Zane plowed his way through the bush, ignoring the scratches that it gave him. When he emerged on the other side of the bush, he found his trap empty. He sighed and went off in search of his next one. It was a slow day, almost all of the traps were empty. Hopefully Aaron and Cliff were having more luck and would come back with something. He seriously doubted that they would get anything. This was mostly due to the fact that Cliff made so much noise when going through the forest that anything within shooting distance would run away. Normally, tracking down the animals for Aaron to shoot was Pug's area of expertise. But with him still in the emergency tent, Cliff had to take the position. Zane would have volunteered to do this himself, but he was the only one who knew where his traps were.
He was bending down to examine a trap that had broken, when he heard a scream for help pierce the forest.
"HELP! HELP! HE'S HURT BADLY HELP!" Zane rushed through the woods at top speed toward the yelling. He recognized the voice as Aarons and ran frantically towards it, branches and rocks cutting into his arms, legs, and face. He burst out into a clearing and spotted Aaron kneeling over a body covered in blood. Zane paled as he moved closer and realized that the body was Cliff. Cliff was still conscious, but he was ghostly pale.
"What happened?!" Zane almost yelled at Aaron.
"Cliff was hit by an arrow!" Aaron replied. Zane took a closer look at the wound and found that it thankfully wasn't a fatal shot. The arrow was pierced through Cliff's shoulder.
"By who!?" Zane asked in disbelief.
"I don't know! It came from the woods over there!" Aaron said pointing a spot in the trees.
"Let's get Cliff to the emergency tent. Now!" Zane said urgently. Zane tore his tunic and wrapped the wound as best he could without disturbing the arrow. They hefted Cliff between the two of them and started toward camp at a steady pace. By the time they reached camp, Zane's homemade wrapping was soaked in blood.
"Come on!" he said to Aaron. "Our division's emergency tent is close, the main one is on the other side of camp. We will have to take him to ours." They quickly made their way through camp, people screamed and yelled when they saw Cliff's bloody form and Zane couldn't blame them. He would be scared too. Heck, he was scared! They reached the emergency tent and put him down on one of the beds. The nurses quickly gathered around him to see what was wrong.
"Eeeep!" Came a screech from within the nurses. Zane looked into the group and saw Penny with huge eyes staring at Cliff in horror.
Her eyes turned to him and she stammered, "W . . . what happened to h . . . him?"
"Someone shot him. We're not sure who," Zane answered. Penny gasped, then unexpectedly, steeled herself and began giving commands to the other nurses. They obeyed without hesitation and followed her orders perfectly. The nurses began to remove the feathering from the arrow, and unwrap Zane's tunic.
"He will be ok right?" Zane asked Penny.
"I think so," She replied. "But it's hard to tell at this point. The wound could become infected after we remove the arrow or if it doesn't stop bleeding . . ."
She didn't finish her sentence as a small voice gasped out, "P. . . P . . . Penny." Zane looked at Cliff In amazement. His glazed eyes were watching Penny and his mouth moved, soundlessly making words. Zane couldn't believe it, Cliff had lost that much blood and he was still awake? He was one tough dude.
Penny leaned over Cliff and whispered, "Don't worry Cliff. Everything is going to be fine. We need to take the arrow out of your arm, it's going to hurt." In Zane's opinion, he thought that saying "It's going to hurt," was kind of blunt. But hey, he wasn't a nurse, how would he know how things worked.
Penny and another nurse began pulling the now featherless arrow out of Cliff's shoulder the way it went in, at which point, Cliff finally passed out. Fresh blood oozed from the wound the second that the arrow was pulled out and they quickly plugged the hole with alcohol soaked strips of cloth.
Penny then wiped her blood covered hands and turned to Zane, "Please go get some nurses from the main emergency tent. They will know how to help him more than I do." Zane nodded and stepped out of the tent. When he got outside, he noticed Aaron sitting on the ground. At the sight of Zane, he jumped up and walked quickly over to him looking nervous.
"I need to talk to you Zane," he said in a serious tone.
"It's about who shot Cliff isn't it," Zane said back. "You know something, don't you?"
"Well, yes and no," he replied. "I have no idea who shot Cliff, or why. But the thing is, I don't think they meant to hit him."
