She tightened both hands around the branch and then swung blindly. She heard the beast whimper, meaning she must have made contact. Then Samantha saw the beast lying on the ground, stunned. She raised the branch over her head. She didn't want to kill it, but there was no hope of taming Pryde's beasts; he had trained them since birth to be vicious killers. That kind of programming could not be undone.

Once she was certain the beast was dead, Samantha knelt down into the bushes to spew the fish she'd eaten for breakfast. This time she knew her period had nothing to do with it.

***

Wendell had hoped to run back to the village for help. He knew the others would tease him for being weak and a girl, but he also knew he couldn't rescue Samantha on his own, not from one of those beasts. Killing one of those required someone strong like David.

His plan soon went awry as he realized he had no idea where he was. In his flight from the monster, he had run blindly into the woods. Now he could only see trees and bushes all around; they looked the same as all the other trees and bushes in this area.

Then his foot caught a root and he found himself tumbling not to the ground, but through it. He plunged through the air, his arms flailing uselessly. He had just enough time to scream-a girlish scream even to his own ears-before he hit something firm yet soft. Even stranger, that something firm yet soft groaned.

A moment later, he heard Prudence whisper, "Samantha?"

"No, it's me. Wendell."

"Oh, you. Where's Samantha?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? Didn't you come to rescue me?"

"Well, we were looking for you. Then one of those monsters attacked us. Samantha distracted it so I could get help."

"And you ended up in here. Well done."

"I didn't mean to fall in here. I was just running so fast-"

"That's what happened to me too. Now we're both going to die." It was too dark in the hole to see more than an outline of Prudence's chubby face, but he could hear her crying.

"We won't die. Samantha will find us."

"No she won't. She'll never find us in here. We'll end up just like the other one."

"What other one?"

"The other one who fell in here. You're probably sitting on her. Or him."

"What are you talking about?"

"When I fell in here, I found a skull. One of the other children fell in here and died, probably a long time ago."

Wendell got to his feet. He flailed around until he wound up tripping and falling back on top of Prudence. She shoved him off of her. "Stop it!"




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