“Diana will never find me here!”
Beatrice always loved playing hide and seek, and Diana always found time to play with her every day. She hoped she could stay small forever, the best hiding places were the ones that only she could squeeze in and out of, and her dark complexion made her almost invisible in the small, hidden nooks. Sometimes she got stuck, but it wasn’t too bad – Diana always found her eventually, pulling her out and calming her down, always so proud at how well Beatrice was hiding.
Even though little Beatrice couldn’t really recall any other games they played together – or at least ones they played this often – or even other kids her age, only her older sister Diana, it was always her favorite game. And surely Diana’s, too, otherwise why would she offer that they play every single day?
That must be why they’re in Oxenfree. Beatrice hardly ever seen any other people around, of any age, but felt it’ll be impossible that there are so few people in such a big city. They never really came across anywhere that had a lot of people around, but the towering skyscrapers of Oxenfree were sure to house more people than they’ve seen in their travels up until now. Maybe they’ll even invite her and Diana to play inside one of the houses, usually the people they met didn’t have a place to invite others into. That could only mean that Oxenfree must have the best hiders around, so Diana brought them to the city so they can practice being the best.
Diana must’ve been really good at hiding already because she hardly ever hid, and only taught Beatrice how to spot and crawl into – and out of – the hardest to reach places, and how to climb trees and hide up high, but Beatrice never saw her hiding. Oh! That must be why, she’s just really-really good at it! Maybe now she’s practicing at being a seeker, Beatrice thought to herself, remembering how sometimes it’ll take Diana a few hours to find her hiding spot.
Being a seeker always looked like the more fun part of the game to Beatrice, but it appeared to be more of a grown-up thing, because whenever she tried to ask Diana to be the seeker she refused, and once when she tried to insist Diana even raised her voice in anger, but she was quick to calm down and apologize when she saw the bright-haired girl shrinking under the threatening tone, shoulders shaking and lip quivering in a near-inaudible whimper. Her smile was strange and lopsided when she patted the curly mane before gently pulling Beatrice close into a tight embrace, relaxing as she sighed and let go, much to the child’s reluctance. ‘Maybe one day,’ Diana’s words that day were more of a ponder rather than a suggestion or a promise, but it was hard to put a finger about what it really was.
Beatrice only knew that Diana was no longer angry, and that was enough for her.
***
It’s been an hour since she made herself comfortable in her hiding spot. At least she thought it’s been an hour; it was hard to tell.
A black dung beetle that walked on the inside of the partially submerge steel pipe plummeted to the ground once losing its footing, and Beatrice rolled over on her stomach with her head resting on her arms, folded on the ground, watching the little bug making its way outside of the hidey-hole. Beatrice wanted to ask the beetle where it’s going, but Diana always told her she must be as quiet as can be.
Diana also said that that she’s not allowed to leave the hiding place before she finds her, but…she didn’t say the kid can’t switch a spot.
There’s no rule against it, as long as she’s not caught.
Slowly crawling across the damp dirt, Beatrice inched towards the way out of the section of the giant pipe that kept her hidden up until now – just big enough for her to get in and out unassisted with just some wiggling about, but inaccessible for anyone larger that are most likely to get stuck if they even try. Even Diana would be too big. She said it’s extremely important when picking a hiding spot.
That tip kept bouncing around in her head when she eventually made it out into the vast, silent cityscape around her. It was the first time she was standing around, alone and unaccompanied by another presence to distract her from the surroundings. It was the first time she noticed that Oxenfree looked like its construction has stopped halfway through.
Maybe it’s just how the city is like, people have weird styles, Beatrice thought to herself as she looked around to try and spot other seekers. Apparently if any other seeker other than Diana finds her, they’ll lose the game. Beatrice didn’t know why it was such a big deal, they can just start a new game, but it was so important for Diana that they won’t lose, so Beatrice swore to always do her best to not be found.
Looking towards the city’s jagged skyline, Beatrice could see some seekers ambling and shambling between what looked more and more like ruins the longer she looked around. They were stopping sometimes, slowly looking around, and continue dragging their feet on the cracked cement and asphalt, back and forth. Beatrice kept watching them as she hunched her posture to stay closer to the ground and started taking small, careful steps away from the pipe, while scanning for a new hiding spot.
“No…No, dammit! Where’d that girl ran off to?!”