"What do you mean?" Zane said interested.
"Well, I know archery really well. And the way the arrow was shot . . . I think the arrow was meant for me." Zane could now see why Aaron was so nervous. Zane stayed silent for several seconds thinking hard. He was shocked at the news, but what disturbed him more was that if Aaron was right. Then that meant that two of his officers, and closest friends had been attacked within a couple days of each other.
"You're sure?" he asked.
"Positive," Aaron answered. This was not good, Zane thought. He needed to talk to Oran, but first, he needed to talk to Pug.
"Aaron?" he said.
"Yes?" Aaron asked.
"Can you run to the emergency tent and get some nurses to help Penny and the others? I have something that I need to do." He told him.
"No problem," Aaron responded. He went off in the direction of the main emergency tent, while Zane turned around and reentered division fours emergency tent. He walked past the knocked out Cliff to where Pug sat up in his bed looking stunned.
"What happened?" he asked as Zane approached.
"We don't know," Zane said in a quiet voice, "But I need to talk to you. Aaron says that the arrow that hit Cliff was meant for him. I have a bad feeling that this has something to do with what happened to you at the Nulla Pugna."
Pug sighed deeply and looked at the ground. He looked back up at Zane and said, "Believe me Zane, I wanted to tell you. I just needed some time to think first. I didn't know someone would get hurt."
"I don't blame you Pug. Just tell me who's doing this so I can tea r their head off." Zane said his anger already boiling up for whoever was behind all this." Pug sighed again and explained in quiet tones what happened to him. Zane listened quietly and didn't ask questions. He clenched his fists when he heard about Tim's betrayal. When Pug finished Zane stood breathing hard trying to control his anger and figure out what to do next.
From what Pug had told him, Zane guessed that the next target would be Luke. "Thanks Pug. I really appreciate you telling me this." Pug nodded as Zane ran from the tent to speak to Luke. He started off in a random direction and then realized that he had no idea what tent Luke was in. He ran into his own tent and sat down at the table. He wasn't sure what to do, he could tell Oran, or commander Dux, but he doubted whether they would believe him. Even if they did, what would they do anyway? They would probably just kick him and everyone involved out of camp. Besides? Wasn't this what camp was about? Learning to survive and take care of yourself? He needed to take matters into his own hands.
He stood up and took a walk around camp while formulating a plan. He was walking near the command tent when he bumped into a small pale kid. He was even smaller than Pug, and skinnier too. He looked very distressed and seemed to be trying to make a decision.
"Are you ok?" Zane asked him. When the kid saw him approaching, he paled and covered his face with his arms.
"Please don't hurt me! I didn't mean to I swear!" He wailed.
"What are you talking about?" Zane asked perplexed.
"Y . . . you're not here to hurt me?" he stammered.
"Of course not. Why would I hurt you?"
"Well . . . I thought . . . never mind." The kid said paling even more. He was so pale that he looked as though he would throw up at any second.
"Why are you at the command tent?" Zane asked.
"I . . . I was going to resign." The said quietly.
"Why would you do that?" Zane couldn't think of anything that would make him want to resign. He liked it here, this was what he always wanted to do.
"I made a mistake." He said simply.
"What kind of mistake?" Zane asked
"If I tell you, will you promise not to hurt me?" the kid asked with wide eyes.
"Sure," he said wondering what the kid could have done that would make Zane hurt him.
"I shot your friend," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to I swear! It was only supposed to scare him! I didn't know there was going to be two of them! And they said that they would hurt me if I didn't!"
"Who?" Zane asked heatedly. "Who told you to do it?"
"He was tall and skinny with greasy hair. I don't know their name." The kid answered trying to recall. Anger was swelling inside Zane like a volcano. Tim, he should have guessed after what Pug told him. He wasn't mad at the kid, but he wanted more than ever to tear Winston and Tim to pieces. His anger was boiling over quickly, and he was about to rush to their tents and strangle them both, when all of a sudden things clicked into place. He could use this kid. If he had him, then the plan that he was making earlier would work perfectly. "What's your name?" he asked. "Tristen," he replied blinking rapidly. "Well Tristen, I think I have an idea as to how we can help each other." Zane said.