Chapter 3: Dealing with Resistance
Relieve and worry ran through Alice as she dropped the signed tree. Alice had dealt with the Elves more than once and knew they were unlikely to kill Gabriella, doubly so if they had seen her be shrunk. On the other hand, though, she also knew the Elves would want a... costly trade for her return. Alice sighed to herself as the many possible objects they could want ran through her mind, each more dangerous to obtain than the last. Despite the danger, however, Alice had no choice. She would not abandon Gabriella.
Her determination returned, Alice looked up and faced her next obstacle, finding where the Elves had went. Tracking them was out of the question as they were far too skilled to leave a trail and Gabriella too... ham-fisted to leave a breadcrumb trail they wouldn't discover. That left Alice with only one real way of finding them, figuring out their most likely route and hope they were in a talkative mood.
Taking out her map, Alice began to study the area she was in. South would have just lead back to Society patrolled areas and the Snakes territory, a highly unlikely choice. West lead into Marauder territory which ruled it out. East, however, would head into the Appalachian mountains, a known hiding spot for the Elves. It was a possible destination, but one Alice had misgivings with. This winter had been far harsher and colder than the last few and the mountains were covered in snow thanks to that. Trying to reach them with a fresh batch of snow rolling in would be a dangerous gambit, one she had a hard time seeing a small band of Elven scouts making. Doubly so when the Northern destination was more tempting. The only danger that way was the farm Gabriella had been assigned to and that was an easily avoided threat. Alice had her direction.
Still, knowing they headed north didn't mean she would find them. She had estimated the fire had been left unattended for an hour, so they had a bit of a head start on her. And, while she could catch up with relative ease, the Elves were masters of hiding. If they didn't want to be found, they wouldn't be. All Alice could really do was hope they were willing to deal when she got their attention. Thankfully, getting their attention, assuming she had guess their destination correctly, would be easy enough.
Making sure to watch her steps just in case, Alice started off to the North. She keep moving for a few minutes as she tried to estimate about how far the Elves could have gone in an hour. After about fifteen minutes of walking, Alice decided she had gone far enough to warrant an attempt. Stopping in place, Alice began to stomp her foot down in a morse-coded pattern. Her message was simple and to the point:
"ELVES-WILLING-TO-TRADE-SAFE-RETURN-SOCIETY-MEMBER."
She repeated the message three times before stopping and waiting. Nothing and no one came to answer her message, however. Alice was far from dissuaded, however, as she doubted that her first attempt would be successful. And even if her third, fourth, and even tenth meet the same reaction, Alice wouldn't give up till she got an answer. She moved forward a few yards, making sure to watch her feet, before sending the message again. She continued this routine of three messages, waiting, then moving as the sun slowly sank.
Alice wasn't sure exactly how long she keep at her routine, but it had been long enough for night to set in. The monotonous task made time blur together and she stopped counting her attempts after they had reached ten. She was just about to start sending another morse message through the ground when her shield, suddenly, flashed to life. Her HUD patch blurted out an alarm as it warned her of a high-speed impact on her shield along with an arrow indicated from what direction. She followed the arrow around to her right side and began to scan the area. For a second, she saw nothing, but some slight movement brought her eyes to a small clearing. Alice zoomed in on the movement and saw her "attacker". In the clearing was a tiny man waving his still smoking gun in the air.
The man was dressed in furs that covered him head to toe. All of the fur had been dyed to blend in with the surroundings and bits of twigs and other underbrush had been sewn or stuffed into it. Even his gun's metal had been dulled down to make it next to impossible to see. If he hadn't been waving toward her, Alice wasn't sure she would have spotted him despite standing in the open. There was no doubt this was an Elf as only one of them could manage something like that. Alice let out of relieved sigh at having, finally, made contact with them.
Alice moved toward the Elf slowly and carefully until she was only a few feet away. She then, again slowly, knelt down toward him and leaned forward to better see and hear him, making sure not to loom over him. Alice knew from experience that intimidation would only hinder her efforts with the Elves. Respect, on the other hand, would catch the Elf off-guard and make them far more amiable toward a trade. Alice gave a slight nod and zoomed in on the Elves hooded face before speaking.
"Thank you for answering my message. What do you want for the Society member's safe return?" Alice asked, getting straight to the point and making sure to keep her voice down. Through the hood, Alice saw a slight smirk appear on the Elf's face. He reached up and pulled his hood back to reveal his greasy, unkempt black hair. He looked up and Alice relaxed a good deal as she recognized the man.
"Straight to business as usual, Alice?" Holland, an Elven scout leader asked. Alice had made a number of deals with Holland and the two had gotten to know each thanks to that. They were not friends by any stretch of the word, but they had mutual respect for each other. That said, Alice knew he would not make this trade any less painful for her, despite that respect.
