Caleb didn’t know how far they walked before stopping, but it probably wasn’t as far as it felt. Brandon-Lee was three years older, but not a lot bigger. Maybe an inch taller, but easily thirty pounds lighter. Caleb had noticed that country people out here were either really skinny or really fat. Not a lot in the middle. And these days, everybody was losing weight. Caleb remembered back when Brandon-Lee was being punished, how all his ribs showed.

Caleb needed to figure a way out of this. He was already tied, he was being choked and he was completely helpless. He felt the panic blooming in his gut, but he forced it away. If an opportunity came for him to do something, he’d have to do it then. There was no room for hesitation, and certainly no room for changing his mind.

He’d allowed himself to break every rule he’d ever been taught about survival. He’d lost awareness of his surroundings while he was looking for a damn rabbit, he’d let himself be sneaked up on and he allowed his hands to be tied. If something didn’t change, and if he didn’t react fast enough, God only knew what these sick assholes were going to do to him.

“Don’t you got nothin’ to say, pussy boy? I got your whole miserable life in my hands. Maybe if you asked nicely, I’d be nicer to you.”

At that instant, one part of Caleb’s future crystalized for him. Hell would freeze over, and pigs would fly, before he begged for mercy from this psycho.

“What, is the belt too tight for your cords to work?” He gave it a good yank.

Caleb coughed.

“Ah, screw it,” Brandon-Lee said. “This is far enough.” He kicked out and swept Caleb’s legs out from under him.

Caleb grunted and hit the forest floor hard. His forehead caught the edge of a rock and bleeding started right away. It didn’t hurt that much, so he hoped it wasn’t all that—

Brandon-Lee planted his knee in the small of Caleb’s back. “You know how this works, pussy boy. I swear to God, if you fight me, I’ll kill you dead right here.”

I know how what works? Caleb thought. When he felt Brandon-Lee working the knot that bound his hands, he got it. He needed to retie them to hang him from a branch for the beating, or whatever he had in mind. If he remembered right, the rope around his hands started as a slipknot.

He felt the rope sliding along his flesh, and as it did, the pressure against his wrists got easier. As his hands were nearly free, Brandon-Lee dug his knee deeper into Caleb’s spine.

The loop passed over his hands and they were free.