Jessica and Dexter trudged up the next hill, navigating terrain seemingly untouched by civilization. Not a soul in sight, not a strand or hint of man-made mechanisms infringed upon the slithers of leaves. Only solitude.
Stranger to the wilderness, Jessica had no clue what to expect. The novelty of their surroundings was almost tangible enough to rub the skin. The sun's descent envisioned a spiraling shift in the scenery. New traits came in the iridescence of local flora. Deeper into the region, the undulating shades morphed from cool greens to warm reds and yellows while the unrecognizable trees embalmed a sense of mystery no thinner than the air they breathed—which almost seemed alien. Never had she laid eyes on so many wreaths of nature.
Eventually, they came to a halt, and Jessica circled until she made eye contact with Dexter. One look at his clueless face helped her accept the fact that they were lost. Thus, she peered beyond the canopy to isolate the position of the sun. All the hours on delivery helped her memorize the direction of its rays during each hour. Unfortunately, nothing along the way clued them on the rendezvous. No sign, no car, no Shannon, no Valerie, and no jerk.
"You have no idea where we're going, do you, Dex?"
"Nope." He sighed.
"Okay. What do you know?"
He shrugged and wiped his glossy face with a leaf. "Just that it's somewhere up north. I think I overheard Monarch, actually, give this very cryptic sentence for the coordinates: 'On the highway out of hell, beware the energizer bunny.' But, I figure if there was any clue about the rendezvous, I would have seen it by now. Sub Terra's got hideouts in different places. Only ones I know of are in the city. So, no one leads everyone; no one knows everything. It's all very secretive. Has to be. And I'm just a small cog they wouldn't keep in the loop."
"Energizer bunny out of hell?" Jessica pursed her lips, shut her eyes, and imagined a rabbit beating a drum out of a circle of fire. "When did you join Sub Terra?"
Dexter snickered. "Not long after we graduated."
"You're not the type."
"No, I'm not."
"You wouldn't even hurt a Cazador."
Dexter lifted polite eyes. "And when did you"—swirling his hand around her figure— "when did you start all this?"
"Really? You're just noticing that I cut my hair?"
"Nnnno. Stop messing with me!"
Jessica smiled through her teeth.
"What exactly have you been up to?"
"Now's not the time, Dex. We have to keep moving." She walked ahead of him.
"The hell?" his voice cracked. "You started this!"
Further, into the unknown, the two wanderers paused atop a leafy hill. Jessica fastened her goggles to scan for clues. Approximately an hour had passed since they made landfall, so if Shannon and Valerie had stopped, they might approach from the opposite direction. However, while Jessica had no doubt her friends would search for her, she was unsure about Raptor. In the middle of that thought, her scan revealed movement in the bushes.
"I think I see someone."
"Really?" Dexter whispered.
"Yea. Hold on."
A searingly loud crash broke the silence of the forest, fading into a distant echo.
Jessica hit the floor, under Dexter's arm, left to ponder the origin of the gunshot. Breathless, she stared from the empty green to her friend's dilating brown eyes. He was quick but not that quick. The bullet hit the nearby tree well before they could duck, so her eyes wandered from Dexter's nervousness to the rising leaf pile behind him.
"Dex!" Swiftly, she sprung up and tackled the figure. It evoked a feminine moan that persisted into the ensuing ground wrestle. The camouflaged hood came down, to reveal a white face and blonde hair.
"Jess!" yelled Dexter
As Jessica pinned the stranger's wrists, she peered into the blue eyes of a young girl. Those eyes glared with adolescent fury.
"Jessica!"
She sat on the girl's stomach, but when she dared to look up found herself surrounded by hoodies in camouflage. A painful gut compression flung her back to the ground, after which the girl crawled back and rose, but not before picking up her hunting rifle.
"Get up!" She cocked her gun at Jessica.
Reluctantly, Jessica followed the pissy girl's command and noted every stranger's finger snug on the triggers of their outdated weapons. She slowly reached for the sky, like Dexter. But in glancing from the guns to the blonde, she based her next act on experience with difficult Tacquizza customers.
