Anthem

Chapter 2 - Jesse

           Jesse yanked the needle out of the girl's arm. Who was she? What had happened to her that made her so... he didn't even know how to describe her. Her citrine eyes had practically glowed—and not just with determination—when he first saw her darting through the forest. Soft, crystalline yellow, and blindingly beautiful. But her face, twisted in a snarl even as she slept, took away from her beauty. He let out an exasperated sigh. What was he going to do with her? He certainly hadn't known what to do with her earlier. She had somehow seemed both afraid of him and not afraid of him at the same time.
           He had tracked her and her companions as they ran through the forest and been stunned as she suddenly stopped. She had stood with her arms open wide, lifting them up to the sky as if accepting what was to come, welcoming it even. Jesse had heard the Xori closing in. They were going to catch her but perhaps that was what she wanted. The foolish act could have gotten them all captured, and the community discovered. Mere seconds had separated her from the ruthless Xori Scouts. He didn't know if any of her companions had made it. After he had knocked her out the first time, he had heard screams. Screams of pain. Screams of fear. They had echoed throughout the woods, bouncing off each tree until everyone had heard the warning. He shook his head—she had been so close to death, so close to condemning them to the same fate, and the girl hadn't cared.
           Her rusty, auburn hair sprawled over the pillow, creating a waterfall over the edge of the bed. He moved closer, scanning her body. Long thin legs, flat stomach and small chest. Definitely underfed. She still had a bit of muscle to her, despite it. He continued his assessment. At last his eyes landed on her neck. A birthmark.
Jesse leaned forward. No, it wasn't a birthmark. A broken diamond had been carved into her skin, into her flesh. He wondered what she had done to earn such a mark—or if she'd done anything at all. If he was smart, he'd assume she had done something based on the stunt she pulled earlier. His eyes reached her ears and he saw a shimmering fragment of ametrine had clumsily been pierced through her cartilage, and was chained to a copper stud at the bottom of the same ear.
"Who is she?" asked his second in command.
"She's none of your concern, Ashlee," Jesse said. "You don't have to win over every pretty girl you see."
"Well," he slid Jesse an impish grin, "I don't have to win them over, because as soon as they lay eyes on me, they surrender to my will," he finished, smirking. He mockingly flipped an invisible ponytail.
Ashlee Micanula was a lady's man. There was no other way to describe him. 'I live for the women' he would say, 'and the women live for me'. A funny one, he was. Be that as it may, he was still Jesse's best friend, and had been for years. They had begun their training as part of the Elite Defence as boys, and finished as men, but Jesse never understood Ashlee's love for women.
Ashlee moved closer to the mysterious girl, eyeing her chain piercing and running his fingers along her shining unbound hair.
"Okay, okay, I'll leave her alone," his grin still remaining as he held up his hands in defeat, "but I can't guarantee she'll do the same for me."
Jesse laughed and made a vulgar gesture before shoving Ashlee away. Keep him from saying any other silly comments. Despite his own warning, Jesse continued to stare at the girl.

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He watched her until she woke. She struggled as soon as she opened her eyes, reaching for her knives and growling when she realised they had been taken.
"Hello to you too," he grinned deviously.
The girl just glared at him defiantly.
        Well, it seemed like she hadn't changed her mind about staying silent. Maybe she was smart in doing that—maybe it was a tactic. She clearly didn't want him knowing anything. Still, he would try to get some answers out of her.
Jesse groaned. "I can't help you unless you talk to me."
Still no reply.
"Look, you're not leaving this place. It's not safe out in the bush and this community has been hidden for over a decade. It's your only option."
She cocked her head to the side.
"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out since you're such a smart-ass."
More silence.
"I don't care if you don't talk but you're not leaving—or escaping. You'll be dead before you reach the door."
Jesse met her unwavering gaze. Gone were the inquisitive eyes he'd seen earlier. Now they were dull, empty shells. He left the cabana shaking his head.
           Something terrible had happened to that girl, he could feel it in her presence. It was almost as if she carried the lives of the world on her back. Maybe she did. She had been so beautiful...
           Snap out of it Jesse scolded himself. You're not Ashlee. You don't care. You never did and you never will. All that matters is finding out if she'll be a threat to us. That's all that matters.
He repeated that to himself as he made his way to the Planning Sector, chanting over and over. The location was hidden deep inside one of the cabins, burrowed into the ground. They couldn't risk the Xori Scouts chancing upon them. Then there would be hell to pay.
             The Sector really was in the most obvious spot. It could be seen from wherever you were in the whole village and that was the beauty of it. All things in plain sight remain hidden. It had been those words that the founders of the Wilder People has stood by as the site for their camp was chosen, and the words that the village lived by as if it were their anthem. Jesse supposed it could be, chuckling as he remembered only 2 nights ago, Wendy Palmer had dazzled everyone with her own beautiful version of the words in an opera song, leaving everyone... speechless. Not in a good way. She had been so terrible in fact, that the town's grump had—
           "Watch where you're walking son!"
           Yes, Hansel McWilliams never failed to complain. It was an unrealistic feat to go through a day and not hear him whine like a child.
           "Sorry sir," Jesse apologised, and continued on his way.
           For some reason, he couldn't wait to show the girl around Wilder, and he hadn't just wanted Ashlee out of the way earlier. Leave her alone, she's not your concern. He recited the words until the thought disappeared.