She laid back, put her hands behind her head and looked up at the sky again. She could hardly see anything at all of it now, thanks to the overhanging, sheltering shrubbery. Her thoughts drifted back to what might happen if she was captured after all. She gave in. It was clear that it was going to keep happening, so she might as well go with it. And it had been a while since she’d last had sex: Even longer if she only counted really satisfying sex.
Would she put up a fight? Yes, probably. So if it was only one man who caught her he’d have to be very strong and very determined and he’d probably have to tie her up anyway. That would be something new to her. Some of the women she’d seen in the videos had seemed to enjoy that. She thought that she might too, if the guy was big and strong and good-looking. Maybe he’d even stake her out spread-eagled on the ground, like she’d seen in another video, so that he could take his time. If he knew what he was doing, that might not be so bad. Well, for a while, anyway.
What if it was two men? She’d still fight, but she didn’t think she could win a contest like that unless she fought dirty. She’d fought dirty once before with an arrogant bodybuilder who just didn’t seem to understand what ‘no’ meant. No matter how big a guy was, if you hit him hard enough in the right spot he went down and stayed down more than long enough for you to get away. But if the hunters were all as experienced as they were supposed to be, wouldn’t they know how to take down a struggling woman? It might be…interesting to find out.
She found herself growing aroused as she let her mind wander. Almost without her realizing it she reached down, unbuckled her belt and unsnapped and unzipped her jeans.
They would probably strip her naked. They might be very rough about it, one of them holding her tightly while the other tore at her clothes. If there were two of them, would they still tie her up anyway? They might. No, they almost certainly would. She’d seen a lot of ways to bind women in those videos. She could almost feel the ropes biting into her wrists, rendering her helpless as rough male hands ran all over her body.
She realized that the rough male hands she was imagining were actually her own, and stopped for a moment, surprised at how strongly she was reacting to this new, unfamiliar and exciting fantasy. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let her hand slide under her jeans, under her panties. She imagined herself being manhandled, spanked, forced to yield, to submit. It would be rough, and brutal, and right now she almost wished that one of the hunters was with her right now. She had such a head of steam up that she knew she wouldn’t really put up much of a fight if he stripped her and tied her up so that he could use her body. There was one particular scene she remembered from the videos. The woman had been lying on her stomach, held down by her neck by one of the men while the other first tied her wrists, then bent each of her legs double and tied them separately calf-to-thigh. She’d wondered how that was supposed to work until the men flipped their prey over onto her back. The woman laid there, her bound hands under her, and her knees raised and parted, in a perfect position for the hard and vigorous fucking that followed. Alexa’s fingers worked at her pussy, faster and faster, as she kept replaying that scene over and over in her mind until she came.
It was the flickering light that woke her. Alexa stirred and groped for the pillow that wasn’t there, groped for the nice, soft comforter that wasn’t there either, and finally sat up, yawning. She looked around, disoriented, wondering where she was for a moment, and then remembered.
She had no way of telling what time it was, but the sun seemed to be pretty low in the sky. There was just enough of a gap in the foliage for it to shine through in places, and just enough of a breeze moving the branches to cause the flickering light that had awakened her. She stood up, stretched and looked around. She didn’t see anyone, and she didn’t hear anyone. She did hear some birds singing, and the faint sound of the wind in the trees sounded soothing. What would be more soothing was hot coffee. At home she had a coffeemaker with a timer set so that when she woke up the pot was almost ready and she could smell it in her bedroom. She couldn’t smell much of anything now, except for the pine trees. She had water, and some freeze-dried coffee, but she didn’t feel like going to all the trouble of heating up the water and stirring those brown granules into it. And once again, she missed her bathroom. A nice hot shower would do wonders for her right now, but there was none to be had, and the tiny creek was too small for a bath, even if the water hadn’t been too cold for her comfort.
