THE HUNT WAS ON!

"I could take it." Shannon said, "I've learned from the guys at Morning Light at the destitute house, but my mum can't know. She'll go bonkers."

Shannon's mum had a hard past, so she would go bonkers on Shannon whenever he did anything dumb.

What that meant was that she would start to cry and say things like, "I left Morning Light to come back here so that you would be safe! After your dad died, you were all I had left... After all my years of bringing you up and feeding you... Did you know how hard it was? How many nights had I gone without food so you could have enough to grow on - so I knew we couldn't stay at Morning Light! Do you know how many boys died in their first year of patrol? Did you plan to die young and leave me old and alone?"

This was after his Mum found out he owned flip knife.

"You should have gotten a utility knife since it's just for camping." Ben told him.

"Yeah, but the flip knife was cooler." Shannon bemoaned.

But Shannon was the type of guy who would would never purposely make his mum cry, so he had sold the knife to Ben.

Now that I thought about it, I dreaded to think what the rogue attack at the destitute home the other week did to Shannon's mum. Yet he had come back to the forest for me. Shannon was that type of guy who would never leave a girl in trouble, never leave his friend hanging...

Must be rough to be that type of guy.

I raised my hands and shouted my question, "What are we hunting?"

Flynn's eyes took on an evil glint, "You're hunting dungeon rats."

The entire party went bonkers a la Shannon's mum after that. Some of the girls started screaming even though we weren't anywhere near the dungeon or rats yet

I thought we were just enjoying the drama until someone said Haylee was crying. She wanted to switch teams to be with Harvey.

And then Carlie had a melt down, "Noooo!!! I hate rats! I hate dungeons!"

Delilah hit her, "Pull yourself together! You've never even been to the dungeon."

Wolves didn't like dungeons. It was featured in all our horror stories. The thing worse than death is to be locked away in the dungeon, chained against a wall, and all the other unspeakable horrors that tended to happen in dungeons.

And in general, I could see that rats weren't particularly loved either.

"I'll take the gun please, if no one minds." Lola asked meekly. I guess she was thinking it was better to kill from a distance.

I could feel my hair stand at the thought of the rats. I meant the hair on my arms, but yes, the hair on my head was standing too.

"Are the rats big or small ones?" One of the guys asked.

Flynn was enjoying himself, "I saw one about this size many years ago."

He used his hands to show it, the way a fisherman might show how large the fish that got away had been.

"Good." Jonah decided, "Big is good. They're easy to hit."

"And where there are big rats, there are lots of little ones too." Flynn promised.

Flynn could be pretty evil sometimes.

We were going to get one point for every roach. Ten points for every rat. And twenty for extra large rats.

"Extra large is anything longer than my hand." Flynn said.

Flynn's hand was pretty big but I was sure the rats down there were even larger, "How about 20 points every hand width of rat?"

"They aren't that big, Sam." Ben informed me.

But I've seen it. The rat that I thought was a cat.

"Okay, but if we do get one that large?" I asked.

"I'll give you a hundred points for anything larger than two hands." Flynn decided.

We were going to win this thing!

After gearing up, we followed Flynn and Hank down to the dungeons. Not all of us went. Apparently you were allowed to just chill and wait in the training hall. Why anyone would do that, was beyond me.

"It sounds really dangerous, I don't think it's safe for me, with my back injury and all." Pearl said.

"Yeah, okay. Just go take a seat on the bleeches." I said.

"By myself?" Pearl asked, "But I don't know anyone here..."

Eh? Was she expecting me to step out of the game to sit with her? Because I really didn't want to do that.

But she was my guest.

And I couldn't shake my mum out of my head. So I just nodded and said, "Okay, let's go over to the bleeches for a bit."

We went over to find Evelyn there. It seems like most of the other kids were going to play. Even Carlie, although she would give a sharp excited scream every now and then.

"Would you stop that?" Angela yelled from across the hall, "We haven't even started!"

Jay muttered something next to Angela which made her spin around and hit him, "I do NOT EVER SCREAM LIKE THAT!"

Okay... Hahaha.

I'm going to be missing a whole lot of fun.

Macey and Esther came over. Flynn and Hank led them to the bleeches.

"I was thinking that whoever didn't want to go to the dungeons might like to ice cookies instead." Esther offered.

Evelyn made a face at that. It was similar to the way she looked at me sometimes. It was not a happy face.

"Good idea." Flynn said, "Hank and I could do with some cookies."

Evelyn nodded, "Okay, I guess I can help out."

"Oh yum! I love cookies." Pearl gushed. She gripped tightly to my arm. So she wanted to join them but not alone?

"Hi Sam! What colored stick do you want?" Shannon called, "We got a blue one, do you want it?"

It's just a grip tape color. All the sticks were wood colour. I guess they were giving me first pick.

"You guys go ahead." I said.

"What, why?" Shannon put down the stick and came over.

"Don't say you're sitting out! OMG are you scared of the rats too?" Angela asked.

"I guess you are a girl after all." Jay said.

