and hard about what he did before he did it.
"Don't attack me, please," he said almost whispering.

One moment Esme was holding tight to the tree women then the next they were falling, she let out a small gasp as she hit the ground roughly. Unwanted hands were pulling at her, she felt an arm go around her neck tightly then felt something sharp against her neck. Her eyes went wide when she figured out that she was in the arms of a hunter, her heart raced as she started to panic. She started to struggle, kicking her legs and scratching at the guys arm with her nails.

She felt like an animal that was free but has been caught, she let out a pierced scream then bit down roughly into the hunter's arm. She couldn't think straight to even form a word, her mind was going a mile a minute and all she could think about was getting away. Her eyes went to the tree lady, pleading her to help with just her facial expressions.

She heard someone yelling then another voice speaking, she couldn't understand what they were saying. It was all too much for her, her struggling got worse, squirming this way and that way but the hunter's hold seemed to get tighter and tighter as she did. Her breathing becoming more raggid and raspy, getting harder to take breaths with an arm around her neck. She wasn't exactly a steong alter, the scientists said her mind was what kept them intrigued with her even with her know flaws, they kept saying they were going to fix her.

Why couldn't they just let her be free? Her nails dug into the Hunter's arm harder as she tried to keep herself from becoming unconscious but it was getting harder to keep her eyes from closing with every second going by.

Riley watched as the two guys came up to him, threatening. His grip on the girl’s throat tightened, a demented smile sliding onto his face.

“ You know just as well as me that if you do anything to her, you lose the only thing that holds me back from turning your face the same color as your hair.”

When the mammoth of a man threatened him, Riley’s face contorted into mock fear, his eyes widening and his lips making an ‘O’ shape before it dissipated into a bemused snarl.

When the other boy came up to him, he almost laughed. So they thought he was going to take them back, actually give them the 'luxury' of the institute? As tempting as that seems, I have something more interesting in mind. No no, he was going to let them rot in the real world, a little game of cat and mouse.

“It’s kind of sad that you believe I’m just going to take you back.” He said, looking at the thrashing little girl in his grip. Riley pressed the dull side of the blade deeper into her throat, cutting off her windpipe as he felt her bite him.

“Damn kid,” He hissed as he heard another voice, this one was quite familiar with, adverting his gaze, his suspicions were correct.

“I always knew you were soft, Mason, but right now what you’re asking for is actually pathetic.” Riley snarled, his eyes focused on the Alters. When Mason pleaded for them not to attack them, he barked out in laughter, “I doubt it’s them you’ll have to worry about.” He said in warning as he looked at Mason, his grip on the child loosening some.

Kanima

Kanima sat up, damn she was still dizzy. Why wouldn't this end maybe her brain had been turned into mush. Would she be able to stand eventually. She wiped mud of her face and looked around. A hunter had come out of the trees and was talking to the other. Damn, what the hell was she doing... What the he'll was she going to do. She looked at the hunter holding the girl and stood shakily.
"Hey listen, I don't know what you're playing at but we can't let any of you go back. Who knows what you would tell the others." She mainly addressed the one holding the girl. She was slowly moving forward.
She tried to hold his gaze when he looked at her. If she could keep this up she would get to him and swap who was holding who. Hopefully she would have the knife pressed against his neck. The girl, would be out of the way. Hopefully... She just needed to hold his gaze long enough and keep him talking she would hopefully distract him. She kept advancing really slowly.

Mason

Mason was hurt by his words but didn't show it.
"Riley, just stop. I know that this is your job but look at the girl your holding. She is only what, do you think you should hurt a helpless child." He hoped Riley would let the girl go. That would give them both a chance to escape. It was slim but... He looked at the girl.
Poor girl, he thought she probably is almost scared to death
He felt sympathy for her. He looked at the Alters he seen that they were doing their best to try and free her. He seen one advancing. Damn that was stupid but if he alerted Riley to this Riley would be more likely to notice. All Mason could do was watch and hope that Riley didn't notice.

Jade

She was frozen. Everything was happening before her and she was so helpless. A 'noise' she couldn't hear and people passing out. The plant girl getting attacked and the little one held hostage. It was all she could do not to scream. The threats passed back and forth and another hunter entering the clearing. This has to end.

Then, Jade saw the girl making eye contact and talking to the main hunter. She followed her lead, moving into bushes and circling behind the boy until she was able to make eye contact with the brute and the heavily muscled boy. She tried to communicate 'Distract him.' with her eyes. She would go for his legs to give the other girl the opportunity to get the little one away from the hunter.

The teen saw a few people begin to move, in a way that suggest more than flight. His lips rose in a bemused smile, “Move, and I will not hesitate to kill her.” He said, watching all of them. He tossed a glance as Mason, laughing.
“Let her go, you want me to let her go?” He asked with a skeptical raise of an eyebrow, “I don’t think that’ll happen.” He tossed the girl effortlessly over his shoulder with little more than a soft grunt.

“Maybe you should join them.” Riley said to Mason, “You’re enough of a freak as it is.” He hissed, and then looked at the Alters.
“And what are you going to do if you escape? Live a normal life?” He asked with a laugh, “That can’t happen, because when people see you, they’ll send you back in fear.”

Riley wasn’t saying this just to cause them to hesitate; he knew it would happen, “What will people do with a girl that looks like she is made out of a tree, they’ll kill her.” He said simply, as if it were no big deal. But of course to Riley, it wasn’t. He was going to do the same anyways.

Kanima

Kanima stopped and growled. God, he was a psycho and one of them had messed up her hearing. she still couldn't hear properly
"I doubt he's the freak, you pathetic little psycho," she hissed.
Why the hell was he doing this. She thought maybe people had a little decency. Maybe they did, but he didn't.
"I can't believe you're doing this, you can't say we are freaks. Are you even human? The whole point of being human is having some decency. You don't do you. Doing that to a child."
She really was disgusted. It had only occurred to her that she was still growling lowly. She stopped and closed her eyes trying to calm herself.

Mason

He took deep breaths and tried to calm himself. He was still aware that the hunters would be closing in on them. He had to get them
to go. He seen that they wouldn't leave without the girl. He heard raised voices. Oh no! They...
"Riley... Please, just let them go, all of them," He said quickly, "Please..."