The Wild Ones

(PROPHET’S P.O.V.)
“Are you sure about this man?” CC asks me for the thousandth time this morning.
“Of course I’m sure, this is just a routine desert scouting. I won’t get caught.” he shrugs.
“Make sure that you don’t. The legion needs their prophet.” I resist the urge to roll my eyes at him
“Glad to know that you care if I make it back in one piece Destroyer. I retort, accentuating the title mockingly and he raises both of his hands in a defensive position. The look on his face says ‘You know what I mean.’
“Yeah, yeah, yeah I know what you mean.” I brush him off breezily. “But I’ll be fine, I can handle this alone. Besides, I want to give the legion a break. They’re exhausted CC. They’ve already been working too hard without adding another expedition, let them rest for today.”
“They can rest, but you can’t?” His voice is tired, almost scolding.
“You know I can’t.” I drop my head, but at the same time I stand up to leave.
“Be careful out there friend.” He pulls me into a brief hug, slapping me on the back. I nod solemnly, pick up my supplies, and leave.
I’ve been walking for maybe four hours when break at a stream to refill my water bottle. As I stoop down on the bank I hear a familiar whooshing sound and turn around just in time to dodge what would have been a fatal blow to the head from one of F.E.A.R.’s guard dogs. I simultaneously spring to my feet and drive my elbow into his stomach just in time to watch two more solidify in front of me. Damn. I wish I had listened to CC when he told me to bring a knife or another weapon. There is no way I can win against three of them while I’m unarmed. Great. My own arrogance cost the legion the war.
Still I fight them, moving around to keep them all in my vision, blocking strikes from their F.E.A.R. staffs. It’s no use. I decide to try to run, as unlikely as it is that it will actually work, it’s my best chance. My mind's made up when a high pitched cry tears it’s way through the desert air. A girl, no older than myself, is charging the shadow men with a knife. Two of them turn on her leaving one for me. Compared to fighting three of them, this is almost easy. Almost.
He throws a punch at me but I block it with my forearm and sweep kick his feet out from under him. While he’s still on his hands and knees I bring my knee up hard, catching him in the face and sending him sprawling onto his back. There is a hairline fracture in his skull mask and he doesn’t move again.
After I make sure that he’s down I turn and sprint towards the girl, who is being hoisted off the ground by the two shadow men. Before I can get there she screams for me to stop.
“What are you doing?! Get out of here!” I skid to a stop, my feet are unsure whether they want to obey her warning or keep running forwards
“Go!” She yells, insistent. The last thing I want is to leave anyone to a shadow man; Much less than the person who just saved my life, but she’s right. I have a tendency to jump into things without thinking about it. I can’t risk the safety of the legion for one person,
‘But you’re not just going to ditch her.’ I console myself. ‘You’re going to come back with some backup.’ I nod at her, hoping that will be enough to communicate that I’m coming back, and take off.
Heading west at first so that I don’t give away our location, I change direction as soon as I’m out of sight running straight for the camp. It doesn’t take me more than thirty minutes to arrive .
The first Wild One I see is the Mystic.
“Jinxx!” He turns immediately at my call.
“Woah. Back so soon? What happened?
“I’ll tell you in a second, where are the other wild ones? They need to hear this.”
With my brothers assembled I summarise today’s events briefly. Rather than immediately assembling a rescue mission the guys just look at me hesitantly. Finally Jinxx speaks up.
“It’s not that I’m saying you should just leave her or anything….”
“But we have to be careful who we bring here.” Ashley finishes his sentence for him.
“I know we have to be careful.” I growl. “But if it weren’t for her I’d be dead so I’m not going to just let them throw her in a prison. Or worse.” Don’t they realise that I know more than anyone how vital it is that we stay hidden? I wouldn’t bring anyone here unless I were sure that it was safe.
“Someone like her would be the perfect spy.” The Mourner, Jake, mutters. “Earn your trust and then tell F.E.A.R. where we’re hiding.”
“Look,” I growl. “You can watch her all you want while she’s here, but I’m going to go track them down, even if I have to do it alone.” Jinxx fidgets uncomfortably shifting his weight from his left foot to his right.
“We’ll gather a team, we just want you to be careful.” I decide to bury the hatchet, we don’t have time to argue.
“Okay then, meet me here in ten minutes with supplies and anyone who wants to come.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. I owe them an apology; They’re just trying to keep the legion safe. However, apologies will have to wait until we aren’t so pressed for time.
My mask hangs on a peg in the wall above my bed and my black leather boots are tucked beneath it. I pull both on, sliding two long silver daggers into the loops on my boots and one more into my belt. I don’t have time for my usual warpaint so I just draw a line of black stitches, stretching along my jawline from the corner of my mouth.