"Fine, business it is, then," Holland said before his smile vanished to be replaced with a cold gaze. Pleasantries were over and, now, it was time for them to negotiate.
"We have a mission we need assistance with. Help us complete it and we will return the Society soldier to you," Holland said, his voice and face giving no clues as to what type of mission this was. Alice frowned inwardly at this unexpected development.
In her other dealings with Holland, he had asked for supplies, equipment, or tech for his information or aid. While such deals were highly illegal by Society law, Alice knew the Elves had no ill intent toward the people of Atlanta. They just wanted to be left alone and only fought when a Resistance group or the Society forced them too. Knowing that was why she made such deals. Helping a group that wasn't an enemy to learn information about a group that was was a good deal in her book. But this...this wasn't just things, this was direct aid. And aid that would, undoubtedly, be against a fellow Society member. Why else would they need her aid?
A few hours ago Alice's answer would have come quickly, but after what had happened to herself and Gabriella...
"What is the mission?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gabby growled to herself as the group lead her on. She couldn't believe she hadn't heard these Resistance shitheads sneaking up on her till it was too late. And thanks to that fuck up, they were leading her to fuck-knows-where and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. At least she had some clothes now, even if they were too small… Dammit was everyone in the Resistance a pipsqueak?
After being captured, the Resistance had given her some spare clothing they had along with a bit of food and water. Welcome though it was, Gabby knew they weren’t giving it to her out of goodwill. Considering the wary ways they were looking at her, she could guess they had seen her be shrunk. They weren't keeping her alive out of generosity, but so they could question her later.
Escape had and was on her mind, but it looked less and less likely with every second . The Resistance shitheads weren’t stupid when it came to keeping her guarded. One of them made sure to stay behind her, his gun leveled and just out of kicking range. Two others were always flanking her and both stayed just out of her reach. The rest were scattered about and would drift in and out of sight thanks to the trees and lengthening shadows, obviously scouting ahead or keeping watch. Even if Gabby could grab one of her guards, the other two would pump her full of lead before she even got a good grip on the first. And that was just the guards, add in the others that were coming and going... Dammit, did she HAVE to get captured by the one Resistance group that was semi competent?
With no way out of this mess, Gabby had no choice but to keep going. Gabby did her best to try and keep up with how long they had been walking, but it had been a long time since she had to deal with trees blocking her sight to the sun. She thought it had been about thirty minutes when one of the scouts came back and called a halt. Her guards moved her to a large tree and made her sit down next to it, still never getting in reach of her the fucking smart assholes. Gabby plopped down with her back to the tree as the full Resistance squad came out of the forest. Her guards stayed near her, though, and made sure one of them was always keeping an eye on her. Dammit...
The squad started to discuss something, but keep their voices low enough to prevent Gabby from hearing. She caught a few words here and there, but they were so few and far between that she couldn't even guess what they were talking about. However, she did pick up on who was the leader here. The leader was a man with a large hood on and a slightly better quality rifle. He was, also, the same asshole who had snuck up on her. Occasionally, he would glance over in her direction, but the hood made it impossible to see his face. Gabby would have loved to get a grip on him and bury her fist into that stupid hood.
After a few minutes talking, the leader made a twirling motion with his hand and her guards ordered her up. Gabby grumbled in annoyance as the squad moved out again and cursed when her guards picked the same set-up as last time. Dammit, these Resistance fuckers weren't making any mistakes... Her chances of escape were, quickly, falling to zero.
The squad moved through the thick forest, drawing closer to whatever doom awaited Gabby. Interrogation seemed the most likely, doubly so if these Resistance had seen her be shrunk. Honestly, she wouldn't have had too much of a problem telling them about that damn shrink ray...if she knew anything about it. Of course, they were unlikely to like that answer, but beating, threatening, or anything else wouldn't get them information she didn't have. Well, at least when they tried that shit they would have to get clo-
Gabby's thoughts were cast aside as the entire squad froze in place. She was about to turn around to see what was up, but never got the chance as her three guards tackled her. The ground, suddenly, raced up to meet Gabby's face as the guards pinned her to it. Gabby started to try and push herself up, but stopped when she felt the barrel of a rifle press against the back of her head. The fuck were these assholes doing?! She was about to scream in anger, but stopped mid breath as she felt, and heard, what had made them react. *booooom*
Despite having only been shrunk for a little over an hour, Gabby knew that noise right away. Hell, she didn't think anyone could not recognize it after experiencing it. Footsteps...big footsteps...
