The days flew by as Lillian and the birds settled into a routine. Most of the day was spent slaving over a fire for Lillian while Genius cajoled the rest of the birds into trying her food. The little glutton ate more than Lillian thought possible.

  Lillian had carved out a place for herself in the birds’ society. They might not need her, but she provided a service that required opposable thumbs, much to Genius’s chagrin; not like she expected something like that to set the clever bird back for long. Things were finally beginning to look up when the circling sentry released a warbling cry that caused the entire clearing to erupt. The ever-chirping hatchlings stilled and hunkered down in their nests, as if a thunderstorm was over their heads. The larger mature birds all took to the skies, circling above as the swarm continued to grow. Genius’s feathers bristled as he heard the call. Lillian had never seen the bird as angry as he looked now. Unbridled rage and hatred oozed from him as he stormed out of the nest and joined the others. He always bullied the other birds, but when push came to shove, he was beginning to flourish as a leader.

  Genius took off in the direction of the trees, joining up with the others to fend off the assaulting avians that screamed in the distance. The falcons were different from the various species that inhabited the clearing, choosing to stay only around other birds of prey. The sky became a bloodbath as the two groups collided.

  Lillian ducked her head back into Genius’s nest. The sky was a domain she had no ability to reach, and leaving the nest would only make her a target. Not to mention that her relationship with most of the birds had been strained at best. Without her guardian nearby, she was sure trouble would soon come to find her.

  The sounds of the battle grew softer as the battlefield drifted away from the clearing. Lillian only wanted to get an eye on the fight, sticking her head just outside the entry to the nest, when the grass near the nest burst into motion. The shrub man was able to quickly clear the distance between them and wrap his rough hand around her mouth. He pushed her back into the nest and forced her against the walls, looking around vigilantly.

  “Quiet now; we’re here to rescue you."

  The hushed voice was like sandpaper to her ears, grating and rough. As Lillian’s eyes adjusted to the darkness of the nest, she was able to make out the outline of another man who had followed her in. His features hidden behind a bushy, unkempt beard.

  “We need you to be quiet so we can get out of here. Nod your head if you understand," commanded the beard.

  Lillian nodded her head, and the rough hand covering her mouth slowly released its tight grip on her jaw.

  “Who are you people?” she whispered. Lillian felt blindsided by the two men. She had never even thought to leave and look for other signs of humanity. The path was too dangerous for her to go alone. Venturing into the woods was still too daunting; her run-in with the bugs that nearly killed her was too fresh. Humans are too weak in this new world.

  “There's no time for that right now. We need to move,” replied the bearded man. He kept his eyes on the entrance to the nest. The man was ready to explode at a moment's notice. He held a rifle tightly in his hands, ready to fire upon any threats at a moment's notice.

  They have guns. Do they even work against the monsters?

  “You expect me to just follow you? I’m finally settling in here. I appreciate you risking the wrath of the birds to rescue me, but I don’t want to leave,” she said while trying to gauge the two strangers' response.

  The bearded man sprung to action.

  “Ge--” the words were forced from her throat with a rush as the bearded man punched her in the stomach. Her eyes watered as she tried to suck in air. Her lungs were like lead balloons, refusing to fill.

  “This bitch. I told you we should have just drugged her,” whispered the grating voice behind her.

  Beardy shook his head in dismissal.

  “We don’t have many of those left. Do you know how much I had to suffer just to get the boss to spit those out for us?”

  The rough-voiced man finally came into view after she wiped the tears from her eyes. He was tall but slender, wearing a ghillie suit with full face paint to match. His neck bore deep, jagged scars that were left by a claw mid-struggle.

  “We don’t have much of a choice now, do we, Zac?"

  Beardy nodded in agreement and fished in his combat fatigues for a few seconds, searching several pockets before passing the camouflaged man an orange prescription pill bottle.

  “Fuck. We only have two left. Do you think she needs two?” asked the taller man as he placed the pills in his palm and straddled Lillian, who was still sucking air and curled on the ground.

