[IC] This Means War

[liah]

I could hear Slacks and Karen laughing, covering their mouths so we wouldn't notice. "What's so funny?" I looked around at all of their faces, confused.
"Kae and Jonathan aren't dead. I was kidding. Not a cool story unless someone dies right?" Lyric smirked. "Those guys aren't going anywhere. I saw them a few weeks ago. They're actually doing really good. Kae has got a big and bright diamond on her finger. So they're still doing great. The last time we spoke, Jonathan and Kae were making their way to Jaxlon headquarters to jumble things up and collect more information." She smiled. "You two remind me a lot of them." She finished.

[natcat]

I closed my eyes and dropped my head down, "That is not something that you joke about." I murmured.
"That doesn't mean what I said wasn't true!" Georgie threw in with a nod. "They're definitely inspirational."
I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Okay, haha, very funny." I said with a smile clear on my face. "Where's the closest shower? I need to get rid of this mud, it's literally in every crack and crevice."

[liah]

"There's a pond over through those trees over there." Georgie pointed. "Careful. Little fish are in it. Fresh water fish. They might nibble at your toes but they don't bite." He finished. "Go on ahead." He dug through his own bag and pulled out a plastic bag, taking a hanful of granola and stuffing it in his mouth.
"Got anymore stories about those two?" I asked. Lyric nodded.
"Tons. I could talk about those guys for days." She laughed.
"Tell me some." I rested my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands. I'd listen to some stories until Sam got back. Then I'd get the mud off of my hands and face.

[natcat]

"Thanks." I said and left the cave, walking in the direction Georgie had pointed in. Running my hands through my hair, I thought of the stories we were just told, well, they weren’t just stories. These people were real, what they have done is very real and has impacted this whole war. Maybe these guys knew why the war was actually happening.
After about five minutes, I reached what Georgie had said was a pond. To me it looked more like a miniature lake; it was definitely big enough to swim in. I glanced around to make sure I wasn’t being watched before I pulled out my gun and knife, dropping them on the lake bank. Unbuckling the belt across my midsection, I let it fall to the ground before unbuttoning my shirt and taking it off along with my trousers. Kneeling down, I dumped my clothes into the water, swishing them around and rubbing the mud off of them, turning the clear water in a cloudy brown.
Once I was satisfied, I pulled them out and hung them on the nearest tree before pulling off my socks and shoes, and walking into the water. It wasn’t as cold as I expected it to be but that didn’t make it warm. Running my hands through my hair, I sunk my body underwater, scrubbing every inch of it, cleaning it with every movement.

[liah]

Lyric continued to tell me all of the things Kae and Jonathan had done. It was amazing. Even when one of them were on the verge of dying or going insane, they were right by each other. It's a little twisted how a lot of things happened, but it was also kind of a love story that didn't meet it's end yet. They had changed so much in the war. Even if they were still trying to stop it three years later. I only wished I had the guts to do everything they did. It's all so much. But even if we got a little information on the Jaxlor's, it would be a start.

[natcat]

Once I had rid myself if of all the mud, I peeled the bandage off of my arm giving that a clean as well. I winced as I looked at my arm. It was still slightly bloody and mud had gotten inside of it, leaving it a bit swollen. Wrapping the bandage back on my arm, I lay back and floated in the water, looking up through the overhanging trees to the sky. The last time I went swimming for leisure felt like years ago. We’d done our training for swimming and that had been it, I hadn’t spent time in water like this since.
A crack sounded from somewhere in the bushes and I stood up, spinning around, looking for what may have caused it. Afraid it might be something I didn’t want to mess with, I slowly moved to the edge of the lake and walked back to where I’d hung my clothes, glancing around every few seconds as I pulled my drenched clothes back on.
I stared at the tree line as I reached down for my gun and knife, my hand patting the damp ground instead. Looking down in confusion, I realised I couldn’t see them anywhere and froze.
“Looking for these?”

[liah]

After talking with Lyric for a while, I dug through my bag for some water and snacks. We'd been here for a while now and it was hotter than when we first arrived on the beach. Taking a few gulps of water and a handful of granola, I relaxed. "Hey, don't you think he should've been done by now?" I asked.
"Oh he's fine. The boy was covered from head to toe in mud. It'll take a while to get all that off." Georgie responded.