When I get back outside it’s to find everyone already waiting for me. Along with my fellow leaders there are several legion members who volunteered to help. Wordlessly we set off walking to find the scene of the fight. We would never have found it if it hadn’t been so close to the stream. Even so, by the time we do find it we are squinting against a bright orange sunset.
There are three sets of large heavy footprints leading from the scene of the kidnapping that disappear in the southern horizon. If you look very closely you can see a set of smaller, lighter footprints that stumble every few feet, as if the owner was pushed or dragged.
“This way!” I signal to everyone else. We are able to travel much faster now that we aren’t looking for something and the day is starting to cool down. Soon we will have to worry about freezing to death. I ignore the thought and force myself to run a little faster, feeling my muscles burn and my lungs cry out for oxygen. Oh, well. If I’m tired I’m tired, at least this I’m used to. I can only imagine what the girl is going through right now. Shadow Men are not created for mercy… She could very well already be dead.
Ashley, who was running a few feet ahead of me starts to slow down. The rest of us follow his lead as he crouches behind what’s left of an old wooden fence. It’s slatted and decrepit, so it’s not perfect cover, but with our black clothing and the darkness of night, it will do well enough.
Ashley presses a gloved finger to his lips and points towards a flickering light, Gathered around a large campfire are three shadow men. I don’t see any trace of the girl until Ashley nods at the rusty white water tower where I can just make out the silhouette of someone standing perfectly still against one of the legs.
“Okay” I whisper “We need to split up. Deviant, you come with me, we’re going to get the girl out. Everyone else, sneak around that house behind the shadows. Wait for my cue and then attack from both sides. Be careful, I don’t want anyone, but F.E.A.R.’s guard dogs getting hurt, does everyone understand?” They nod.
I take the lead, moving excruciatingly slowly from cover to cover. Ashley follows suit and soon we are both hiding behind a boulder about ten feet from the girl. What I see makes my stomach churn. I know full well how cruel F.E.A.R. can be but it never fails to disgust me.
The poor girl has her hands tied behind her and a piece of rope around her neck that forces her to stand up perfectly straight or suffocate to death. I suspect that they knew she would never make it that long and that this was intended to kill her from the beginning.
The rest of the team is in position behind the house and I am about to reveal myself when one of the shadow men gets up from his spot by the fire and starts to make his way to the girl. Ash doesn’t see this and tries to rise, but I grab his arm. Silencing him with a look I slowly slide one of my daggers from my boot and pull my arm back, waiting, with bated breath. When he’s about three feet away from her I throw the knife and it hits him soundlessly in the throat.
The others decide to take that as a signal and attack the two remaining shadow men while Ash and I sprint to untie the girl. The second I cut through the ropes she drops to the ground, quietly gasping for air.
“Oh fuck, please don’t die.” I curse and tilt her head up to pour some water into her mouth. She seems to respond, but after a few moments she goes completely unconscious.
Ash shakes his head at me, aghast. “You’re right, she’s definitely not a spy. They wouldn’t do that to someone they liked.” I scoop her up off the ground.
“Let’s just get her back to the rest of the legion. She needs medical attention.”
The shadow men were out before they knew what hit them. They won’t be missed. When the rest of the team realised how they had intended to kill the girl they were just as angry as Ash and I. A shadow mask is reduced to black gravel in CC’s hands.
There is no longer a need to run so we walk briskly back to the legion. Everyone is eager to get to sleep and it only takes about two and a half hours to reach camp. somewhere in the middle of that walk I take off my jacket and cover the girl with it.
“Good thinking.” Says Jake. “She looks like she needs it more than you do.” He’s right, She’s still completely unconscious and her skin is as pale as a sheet of ice. When we arrive, the rest of the legion is asleep and I follow CC to the infirmary.
Lauren is already waiting there, ready to help whomever might have gotten injured on our mission. CC and her quickly embrace and then she turns around, all business this time.
“Put her here.” She gestures to the surgery bed. “I need as much information as you can give me; How bad is she?” I shrug.
“We’re not sure. I know she was nearly strangled to death and I suspect that they didn’t give her any food or water while they were walking through the desert so add exhaustion, dehydration and hunger to the list.” Lauren’s eyes widen as they take in the girl’s haggard appearance and the red mark around her throat.
“Okay, she’ll live. You two go to bed, I’ll take it from here. I nod and leave the room.

Notes

Not gonna lie, I'm really proud of these first two chapters. Please like, follow and comment. Don't be a silent reader. :) Suggestions are always welcome.