Melody crouched before a pile of sticks, two in her own hand. She began to rub them together, hoping a tiny spark would bring them the warmth they needed.
Wyatt was busy ruffling the tent in an attempt to figure out how to pitch it. A quick spark flickered off the sticks, her stomach felt uneasy with excitement. Swiftly, Melody leaned forwards, toward the pile of accelerators. She coupled her hand behind the pile and gently blew. The orange embers glowed and then caught on the sticks, making a small fire erupt from the pile. Melody leaned back on her toes, smiling to herself with satisfaction. She watched the small flame dance and curl under the slight breeze. She stood up and looked around the surrounding brush. It was dark and still, almost eerie.
They've been out in the woods for a few days now and Melody could already feel the shift of the seasons. The days were getting shorter and the nights colder. She didn't have a destination in mind and yet they still continued to move and switch camps. Even with all those times they had to set up their camp, Wyatt always confused himself with pitching the tent. Melody made her way over to a struggling Wyatt. She stood back and observed what he had laid out on the frosty dirt. The tent was in a neat square with various other tools sprawled across the fabric.
Wyatt worked on the opposite side of tent as he tried to figure out how to get the pole through. Melody bent over and shuffled all of the tools onto the ground. She then marched over to the other side of the tent. Startled, Wyatt quickly handed her the pole. Wyatt watched Melody, but all she did was slide the pole through the designated loops.
Melody turned toward him and smiled patiently. "See? That's all there is to it." Wyatt curtly nodded and the two of them began to swiftly work together to put up the tent.
Melody stood back and observed the lopsided tent, as Wyatt worked on putting up the last corner. When she had convinced herself that he could manage without her, she ventured into the ebony dark woods.
Pine needles brushed against her shoulders. The moonlight made her able to make out the shadowy forms of the tree trunks. Her steady breathing filled her senses with the slight smell of sap. Sticks crunched beneath her feet as she traveled deeper into the thick brush. Melody noticed a berry bush a few yards from where she stood, across a small trampled pathway. Just as she reached out towards the berries she noticed a small flicker of a flame from the corner of her eye. She quickly withdrew her hand, praying she wasn't seen.Melody then recoiled back into the dark woods. She craned her head, trying to catch a glimpse of the fire through the leaves. She heard the faint chatter from afar. There were definitely people there. Not wanting to get into any trouble, Melody forgot about the berries and hoped that whatever food they had left would suffice. She turned around and retreated. Her footsteps were quiet and unnoticed until she stepped on a twig, causing it to snap. It seemed like it was the loudest noise ever. She could've sworn it echoed through the woods.
There was shuffling through the trees. Melody began to run back towards her camp. It was as if someone was controlling her, telling her to flee. She began to pat down her empty pockets in hopes of finding a weapon to defend herself. To her dismay she had been stupid enough to forget her axe back at camp, she cursed at herself.
The light from her campsite engulfed her, shedding the darkness from the woods from her vision. Wyatt had finished with the tent and was now sitting around the fire, looking at her in confusion.
A long breath of air escaped her lungs."Where's my axe." Her words came out in a rush.
Wyatt leaned forward and picked up her axe, which was next to the fire, and handed it back to her. Melody cast a quick glance into the woods. She took the axe into her own hands. Wyatt craned his neck to look in the direction that Melody had. Her axe held up in defense.
"What're you looking at?" He asked her in confusion as he stood next to her trying to see what she was.
Melody blew a strand of hair from her face. "There are others, I saw them. They might be coming."
Wyatt nodded, then looked into the dark woods. After a moment he shrugged. "If they were chasing you, wouldn't have they already caught up?"
Melody continued to intensely stare into the darkness. Wyatt sat back down, as Melody shuffled in a circle, observing the eerily silent woods. Her shoulders slumped slightly and she then let her axe hang by her side.She turned and looked back at the fire, it's flames shined in her eyes and illuminated her copper hair.
The woods were so quiet that the sound of a twig snapping seemed to be ear splittingly loud. That or the fact that the sound had frightened Melody. She quickly turned around but didn't see much before she was knocked to the ground. Ringing sounded in her ears, her head throbbed and her back ached from the sudden impact. She felt a weight pushed down on her and her hair began to tangle in the leaves on the ground from struggling to get free. Somebody had covered her eyes, her vision filled with the darkness she wanted to get rid of. She flailed her arms and legs violently and moved her body in any way she could, hoping it would help free her somehow.
It wasn't like her to give up, but her fists and heels hurt from pounding the slightly frozen ground, and her head felt like it was being screwed loose from thrashing her head back and forth so much. In the end she laid still on the ground. Silent tears falling down her cheeks as she mentally apologized to her sister for failing, for being weak even when she promised she wouldn't. She thought about Forest and his cute smile, his beautiful cool grey eyes and, the fact that if she died tonight, she would never have the chance to tell him she loved him.