[natcat]

I stood up slowly as the voice I didn’t recognise spoke again. “That’s right, nice and slowly. You’ll want to put your arms in the air as well.” I closed my eyes in frustration as I raised my arms into the air. Looking up, I quickly saw four men standing in a circle around me, their guns pointed at me. One stepped forwards, letting his arms drop and smiled at me, showing he was the one who had spoken.
“Tie him up.” He nodded to one of his comrades and my arms were pulled tightly behind my back to be tied together. “When Dave never called in we figured something had happened, turns out we were right, and you weren’t very good at covering your tracks. “ He narrowed his eyes at me and stepped right up close, his face inches from mine. “Are there any more with you?”
I stared right into his eyes, hoping to god he would believe me. “We split up a while back, I’m alone here.” I said knowing he wouldn’t believe me if I said I was all alone.
After a moment or two he stepped back and nodded to the soldiers. “Let’s get moving. Pullman will want to hear of this.”
On his orders, his men grabbed an arm of mine each and I winced as one gripped my wound tightly. The third man shoved me in the back as the others began to walk, leaving behind the small lake and muddy footprints.

[liah]

"I don't know. I'm going to go check on him." I said after a while. Getting up, I began to make my way towards where Sam was. "Sam?" I said quietly. "I hope your dressed. I'm just checking on you. Everything ok?" I called out again. I didn't get an answer. In the distance, I could see the glimmer of water bouncing off of the trees, but so far, there was no Sam in sight. I grabbed my gun from my side and continued to cautiously make my way to the pond.

[natcat]

“So, how many Tilerian folk are here in our lovely tropical forest?” The leader of this small group asked me a while later as he led the way through the forest, glancing over his shoulder to send me a smile.
I kept quiet, keeping my head down to watch where I was walking.
“Oi, he asked you a question.” One of the brutes on my arms said shoving me roughly.
“Oh don’t worry, he’s just upset with us because we took his gun.” He spoke from ahead, pushing a branch out of his way, not bothering to hold it back as it flew back and slapped us all in the face.

[liah]

"Sam!" I called, finally reaching the pond. "Sam?" I looked around. The ground was still wet and I could see muddy footprints leading into the forest. "Oh no." I whispered. I began running back to Lyric's camp until I'd finally reached them. "Someone took Sam." I said, half out of breath. "I gotta go help him. I grabbed my pack and grabbed my second gun, stuffing on my other hip.
"Karen and Georgie, you stay here. Slacks and I are gonna go check things out. If Daisy's friends pop up here, let them stay. They're apart of the rescue team. But stay on your toes. Put all of our stuff back in the cave and stay hidden there. We don't need anymore kidnapping or casualties." She finished before hopping up and grabbing a gun. "Let's go Slacks. Daisy, you lead the way." I nodded, doing as she said and began half-jogging back to the pond.

[natcat]

Glancing over my shoulder I looked back to where we’d come from, the lake was long gone and so was Daisy. Hopefully she’d been smart enough to realise I’d been gone for much too long.
It’d had been almost a full half hour of walking before I could hear the sounds of people talking and we came upon a large fence that stretched off into the forest. We waked up to the high fence and stopped at some sort of gate where the leader went ahead to talk to some of the guards, nodding his head back in my direction. Now that we were standing still beside the fence I noticed a dull buzzing, as if there were a lot of flies around but I couldn’t see anything. The guard at the gate pulled a lever and seemed to switch the buzzing off and I suddenly realised that the fence was electrical.
The gate opened up and we were moving again, walking through the entryway to what looked like nothing, just more trees and bushes.

[liah]

After about a minute or two we'd reached the pond again. "This is way bigger than a pond." I mumbled, looking for the footprints I'd seen earlier. "Through there." I pointed, taking a barely recognizable path through the forest. We had been walking for about twenty minutes, but still no sign of Sam or any other people around. "Do you know of any Jaxlor camps here?" I asked.
"Yep. We're going the right way. Just keep walking but stay alert." Georgie chimed in.

[natcat]

After another ten minutes of walking through more forest, the trees and plants started to disappear, leaving a massive opening to what was obviously a Jaxlor camp.
“You like?” The guy in front spun around, walking backwards with his arms out, as if he was revealing it to me.
“Look’s depressing.” I said with a tilt of my head.
He smirked. “Ah, don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. You won’t be here for long so don’t let it bother you too much.” He turned back around and we followed him to the very center of the camp.
We stopped walking and he turned to face us outside of the only actual building in the camp that I’d seen so far. “Lock him up, and make sure he doesn’t get any ideas about trying to escapes.” He said to the three soldiers around me, my heart leapt as I caught the subtle meaning in his words. He winked at me as they tugged me into the concrete building with bars covering all the windows.

