CACAWC - Chapter One

Preface

 

 

     Planet Earth.
   
    We feel safe, in our little homes.

    Our countries have armies.

    They will protect us.

    Or will they?


    In 2112 A.D., an organization took over all of planet earth in an epic battle called the Takeover. The organization was called the Highman’s International League of Conquest. The HILOC, as it was known by the people, earned the trust of the marines, air force, and every other division of every countries’ armies. HILOC divided Planet Earth into five gigantic kingdoms, if you will, and established five “Highmen” to rule over each one. When HILOC took over the world, the reason they won was not only because of the armies’ trust, but because they had gained all of the nuclear bombs the world had. After launching two, they telecasted a message across the world, telling all the peoples that if they rebelled, or tried to fight, the rest of the nuclear bombs would be set off.

    The people obeyed.

    It was then that the Five Kingdoms  were set up and the five Highmen over them. To keep everyone united, the Highmen developed one language for everyone to learn and one currency that everyone had to use. One Len was about the equivalent of one US dollar, and it was forbidden for anyone to try and use any other sort of money or speak any other language. Now the year is 2153, and even forty-one years later, HILOC is just as in control of the planet as they ever have been....

Chapter One

2153 A.D.   
Europe




    A young woman, perched lightly in a tree, looked down at the peaceful valley below her. Quietly, carefully, she moved her leg, which was starting to feel prickly. As she settled down again, a rustling of the tall grass in the valley below betrayed what would soon be her dinner.

    Swiftly she picked up her bow and drew an arrow out from the quiver that lay beside her. She drew it back, and waited. In a few moments, a rabbit popped out of the tall grass.

    Whizz.

    Thunk.

    The rabbit darted off as quickly as he could - the girl had missed, and her arrow was firmly set into the dirt.

    “Damn,” she said, under her breath. “I should’a just paralyzed it.” She jumped down from her perch and walked toward her arrow. She’d been in that tree for about two hours, and had missed her shot when something had finally come along! Her stomach grumbled as she bent over to pick up her arrow from out of the dirt. She strapped her quiver onto her back, slung her bow over one shoulder, and slung her pack over her other shoulder. Then she walked toward the looming forest ahead.

    She whistled softly to herself as she walked, a tune that no other human knows. It seemed to comfort her to, and she quickened her step as she walked along, hoping to get to the town on the other side of the wood before dark.
    Abruptly she stopped in her tracks. The pleasant look left her face and the old look of suspicion and weariness returned, as she saw a piece of paper fluttering on a tree nearby. She walked over to it and tore it off the tree. On it was a picture of her, and it read:

young woman in this region
charged with theft
non-use of the language and
evading the highman’s soldiers

Reward if caught:
600 lens

       
   

    The girl crumbled up the paper and stuffed it in her satchel and walked on, no longer happily humming with a pleasant look on her face, but full of anger and suspicion once more. As she walked, she kept a wary eye out for the Highman’s soldiers. They would be looking for her; oh, yes, they were looking for her....


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    It was half past eight once the girl finally reached the edge of the vast wood. About ten meters beyond where the wood stopped was a decent sized brooke, over which stood a brick bridge, and beyond the bridge, a town. For her, a town meant shelter and dinner. The only problem was that there were two guards guarding the bridge. It was their job to keep outlaws, like her, out of the peaceful little town.
    She stopped shortly before the wood ended. Protected by the coming darkness and the vast expanse of trees, she knew that she’d be safe where she was until the dark completely over took the sky.
    There has to be another way across, she thought to herself, scanning up and down the horizon for some easier mode to the town. To her disappointment, she realized that the bridge was the only way.
    There was most certainly no way except to get across the bridge. How to do that, was the next question. She had had enough experience sneaking into towns to know that dusk was when the guards at the bridge now would be replaced by two fresh soldiers. At dusk, the two new soldiers would come, and so for a short time there would be four soldiers on the bridge at one time. Not a good time to try and get across. The other problem was that once the soldiers did switch places, those two new ones would be fresh and ready for action. She either needed to get across now, before the new replacements came and the current guards were tired from their approaching twelve hour shift, or wait until around midnight, when the guards would have been guarding for a while.

