The Khonsu filed out of the ship eagerly, looking immediately to where their prey was standing. Most of their eyes were centered on me, and I had the feeling that this was going to be the hardest experience of my life.
We were led to the edge of the forest at that point. The Khonsu didn't seem to have any intentions of giving us instructions. Looking around at my fellow prisoners, they all looked terrified, but also resigned. They must've grown up with stories of the hunt as well.
The Khonsu warriors stayed close to the ship. Evidently, we were going to be given a head start...how kind of them.
Just then a loud blast went off. The females in front of me started to run into the woods.
It was starting.
I took off after them, and then took a hard left after a few minutes. If I was going to have to go through this, at least I could take some of the pressure off of the rest of the prisoners since I knew most of the Khonsu would be after me.
The woods were like a whole other world. Large trees blocked the sun, making it cool and dim. Dead leaves crunched under my bare feet. I was lucky that my feet had toughened up during the trials or I would be limping right now.
There were strange noises all around me, and occasionally I got a glimpse of the end of a tail or the feathers on a wing as whatever creatures I was disturbing as I ran through the woods tried to hide.
Another blast sounded. I could tell it was for the Khonsu warriors because despite the fact that I'd probably made it at least a mile away from where we had first started, the ground shook a bit as the warriors entered the forest.
It only took a few minutes for me to hear the screams start as the Khonsu found some of the prisoners.
A burst of adrenaline sent me pushing forward. There had to be a way out of this, there just had to be.
I was so caught up on running as fast as I could, that I didn't even hear the first Khonsu when he reached me. I wasn't aware that he was there until a thin, silver colored rope was suddenly wrapped around my neck, choking me.
Stupidly, I still tried to lurch forward, desperate to get away. This only served to choke me even further. Maybe I would die before the rape happened, I thought to myself as the world started to fade to black.
Suddenly the rope was cut behind me, and I fell to the ground, heaving huge gulps of air. The sound of flesh hitting bone had me turning around to see the scene behind me.
Two purple clad Khonsu were wrestling on the ground. I gasped at the scene, shocked as one of them pulled out a razor-sharp knife the color of black obsidian. He raised the knife high above the Khonsu he had forced to the ground, a Khonsu who had the remnants of a broken rope in his hand, and he slashed the knife down. I watched in horror as the other warrior's flesh was split open, his blood seeping into the ground below him.
Only at that point did I get the wits about me to begin to run again. As much as I didn't want to be caught by the first one, this other Khonsu seemed like he would be even worse judging by the delighted look on his face as he had stabbed his fellow warrior.
Just as that Khonsu was about to get up from the ground, another Khonsu warrior tackled him to the ground. This time I didn't stop to watch what happened.
I just ran.
A fierce grunt came from behind me, and then the gurgle of blood as one of them killed the other.
I continued to run.
I was almost captured at least five more times. Each time I thought that it was the end until another Khonsu warrior would erupt from the woods to stop my current assailant and try to claim me.
There was a trail of Khonsu corpses littered behind me on the path that I was traveling.
I was exhausted, but still I kept running.