She changed into fresh underwear, feeling singularly vulnerable about doing it outside. She took a look at her jeans and sweatshirt and decided she could wear them again today. Laundry was another thing she hadn’t thought about beforehand. She supposed she could wash out some things in the creek, but wasn’t sure just how effective that would be. It would probably have to do, though, since there weren’t any laundromats out here.
The last thing she did before setting out to explore was tidy up her little campsite and hide everything she was leaving behind under some leaf litter and pine needles she gathered up. She stepped back to have a look at her handiwork. If anyone took a good, close look they’d notice that something seemed to be under the stuff, but short of burying it she didn’t think she could do a better job. She checked to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything she intended to bring along on this excursion and set off, heading south. She didn’t have any particular reason for picking that direction. It was just that, since she didn’t know much about the area, one way seemed as good as any other. Anyway, the main road had to be off to the south somewhere, and she wanted to find out how far away it was if she could.
She didn’t find it, but as the morning wore on she noticed she was in an area where the trees grew thicker and she kept wandering off from her southward direction. She still didn’t see or hear anyone else, so after pausing to rest, munch on a trail bar, and do some thinking, she headed back the way she’d come. If she kept a little to the right, she should come to one or the other of her two caches, and she wanted to see if anyone else had found them.
When she came to a wide, grassy area she stopped. She didn’t remember seeing anything like it yesterday. Had she managed to get herself lost? She had a brief moment of panic before she told herself that the little stream had to be somewhere to the north of her, so if she just kept going that way she’d have to come across it sooner or later and then she’d know that she wasn’t lost any more. It sounded easy enough.
She was about to start across the grassy spot when she realized that she would be completely out in the open if she did, so instead she began to pick her way along the edge of it, keeping just inside the trees. This was actually kind of fun, she thought, and then wondered why she would think that. This was a brutal competition, one that she simply had to win. Well, maybe it could be fun at the same time. She picked her way around the clearing and was almost ready to head northwards again when she heard a noise behind her. She crouched down and whirled to see what had caused it.
The last thing she’d expected to see was Lynette dashing towards her across the clearing, but there she was, legs flashing, long hair flying. It didn’t seem like Lynette had seen her because she kept taking quick glances back over her shoulder, as if she was being chased by something…or someone. Oh, shit! Why couldn’t she have run in some other direction? Alexa hunkered down behind a tree. It was too small for her to hide behind, but it did offer some concealment. She tried to look past Lynette to see if she could spot whatever she was running from. There weren’t supposed to be any bears or wolves in these woods, but you could never be sure.
She was so intent on looking that she didn’t realize that Lynette was still coming straight for her, apparently totally unaware that Alexa was there. Then Lynette crashed through the sparse shrubbery that ringed the clearing. Alexa tried to pull back, but it was too late. Lynette tripped over her and both of them went down. Lynette bounced back to her feet instantly. From the look on her face she was ready to fight. Alexa struggled to get up herself. One of Lynette’s knees had hit her in the head, and she was feeling dizzy and even a little nauseous.
“What the hell did you get in my way for?” Lynette hissed in a rasping whisper. She crouched down next to Alexa and looked out across the clearing. “Someone’s after me, you stupid bitch.”
“Sorry,” Alexa mumbled, though she didn’t really feel sorry since their collision was Lynette’s fault for not looking where she was going. It felt just a little too difficult for her to express herself that clearly at the moment. And it was probably more important for her to get up and get the hell away from here anyway, but doing that seemed to be even more difficult than expressing herself. She’d taken a hellacious whack to her head, but she’d had worse and the effects seemed to be passing.
“Stupid little bitch,” Lynette grumbled. “It’s your fault if I get caught.” She kept looking back the way she came. Alexa managed to sit up with her back against the tree. The small backpack she wore provided a little padding. She resisted the urge to tell Lynette that she hoped that she would get caught. Lynette was known for a short temper and taking Tae Kwon Do lessons.
“You okay?” Lynette asked, peering at Alexa.
“Yeah,” Alexa whispered back. “Just banged my head a little.”
“But you’re okay?”