Gabby's spirit soared as she realized help was coming. Finally, she could get some help and escape these damn Resistance assholes. It would take some doing to get the Shield's attention, but once she did she was sure they would help! Assuming...it was a Shield...fuck, but what if it wasn't? What if that was one of those damn Swords come back to finish the job? Gabby's morale shot up and come crashing right back down as she realized those footsteps were just as likely to be her doom as salvation. Still, it was a risk she was willing to take if they got closer.
The squad remained silent as the small quakes and distant booming continued. Gabby listened to them, hoping to hear them getting louder, but they seemed to be staying mostly the same. And...they didn't sound like the rhythmic pattern of footsteps. In fact, the were more... sporactic? No...patterned? Yes... yes there was a pattern to them and it seemed somehow familiar- wait...wait, was that...morse code?!
Shifting her head to put her ear to the ground, Gabby listened to the booming pattern. Dot dot, dash, dot dot, dash, dash- fuck it WAS morse code! What kind of dumbass Society member used morse code?! Was it a Ranger trying to get her scouts attention or something? Be a real stupid way to considering it would attract the attention of damn near ever Resistance around for scale miles. Too bad she had forgotten how to read morse or she might be able to know for sure.
Gabby shifted her ear out of the dirt and noticed the leader of the squad crouched down in the dirt. He moved his rifle butt through the dirt and looked to be spelling out something. Crap, looks like he DID know morse code and was translating it. Gabby might have tried to push herself up enough to see the message, but the rifle barrel was still firmly planted on her head. All she could do was watch as he spelled out the message and, with the help of two others, make sense of it.
The three of them looked to agree on the message just as the booming stopped. The leader called over everyone, save her guards who, finally, let her up. The leader erased the message with his shoe before Gabby could see it and then turned to his assembled squad, fucking smartass... The group talked in low voices for a few minutes, a number of them glancing toward Gabby through out. Gabby sneered at them each time, but none of them even so much as blinked at her. After a few minutes of talking, the leader and about half the squad headed off into the forest. One of her guards moved off and looked to take up a watch position, leaving her with only two. Gabby had to fight not to smile.
With the squad now split in half, there were only her two guards and four other people stopping her from escaping. Best of all, she could see where all of them were now that they weren't moving. This was the best, and probably only, chance she was going to get to escape. However, she still needed to wait a bit and let the rest of the group get further away. Escaping only to bring the rest of the squad right back wouldn't help in the least. Besides, waiting for the sun to set would make her harder to track as well.
Waiting for the sun to make its agonizingly slow descent nearly drove Gabby to scream, however. Patience had never been a strong suit of hers and the damn waiting was, almost, more than she could bare. But, she keep herself under control and used the time to try and figure out a plan. While her capturers might have been reduced in number, they were still not taking any chances with her. Her two guards made sure to, always, have one of them watching her and keep back far enough to give them both time to fire. Gabby thought about pretending to be sick or something, but she reconsidered when she realized how damn cliche that was. Besides, these guys seemed way too on the ball to fall for something like that. There had to be some other way... Dammit where was Isabella and her plans when Gabby needed her?
Gabby was about to at least try the sick idea when the booming stomps started up again. The guard who hadn't been watching her looked off to the side and the other started to turn as wel- oh fuck yes!
Seeing her chance, Gabby sprang forward toward the closer of the two guards. The man whipped back around far faster than Gabby had guessed, but still not fast enough. She grabbed the barrel of his gun and shoved it to the side, forcing it off target. Gabby thought the guard would fire it, but he moved his finger away from the trigger when he saw it was no longer pointed at her.
"Colton!" the guard yelled as he tried to push the gun back on target. Gabby grunted as she resisted his attempts and risked a glance to her side. The other guard turned to see the scuffle and started to raise his own rifle. Thinking fast, Gabby let out a yell of excursion as she yanked the gun as hard as she could to the side. The guard swore and stumbled forward a few steps as Gabby shifted along with him, putting the guard between her and Colton.
"Fuck, regroup!" Colton yelled out as he lowered his gun and moved forward to help the other guard. Gabby was confident she could take them both, but not before their friends arrived. Their ARMED friends... Already she could see some of them turning to move back out of the corner of her eyes. Gabby gave the rifle one final pull, smiling as the guard resisted, before letting it go. The guard, having put all his strength into keeping her from getting the rifle, stumbled backward a few steps. Gabby gave him no time to recover as she planted a hard kick right into his chest and sent him tumbling back into Colton. The two Resistance fuckers fell onto the ground in a heap of flailing limbs and curses.
Gabby didn't waste a second of the time she had bought herself and took off a full sprint away from the camp. The entire camp erupted into yells as they realized she was making a break for it and Gabby didn't dare to look back. Suddenly, a branch just off to her right exploded before the loud bang of a rifle came from behind her. Gabby swore as she started to zig zag through the trees, hoping it would throw off her pursuers aim. Another bullet zipped past her a second later, barely missing her head. Gabby had to fight her natural, and trained, instinct to get down as she keep pushing herself forward. Stopping for cover would only give them time to catch up. Another bullet buried itself into a nearby tree a moment later, but after that the forest went silent save for her footsteps and breathing.
