We have been flying over desolate land once again. There is nothing to see but soil. Then in the distance we can see the shape of tall buildings coming into view. We are approaching another city. We continue to fly to the outskirts and choose to land before entering the city's air space for some rest and nourishment.
Fed and rested we headed for the city. At first it looks like all of the others, destroyed, and abandoned. On closer inspection of the central northern portion of the city, however, you can see the signs of human life. There are clothes hanging on makeshift clothes lines and containers filled with water. I would assume rainwater by their placements. There even appears to be a small food garden in front of an old rundown-looking building. When I look towards Marie for her opinion she is already signaling to me that we need to land. We make a couple of passes and then land a few streets behind the settlement.
We both dismount and walk towards each other. "Aurora this is it. Our muse has to be here. The tugging is so strong it feels like someone is physically pulling me towards a particular spot with a rope. It is the oddest feeling because it feels like the rope is connected to me inside of my torso. I would not explain it as painful but I would certainly like it to stop." "Well let's have a look shall we," I say.
We decide it is best to leave the harpies where we have landed. We have no idea who lives in this makeshift settlement with our muse. Besides the sight of them can be quite frightening. I know this from experience. With our biggest asset staying behind we draw our weapons and proceed cautiously across what's left of two streets and the building shells that line those streets. That brings us to the back of one of the buildings that appears to house the people that live in this part of the city.
My arrow is nocked with my bow not at firing height but close enough to make a shot very quickly. Marie has her electric gun at the ready. Hephaestus made her electric gun look like a gun but function more like a taser. There is a big difference between her gun and a taser though. Her gun shoots a visible beam of blue-colored electricity at a target with no electrodes necessary. Unlike a taser that uses two darts of sorts that remain connected to the taser through conductors to deliver the jolt. Marie has been practicing with her weapon of choice for a while now and has gotten pretty accurate with it.
We slowly come around the back of the building and proceed up the side. When we reach the front corner I look discreetly to my right. I can see no people around the corner. I move back in position at the side of the building. "She is in this building. I am sure of it" Marie whispers quietly to me. I whisper to her "I do not want us to be in the open. Let's retreat back to the rear of the building and look for another way in." We retreat quietly to the back of the building.
Once we are at the back of the building we notice there is a window open on the second floor of the building. There is nothing to climb here so I suggest we return to our harpies and devise a plan. I would much prefer to enter through that window than be completely open to whoever lives here.
While standing next to our harpies we devise a plan. We decide that I will ride Aurora up to the second-story window and then dismount through the window. Then Marie will do the same. We will leave our harpies at the back of the building for a quick exit if we are unable to leave from the ground level. With a plan in place, we mount up and walk towards the building.
Before entering through the window Destiny hovered outside of it so I could get the layout and make sure I could not see anyone inside. It was actually pretty easy to enter the window with Destiny and Skye's help. They hovered there and we just had to climb in through the window. Once we were both inside we drew our weapons and proceeded to perform a quick search to make sure the room was truly empty. Then we walked to the door that leads out of the room. I slowly opened the door and looked out. There was no one so we both turned left and entered the hallway. You could not turn right because this room was at the end of the hall. We proceeded to walk towards a staircase leading to the first floor. As we passed several closed doors on our right and left Marie assured me that our muse was not in any of them. She was sure she was downstairs.
At the top of the staircase, we could hear voices. At least two men were down there. Marie pulled me back from the staircase and whispered. "Our muse is to the left. I have a literal line on the ground to follow." I stared at her bewildered. "I am serious. Do you see a thin line running down the staircase and making a ninety-degree turn to the left?" I shook my head no and said, "To the left, we go then".
We slowly crept down the stairs trying not to make a sound. Honestly, we would have needed to be very loud for them to hear us. The two men were shouting something I could not make out. As we crept we looked all around to make sure no one else was present that we were unaware of. There was nobody in the living space to our right or at the front door ahead of us. Our left is still blocked by the wall that borders the staircase.
We stepped off of the last step and I peeked around the corner of the wall bordering the staircase. I could clearly see two men yelling and threatening to hit a young woman. Both had their hands held high in a position they could easily strike her. Looking closer I was sure they already had. I told Marie what I saw and she stepped forward to have a look. When she did her eyes went wide and she gasped. Before I could ask her anything she said, "They are going to hit our muse" and she fired. I immediately came around her to assist but there was no need. She had immediately fired again and both men were on the ground. They were alive but suffering from the electric shock her weapon fired.
Neither of them noticed us as we approached our muse. They had their own problems to deal with now. One had clearly urinated on himself and was just lying there panting. The other was vomiting. He looked like he had the flu or something. We will not have any more problems from them as long as we can escape before they recover.
Our muse had backed away from us as far as she could. Her back was pressed against the cabinet that held the sink and she was sobbing quietly. We will not hurt you I told her but it seemed to do no good. She was frightened of us. I did not expect that. I do not know what I expected but not fear. I suppose she just saw one of us shoot two men she knew so, frightened seems reasonable now that I think about it.
"We will not hurt you but you need to come with us," I tell her. She replies saying "you need to leave. There are others and they have guns. They are going to kill you for this and me if I can't explain I had no part of it." Marie tries next "Come with us and they can not kill anyone". "I can't" is all she said. I tried again to reason with her "just come with us and I will explain". It was no use. She did not know us and she would not move.
