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The birds sing merrily as they soar through the trees, their wings flapping over Lizzie’s pink hair. Branches sway in the breeze as leaves dance down to the ground, landing in piles along the paths only Lizzie has travelled. Her nimble feet avoid crunching on the dry leaves for the most part in hopes of avoiding drawing any attention to her should there be enemies in the area.
Lizzie has traversed this section of the woods plenty of times over the past year. Well, she’s searched plenty of places over that time, but she always comes back to this part of the forest. Pretty early on in her searching, she discovered a piece of Joel’s red shirt hanging from the brambles of a bush. He must have run this way either to escape or as he was being dragged to wherever the monsters who kidnapped him took him. That torn bit of shirt now rests tied around her wrist every day to keep him close.
The forest is the same as it always is; animals skittering all about, the sun beaming through waving branches, the cawing and singing of birds, and the brush standing still on the ground. Lizzie searches around, checking for signs of humans traversing the area, but, as always, there’s nothing. Until the sound of a branch cracking calls out from behind her.
Lizzie jolts and whirls around, immediately popping open the cap on her waterskin, ready to draw out a stream of water at a moment’s notice. Behind her are three people she has never met before. They’re not from any of the villages in the surrounding fifty miles; she knows that for certain.
A red-headed woman with green eyes steps forward, holding her hands up passively with a kind smile on her face. “It’s okay, Lizzie. We’re not here to hurt you.”
Lizzie narrows her eyes. How do they know her name? How do they know this part of the forest? She glances at Joel’s shirt on her wrist. They must have taken Jimmy and Joel, or at least know something about their disappearance. She won’t let them take her too.
With a shout, Lizzie flings her right hand forward, sending a flying stream of water at the woman standing in front. It hits her square in the chest and sends her tumbling into a tree behind her. Lizzie shoots her hand to the right, the whip of water following her movements, and smacks the blonde man dressed in a flurry of rainbows in the side. He stumbles into a bush with a grunt, a red mark blooming on his upper arm.
The final black-haired woman dressed in pink holds her hands up and insists, “We’re not going to hurt you, Lizzie. We want to- oof!”
Lizzie wraps the water whip around her wrist and yanks her forward, kicking her in the gut when she’s close enough. She falls to the forest floor with a groan. By then, the first woman has pushed herself to her feet, but she doesn’t step into an offensive position nor a defensive one.
Lizzie prepares to attack again until the red-headed woman says, “We know where Joel and Jimmy are.” Lizzie’s hands freeze, the liquid weapon hanging stagnant in the air between them. “And we want your help getting them back.”
“Where are they?” Lizzie gasps, not dropping her defence.
The woman stands relaxed while the other two drag themselves to their feet and move to stand beside her, holding onto their injuries. “They’ve been taken by a group called the Watchers. Fifteen people were kidnapped from around the world and taken to a compound where they’ve been put in a test. We don’t know much beyond that, but we got some intel on where a compound is.”
Lizzie narrows her eyes suspiciously. “And how do you know any of that?”
“We’re the Listeners; an organisation against the Watchers designed to find and take down these compounds. We want to save the prisoners they’ve taken. A lot of us are friends and families of people that were kidnapped.” The woman holds a hand to her chest. “My name is Gem. My brother, Impulse, disappeared about a year ago. The Listeners came to me recently and asked me to join them, just like we’re doing with you now.”
“And you can help me find Joel and Jimmy?” Lizzie asks.
Gem nods. “Yes. We want to find and rescue every single one of their prisoners.”
This honestly sounds too good to be true, but… if there’s a chance that they could help her find her husband and best friend… Lizzie leads the water back into the pouch and nods. “Okay. I’ll help.”