Hidden Secrets - Motherland: Fort Salem

#107 - Echoes

The group had been running for a while now, the dusk turning into dawn. They no longer had the cover of night, not that it seemed to be helping, the Marshals always seemed to catch up to them even at a walking pace. The group took turns in carrying Carmen who still had yet to wake up.

Just when they thought things couldn't get worse, it did. They'd reached the end, literally. They stood on the edge of a cliff, a massive drop below and nowhere to go but back except the Marshals were that way. 

The entire time they've been running they haven't bumped into, or seen a sign of Khalida and Adil was becoming more and more restless. "She must have hidden somewhere." Abigail tried to reassure him.

"Unless the Marshals took her." He countered quickly. 

"Then we'll use the blood compass to find her." 

Tally was trying to use her Sight to find the Marshal's proximity but it wasn't working, it hadn't been the entire time they'd been running. "Nothing." She sighed.

Adil picked up a nearby rock big enough for what he wanted to do.

Myka had been the last one to carry Carmen, she slung the girl on her back in a piggy backing type of style. She was somewhat thankful for cliff edge, it meant she could put Carmen down and have a break. 

Just then the sound they were becoming accustomed to echoed through the woods, whistling. Myka mentally groaned at the thought of having to pick Carmen back up again so soon.

"That didn't sound like nothing." Nicte looked to Tally.

"Raelle told us not to underestimate them." Scylla told them.

"They catch us, they take us back to Washington in chains." Nicte didn't want that, she couldn't let that happen, part of her was still holding out that the Marshals were a myth... even if the evidence was stacked against her. "It's time to make our stand."

Abigail shook her head, "Our fight is not with the Marshals." 

"You have another option?"

"I might." Scylla piped up, retrieving a familiar Army issued box, Salva. Except it definitely wasn't enough.

"You're a couple short." Nicte noted.

The whistling suddenly intensified, it sent a shiver through everyone who heard it. The group looking into the woods for a sign of the Marshals and were momentarily thankful when they didn't see them. Their attention was then grabbed by a loud gasp coming from behind them. 

"Carmen?!" Myka rushed over to the girl that had sprung forward into a coughing fit. Once the coughing subsided she flopped back against the boulder behind her, her eyes lulled lazily as did her eyelids.

"Go. Find Khalida. Take them." Scylla thrust the Salva into Abigail hands, then looked over to Nicte. "You know where we are on the Cession. We can lose them."

"Love the confidence, Ramshorn." For once Nicte was being genuine.

"Ramshorn." Carmen chuckled to herself quietly, only Myka heard her and threw a puzzled look her way. The girl looked half asleep still but Myka was just glad she was awake.

"The plan stays the same - we meet out west." Scylla told them.

"When Rae comes back, how will she find us?" Tally questioned them.

Scylla answered this one, "I might know a way to contact her." 

Again, Carmen giggled. She made her hand into a pretend phone and fumbled bringing it up to her ear, "Hello Mycelium, is Rae there?" Myka just watched with wide eyes.