  Zac seemed to weigh the question on some invisible scale in front of him before shrugging.

  “Give her one now, and if she gives us any trouble on the way, we will feed her the other one.”

  The wrinkles on the taller man’s brow furrowed at Zac’s response.

  “That’s bullshit, and you kno-”

  Zac interrupted him while placing a finger on his own lips.

  “I know, Jay, I know. If we end up having to use both pills on her, you can have a go at her before we turn her in. I’m sure the boss will understand. The number of featherheads the boss sent is only enough to occupy them for a few minutes. We need to move quickly.”

  Jay seemed reluctant, but he followed Zac’s lead, forcing one of the pills into Lillian’s mouth. She fought back, thrashing and scratching at him, but he had her arms locked behind her back. He held her jaw shut until the pill dissolved from contact with her tongue.

  The scar on his neck twitched like a worm under his skin as he pulled out a wound-up rope and began tying Lillian up.

  “At least the big gold one isn’t here,” he muttered as he strung up Lillian as she seized on the ground.

  Zac frowned and spat to the side. “Don’t talk about that monster; you might bring it down on us.”

  ...

  Lillian could feel the man carrying her over his shoulder as they navigated the woods. The air already had the crisp feeling that night brought. She tried to hide that she was awake and aware, but the man carrying her unceremoniously tossed her down into the dirt.

  “She’s up, Zac.”

  The bearded man who was leading the way turned back with a frown.

  “Already?” He couldn’t help but ask. “This stuff should knock her out for a full day.”

  Jay shrugged as he bent down to Lillian’s struggling form. The knots seemed to tighten the more she resisted.

  “Why are you doing this? I don’t even know you dickheads," she said after they removed the gag from her mouth. They hadn’t been gentle when they extricated her from her home, and they were much less careful and quiet now that they were somewhere deep in the woods, far away from the birds’ territory.

  "You’ll get to know us soon enough, babe. You are one of us now," said Zac through his bushy beard.

  "Welcome to the 314," chimed in Jay.

  “Do you usually drug and abduct your members, or am I special?” asked Lillian with a hint of venom.

  Reluctance flashed through Zac’s eyes. “You really should consider cooperating. It's dangerous out here,” he said as he positioned himself at the rear of the group. Lillian wanted to follow him with her eye, but she couldn’t move her head far enough with the restraints. “If it weren't for this,” he said while patting his hand on a small cloth satchel around Jay’s waist, “we would have already been picked clean by the swarms.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Lillian couldn’t make out what was in the satchel, but they certainly hadn't run into the trouble she had when she first entered the woods.

  “We already carried you for half a day. Are you really gonna make me carry you the rest of the way?” whined Jay.

  Lillian bucked, nearly toppling the man as she struggled against her lead, forcing Jay to jerk on the bindings wrapped around her neck.

  Zac’s eyes hardened at her response. “If you won't come with us quietly, we can do things the hard way,” he said as he motioned to the taller man beside him.

  Jay pulled more rope from his backpack and redoubled the bindings holding Lillian’s wrists together. The nylon rope chaffed her wrists as the man dragged her through the woods like an unwilling dog. Every jerk of the rope wrenched her arms, threatening to snap them if she didn’t follow them obediently.

  The two men stood side by side, whispering to each other in hushed voices.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she asked through gritted teeth as she was pulled through a patch of overgrown brambles that cut into the soles of her feet.

  The tall man who was guiding her with the rope smacked her in the face, then spit on her.

  “Quiet, if you keep mouthing off while we travel, I'll have to turn you in a bit damaged. Lucky for us, you already started cultivating, so the minor stuff will heal up on its own. The boss won't like you as much if you are too beat up, so keep your mouth shut and follow us like a good girl.”

  The blood in her veins boiled as the saliva rolled down her cheek.

  “Don’t damage the goods, Jay. You know the boss is going to be pissed when he finds out," chided Zac. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out the pill bottle. The dancing green lights of the aurora filtered through the treetops enough for Lillian to see it in the man's hand.

