To the Ends of the Earth

Chapter 18

Maggie

I gingerly touched my fingers to my right eye and hissed out a breath. When I got my hands on that asshole Martin that had thrown me in here I was going to shoot him with one of my arrows. I may have been mouthing off but he didn't have to punch me. I would have preferred ten more lashes over the headache and what was sure to be a big black eye. I sighed and rearranged myself on the floor of the punishment hut where I'd been left hours ago.

Would Gabriel come for me? I was fairly sure he would, he'd born witness to my public shaming after all, but I had just enough doubt to make me anxious. I couldn't bare the thought of him leaving me here. What would I do then? Would they even let me out of here one day? I shivered, though I wasn't cold, and wrapped my arms around my legs. I was tempted to start rocking myself for comfort when I heard a strange noise.

Multiple footsteps were quietly creeping along the dirt path outside my hut, I was fairly sure. Who would be out this far from the village at this hour? And why would they be sneaking? I got up quietly and went to peek out the narrow gaps between pieces of wood that made up the door. I couldn't see much, it was a fairly well put-together door after all, but there were definitely shadowy humanoid shapes wandering around out in the falling dark.

My first vain thought was that Gabriel had indeed come for me, my heart giving a silly little thump, and maybe he brought Clive and Danny. I nearly called out but something stopped me. I registered the fact that there were many more than three people outside and as quickly as it soared, my heart sank. I broke out into a cold sweat and my pulse thundered in my ears. Did the Defense Force know of our plans to escape? Was this some kind of ambush? Would I be able to warn Gabriel?

I continued to watch the shadowy figures make a trail towards the main part of the village before their silhouettes were beyond my line of sight. I frowned. If it were the Defense Force, wouldn't it make more sense for them to stake out my punishment hut or something? Why were they sneaking towards the village?

I nearly screamed and flung myself away from the door when I heard a deep-toned, scratchy voice not far from where I was imprisoned. It wasn't one I recognized.

"Are the trucks in place on the road?" asked scratchy voice.

"Yeah. There's three directly on the other side of the woods, two more waiting in Dunmar as back up. Chief thinks we can get most of the able-bodied before sunrise." replied a woman with a disturbingly high, girlish voice.

I heard a series of odd clicking sounds that I couldn't identify.

"You remembered to switch out your amo, yeah? I don't want to have to explain why we have damaged goods again." Scratchy said.

I heard a feminine sigh. "Yeah, yeah. Nothing but tranqs." Girly voice almost sounded disappointed.

"Good. Let's roll. I'd like to be done with this in time to have a hot breakfast back in civilization. Don't know how these freaks live like this."

Girly snorted in response. It was oddly delicate. "You're telling me. We're doing them a favor."

One of them spit onto the ground, I was betting on scratchy voice, and then their footsteps quietly disappeared off towards the village.

My heart continued to pound and I knew that these were the outsiders everyone was so recently terrified of, and maybe they'd been right to be so afraid. I didn't understand most of their conversation but I knew it meant bad things for the people I'd lived with and known for the only six months of my life. I had the oddest feeling that I needed to do something, to help in some way, but what could I do? And honestly, why should I? Maybe they deserved what was about to happen to them. Maybe I shouldn't care.