There were whispers all over the place, but the murmurs were too low to be heard clearly.
Luke was rather shocked. How many people were involved in this? Dozens?
Soon, the tailgate of the pickup was dropped down, and Luke and Selina were moved to the ground.
They were still next to each other. These people didn’t plan on separating them.
The noises not far away suggested that Bob’s family had been moved down, too.
A moment later, a man announced, “Wake them up. I need to tell them the rules of the game.”
Luke was revived by the cool water that was splashed onto his face.
But he didn’t move. He observed the reactions of his fellow victims.
It wasn’t until Selina struggled dizzily that Luke started to act out a similar reaction.
Selina had woken up, but not all the way. The sedative was quite strong.
She mumbled, “What’s going on?”
The man continued, “Welcome to our playground, Detective Selina and Detective Luke, and your unexpected teammates, Detective Bob and his family! You’re quite lucky to have teammates to help you. Detective Bob could’ve stayed out of this, but he chose not to. Congratulations.”
Looking at the masked men in front of her, Selina was still dizzy. “What are you talking about?”
Bob’s head was starting to clear, too. “Who are you? What do you want?”
“Hehe. The answer is simple. You’re now in our game. Do you want to know what this game is?” the man asked eagerly.
Bob shouted, “What game? This is illegal, do you know that?”
The man burst into laughter. “Yes, it is, but who will know? Your Cleveland PD? Or Houston PD, where these two young officers are from?”
After a pause, he continued, “Alright, enough nonsense. Congratulations. You’ve joined a real hunting game, and you’re playing the part of… prey.”
Selina and Bob were both silent. Luke simply pretended like he was dead.
He was a young officer who had just graduated from high school; he should be weak.
“How boring.” The man sighed and said, “Let me tell you: The game will start in five minutes, and you’re going to be the prey in this game, like boar or deer, do you understand? If you don’t run with all you’ve got, you’ll be killed!”
Luke already understood that these people were perverts who liked to have fun with real people.
It wasn’t just about killing; it was about slaughtering people like animals.
He checked out the number of cars and people he could see.
There were seven cars, all pickups and SUVs. Based on the noises behind him, there had to be another five cars he couldn’t see.
Altogether, there were more than ten cars, not including the three pickups that had dropped off the victims.
There were two to four people in each car. So, the number of participants in this game ranged from thirty to fifty.
Where were these lunatics from? Had nobody ever noticed what they were doing?
Luke thought for a moment, and realized that the answer might be no.
In a place as sparsely populated as Texas, the disappearance of a few travelers wasn’t worth mentioning unless there was evidence that suggested a crime had taken place.
It wasn’t just travelers; Matt from HPD had gone on a visit home, and still hadn’t been found yet.
Furthermore, Luke and Selina weren’t part of the local police, but were only civilians here.
Too many Americans had gone missing on trips, never to be found again.
It wasn’t unusual to chance upon a corpse from decades ago. There were too many cases like this for the police to investigate.
While Luke was thinking, Selina opened her mouth.
He secretly yelled at her foolishness. It was useless to criticize these people now.
Pretending to be weak, he leaned close to Selina, burying his face in her breasts and pinching her bottom.
Selina was dazed to see a seemingly addled Luke lying on her chest. She realized what was going on, and held back what she had been about to say.
Selina knew Luke’s physique better than anybody else.
She was already able to talk, so how could Luke still be dizzy?
Her head was also clearer thanks to the pain from her butt. She understood that Luke was telling her to shut up.
Bob’s family, on the other hand, was a lot noisier.
Bob was cursing, and his wife and his children were crying, unable to figure out the situation.
Or perhaps they understood, and their minds had collapsed as they guessed what would happen later.
“Alright, we’re going to leave. You have five minutes to hide. Then, the hunt will begin! Remember, only the victor will survive.” The man whistled, and all the cars around them drove away.
Luke observed the environment when the woods turned dark again.
It was desolate, with many bushes around.
But the bushes weren’t thick or dense, and wouldn’t hide anyone.
Just now, the strangers had been carrying different weapons, but most of them were bows and crossbows.
Some of the bows were common, but some looked very strange. The strangers did have pistols, but left them in the holsters.
It was clear that these people really did regard this as a game and not an actual fight.
Luke quickly took off his T-shirt, ripped it into strips, and bound Selina’s feet.
Given that his physique was much better, his heels were a lot tougher.
It was uncomfortable to walk on bare feet, but it wasn’t unbearable.
He would prefer that Selina didn’t have to endure it. She would collapse in pain if she took a few steps in the wild without shoes.
There were pebbles and twigs everywhere; walking on them would be like walking on broken glass.
Why didn’t Luke have Selina use her own clothes instead?
Well, she was only wearing a bra and shorts. The shorts covered her groin, but didn’t have enough extra fabric to fashion coverings for her feet.
As he wrapped up Selina’s feet, Luke whispered to her in a low voice, “Don’t believe anything they said. There won’t be any survivors in this game. We’ll die if we can’t escape.”