Miles away the heiress was reaching the same conclusion as the jungle beauty. In hindsight she realized Rithos did look extremely familiar. The flower, the kids game, everything made sense.
She didn't think he would go to Ned and Roxton yet, after all he didn't even know where they were. He would attack Veronica first; and get her out of the way so he could focus on the harder ones to hurt.
"Think, Marguerite, think," she spoke aloud. "You need to get out of this situation. Challenger and Veronica are counting on you. You need to get out of here. Think of a way to escape. Think."
From the corner of her eyes she saw Challenger's bag of supplies caught on a branch next to her. The force from his fall must have thrown the bag into the air. She looked down and realized Rithos had thrown her sideways into the plant. Instead of standing with her back against the wall, she was on her side, her hands below her chin. The branches had done a pretty good job of entrapping her; however there was a small space where she was sure she could squeeze a hand out of.
She winced as her hand scratched against the bark drawing blood, but with a final push her hand was free. "All right, Marguerite, you have a hand free. Now what?"
Ned and Roxton stepped on to the treehouse with a smile. They had tremendous success hunting, and if preserved well, the meat they had would last a long time.
"Veronica!" Ned called as he lowered his pack on the floor. He couldn't wait to wash his hands and rinse off the remnants of the animal blood still in his nails. Although he had washed his hands after hanging the animal meat in the storage area near the garden, traces of red remained. "We're back! And exhausted! And starving! Veronica?"
Roxton removed the gun his holster, and began to unpack all of his belongings. "Maybe she fell asleep. Go look in her room."
"Good idea," Ned said walking towards the room. Before he reached the doorway, however, he knew she wasn't there. There was an eerie sensation trickling along his back while butterflies flew violently in his stomach. He could feel something was wrong. Hoping he was wrong, he dashed down the steps to her room.
"Roxton!" he called loudly to the hunter in the other room. "She isn't here! Do you a see a note anywhere on the table?"
Roxton put away the last box of ammunition and walked over to the kitchen counter, where they made it a habit of leaving notes for the others. Seeing the vacant counter his eyes scanned the rest of the room. "None that I can see. Maybe she just went for a quick walk, and didn't expect us to be back so soon."
"A quick walk? Where could she be walking to on that ankle?" Ned said fear creeping up his spine. "Veronica!" He called again in hopes she would come out from wherever she was hiding. He rushed down the stairs towards Challengers lab, and when she wasn't there he ran back up the stairs towards the balcony to see the ground below them.
"Roxton!" He called, and wasn't surprised to see him already standing near him, gun back in hand. "What does that look like to you?"
"You really shouldn't have tried to escape," Rithos said dragging the body behind him. He had tied her hands and feet together, and was now dragging his victim's body across the jungle landscape. "It made it just more painful for you. It was quite a foolish idea."
Rithos didn't mind that his victim wasn't responding, in fact it pleased him greatly. Although she had put up a fight, he managed to hit her squarely on the head with the edge of his gun, knocking her out completely. He judged he had a few more hours before she would wake.
"You and your friends will rue the day they ever interfered in my life. You all thought you were so high and mighty, oh and how we believed everything you said. Like the foolish children we were, we thought all of our problems were solved," His words became more spaced out, his breathe coming in pants as slowly made his way up the hill in front of him. Turning so he could walk backwards, he grabbed both of her hands and began to pull her upwards.
"Would you like to know how my friends died?" His voice became brittle as he remembered each painful moment. "Most died of raptor attacks, and others became captives of neighboring tribes. Tell me, do you know what it is like to live without hope? Knowing that soon you will be the next to die? Living your life knowing that the world had turned its back on you? How it makes you feel when you realize that you are forgotten by the very people who put you in that situation?"
He reached the top of the hill and grunted with satisfaction. The cave was just where he remembered. He bent down and began to roll her to the entrance. When he was content she was hidden well enough, he stood back to stare at her.
"Well, it doesn't matter if you know how it feels or not, because now you will. And just in case one of your comrades manages to find you, I want to make sure they will be too late. I don't want to leave too much to fate."
He removed the gun from his hand and shot the beauty directly in the chest. The force jolted her from her impressed slumber, her eyes flying open for the briefest of seconds before her body convulsed and her eyes closed once again. He bent down and tucked a blonde hair behind her ear, placing a rose in between her frozen hands.
"I told you I would bring you a flower."
"Does that look like blood to you?" Roxton asked the reporter beside him as he stared at the small puddle of blood on the treehouse floor.
Ned ran a hand across his face, attempting to hide the fear in his eyes. "Something is wrong, Roxton, I just know. I have a feeling."
"My god," Roxton said looking Ned squarely in the eyes. "Marguerite and Challenger. Do you think they are okay?"
"I don't know. I hope so. We have to find them." He raced towards his bag, threw it back over his shoulder, and grabbed his rifle off the shelf, and stormed towards the elevator, Roxton following suit.
"Ned! It looks as if something was dragged over there," Roxton said as they stepped off the elevator. He bent down and ran his hands over the tracks. "It looks new, only two maybe three hours."
Malone knelt down beside him and looked down in horror at the imprint in front of him. "Roxton what are we going to do? I swear to god, if he hurts one hair on her head I'll kill him."
"Now is not the time to lose your cool, Ned. Listen to me, everyone will be fine. Now get your wits together and let's go. These tracks seem to go towards the direction Marguerite and Challenger took. Maybe we will run into them along the way." Roxton knew his voice sounded cool and commanding, but inside he was shaking as much as Ned. If something happened to Marguerite he would never forgive himself.