{"id":2320,"date":"2025-02-21T09:18:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T09:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2320"},"modified":"2025-02-21T09:18:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T09:18:51","slug":"the-hunted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/the-hunted\/2320\/","title":{"rendered":"The hunted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHello?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beams of light sliced the darkness, and she shrank into the corner, shivering. Hopefully they\u2019d not see her, move on, and she could get back to eking out her existence on whatever she could forage at night time, and the small creatures that fell into the crude traps she lay near the entrance to the cold, dark, cave system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe, she thought, as footsteps echoed, getting louder and closer, that was what\u2019d drawn them into the depths, that she’d been careless and left signs, indicators of her existence. Whatever had got them here, they weren\u2019t leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The trespasser halted. She wasn\u2019t sure how many there were, but even one would be a problem \u2013 he\u2019d lead others here, there\u2019d be a search party, people would come, and…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she\u2019d have to move on, her life upended again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If <\/em>she could get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only sound was her heart beating so loudly she was sure they\u2019d hear. She couldn\u2019t hold her breath for much longer either, and if they didn\u2019t go soon… well, she didn’t want to think about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely been someone here recently,\u201d the same voice that had been calling said, his voice low. \u201cThe fire\u2019s ashes are still warm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan\u2019t have gotten very far,\u201d came a reply. This voice sounded harsh, brittle, like it could split a snowflake with a harsh consonant, or open a razor-thin wound on a vein and watch you bleed out, smirking as you died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuh,\u201d the first one grunted. \u201cI\u2019ll get the dogs. It\u2019d be good to… rescue<\/em> someone today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men receded, and she exhaled slowly, releasing the tension, before adrenalin made her shake, hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carefully, she packed her few meagre belongings into an old, tatty, tote bag, the writing worn off, apart from one word, barely visible: Martyr<\/em>. Her flints, of course, for starting fires, the saucepan she\u2019d salvaged from the post-detonation rubble, and the knife and handheld whetstone. Looking around one last time, she tried to feel something, anything, but could only conjure a dullness that seemed appropriate to the place she was leaving behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stepped toward rear of the cave – with any luck they\u2019d not found the other exit – and slipped into a crack barely wide enough to crawl through, just as the torch beams returned, accompanied by loud snarling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDamn dogs got a scent,\u201d the first voice said, excited, hungry. \u201cWe\u2019ll eat well tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly if they\u2019re untainted,\u201d said the second. \u201cIf they\u2019re like us and the radiation\u2019s gotten to \u2018em? We\u2019ll just have some… sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMust be clean,\u201d muttered the first. \u201cWhy\u2019d they be hiding here if not?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake them filthy mutts back to the entrance,\u201d the second voice spat. \u201cLet ’em earn their bones tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An hour later she finally emerged, a mile from the main entrance. It wasn\u2019t a huge head start, but the wind direction was in her favour and the forest scents should help to shield her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She drew the knife and began to walk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHello?\u201d Beams of light sliced the darkness, and she shrank into the corner, shivering. Hopefully they\u2019d not see her, move on, and she could get back to eking out her existence on whatever she could forage at night time, and the small creatures that fell into the crude traps she lay near the entrance to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1490,1518],"tags":[643,171,991,7,161,167,83,128,14,191,118,84,1189,11],"class_list":["post-2320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1490","category-february-2025-rescue","tag-been","tag-could","tag-get","tag-her","tag-here","tag-into","tag-move","tag-out","tag-she","tag-there","tag-they","tag-time","tag-voice","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-Bq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2321,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320\/revisions\/2321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}