Pinky had insisted we take Echo back to the camp before she told us what had happened. So, while we were sitting, warming up around the campfire, Echo told us about the mysterious threesome that had surrounded her as she made her way back from work. According to her account, one had pointy ears and a tail, the second one had horns and was incredibly huge, and the third just looked like a normal human, at least in the dark. She'd kicked the one with ears in the face and run, but the normal one had gotten a dart into her as she escaped.
"It would be unreasonable to think that we're the only ones that are... different," said Hawk pensively, "So this makes total sense to me."
"I wonder why they didn't follow her, though," said LOL, sounding tired.
Liz suddenly looked extremely paranoid. Looking behind her shoulder, she said, "Maybe they did."
All we could hear was the crackling of the fire as this sank in.
I decided to speak up then. "Since we outnumber them, it would make sense that they're not approaching us," I said in a hushed voice, "That is, if they did follow her."
"We should post sentries, just in case," said Liz, looking around at all of us.
Hawk stood up. "I volunteer to keep watch tonight."
"All right then," said Liz, standing up too. "The rest of us should get some sleep. Who knows what'll happen tomorrow?"
...
"Hey, come look at this."
One large, dark figure took the binoculars from a smaller figure.
"Huh. They must be getting smart, posting sentries like that," said the smaller one, squinting through the lens at the muscular-looking teenage boy standing at the edge of the clearing, machete in hand.
The bigger one cackled.
"Quiet, fool!" the small one said in a hushed snarl. "Do you want to get us caught?"
"Oops, sorry," the big one whispered back.
The small one touched his bruised cheek carefully, smiling a little in the darkness. "It is pretty funny, though. There's no way they'll beat us, precautions or not. Let's report this to Cruz."
"Okay," said the bigger one.
Two figures, one big and one small, disappeared unseen into the midnight woods.
...
"Roll call, folks!" said Liz from the center of camp.
"What?" I muttered groggily to myself, struggling to get a t-shirt over my head. I glanced at my watch- it was 5:47 AM.
"It's too earrrrlllyyy," Bunneh whined as we all formed a circle around the ashes of last night's campfire.
Liz clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Hawk heard some strange noises coming from the woods. We don't know what this means, and we're not about to be caught by surprise."
A murmur went through the group. I didn't say a word, but thought, Holy mackerel. She's serious.
"It is undoubted," Liz continued, sounding like a true leader, "That there are others like us in those woods. What we don't know is whether they are friend... or foe. Given their reaction to Echo's appearance in what is apparently their territory, they are, at the very least, cautious." Liz looked us all in the eye, one at a time, as she spoke. "We must not let our guard down."
I swore she looked at me the longest, as if she didn't trust me. Once again, I didn't quite belong. I was a loose cannon in her eyes.
"Jade, how about you cook an early breakfast? Hawk, LOL, Pinky, Echo, and... Vic, come with me. We need to assess our armory."
There was a definite air of unease over the camp as we set about sharpening blades and fletching arrows. Liz was definitely keeping an eye on me, and I could understand why- I'd only been with the group for about two months now, and she didn't trust my loyalty.
I just needed a chance to prove myself.
Unfortunately, that chance came all too soon.
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