  “Take this on your own, and I promise we will be gentler," Jay said in a disgusting, lecherous tone. He stopped yanking her through the underbrush as soon as he heard the pill rattle in the container.

  Zac rolled the pill around in his hand playfully.

  “The boss only heard that there was a girl who had escaped the net and was in the bird's domain. He hasn’t seen her, so we should be safe. It’s going to be her word against ours; she'll know her place.”

  “I’m not tak-”

  Smack

  The echo of the slap reverberated through the eerily quiet forest. Lillian felt the blood run down her chin onto the ropes that bound her. The slap had made her bite her tongue.

  Lillian glared daggers at the two abductors as Jay wrenched her mouth open. Zac pushed the pill down her throat, not waiting for the little pill to melt on its own this time.

  The men waited for Lillian’s resistance to fade before making a move.

  Zac started taking off his belt when Jay stopped him with a push.

  “You really want to do this here? In the dark woods?” he couldn’t help but ask. Jay pointed upward at the tree above them. The light of the moon sprinkled through the leaves, illuminating the owl that circled above them, ever vigilant.

  Zac wearily looked at the surrounding branches, but he wasn’t able to make out any other voyeurs.

  “Don’t bother looking for them. They won't be seen unless they want to be seen. The boss always sends his helpers along with us, so we don’t run into any trouble. The owls rule the night sky, which is the only reason we can move around at night. Did you think the forest was a safe place?” Jay asked as he hoisted Lillian onto his shoulder, carrying her like a sack of potatoes.

  Zac shrugged and took the lead, carving a path through the dimly lit brush.

  “It's just a bird, Jay. What's it gonna do? Run and tell the boss what we do to her?”

  Jay coughed at that.

  “You’d be surprised.”

  Zac wheeled around on the spot.

  “You serious?”

  Jay only nodded once before passing the dumbfounded man.

  “Hoo hoo.”

  The call of the owl was like a gunshot, breaking the silence of the night. Somewhere above them, the owls were preparing for a fight. The boss had trained them to communicate basic information by the number of cries they released.

  The poorly illuminated canopy sprung to life as their flying escort began fighting off an unseen enemy.

  Zac was still staring above, trying to catch a glimpse of the enemy, when Jay pulled him along.

  “We need to move,” he hissed as his hands tightened around the ropes binding Lillian. “We don’t even know what they are fighting. We might have wandered into the territory of something strong. The quicker we leave, the sooner they can leave the fight and return to us.”

  A thick beam of moonlight pierced through to the ground from the canopy above. The sound of crushed leaves nearby sent Zac diving back towards Jay and Lillian. The disturbance settled as something rolled out from the bush and stopped at Zac’s feet. The man stiffly bent down to see what caused the commotion and froze.

  “What is it?” whispered Jay.

  The feathered head of an owl was briefly illuminated in the moonlight before Zac kicked it away in panic.

  “Fuck.”

  Jay took off in a sprint away from the noise above. Zac was petrified with fear, trying to wipe the blood off his face that had splattered from his panicked outburst. The rifle in his hands shook unsteadily as he placed the butt of the gun to his shoulder.

  The branches seemed to reach out towards the men as they desperately moved, catching their clothes and tearing off small parts of the fabric. The wind howled around them as they tore through the woods recklessly.

  After half a minute, Zac caught up with Jay, who was much slower with the burden of carrying Lillian. Both men were sucking in air greedily; their breaths were already ragged as they were unused to such vigorous activity. They might play at being soldiers, but they certainly weren't built like them.

  “The boss better make good on his promise after this. If he had let us cultivate before he sent us out here, we wouldn’t have to worry about shit like this,” wheezed Zac as he matched Jay’s pace and followed close behind him.

