Chapter 6

Growing Respect

Royce's POV

We set up our traps and waited. I saw Valentina behind a large tree. She was making more arrows.

"How'd you do that?"

I didn't mean to ask aloud. She looked at me and tilted her head.

"Here…"

I sat down next to her and she looked around. She cut a branch off a tree and sat back down.

"Mama taught me when I was thirteen. She said you won't always have a gun or a knife. She told me to use whatever was around me to my advantage."

She took my hand and put it on the stick.

"Feel the wood?" I nodded. "It's flexible."

She showed me what to do and I was highly impressed. I bent it and smirked.

"You're a smart kid."

"Mama made sure I finished school one way or another. She said that my father would never forgive her if I didn't. Is it safe to assume that's a lie?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"No. If I'd known you existed I'd have insisted you finish school. And of course college, but that's not happening I guess."

"I finished at a college level."

I smirked.

"Does this surprise you?"

"No."

She smiled a little.

"How long have you been on your own?" I asked.

"Almost two years."

I actually felt terrible.

"You're a smart kid. That's what's kept you alive. If there's one thing that I can ever teach you, strength will not always save you. You have to be smarter than the others. But someone will always know more."

She slowly nodded.

"So…what should I call you anyway? Royce? Dad?"

"Royce is fine."

She nodded again and sighed.

"Mama wanted me to tell you she loved you. And she really did. Everyday she would say she loved you. She prayed that you'd come back so you could meet me. Every year until I was thirteen, on my birthday I would wait outside. I would wait for you to come home. Every year on April twenty first."

My eye went wide.

"Did you say April twenty first?"

She looked at me and nodded.

"Yeah. I was born on the same day you were. She told me you liked Valentine's Day and so she named me Valentina. Every year I waited. I gave up after I turned thirteen. You know what she used to say?"

"No."

She took a deep breath.

"She said that she'd been trying to find you for years, but that I was the only one who'd be able to actually find you."

"Why would she say that?"

"I used to ask her that too. She said I'd understand one day. It still frustrates me."

"Why? Because you didn't like the answer?"

"No. Because she never told me."

I chuckled and she looked at me in surprise.

"Esperanza was the only one who could really frustrate me. She knew how to push my buttons and make me angry. Sometimes she did it on purpose. But uh…you don't need to hear that."

"No I really do not!"

I smiled a little.

"You need to know that I missed your mother every single day. I really did."

She looked at the ground and played with an arrow.

"Did you love her? I mean really love her?"

"Look at me, kid."

She slowly looked at me.

"I love your mother more than anything in the world. She was the only thing that mattered to me."

There was a very small smile on her face.

"Then why did you shoot her?" she asked quietly.

I knew she was gonna ask that question eventually. I was trying to think of a way to answer, then she quickly stood. She walked towards a tree and looked out carefully.

Valentina's POV

Something moved really fast through the trees.

"It's not coming. Why isn't it coming?"

"It sees our traps." he said.

"Goddamnit!"

Royce slinked off towards Edwin.

"Hey Doc."

"Hey."

"I just figured out a way you can be useful."

He slowly looked at Royce.

"Oh hell no."

"It's our only choice." Royce hissed.

Edwin looked at me.

"Valentina please don't let him do this."

"I'll go."

"Absolutely not!" Royce snapped.

I narrowed my eyes.

"I'm younger and faster."

"But you're the only one with a long ranged weapon. You're the only one who knows how to use that bow. And there's no way in hell I'm letting you go out there."

I growled at him and then sighed. I looked at Edwin and put my hand on his shoulder.

"I promise I won't let it touch you amigo."

I knew he didn't like it, but he went out there. I looked at Royce.

"Next time you want to play 'daddy' make sure someone else's life isn't being put on the line." I snapped.

I moved to a better position and steadied my arrow. Edwin was running around and then I saw it.

"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!"

"Come on, come on!" I hissed.

"Shoot! Fucking shoot already!"

I pulled back and then let go. The creature fell dead and I sighed in relief.

"FUCK….ALL OF YOU!" Edwin shouted.

I growled and then went out to him. It wasn't what we wanted to kill.

"Is it dead? Why ain't you smiling?"

Stans ran up and I looked at him.

"Oh shit."

"The things from the cages." Nikolai said.

"Maybe it thought we were the ones who dropped it here." Royce said.

I looked at the creature, but there was no arrow wound. I looked to the tree my arrow was stuck in. There was nothing on it.

"Good shot though."

I slowly looked at them.

"I missed."

I put my bow on my back and slowly took out my gun.

"Over here…"

Royce grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer to him. The voice was like a whisper on the wind. I heard a mechanical noise and sank to the ground.

Royce's POV

I closed my eyes and then slowly turned around. The beast revealed itself and I stared at it.

"What the fuck are you?"

It slowly reached up towards its mask and took it off. It was only a man.

"I'm alive."