“Damn! How are we going to get out of here? It’s a sea of mountains!” One woman exclaimed in shock.
Nora looked at the hill range that seemed to go on forever. Holding onto her forehead, she was probably starting to feel restless, just like I was.
Nevertheless, she sighed, “Let’s move on. There’s no way we can’t find our way out.”
Easier said than done. We went around in circles for who knew how long, moving from one hill to another.
The sky got darker and darker while the women got worried. “I think we should find a place to rest. If we continue walking like this, I’m afraid we may bump into some wild animals that live here. That would be bad.”
That was not an unreasonable request. At first, everything seemed fine, as we were able to identify traces of human passage. But after walking for several hours, as we ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, I realized there were almost no traces of human beings left.
Nora turned to face us. She went silent for a while and eventually agreed. “Okay, let’s find a place to rest for the night.”
We had no means of making fire. We had made our impromptu escape without bringing along extra clothes or food.
Fortunately, after walking for a little while longer, we found a large and sturdy tree with a giant hole underneath its roots. Someone must have dug it out some time ago. The size of the entrance, however, was barely accommodating.
As women, we were relatively petite in size, so we had little issue crawling into the hole.
The sky had gone completely dark by the time we entered the hole. Night had fallen. Each of us reluctantly found a safe spot and sat down.
There were five of us in total. Besides Nora and I, the names of the three other women with us remained unknown.
As we huddled in the hole, we began to make introductions. The other three women came from different places.
One of the thin, dark-skinned women was Tabitha. She came from Xenhall. The other one was called Laurel, who lived along the coast. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and was on the chubby side, which might be due to hormonal imbalance. Her cheeks had been visibly covered in acne for quite some time, especially along the jawlines. Some of them had formed pus and turned white, while a few had reddened and looked about to pop.
Another woman hailed from a farming village in the southwest. Her name was Tessa Dixon. She was a bit plump with medium-length hair. Her eyebrows highlighted her forehead wrinkles, which made her seem at least ten years older than she actually was.
As we talked, I got to learn about their situations.
In the beginning, I thought the crooks were targeting young and beautiful women only, but it turned out not to be the case. Perhaps they just wanted women. Any woman would do. As for what they wanted us for, we would never know.
After a short chat, we laid down in the hole to get some rest. I heard Tessa reciting some prayers close to me, but I could not make out what she was saying.
The forest was largely empty. Her chanting was not exactly loud, but in the quiet forest it sounded eerie and frightening.
Tabitha and Laurel were understandably scared, but they stayed curled up in the hole, hugging themselves tightly and not saying a word.
But Nora did not hold back. Her brows arched, she told Tessa what we were all thinking about. “Hey, we all know that you believe in God, but can you please recite your prayers in your mind, and not say it out loud? You’re going to attract wildlife if you go on like this.”
Tessa, annoyed by the interruption, produced a furious retort. “God will only protect us. He will not bring us harm.”
Nora did not argue with her. Instead, she rolled her eyes and, when the chanting resumed, said, “Look, if it means so much to you, please do it outside.”
Tessa went quiet after that. The mumbling stopped.
Tabitha and Laurel exchanged glances. Neither had anything to say. Shrouded in darkness, all of us remained silent.
Luckily for us, nothing happened during the night. We lived to see another day.
The next day.
Birdsong in the forest was music to the ears. By the time I woke up, Tessa had already left the hole.
Nora had been resting on her knees when the noise roused her from her sleep. She looked around blankly.
Her delicate face, reddened from being held down for too long, only served to highlight her fairness. She looked much prettier.
“Wake up!” I called her, as I got ready to head out.
Nora nodded, rubbed her face, exhaled deeply, and asked, “Has someone gone out?”
I nodded and was about to head out when she made to follow me. However, probably because she had kept her legs pressed for too long a time, she stumbled before she could even stand up properly.
I lowered my gaze at her. Helplessly, she said, “I must have stayed hunched over for too long. My legs are numb.”
Smirking, I lent a hand to get her up and out of the hole.
We found Tessa sitting on a tree trunk outside the hole, chanting prayers to her heart’s content. She was not exactly loud, but her recital sounded like buzzing noises, and it was becoming irritable.
Nora smacked her lips in response as irritation crossed her face. “Geez, do you have to make so much noise so early in the morning? Give it a rest.”
Tessa whipped around to glare at her, said nothing, and got back to reciting her prayers.
“Why don’t we look around and see if we can find any fruits? After that, we can look for some real food.” I suggested. I looked up to find that the trees had managed to block most of the sun, its rays sparsely spilling on the ground.
We had woken up to greet a new dawn, accompanied by birdsong and the cool morning breeze. I breathed in the air provided by the forest and felt instantly refreshed.