Risking a glance back, Gabby couldn't see any sign of people still chasing her. That would have been more relieving if Gabby could see more than a few feet. With the sun having set, everything more than a few feet from her was nothing but inky blackness. Still, if they were in hot pursuit they would have been firing at her and she would have been able to hear their running steps. Neither was happening, though.
Gabby slowed her sprint down to a jog as she attempted to catch her breath. The numbingly cold air caused her lungs to burn with each inhalation and it was a struggle to keep up her pace. But keep it she did as she knew that the Resistance fuckers couldn't have given up that easily. And her moving might be the best deterrent she had against this damn cold.
Keeping time had been hard during the day, but now that it was night it was damn impossible. Gabby guessed it had been twenty, maybe thirty, minutes since she had escaped and had yet to see any sign of her capturers. She had slowed to a fast walk now and was having to keep her arms wrapped around herself to keep some semblance of warmth. The furs helped, for sure, but it was still dangerously cold out here. And it was only going to get colder...
Gabby realized she needed to find some shelter or someplace to hunker down for the night. Stuck in this visibility cutting forest was going to make that task damn near impossible, though. Looking through the trees, Gabby managed to spot an area where the horizon was higher than usual. That had to be a hill or something along those lines. She could get a better view from up on one and then figure out where to go.
Her guess at it being a hill was spot on and Gabby made her way up the, thankfully, gently sloped hill. A few minutes of climbing found her at the top of the hill with the blackened land laid out before her. Seeing the place from this height felt much more natural for Gabby, even if it was far, FAR lower than she had been. Dammit, she couldn't be thinking about that shit now, she needed to find some shelter!
Looking around the area, Gabby groaned to herself in frustration. It was so damn dark that she couldn't make out much of anything, much less a shelter. All she could really see was the outline of the land around her. Cursing her shitty luck, Gabby was about to just head back down when something caught her eye. Odd... one of the hills in the distance seemed...more defined. And there was a glow behind it almost like... like artificial lights!
"Finally, civilization!" Gabby said to herself as a sudden surge of new energy hit her. That white glow had to be from some kind of Society outpost or vehicle as the Resistance would never have made such an obvious "come kill us" sign. And where there was Society people there might be a Shield she could get the attention of. Even if not, she could sneak herself a ride back to the base and find Isabella or someone else. Either way, she couldn't afford not to go considering her situation.
Making a mental note of the direction, Gabby headed down the hill and back into the near pitch-black forest. Finding her way through and keeping herself going in the right direction proved more difficult than she had thought, however. The trees and terrain made a direct path impossible and Gabby worried that she wasn't heading in the proper direction each time she had to take a detour. Thankfully, the slight glow of the distant lights began to, slowly, cut through the darkness and helped keep her on track.
After walking for another hour, Gabby made her way up the hill that had been silhouetted by the lights. She reached the top and scrambled to the opposite side to see what had been making the light. Beyond the hill was a huge, sprawling base that looked almost like a miniature shrunken town. Prefabricated buildings were scattered about the area along with Society-made farm vehicles. In the middle of the shrunken town was a massive field that was growing some kind of crop, despite the cold. Rows upon rows of the tended fields sprawled on and on, only stopping at the wall of a far, FAR more massive building. At the edge of the base was a full-sized home that looked to have been fully repaired. The lights were on inside and it was, obviously, occupied. Gabby was confused as to what she had found till she remembered her original reason for being up her. Of course...this had to be the farm she had been sent to!
Gabby smiled as she, finally, saw an end to this mess in sight. Once she got to the farm, she could expl...oh shit. Sudden realization hit Gabby as she thought about trying to explain this to anyone. She could just see the guards' faces as they listened to her crazy story and wondered how long it would be till they just slammed the door in her face, assuming they even came to the door. Glancing down, Gabby remembered that she was wearing Resistance clothing and groaned in annoyance. Fuck, the guards were more likely to sound the alarm on seeing her rather than let her talk. Worst of all, she was fairly sure the Society member here was a Sword. Gabby swore in her head as her hopes were dashed apart just as they had begun to rise.
Despite all that, though, Gabby knew she didn't have a choice save TO go down there. Those Resistance shitheads were still out there somewhere along with fuck-knows what else. And the biting cold was getting worse and worse as the beginnings of snow began to drift down. She needed shelter, now, and the only shelter around was inside the farm. Well, if she couldn't get in the proper way, she would just have to do it the IMproper way. Gabby cracked her knuckles as she headed down toward the farm.