Chapter 3 -The chase

As they turned around, they heard a voice that would go on to taunt them.  It was John’s infected son. They were surrounded. They were captured. They had to think quick. John looked around and from the corner of his eye he saw a small gap between the infected badger and the gorge.

Several hours later the badgers were still in their huddle surrounded by the infected badgers, they didn’t dare to move.  By now they all knew the plan, they knew they would lose some badgers but that was the risk they had to take.

As quick as a flash John saw his opportunity. It was time. He launched himself at the gap and so did four or five others behind him. John couldn’t look back, he felt scared. Not for himself but for the ones that didn’t make it. He also knew that he had to run, this was his chance. Soon the infected badgers would be behind them..   “Run, Run, run!” he bellowed and run they did. Bolting up to Lots of Trees.

Once they arrived at Lots of Trees, they knew they didn’t have a lot of time before the infected badgers would catch up with them.

John whispered something to the other badgers “We need to split up”. John went left with Mia his wife, another two went right and then 2 went straight.

After hours of running and hiding, they found themselves back together. It must have been badger intuition. All six of them together made the decision to run up to Broken Bridge. As they were about to cross Mia had an idea “We should run up past Broken Bridge. If we run across the bridge a couple of times backwards and forwards our scent will be heading that way. The infected badgers will think that we’ve crossed and that way we will be free.”  They did as Mia instructed relieved to finally get there. They thought they were safe, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

The infected badgers weren’t as easily fooled as Mia had hoped.

By sunset the innocent badgers were surrounded once again. This time there was no escaping. The infected badgers weren’t taking any chances this time. Forcefully, they dragged them straight to the Scorpant. He was impatiently waiting in his newfound burrow. This turned out to be The Survive and Thrive tribe’s burrow. It had completely been taken over a day ago by the Scorpant and his gruelling beasts. John and the last remaining part of the tribe were horrified by what they saw. Bodies lay still, blood streams pouring out of the last few remaining good badgers. John lost all hope, his son’s voice echoed in his mind.

They were captured.