No Place Like Home

Part 4

"I'll go get you some water," Dan said quietly before walking away, blood dripping axe in hand.

Phil was stunned, Dan had nobody?
No mum, no dad, no siblings? Nothing?
He didn't even love Phil? Not in a romantic way but would Dan care if a career or tribute came and shot him now?
Would he just step over his lifeless body like he did with Casey and Ethan?

Phil couldn't think about that right now, instead he notched an arrow and waited.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dan had been gone for 5 minutes, and the limit was 3.

No cannons, so he wasn't dead.

Phil decided to go and look for him, praying he hadn't run away.

Phil walked for less than 2 minutes, when he came to a clearing.

Dan was stood in the centre, frozen looking at the top of the trees.

He was slightly crouched with his axe in his white-knuckled grip, like he was about to run away.

There was no sign of tributes or anyone in fact, so Phil walked forward and yelled, "Dan, what are you—"

"Shut up," Dan cut him off, with gritted teeth. And Dan didn't take his eyes off the tree-tops. "And do not move a muscle."

"What, why?" Phil was slightly offended by Dan's sharp tone, but obeyed.

Phil looked up slowly, to see what Dan was so scared of.

And he completely understood once he saw what was in the tree-tops.
Monkeys.

But not cute little spider-monkeys, these were human-sized, bright orange, sharp-clawed, sharp-teethed gorilla monkeys.

And there were 20 of them, all staring down at them with red eyes, hissing.

Phil nearly puked when he saw the monkeys had human blood all over their fur.

"Dan," Phil said quietly.
"Shut up," Dan hissed. Phil didn't even see his mouth move.
"No, Dan," Phil whispered. "Careers."

Dan gulped and slowly looked across into the bushes, where 2 people were hidden.

He widened his eyes at the careers and slowly shook his head, silently telling them to stay in the bushes.

He wasn't trying to protect the careers, he was trying to protect himself and Phil. If the careers attacked, then the monkeys would drop onto Dan and Phil.

The careers grinned, they couldn't see these monkeys.
Phil gulped, "Dan, on 3 we need to run."
"Run where?" Dan hissed.
"The beach," Phil whispered. "We can outrun them. They're mutts, they'll only stay in their habitat, the jungle. But they'll be following us, so you'd better gather your breath and pray this works."

"Okay," Dan said. "On 3."
"1," Dan looked around, "2,"
They paused, preparing for what was about to happen, "3!" Dan boomed.
And they ran.

They heard roars, thumps and screams. And then two cannons blew off.

The mutts were after them, but still slightly behind.
Dan smiled, and realised what Phil had done.

Phil had longer legs than Dan, so he was slightly faster.

They panted, but never stopped running. Dan's lungs burned, his throat felt like a cactus, and his thirst was taking to his brain, so he started to feel faint.

"Dan!" Phil yelled. "Dan, behind that tree!"
Dan wanted to nod but didn't, in fear of his head falling off.

Dan and Phil skidded around a large tree.
They panted silently, as they heard the monkeys slow down.

God, these mutts weren't as dumb as they looked.

They breathed heavily and pressed against the bark, praying that it would swallow them up.
It didn't.

They heard twigs snap, and quiet grumbles and hisses.
That monkey was right next to Dan, and so he held his breath.

He held his breath for about 5 seconds until he started to pant again.

Dan slowly turned his head towards Phil with a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

Phil's eyes were wide and scared, sweating like a pig, but as slow as he could, Phil lifted an arrow from his sheath and notched it onto his bow.

Dan shook his head quickly, with his dark eyes closed. He could see what Phil wanted to do.

The monkey was staring at the back of Dan's head, inches away. He saw Phil's eyes shift to the monkey.
The silence was deafening.

Within seconds, and fast like a cat, Phil spun around and drew back the arrow.

Within another second, he had shot the arrow and had grabbed Dan's hand and they were running again.

Dan quickly turned to see what had happened, even though he knew what Phil had done.

The monkey's had be distracted by the arrow, before they turned back to Dan and Phil and roared.

They bolted after them, but yet again, Phil's tactics gave them a head start.

Dan saw a tree root and jumped to get over it, but he was too late.

He caught his foot and went over, Phil skidded and spun around to find Dan on the floor, scrambling away from the beast about to rip him apart.

"Dan!" Phil boomed.
The monkey was now on top of Dan, whilst Dan had his hands on the monkey's shoulders. He was fighting to not get his nose bitten off.

"Phil, go!" Dan screamed.
Phil refused and notched another arrow, before shooting the monkey roaring at Dan whilst the other monkeys were still a little behind.

The monkey wasn't dead, but was injured as the arrow shot his shoulder, the arrow narrowly missed Dan's hand.
But Dan would rather have a hole in his hand then no head.

Phil hooked his hands under Dan's arms and yanked him up.

He stumbled a bit, but then they saw a clearing, and realized the beach was less than a minute away.

Dan was too out of breath and scared to be relived.
Dan and Phil tripped on a tree root and rolled onto the beach.

They quickly turned to the monkeys, and saw they were in the darkness of the jungle, still hissing.
They stared at the two boys who were knelt on the sand, before turning around and running away.

Phil was right, the mutts weren't going out of their habitat.

They were on their hands and knees, coughing up their lungs with croaky pants.
It took at least a minute before Dan decided to talk.

"You knew," Dan panted and grinned, brows furrowed. "Didn't you? You said we would only have monkeys chasing us. You knew the mutts would take down the careers first, that's why you told us to run. So, the careers would follow us through the clearing and get caught by the mutts. They were the distraction, to give us a head start?"

Phil shrugged, "It took a while to think of, but it happened."
"What about the arrow?" Dan breathed. "At the tree?"
"Now that's common sense," Phil chuckled and sat on his legs. "Only I have 30 arrows, and you have 2 axes and 6 knives. I was thinking ahead, and besides, those monkeys were pretty stupid."

Dan looked away and laughed, "You son of a b*tch."