Choose Your Own TG: Chapter 4

“It was John,” I said matter of factly. “That kid must have snuck up on us at night and struck us when we were weakest!”
Hannah looked at me with funny eyes. “Don’t you think I would have heard the rattle of the chains of his belt if he were to try to sneak into my tent?”
I shook my head. “That John was a conniving trickster from the moment we crashed! It was his plan all along. Make it seem like he was just a punk rocker when in reality he was planning to kill us all and steal our food!”
Brittney, who had since recovered, glared at me. “What the hell are you talking about?” she asked. “If he wanted to kill us all, why didn’t he? If he was a trickster, wouldn’t he have been with us destroying us from the inside? And don’t you think he’d have cut the throat with a chain instead of…”
Hannah screamed.
“Oh, sorry,” said Brittney. For as much as we wanted to discuss it, this was still a woman who had just lost her husband.
“Well, do you have a better idea?” I asked.
Brittney stopped and thought. “Without better evidence, we can’t say anything for sure. Hannah will sleep with me tonight and we’ll close off her tent as a crime scene so the police can investigate it if we’re rescues.”
“Stop and wait?” I asked. “John… I mean the killer… could attack any one of us tonight!”
Brittney growled. “If you’re that worried about John, why don’t you just go find him! Force him back here and we’ll keep watch on him!”
I smiled. Exactly what I wanted. He couldn’t be left on the loose. “All right. Anyone want to come with me?”
Yet nobody responded.
“Hunter?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I can’t go into the woods with this kind of an arm.
I sighed. “Fine then.” I grabbed a knife and headed into the woods. “If I’m not back by sundown, expect me to be dead.”
The woods were not as thick as I thought. Once you got into them, the underbrush completely disappeared and was replaced with pure grass. Well, for John to survive, he’d probably need water, so I should probably try the river.
I walked towards the river and followed in upstream. At least, as far as I could. For when I reached its source, it wasn’t a spring. A cave opened wide to let the stream out. I would have gone in to check to see if he was inside, but a slight gleam on the ground caught my eye.
“A chain,” I said with a laugh. “I knew it. He took off his chains to be quieter!”
And leading away from that spot were footprints. I followed the footprints to the direction I thought was north. The footprints continued, though the seemed to be getting lighter with time. Soon, I saw the ground being dragged, as if he was carrying a cape or something.
Then suddenly the footprints re-emerged, this time as actual feet instead of shoes. I looked to the side. There by a tree was a shirt, a pair of pants, underwear, and shoes.
“I can understand wanting to be secretive, but did he really have to get naked to do it?”
I followed the path until the footprints simply stopped. I had reached a large clearing.
“Wonder where he went,” I said, looking around.
“Achoo!” came a soft voice behind a tree. I looked over, and there was an unmistakable color of human flesh.
“Stop!” I said, wielding my knife. “You are coming back with me John, dead or alive!”
And then I heard crying. It was high pitched. It was a sound that no man could make. I walked around the tree to try to see the human, but it was no use. She turned with me.
“Oh, I see,” I said. So I faked going one way and then dodged the other. Sure enough, the person bumped into me.
“A girl?” I asked, after I felt her soft skin. There she was, probably the same age as Suzy, but butt naked and with black hair.
Wait, I had heard of this before. Some witches turn themselves to look young to trick desperate men. Well, sorry, but I have no interest in jail bait!
“What’s your name,” I asked trying to avert my eyes from her.
“Um…” she said, “Iunno.”
“Iunno?” I asked. “That’s a strange name.”
“No no, I don’t know my name!” she replied.
Amnesia? Well, whatever. “I’ll call you Iunno anyways,” I said.
“No!” she said. “Anything but that!”
Hm, this girl could be fun. “OK, Iunno, you know what this is, right?” I said pointing to the knife in my hand.
“Yes, it hurts people,” she said.
“Yep,” I said. “And unless you come with me, you’ll be feeling it on your beautiful skin. So you won’t fuss, right?”
The girl turned pale. “Yes, yes sir!”
Well, it wasn’t John, but at least we got some sort of clue. Maybe Mary could treat her memory loss and we could see if she had even seen John or anything. But for now, let’s bring her to camp.
I grabbed her on my back and headed back to camp on the shore. Iunno looked admiringly at some of the shiny objects on the way. Kids I guess.
I was just about to reach the camp when I realized something. I have a naked kid on my shoulders. How the hell am I supposed to explain this? Do I tell them the truth? Do I try to say she’s a native and just followed me? Or do I try to act like a dirty pervert so they realize I’m joking and didn’t do anything to her?