Flashf0rward

Chapter 21: Homecoming

Wren

It had been a day since Julie had received her transmission from Ivy inside of the city. When she told me how the message cut off and there had been gunshots, my worry graduated into total terror. Every day we sent out patrols as far as we could go to see if we could intercept them on the way back. But if it really was that dangerous out there, I couldn't risk any more men to send to the city.

Then, on the second day after Ivy sent her message, Jude and I, plus a few men, were out patrolling the very borders of what we considered the "safe zone". I was looking over one of the hills and was unable to see anything. Jude rode up to me and shook his head. "Nothing coming from the south side." As I was getting ready to give up the search yet again, I heard one of the men shout. "I got movement!"

Riding over to the west side, I saw the men pointing towards the plains off in the distance. Looking through his binoculars, the man was staring at a cloud of dust on the horizon. He passed them to me and I took a look. It appeared to be a convoy of horses, about 20 or 25 strong, all men armed with guns. But on the front lines, riding alongside them, were Ivy and Connor.

My eyes widened and I looked at Jude. "It's them." Jude stared through his binoculars as well. "What are they doing? Who are they with?" I shook my head. "I don't know, but I don't like it." I turned to the men. "Stay up here, weapons at the ready. Do not fire unless I say so." I turned to Jude. "Come with me. Let's meet them."

Riding our horses down to the halfway point, the convoy stopped, and I could see Ivy's eyes widen when she saw me. "Wren!" She said out loud, and I raised my hand. "I'm here Ivy. It's ok." Then, one of the men dismounted his horse and walked forwards, who seemed to be taller than the rest, wearing a tattered coat and had his dark blonde hair in a quiff.

Immediately, something about him made me uneasy. I'd felt this same kind of sensation before. From Gerrard. He seemed like the kind of person who had an immense power up his sleeve, and he knew it. As he looked up at me, he smiled. "So you must be Wren. It's nice to finally meet you. My name is Matthias Mandrake."

I frowned a little, then tentatively jumped off my horse, knowing that Jude and the others would keep me covered if anything went wrong. Walking towards Matthias slowly, I stared into his eyes. Even though I didn't want to, I felt like I was unable to pull away from his gaze. He seemed that engaging.

"What do you want with my sister?" I asked him in a calm voice. Matthias smiled. "Well, your sister was being so kind as to lead us to your village. Sanctuary, I believe it's called? She was doing us a favour as payment." I frowned. "Payment? For what?" Matthias sighed. "You see, while she and her friend were heading to the city, they encountered two of my men and injured them quite badly. Now, this is just my own policy, but usually when someone hurts one of my men, they usually have to pay a price."

I wasn't sure how this happened, or what the full context was, but I still didn't trust Matthias. "I can assure you, whatever happened, Ivy and Connor didn't mean to hurt your men." Matthias shook his head. "Alas, they did. Which meant that I had to, shall we say, let them go for revealing information about me dishonestly. You understand how that works, right?"

He didn't explain what that meant, but I had a good idea. "You misunderstand something about me, Matthias. We don't kill people. And we certainly don't hurt those who don't deserve it. Obviously your men did something to warrant such a beating." Matthias crossed his arms. "True, but your friends never gave themselves up willingly or repented for their actions. Instead, they left my men to die and almost killed my right hand man twice."

Motioning to a man on a horse behind him with messy black hair and freckles, I knew that clearly Matthias had little to no reasoning behind his actions. I had to diffuse this situation and get Ivy and Connor back before he decided to go completely off the rails. "Alright. You said you wanted Ivy to lead you back to Sanctuary. Why is that?"

Smiling, Matthias nodded. "Good question! I like you, always getting to the point. You see Wren, as you know, the world has changed. Humans, mortals, whatever you want to call them, they're slowly being weeded out, being taken over by a new species. I'm sure you have a different name for them, but my group and I call them Miracleborn."

I realized what he was talking about. "People with abilities. We call them metahumans." He motioned to me. "Exactly. These people are popping up seemingly everywhere. And when Ivy told us how many there were in your village, I knew we had to see if she was telling the truth, and by the look on your face, I assume she is."

Looking at Ivy, she had an apologetic stare on her face. I didn't blame her, but this made things more complicated. I nodded. "Yes. There are about 113 metahumans in our village at last count." Matthias raised his hands in the air. "Amazing! Getting all of them in one place, they must have a very good leader. I congratulate you on that, Wren."

I shook my head. "I'm not a leader. I just do what's expected of me." Matthias pointed at me. "And that's the very least you can do. I'm proud of you. Thank you very much for being honest with me." He turned to the man with messy black hair. "Giles, would you mind letting our three guests go?"

Nodding, the man named Giles walked over to the horses carrying Connor and Ivy, then cut them loose from the rest of the herd of horses. They slowly walked over to me, and I could see that there was a girl about Ivy's age riding with her. That must have been whoever sent the message. At least they got her out.

Turning back to Matthias, I narrowed my eyes. "Alright. You asked me enough questions, so let me ask you one." Matthias smiled and nodded. "By all means, Wren." I crossed my arms. "What do you intend to do with this information?" Matthias thought to himself for a moment. "Like I said before, Wren. Humanity is becoming obsolete. So...we need to know what we're up against. Checking out the competition, you could say."

I didn't like where this was going. "We don't mean you or your people any harm." Shaking his head, Matthias got back on his horse. "I know...doesn't mean we're not gonna watch you." He said lowly, then raised his hand. "Be seeing you soon, Wren!" He said as the group of men rode off, disappearing into the distance.

After they left, I saw Ivy get off Fred and rush over to me, hugging me tightly. I hugged her back, holding her in my arms. "The hell is wrong with you?" I said into her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I had to..." She said, and I could feel tears brimming in her eyes. I suddenly flashed back to when she was young, and I was carrying her in my arms through the hell on Earth that had suddenly risen up. It was something that made me shudder slightly.

I looked up at Connor, who was giving me a neutral glance, as well as the girl, who was standing by Fred, unsure of what to do. I turned to Jude. "We're moving out as soon as we can." Nodding, Jude whistled to the men. Just as I was about to tell Ivy we had to go, she said something. "Wren...he's like us." I frowned. "What?" She stared up at me, a scared look in her eyes. "Matthias...he's a metahuman."