"Hey, guys are scared of rats too." Lizzy argued from somewhere nearby. I realised Ben's team had come over too.

"It's okay, Sam." Lola said, "Actually, I'm scared too."

"Yeah, me too." Said Jonah, "Can I go make cookies?"

"No!" Said Lizzy and Ben at the same time.

"Sam can do whatever she wants. You shoot." Ben told Jonah.

"So our alpha princess is scared of mousies eh?" Nix asked, "No biggie."

"I'm not scared." I said just because I was the alpha, "I'm not scared of anything."

"Yeah, then come on and play." Shannon said, "We kinda need you to win."

I looked at Pearl and that's when Esther noticed, "Oh, you're worried about leaving your friend alone? Don't worry, we'll make her feel at home. You go play."

I hesitated.

And then Jasmine said, "I can't even fight or anything so urm... I can stay with Pearl."

I shook my head. I couldn't make someone else miss out on the fun.

Flynn laughed then, "What? You think Esther would bully your friend while you were gone?"

"You can't abandon us either!" Angela argued, "We need you to win this thing! You and Shannon are our best stick fighters! Jay is going to be useless."

Jay to offense, "Look, I just said it wasn't my strongest point. I didn't say I was useless."

"Please!" Angela scoffed, "I've seen you with a baseball bat. You couldn't hit a ball if it's propped in front of you."

"I was 4! 4!" Jay spat out. "I can damn well hit the ball now."

"It'll be more like hockey than baseball." Jonah informed us, "The puck would be running on the ground...like all over the ground."

Angela pulled at my right arm. Pearl pulled at my left.

"Stop, you girls are going to tear her in half." Henry interuppted, "Hurry up, Sam, get your gear on and let's go already!"

Henry was done waiting.

I was done too, "Yeah okay then. But get ready to lose!"

No matter how upset Pearl was, she would be safe. Esther would take care of her. But I needed to take care of my team.

Pearl's probably going to hold this against me, BUT I'm not going to leave Angela and Lola fending against the rats with only Link and Shannon - particularly if Jay really did turn out to be useless.

But, I couldn't help but feel troubled by this decision. My mum wouldn't stop poking at my conscience. What kind of host was I?

The kind who was about to smash rat skulls. I let Boo out just a little. Boo did not seem to care about Pearl's feeling of abandonment. We were going hunting.

"I'm a little nervous." Lola admitted as we walked down to the dungeons.

Savy passed us. She was on Ki's team so I knew she would be okay.

But just in case, I shot a quick mindlink, "Take care of Savy."

Ki turned to flash me his Killion dollar smile, "I'll guard her with my life."

"Take care of yourself too." I added automatically, "You're no good to me dead."

I felt Ki's laughter through the mindlink, "I'll live as long as you want me to."

Stupid. What the hell was that suppose to mean? My betas were loyal to a fault - and I didn't mean that as a compliment.

It wasn't just Ki, Harvey and Ben were just as bad in their own way. But then I realised that's why I can let them run circles around me, that's why I could find their bada*** attitudes fun, because I understood that they were loyal to me.

Epiphany. Henry had said I needed them to show me respect, but I never felt that way. As long as I had their loyalty, they could diss me all they want.

Well no, I exaggerate. If they diss me too much, I'm sure I would explode into Boo on them.

It was dark... We were really going to the dungeons. I could sense my friends tensing up. Wait till they smell the dungeons! Haha. Why didn't the gear have gas masks?

We entered the small waiting room.

"Oh hell. It stinks." Someone complained.

"Shut up let's hunt!" Ben said.

And the hunt was on!

"I want to hunt down the 100 points. You guys get what you can along the way. Pick up your own kill, and I'll pick up mine."

Lola made a face at that but nodded, "Understood."

"Jay is picking up my kills." Angela informed us.

"If you can even make one, woman." Jay muttered.

But Boo was on the hunt. There was the smell of rat everywhere. But more in one direction than the others, rat and something else weird...

I led them to the back where there were just cells lined up in two rows.

Screaming from the other rooms indicated that someone found rats, but I knew the motherload was here. This part of the dungeon had more of the musty dank smells than the other putrid ones...

Link sniffed a bit, "Man... I smell them, but I don't see them."

I led them to the end cell. It was empty. There were rat droppings.

"Oh F***." Jay said.

"Would you look at the size of that!" Link marveled at the larger pieces of poop.

But where were the rats?

Ben's group had come over.

"My turf Ben!" I yelled.

Ben stopped, "Ok. But we'll stay on this side of the cells, okay with you?"

I shrugged, "Okay."

I examined the wall very carefully.

"Why are we just waiting here?" Abigail asked as the sounds of successful kills echoed from the other rooms.

"Shhh..." Lizzy said.

"Sam's nose is never wrong." Ben boasted.

"Guys, see this slab?" I found it, "Help me move it."

"We need a sledgehammer." Jay said.

"Will you stop with the sledgehammer already?" Angela scolded.

I could hear something, very faint behind the wall. It was quite a lot of somethings.