I move closer to her as I reach into my pocket. "Are you sure you will not leave with us voluntarily?" I ask one more time. When she shakes her head no I reply by saying one word, "Sorry". As I told her sorry I handed the vial I removed from my pocket to Marie and charged her, pinning her arms against her sides. Marie quickly walks over and opens her mouth. Then she dumps the liquid into her mouth and makes her swallow. I hated doing this but our muse already looks like they have been beating her on a regular basis and if we do not get her out of here she will be dead soon.
The liquid works fast. She is already getting drowsy and lets down her guard. We guide her to the staircase and up we go. By the time we reach the top of the stairs, she is being carried between us. She is still conscious but she is sluggish and stumbling a great deal. It was easier to just carry her. We get to the window and I call to Skye. Skye flies to the window and I send Marie with our muse out first. Interestingly enough it is hard to get a person who is drugged out of a two-story window and onto a bird. We finally succeed though. I help Marie harness our muse to herself and Skye. Very thankful that we had the forethought to bring something with us since we knew our muse would not know how to fly. Let alone fly double. I can hear yelling downstairs and I run over and lock the door hoping that will give me enough time to escape. When I run back to the window I tell Marie to fly away from the city due north for a minute and then make her way back home. "Make sure to fly completely outside of this city." I tell her to meet me where we slept last night. She looks at me and opens her mouth to object but I cut her off and tell her I will see her soon.
As soon as Skye has cleared the way Destiny appears in the window. I climb aboard just as the door behind me slams open. We fly away but not before they begin shooting at us through the window. Thankfully they missed but now we are being shot at from the ground. I find myself instinctively working as a team with Destiny. The way we did when we passed the obstacle course. After several minutes of avoiding their bullets, we are out of their range and turning west to head for our rendezvous spot. I am very happy I chose to stay behind and deal with the flying bullets. Marie and Skye had not completed their training and I do not think it would have gone as well. As is I have a graze wound and Destiny does as well.
When we arrived, Marie was still on Skye with her passenger more alert than the last time I saw her and still harnessed to Skye. Marie has unharnessed our muse from herself. I dismount and walk over to assist Marie with unharnessing our muse from Skye. Once our muse is disconnected we back away as we can see she is still quite frightened of us. "Why did you kidnap me?" She asks in a low tone. "We are trying to save your life" I reply. "I thank you for that. They are awful people but now what am I going to do? There is no other settlement anywhere that we have looked. At least there I had food, water, and shelter more often than not. "What you had there was cruelty and pain. Let us show you another way, an actual home. I will take you no further against your will. I only took you by force then because I did not have time to reason with you. As much as we wanted to rescue you and bring you back with us we did not want to die trying because you did not understand the situation," I replied.
She appears deep in thought for several minutes before she replies, "Where are you headed?" She asks. "We are headed home. We live in a colony that was established over one hundred years ago. The rest of our story is complicated and I think it will be best to show you rather than trying to explain everything to you here," I tell her. Marie nods in agreement. "I figured it was complicated. I mean you are riding giant birds." She says with a small smile. The first sign of any emotion I have seen that did not reflect sadness and fear. "Truth be told I am not sure my life could get much worse than what it has been ever since they took over the city so I will come with you. "Good then let's get back to flying. I will take you with me and Destiny for a while. By the way, what is your name?" "My name is Violet." "Okay Violet, Marie let's go home. I would like to stop on the far side of the 'green area' where we stayed the other night. That way we can make it all the way home from there. I really just want to get us all home safe and as fast as possible." Marie, Violet, Destiny, and Skye all shook their heads in agreement.
We flew the rest of the day and into the night before stopping to rest in the 'green area'. This area is very pretty and still feels safe. The only area to look untouched by destruction since we left home. After taking care of the harpies Marie and I took a seat and began rummaging through the food we had left. When Violet caught sight of what we were doing she stared at our packs like she had never seen food before. "You have a lot of food," she finally said after several minutes. Marie spoke up, "Yes, we have plenty. Are you hungry Violet?" "I am always hungry," she replied as she looked at the ground.
Marie handed Violet several packs of rations which included a meat and cheese sandwich, an apple, a pear, and several strips of jerky from her pack. I gave Violet a container full of water from my pack. Then Marie proceeded to hand me some food and I handed her a container of water. Finally, Marie pulled some items for herself and then put everything that was left back in her bag.
When Violet finished eating she thanked us both for the meal and said "I do not remember ever being this full in my life. I am used to just making do with whatever I am given to eat." "No offense," I tell her, "But you look like you barely eat if I am being honest." Violet just looks at her feet and says nothing in response. I look at Marie and we exchange sad looks. Neither of us can relate to Violet. We have both had a good life in Community while she has suffered badly.
Once we had eaten we found a soft spot and rolled out our makeshift beds to get some sleep. "Sleep well everyone. If all goes well the next time we sleep will be in our own beds in Community," I say. Violet looks up at me but does not say anything. I look at Violet and say, "you will have a bed and everything else you need when we get home, I promise." With that, we all lay down to get some sleep. The harpies took first watch as always.