“Yes.” Alexa wondered why Lynette was still asking.
“You ever heard the joke about the two guys being chased by a bear?” Lynette leaned closer, smirking.
“What?” Even for Lynette, that seemed to be a really strange thing to ask.
“Well, the punch line is when one guy says to the other: “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun
you
.” With that she hit Alexa hard in the pit of her stomach. Still a little groggy, Alexa had seen it coming, but too late to do anything about it. All of the air went out of her in a deep, pained grunt. Lynette snickered wickedly and started pulling Alexa’s trail boots off. Alexa tried to pull away, but didn’t seem to have the strength for it. Then Lynette stood up and dangled the short boots in her face by their laces.
“I just have to outrun
you
, you clumsy bitch,” Lynette taunted. Alexa made a feeble grab for her boots, but Lynette snatched them back out of reach.
“See you, Alexa,” she sneered as she set off at a long-legged trot. Alexa didn’t yet have the breath to call the skier even one of the nasty names that she wanted to. All she could do for now was try to remain still and hope that she wouldn’t be noticed if whoever was pursuing Lynette happened to come this way.
Time passed. Her head cleared, and while her stomach still hurt where Lynette had punched her, she could at least breathe normally again. She waited a while longer, but didn’t see or hear anything threatening. She did hear a blue jay screeching its head off about something, but that sounded like it was coming from a long ways off. Well, those birds got ticked off at just about anything.
Still sitting against the tree, she looked at her bootless feet. Her thick wool socks were still on them, but those wouldn’t provide much protection. And for all the extra items she’d packed for this contest, a spare pair of boots had not been on her list. She couldn’t possibly get around in these woods without shoes of some kind, but where could she get some?
Wait. Lydia had told her that she could get almost anything she needed from one of those trading posts, hadn’t she? Would that include footwear? She’d have to find out. It ought to be safe enough now for her to move.
Walking was difficult, and intermittently painful. Even when she tried to keep to areas covered with pine needles she kept finding sharp things hiding under them. She wound up moving very slowly and carefully, heading northwards towards the creek. She’d planned on moving her campsite today, but it would probably be dark by the time she got back there, so that was out. Right now she’d settle for just getting back to her sleeping bag.
“Well, hi there!”
Alexa froze and turned her head. He was sitting on a fallen log, almost in plain sight, but she’d been so intent on choosing where next to put her foot that she hadn’t seen him at all. He was dressed in well-worn and faded clothes, all in shades of brown and tan. He had short, dark-brown hair and a short beard a shade or two lighter. And he was smiling. Alexa lost it. She couldn’t possibly outrun him, and while he didn’t seem to be especially tall he had shoulders broad enough to suggest impressive physical strength, so she probably couldn’t effectively fight him off either. She fell to cursing Lynette to the skies, calling that nasty, vicious, devious, cheating, bullying, arrogant, self-absorbed, self-centered,
mean
, backstabbing, long-legged bitch every vile name she could think of. Once she ran out of words for Lynette, she rounded on the man, who by now was just sitting there in what she assumed was a stunned silence and unloaded on him. Finally she ran out of words again and paused to take a deep breath in case some other words occurred to her. To her surprise, he smiled at her again and held up a finger.
“Shh,” he said quietly. “Listen.” He looked up at the trees.
“Listen to what?” Alexa demanded. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly,” he nodded, turning his attention back to her. “There was a blue jay following me around scolding at me. I think you either scared him off or he decided to leave the job to a professional.”
In spite of the situation, Alexa couldn’t help laughing, albeit unsteadily.
“Hi,” the man said again. “I’m Will. Will Longstreet. And you are?”
“Alexa,” she replied warily. “Alexa Marx. I won’t go easy, I warn you.” She took up a defensive stance, which was about all she remembered from the introductory karate lesson she’d taken some years ago. To her surprise, Will just laughed.
“Take it easy, Alexa Marx. I’m not after you. You aren’t even on my list.”