Cataclysm

Captured

I continue walking down the illuminated path until the sound of voices fill my ears. I crouch low while racing down the path towards the sound. Usually people would head the opposite direction of strange voices, but I feel as though my curiosity is getting the best of me. I need answers and this camp is the only thing that will give them to me.

I near the end of the path and notice a large boulder. I make a beeline for it and peer through the crack of the large rock. Outsiders fill the large open cavern and chat together while laughing and shouting. Some outsiders appear drunk and walk around the tavern with bottles of sloshing beverages. Some of them are playing cards on a large wooden table and throwing punches at the better player. I wince at the sight of a man taking a blow to the nose because of his victory at the game. Two outsiders grow closer to my hiding spot and I quickly press myself closer to the rock for protection and listen carefully to their conversation.

"John beat Nathan. I guess he has a new bruise. I honestly don't think that new recruit will ever learn to let higher officials win." The man says.

"Yeah, that's like Grayson. The man never learns anything. Speaking of him, did you hear about that girl in the woods?" The other one asks in a deep voice.

"I heard that she got a good hit on him." The shorter one chuckles lightly. "Can you believe it? Grayson getting outsmarted by a teenage girl, that's just downgrading on his part."

"Yes, but did you hear there's more to the story?" The deep voice booms in a more quiet tone now. "Rumor has it that she is Commander Hope's daughter."

"What makes you think that?"

"Grayson said that she had his eyes and his nose." He whispers more quietly now and I have to lean closer to hear their conversation.

"Holy shit," he mutters. "If she's anything like her father than she may be a threat to the nation as well."

"That's what Admiral Cope is saying. He is issuing high alert and infiltration of their town in three days when we are ready." He says before whispering something I fail to catch into the man's ear.

I press harder into the rock for a better hearing, but the boulder begins to slip under my pressure. I try to grab it, but it pushes away from me and my hands hit the ground hard. All around me, eyes burn into my flesh and gasps ring out in shock upon seeing me in their base. I look around and my voice feels unavailable to me at the moment until I notice the ground being ripped from me. I remain deadweight in the hands of a tall burly outsider who holds me up by the collar of my shirt. Outsiders stare at me and I notice a robust man clapping his fist into his open palm while showing me a sinister grin. A few of them begin parting a path to allow a short scrawny man to approach me.

"Who is this?" He asks in a high pitched tone.

The man appears to be in his early twenties and looks to only be two inches taller than me. His face is flawless and young which makes me question his authority, or if he is even old enough to know how to spell authority for that matter. He looks to me with a wide smile that curls at the corners of his thin lips and gives him an evil side to his baby face.

"We caught her spying. What do we do with her?" The man holding me informs him in a deep voice.

"Wait, she is the Commander's daughter." The one soldier that was talking near me calls out in a high pitched voice. "Look at her face!"

I look around awkwardly while outsiders examine my features and glare at me angrily. The short man breaks into an insane laugh that sends a chill down my spine. His eyes narrow so that I am the only face he is looking at.