    She decided to wait it out until midnight. Not only will it be darker then, she thought, the replacements will be wearier. Having thus decided to wait it out until midnight, the girl retreated back into the forest about fifteen meters and took off her satchel. Opening it, she pulled out a blanket and the “Wanted” paper.

    Wrapped up in her blanket with her back against the tree, she looked at the paper with the last bit of the day’s quickly fading light. They made my face too round, she thought to herself with an ireful scowl. I would have to be well fed in order to look that healthy. With the H-rutes around, that’ll never happen...

    She was surprisingly cozy for having her back up against a tree and her butt on the hard, lumpy ground. She snuggled deeper into her blanket and continued to stare at the “Wanted” poster in her hand.
    I do regret stealing, she pondered, although I really had to do it. And must continue to do it in order to survive - and survive I must, if I’m to find Ava.
    And with that thought still in her mind, she drifted off to sleep.

    ~ ~

    The girl was quite used to sleeping in trees, under bushes, and in ditches, and so when she awoke a few hours later, it took her but a few moments to realize where she was. The plan came back to her quickly and with a quick glance at that stars and moon, knew that it was nearly time.
    Jumping up, she stuffed her things quickly into the satchel and grabbed her bow and quiver. Suddenly she heard a crunch of leaves behind her. She froze. All was silent. Slowly turning around, without making too much noise, she looked for the source.
    It could just have been a deer or something, she thought, heart racing.

    “Hello,” said a voice from near her shoulder.
    She whirled around, and there, standing in the moonlight not three feet away from her, was a young man not much younger than herself. He wore a paper-boy cap on his head,  which clearly covered a mop of unwashed and unkept hair. He wore a dingy white shirt, horse-hair trousers, and hunter’s boots. And in his hand, was the wanted poster.

    “Who are you,” the girl whispered fiercely. The fact that he wasn’t a soldier greatly relived her, and now she was quite peeved at having been scared by a boy a few years younger than herself.
    “Name’s Felix,” the kid said nonchalantly. “What’s yours?”
    “None of your business,” she hissed.
    He grinned at her, and, waving the wanted paper in her face, said, “Well, I may not know your name, but I do know that you are a very wanted person. What do you think is stopping me from going right up to those guards on the bridge and telling them I’ve just found a very wanted outlaw?”
    The girl just starred at him blankly, not sure what to say or do.
    He sniggered. “Tell ya what. I won’t turn you over. Wanna know why?”
    She stiffened. “Why,” she asked suspiciously.
    “I lost someone,” he began.
    Cooly, she interrupted - “Welcome to club, kid.”
    Without making any notice of what she’d said, he continued. “‘Cause I lost someone, and you’re gonna help me bust that someone out’a this here town’s jail, alright?”
    She sighed, obviously there was no way he was relenting, but she could not risk getting caught. Not when she was this close.

    “Fine,” she whispered fiercely, “but once we get this person out of jail, you’re giving that back and I’m out’a here, got it?”
    Smiling pleasantly in the moonlight, Felix just nodded, but before he turned away, the girl could see a look of pure relief on his face.

    “Okay,” she whispered to him, “Listen here. It’s safer to sneak across the bridge one by one. I’ll gather up my things and meet you on the other side.”
    “How do I know you’re not going to give me the slip?” he asked suspiciously.
    “Because you still have that paper, and I still need to find the person that I lost. My mission is too important to me to risk anything,” she told him feverishly, and then added, “I give you my word - and I’ve never broken my word yet.”
    He just nodded, and slipped away toward the bridge. She watched him go, and then checked her satchel to be sure everything was there. All was in place.
    Kneeling on the ground, she opened up her hands in front of her; in her hand appeared something like a tiny nebula - the girl had powers.
    “Easy, Tessa. Easy. Ava shall be found.”








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Hello everyone! This is my first entry for the Cranberries and Crescents Autumn Writing Challenge. I don't have a title for this yet, so that's why I'm calling it CACAWC until I come up with a name. Hope you liked it!!