  The two ran through a narrow cropping of shrubs when a resounding “thwack” sent Zac tumbling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Bullets sprayed in a wild arc until the rifle fell from his hands. At the end of the path was a mangy humanoid holding a stick in both hands. The thing wailed away on Zac’s fallen body. The wild hair of the beast whipped wickedly with each swing. The sickening sounds of the stick bouncing off his head sounded wetter each time. A crazed laughter escaped the murderer’s throat as he reveled in his kill.

  “Die, die, die!” howled the man as he continued to desecrate Zac’s corpse.

  Jay turned on the spot, choosing to abandon his fallen comrade instantly. He already had one burden; a second would cost his life.

  “HAA, HAA, YES!”

  The deranged laughter and the wet sound of bludgeoning continued to echo out from behind him as he fled in the opposite direction.

  The laughter sounded as if it were right beside his ears as he flew through the underbrush back towards the unseen battlefield. At least there was a chance that the owls would defeat whatever monster held that part of the wood.

  Jay gasped for air as he began to slow down. Adrenaline is not a substitute for proper physical fitness. The fact that he had managed to run this far was mostly due to how light Lillian was. He desperately looked for a place to take shelter to wait out the night. After placing Lillian down quietly, the man started digging at the base of a nearby tree with his hands, hoping to take refuge beneath its roots.

  “I’ll wait this out," he said to himself, trying to convince himself that things would be okay.

  His panicked digging stopped short as a nylon rope wrapped around his neck. His hands reached for his throat, hoping to find purchase on the thin rope, but Lillian drove her knees into the small of his back as she leaned back with all her might. Her improved body showed its might as the rope dug into his flesh, causing blood to spray from the ever-growing cut to Jay’s throat. He struggled desperately for a short time until his muddy fingers slipped from the small rope and hung lifelessly by his side. Lillian held the rope taught, unwilling to let the man off the hook. Lillian held the rope tightly long after Jay died. The tears blurred her vision as she tried to unwind herself from his deathly embrace. The tangled mess of rope bound them close together, forcing her to feel the heat escaping his body before she finally freed herself.

  She sat numbly in the dirt next to the corpse as she slowly undid the knots binding her. The gravity of the situation seemed lost to her as she patted the corpse down, hoping to find anything of use. The man had a small stash of jerky in his pocket and the strange protection satchel but was otherwise empty other than the rope she had already claimed. She considered taking his clothes, but the thought of wearing the bloodstained ghillie suit nearly made her vomit.

  I guess cultivating poison was a lucky break.

  The drugs the men used on her were not nearly as effective as they should have been. The first one did knock her out, but she woke up long before she was supposed to. The second one only made her feel light-headed for a bit. She only acted like dead weight, which convinced the two brutes that their drugs were effective.

  My tolerance built so fast. This effect is strong.

  Lillian stood after musing to herself and moved away from the body, making her way to a fallen tree with massive platform-shaped mushrooms sprouting out of it. She took refuge beneath the shelf-shaped fungus. The mushroom released poisonous spores as she nestled herself beneath it. She would rather face the spores than the beasts that hunted during the night. Since the mushrooms were still there and whole, she could only hope that they would dissuade anything from reaching in to find her.

  Lillian could still make out the outline of the corpse in the distance from her haven. The shadowed body only remained whole for twenty minutes. The ecosystem of the forest was vicious, and death came quickly and often. The sound of flesh tearing and bones snapping only lasted for a few minutes. The man was only a snack for the scavengers.

  Suppressing her wild heartbeat, Lillian forced herself to take short, shallow breaths, which bled the tension from her taut limbs that were locked in a crawl. The unnatural rhythm of the Sect’s breathing technique was only thought keeping her mind occupied. The safety granted by the mushroom was relative after all; if something hostile bothered to follow her under the brownish-red fungi, she would have little room to resist.

  Her vigilance began waning as her eyelids began to sink against her will. A sweet aroma tickled the back of her mind as the winds whipped through the trees. The wailing gusts were a wonderful accompaniment to the rhythmic beating of her nervous heart. The music of the woods tinkled in her ears until her eyes unwillingly shut.