Diana gritted her teeth as concern bubbled and boiled in her guts, tightening her hood around her body, and fighting the urge to call Beatrice’s name out in the open to get her out of hiding. The Hunters have retreated from the area, but it was still too early to tell if they were still within hearing range or not.
Oxenfree was a ghost-town. Not in a sense that there were no people in it at all, but that the ones occupying it these days were far from what she remembered as ‘people’. Most people just called them ‘Hunters’, if only to differentiate them from naturally predatory animals, although the more time has passed, the more the line between them has blurred and trying to argue that they’re different became redundant and a waste of time. Diana was one of the few that could still call themselves ‘people’, those whose mind and body haven’t betrayed them, and forced to hide from the Hunters until one can be isolated and…put out of its misery. For the greater good.
It was almost like child’s play.
But despite this being the consensus among other people like her to see it as a sort of game for the sake of their sanity, Diana still found it hard to believe she has found an actual child wandering in what remained of the ruins of a city that was never a great one to begin with, not even on its best days.
It was as if Beatrice had no grasp of how dangerous it was outside. She’d ask, ‘where are all the other hiders? And seekers?’, not knowing that these seekers are the Hunters. She had no idea what an atrocity humanity has become. So much of it has turned, that she and Diana were now part of an endangered species, essentially. It was a miracle she was even alive.
Diana couldn’t bear the thought of telling Beatrice about the Hunters, worried that the little innocent girl might be repressing an encounter she or her family had with one. She wanted to preserve that child-like wonder and innocence without having to drag Beatrice from one place to another on a constant run, where they might meet their untimely and possibly gruesome demise. She decided to dress it all up in the same veil of pretend-play that other survived with desperately held onto.
She took advantage of it to tell Beatrice it was one big game of hide-and-seek – easy enough. She taught the kid how to find the best and most efficient hiding spots, places that Diana herself could no longer take shelter in, but knew from experience that the Hunters aren’t smart enough to look through. She taught Beatrice to stay in hiding and wait until she ‘finds’ her, while Diana looked from afar to see which hiding spot the kid chose, to know where to return to when she’s out taking Hunters down or searching for food and water.
But she wasn’t there this time.
Diana knew she was at the right spot, and the segment of the half-buried pipe surrounded with wet, muddy ground. She saw Beatrice crawl inside, she could swear on it. Now the only sign that she really was there were footprints and dragging marks in the mud, that disappeared a short distance ahead once reaching an exposed concrete floor webbed with cracks, and the remains of what appeared to have been a house.
The Hunters may have not been smart, but…there was always a chance that luck might be on their side, once in a while.
With Beatrice thinking these are other ‘seekers’, like in a real game of hide-and-seek, Diana could only hope that the kid really knew how important it was to leave her hiding place only when she was the one calling for her, and run away from anyone approaching her and not go talking to others – even if they were other survivors. She couldn’t take that risk, that Beatrice might mistake a dangerous enemy for a friend.
Feeling like her molars might crack at any minute, Diana quickly turned around, running in the direction the track went. It was her only lead into a nearby maze of ruins, possibly created when a larger apartment building fell apart in a tremor.
She couldn’t keep her jaws closed anymore, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her concerns for the worst inside once they part open. “Beatrice!” her voice echoed back from the jutting reinforced concrete formations scattered around, and every nerve in her body was aflame when her mind conjured images of Hunters turning towards her voice, her eyes looking for any possible sign for the lost girl and for every possible hiding spot, just in case it wasn’t only a trick of her paranoid mind.
As she was weighing on whether or not to take the unthinkable risk of calling out again, a gentle giggle from a nearby wreck of a room, inside a sturdy, tipped over wooden wardrobe, has caught her attention. Diana leaped over the debris at the threshold and hurried to the wardrobe, nearly ripping the door off its hinges in one swift motion that revealed the source of the sound – Beatrice had waited inside, the smile plastered on her face radiating pride and blissful cluelessness.
“Does this mean that I won?” she wondered, excited.
Diana let out all the air from her lungs with a heavy sigh and leaned down to the cavity, wriggling her body almost like a snake to slither into the narrow space while pulling Beatrice close to her, hugging tight. There were enough walls around them for the meantime, and the dense wood provided extra protection.
They were safe, for today.
“Y…Yeah, that means you’ve won.”
Until the next round.