"Was geht ab? Es tut uns leid. Ich weiß nicht, was los ist, aber ich spreche kein Englisch."
Dexter squinted.
"Who are you!" barked one of the jackets.
"Aussehen! Es war nur ein Spiel! Naaa?"
One of their detainers relieved Dexter of his pistol then frisked the rest of him, while the blonde girl began checking Jessica's entire body, using her hands. Few comparisons could be made to the sensations that followed. Jessica withheld the urge to yelp as her jeans and shirt kneaded her skin. More disconcerting, the girl found her R2-D2 drive and tried to sniff it.
"What is this?" she spat.
"Mein anale Sonde."
"Not answering, huh?"
The armed adolescent stashed the flash drive in her pocket. Then, she forcefully removed Jessica's backpack and began carelessly tossing out the contents. Jessica inwardly seethed. The reality of the situation started to sink in. Her tablet, thrown aside; her RWBY T-shirt, thrown aside; her dignity, thrown aside.
"What is this?" The girl dangled an unused tampon in Jessica's face.
Jessica cringed so hard her legs nearly buckled. "You've got to be kidding me."
"So, you do know English!"
Oh, my God, she just tricked me.
Dexter awkwardly and actively diverted his gaze from her general direction – His eyes rolled up while he whistled.
Jessica pleaded very seriously. "I know we've just met and are a long way off from being BFFs, but can you ask them to put their guns down."
"Maybe, if you bring down the sarcasm," the girl replied.
"Touché. Sounds like a plan. Can I have my drive back?"
But the blonde waved the tampon in Jessica's face, once more. "Are you going to tell me what this is or not?"
"My God... Do you live under a roc—you know what, you probably do. No judgment. Do I even wanna know how y—I don't, actually. That's an easy one. Oh, boy, my mind's on autopilot. It's in my head. Oh, no..."
A man angling a double-barrel shotgun stepped closer. "What are you doing out here?" he said. Not only was his voice throaty, but it also had an accent. Very rustic.
He sounds like a hillbilly.
"Probably better for everyone if we don't answer that," said Dexter, stepping forward. But a gun stock hit the back of his knee, and he fell with a guttural moan.
"No, worse for you if ya don't," replied the man with the shotgun, lowering his hood. He had a middle-aged mug with brown facial hair greying down his entire jawline. "Yer from the city, which means yer only business here is bad business. And bad business can only lead to bad business."
"We're not here because we want to be," said Jessica.
"And I promise we're not here to be hostile," Dexter added. "Or to be spies or some random crap."
The older man, impatient, frowned. "You have three seconds..."
Jessica held her hands out. "Everybody, just be cool!"
"Be very, very cool," said Raptor.
Out of nowhere, flanked by Valerie and Shannon, Raptor leveled his pistol at their leader. Her friends were armed as well, but while Valerie appeared very confident through her specs, Shannon looked very nervous.
The mysterious man steered his shotgun to Raptor. "I say you're outnumbered," he warned. "And so long as you're in these woods, there's nowhere to run."
Raptor eyed the man intently, gently lowering his pistol. "What is above and below the view of a sane moon?"
At those words, the man with the shotgun raised his brow. "A mountain of madness," he answered, lifting the barrel. His followers took after him, and, sure enough, the tension withered.
Pieces of the puzzle came together. These people in the woods knew Sub Terra, and Raptor's cryptic message meant they were in the know, as it were. Another mystery but one which let Jessica breathe easy.
"I am Gideon," said the leader, helping Dexter to his feet. "And these are the Woodsmen... and women. This is my niece, Danielle. Dani." He pointed to the blonde, frowny teenager.
She waved.
"Welcome to our neck of the woods. See, anything you can find in the city you won't find here. There's no fancy techs nor wireless waifus. We're off the grid, as the city fool says."
Vote for Waifus! (He means wifi).