26 the cave

Becca

My hands are half healed, but the raw, fresh skin is still too delicate to be used. It needs foaming and bandages for protection.

‘If you don’t use it, I’ll heal it in a day,’ Bliss informs me happily.

‘We need your strength for the run and the challenge. You can heal me after,’ I reply, and I am glad when she agrees.

‘After,’ she says, and joy bubbles in my heart. We are here and ready to face the first challenge.

I wear training gloves over the bandages to hide them, hoping they’ll only look at Jason’s hand.

We are ready when Elaine gives up her watch and enters the packhouse, but we stand still and wait three more minutes before leaving the bungalow. We settle down to have a quick breakfast in front of the packhouse for the show. It’s better if they see us before we leave. We are up early because we slept through the night like humans. That is what we want them to believe. Lastly, we leave a note for Brock to let him know that we went hiking early and pretend we didn’t see on