The men saw my eyes and let out a whoop. The little one couldn’t hide his sickening delight. “Quick Silver. Like a true Merric.”
“Let’s get her.” Two men came towards me, but the third moved back to Greer, his club poised, ready to swing it into Greer’s temple. The temple could be a kill shot. The thought of him being killed flashed in my eyes.
My whole body screamed no. Ice cold blood flowed into my veins.
“No!” I screamed. They turned to see me and the world went still… or, more accurately, the hunters and the Diddles went still. Slack-jawed, staring, hypnotized still.
Greer stared too, but unlike the rest, he wasn’t hypnotized.
I stepped forward to help Greer, and realized he already held both ends of the rope with knot untied.
“You’re untied?” I said.
“I untied myself right before you got out here.” Greer waved his hand in front of Nate’s face. “I told you I had it.”
“I thought they were going to kill you.”
Greer took one man’s hands and with little effort tied them behind the man’s back. Greer tried to walk him over to the other men, but he wouldn’t budge, his eyes still on me. “Walk over to the Diddles,” he told me.
I did, and the hunters lumbered toward them with me. In fact, all of them—the Diddles struggling from their seated, tied positions and the hunters—strained to be near me. Greer tied them all to nearby trees.
“What’s going on with them? Did you, um… did you do something to them?”
He gave me an incredulous look and shook his head. “You did this.”
“Me? I didn’t do this.” I’d done nothing.
“Where’s the youngest?” Greer asked.
“Why? What are you going to do to her?”
He walked towards the house. “Is she still in the house?”
“She helped me escape,” I pleaded, but he ignored me. Donna dropped from her window, but Greer was ready; he caught her before she had a chance to make it to the nearby trees.
Donna fought against him until her eyes landed on me, and her fight evaporated as she succumbed to the strange hypnotism. Greer tied her down near her parents.
“What are you going to do to them?” I asked.
“I’m fixing the mess you created.” He trooped toward the edge of the clearing. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“I thought I was helping you!” I called after him.
He yelled back. “I’m not the one who needs help!”
Greer returned in no time with his bag. He pulled from it his mask and a brown spray bottle. He placed the mask over his face and sprayed them. All seven slumped, instantaneously knocked out. Greer gave The Hunters a second and third dose. He then cut the ropes that bound the Diddles. And if I wasn’t mistaken, and I don’t think I was, Greer stuffed money into Nate’s hand.
“Let’s go,” Greer said, taking my hand and pulling me forward.
“What will happen to them?”
He ignored me, rushing us back to the tent and packing everything up in seconds. I asked him. “But what did you do to them? Did you hurt them?”
“They’ll be fine. Now stop asking questions and move because the Libratiers will be here any second.”
He had a point.
We ran into the woods and didn’t stop running.
Chapter 27
Them’s Fighting Words
We walked all day and night through the mountains and valleys, taking short breaks but never longer than two hours. It was an endless march of extreme hiking and falling asleep under a tree or in the tall grass of a field. Every time I spoke to Greer, he either sped up our pace or went to make another phone call. Part of me wanted to grab his phone and launch it into the annoying, endless woods. The silence between us was deafening, but I plainly saw Greer’s dagger stares from the corner of his eyes.
He didn’t want this conversation, but I needed to have my questions answered, and we needed to discuss what happened. If I had to wait, I’d wait, but we couldn’t hike forever.
Finally, about thirty hours later, Greer set up camp so we could get a proper night’s sleep. After throwing up the tent, Greer climbed in. It was late at night, and I followed him in and laid down on my side of the tent. I kept my eyes on the ceiling, but even as bone tired as I was I had questions, and this guy had answers.
Like, if I was the one who did that—whatever that was—I desperately needed to know how and why.
Greer tossed me a raspberry protein bar. “Greer, you know I didn’t intentionally walk away from camp or go to the Diddles.”
“We don’t have to talk about it,” he said. “We are only on this little hike together until I can get you somewhere safe. We don’t have to talk about anything.”
Not tonight, Greer, I thought. We’d ignore each other later. But I had to say my peace and ask my questions. “I shouldn’t have wandered away from camp. It was an accident, and then Nate found me. I never agreed to stay, either. They twisted my words.”
Greer didn’t respond, choosing instead to dig in his bag.
“Look, fine, don’t talk. It’s not like we’ve really talked this entire hike but tell me, what did you do to the Diddles?”
“I sprayed Obliformin. It’s a memory-altering drug. It erases the last twenty-four hours from their minds. The other men, I knocked out for longer and erased the last three days. If the Diddles have any sense, they will leave the hunters tied to the tree and get out of there.”
Good, they were still alive. “And the money?”
“What money?” he lied.
“The money you slipped into Nate’s hand.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied again.
Fine. He didn’t want to confirm it was enough money to pay off the hunters. Greer had saved the Diddles even though they’d been planning on turning us in.
Greer pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I have a phone call to make.”
“No,” I said.
“What do you mean no?”
“I mean