[liah]

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked. They were quiet for a moment.
"If we rescue him in time, yes. He'll be alright." Lyric replied.
I moved a few branches out of the way, holding them back for Lyric and Georgie as we continued to walk. I could hear something in the distance, but I wasn't sure what. "What's that?" I looked back at Georgie, hoping he could answer me.
"That's a camp. It's hard to find. We found it on accident last time. It'll be difficult to get in though." He finished.

[natcat]

A guard opened up one of the many empty cells, the heavy door creaking as the hinges spun in place. The men on my arms led me in and shoved me down to the ground, with my hands still tied behind my back I had no way to stop the fall and groaned in pain when I hit the hard cold ground.
I heard the cracking of knuckles as I turned myself onto my back, knowing what was coming I tried to push myself backwards, but there was nowhere to go. I shouted out in pain as the first blow came, a kick in the stomach to start off and then suddenly I was being held in place as various punches and kicks came flying in my direction.
I could hear them laughing, they were enjoying themselves as I coughed and shouted in pain each time they moved.

[liah]

After another twenty minutes of walking, we arrived at the Jaxlor camp. We stayed hidden in the bushes as we looked out at everything. A low buzzing noise was coming frmo the fence that surrounded the camp. "IS that electric?" I raised a brow. I picked up a rock and threw it at it, watching it spark and hit the ground. "Yep. So how do we get in?" I looked to the others for an answer.
"Well the easiest way to do anything at this place would be at night. So for now, we have to wait. Just a few more hours and we can get in." Lyric said.
"But what if they kill him by then?" I sat down on the ground behind the bushes and sighed.
"They're going to want answers from him before they do anything. And they'll at least wait a day before they kill him. We've got time, don't worry." Lyric tried to give me a reassuring look, but I wasn't buying it.

[natcat]

“Stop! Please.” I groaned, blood dripping from my lips as I spoke. “Please, stop.”
The soldiers laughed. “That’s what we were waiting for.” The one holding me up stepped away and let me drop to the ground knowing I was too weak to hold myself up. As they exited the dark cell, I closed my eyes in pain and relief knowing I was going to be left alone until I was needed again. My hands tight behind my back, I lay there regaining strength as my body throbbed and ached.
An hour later I was leaning against the cell wall, waiting for something to happen. I could feel my jaw swelling from where they’d hit me and was trying to avoid moving it when the large thick door swung open letting light in and making me wince.
“Time to go!” The soldiers were back only this time they stormed in and grabbed my arms, making me shout out in pain. They dragged me out, with my head hanging, I had no energy to walk so my feet dragged out behind me in the dirt as they made their way through the camp grounds. As we passed all the different tents, I heard Jaxlor’s shouting out names, calling me things like ‘Tilerian Filth’ and ‘Scum’. The soldiers holding me chuckled, all I could do at this point was ignore them.

[liah]

"I've got an idea. But I don't think you're going to like it." I bit my lip. Lyric and Georgie waited on me to continue. "I can get myself captured. Find Sam and hopefully find a way out. It's dangerous but it could wo-" I was cut off by Georgie.
"Absolutely not. No way. That's crazy. We'll have to wait." He finished. Lyric put a hand on his arm.
"Let her go. She can do it." Lyric nodded to me. "Give me your guns so they don't take them and hide your knife someplace they won't look." She took my guns, handing one to Georgie and keeping the other with her.
"Alright." I took the knife from my hip, tucking it at the bottom of my boot so I was standing on it. It didn't exactly fit, but it would do. "Now I just need to approach the camp in a way that doesn't give you two away either."

[natcat]

After another five minutes, we'd reached some kind of official looking tent. As we entered, the first person I saw was the leader from earlier. He was smirking as he leant against a table, using a knife to pick at something in his nails. "It's good to see you again, you're looking great I must say." He said hopping off the table with a smile and then pointed at a chair in the center of the room, which I was quickly dragged to and forced to sit in, my hands tied tightly to it. "Great. Pullman should be here in a minute, he said he had some business to attend to." He told the soldiers with a roll of his eyes.