She mulled things over for a moment before she noticed that nothing was happening. Her eyes were still engulfed in darkness and yet when she stopped fighting no one had grabbed or lifted her. Her thoughts were so loud in her head that she never heard the rustling coming from their tent, or the muffled screams and thrashing coming from Wyatt. One thing did happen, she no longer felt the weight on her. She tried to move her arms and legs but quickly realized that she was bounded.
Melody heard deep voices talking somewhere in the distance before her.
"What do we do with them?"
There was a pause before someone replied, "Bring them with us, maybe they know something."
She heard heavy footsteps crunching dead leaves beneath their feet as they approached her. Her heart beat pounded in her chest. She tried to escape before they made it to her, thrashing her arms and legs in a feeble attempt to defend herself.
Her body was lifted from the ground. She felt arms on her back as they carried her to wherever it was they were taking her. She then felt her body being lowered onto something hard. The deafening sound of an engine roaring to life and filled her ears. The hard ground began to vibrate. She then knew she must've been in the back of a pickup truck.
It had been who knows how long and the hard floor began to dig into her side. Her body ached all the way down to her bone. The truck began to slow to a complete stop. She was once again lifted and placed on what felt like a log. Hands were untying the blindfold that drowned her darkness. The cloth fell off and she observed her surroundings.
It was early morning as the bright sun rose over the treetops. She could tell they were still in the woods. A camp surrounded her. The person that untied her blindfold moved onto Wyatt. The both of them looked at each other in fear and confusion.
A tall young man approached them. His eyes traced all three of them. He then crouched down to their level. "Why were you in the wood? Were you stalking us?!"
He stared at them awaiting an answer. "No! Why would we stalk you?!" Wyatt leaned forwards and spat at him. It had missed him by inches and he looked down at it in disgust. This was first time Melody had seen Wyatt act like that. When he leaned back his eyes glinted with pride.
"I was the one in woods. I was looking for berries, we were running low on food. I had no idea you were there," Melody spoke with complete calmness even though her entire body quivered in fear.
His eyebrow raised in interest. He then turned towards her and grabbed her chin. His hands squished her cheeks. "Liar," he spoke slowly and softly.
His eyes traced her lips. Suddenly revolted Melody jerked away and kicked his shin. He quickly withdrew and held his leg. He then gave her an approving look.
"Takeo!" The man before her abruptly stood up at the sound of his name. "Leave her alone."
Takeo smiled. "Just having some fun Aki."
Aki's face looked unimpressed. "Don't do that again or I'll chop your hands off. They could be useful."
Takeo curtly nodded and walked away. Aki then sat before them. Melody was taken aback by his threat. Aki didn't look too good, he had large eye bags and his black hair was tangled and knotted. His brown monolid eyes looked tired and desperate.
"We don't want to hurt you, but we won't hesitate if it comes down to it, alright?" They both slowly nodded. "Good."
He began to run his hands through his hair as he stood up and gathered around the other group members. They huddled closely together in a tightly knit group. She heard mutters and whispers but no definite words or sentences. Melody watched them, hoping that eye contact would somehow improve her hearing.
After a while, Aki turned back towards the two. He clapped his hands together. "Alright good news! So were not going to kill you, yet. But you guys get a free trip to Auxilium! And from there we'll see if you live or not." She could tell he was being sarcastically enthusiastic.
None of them replied and Aki went on with his business. Melody couldn't tell if this was good or bad. She didn't know where Forest was and she had no way to contact him. She hoped that if she kept moving from camp to camp that she would run into him, but now she might be thrown completely of course. There was also the fact that she was a witness and they could kill them the second they step foot into that town.
Wyatt's face looked dark as he looked at the retreating back of Aki. He then spoke up, "Why not just put us out of our misery and kill us? We're witnesses, so why not just kill us and get it over with?"
Melody looked at him in confusion. His eyes slightly shifted towards her but otherwise remained the same, he had a plan.
Aki stepped towards them. "If you really must know, I'm looking for my sister. I was captured a while ago and finally escaped, now I'm trying to get back to my home town to see her. I've done some terrible things for this group, for the purpose of finding her again. I heard a few rumours and got a little crazy. If it comes down to it I will use you as hostages to get information from people."
As he was about to leave, Wyatt quickly replied, "Some people won't care if you kill us, some people are cowards!"
Aki slowly shook his head and smiled. "Good people will do the right thing, and, if not I'll kill you to instill fear into the coward. Scare them into giving me information."
Wyatt slowly nodded and Aki finally left them.
Melody leaned towards him. "What was that for?!"
"I wanted to know their motives and how hard we should try to escape." He shrugged.
"And?" She asked. From their conversation she couldn't tell how that would determine how hard they should try to escape.
He nodded towards Aki. "He's not a bad person, he's just motivated. I don't think there will be anyone at that small town that he'll need information from. If we're lucky the sister will be there and we'll be let free, if not we try and escape there."
Melody nodded in agreement. "I don't see a better opening then there. We'll be in trucks most of the time and heavily guarded and they'll be too distracted with finding his sister to notice us. Plus a free ride, so why not?"
Wyatt agreed. Their plan was set, get a free ride to Auxilium then hightail it out of there.