Framework Initializing - please prepare accordingly
“Please prepare accordingly…I numbly repeated out loud. “What is this? Do you see this? I heard Cass exclaim from my right.
I stared at the still floating words covering about sixty percent of my vision. I turned my head to look at my squad leader and the words floated with me. I blinked my eyes several times but the words remained, I briefly thought “Go away” at the strange writing, and to my surprise they disappeared. I said “where did they go? A surprise gasp left me as they reappeared in the same place as before.
Analyzing subject. Estimated time remaining 30 hours.
“Uhh did the words change for you too?” Cass asked,
“Yeah uh yeah” I answered. I wasn’t sure what it meant by analyzing the subjects but it didn't sound good. A timer appeared under the writing and blocked the rest of the bottom of my vision counting down from an hour. Remembering early I thought “I wish the text was smaller and out of the way”, and the text shrunk in size and moved over to the top right corner of his vision where it remained persistent like earlier.
“Hey Cass, think about the text shrinking and moving out of the way” I said.
“Woah, that's so strange, I don’t understand,” he whispered.
“I have never heard of anything like this before.” Cass stated before I could think on it more. “I think we should backtrack to try to find the others, there are only a few left by now and they all heard that explosion”.
I shrugged my shoulders and turned to follow and look for the remnants of my pack. I found it behind the tree and only knocked over, it didn’t take long to re-pack it all.
We started by cutting west across the forest to find the main trail. Keeping our eyes open and guards up, we made quick time. I was still feeling numb from what had happened with the bomb and the surviving scout. Cass did not like to talk during missions and I was happy to stay silent. We heard the main camp well before we saw it, it was a large ring of tents surrounding several fires in a roughly circular clearing.
There were guards and sentries posted at regular intervals. It would take many more of us to effectively attack the camp. Our hopes fell quickly as we listened to the Norx man speak in their native language. Night was fast falling and visibility was poor this deep in the forest, away from the clearing. We found a safe looking spot out of sight of the Norx camp and began to settle in for the night.
“Did you see any sign of the others?” I asked after sitting down and getting my bed roll out of my pack.
“No it was too dark and the camp too large, we will have to investigate tomorrow if they are being held captive or he was telling the truth and they are already dead” Cass replied. I grunted again and decided not to answer.
“I will take the first watch tonight, I will wake you when it’s your turn” I said to Cass, he shrugged his shoulders and laid back. I found a good perch from a branch ten feet off the ground and began scanning for trouble.
My mind drifted off and I began to relive the earlier moments. I kept replaying finding the severed hand over and over, the look in the eyes of the scout with his leg in the mangler, the primal sound of the explosion. I expected to start to panic again or feel sad but all I felt was anger. They were the ones invading my home, killing my friends, they were the reason my father was missing. I tried to reframe my emotions in anger instead of sadness. I tried to tell myself that I enjoyed the explosion, that I should have used all five boxes. It felt hollow but comforting.
When I began to struggle to stay awake I woke Cass and traded places with him. He did not argue despite being obviously tired. I woke to Cass gently shaking my shoulder, he let me know he heard movement. I grabbed my bow and peered out into the darkness, straining my ears for any sounds. I saw movement at the edge of my vision and released my arrow out of surprise. I heard a low mewling sound and something fell into a bush.
My heart in my throat, I walked over to inspect the area and found a large black panther with an arrow through its eye. I took a moment to appreciate that I should have been horrified and sad about my actions, but I was just happy I finally hit something with an arrow. Cass walked over and looked down at the large majestic looking cat. “That's a shame, they are beautiful creatures, nice shot Sylar, I knew you could do it.”
We waited for the light of day by preparing our plan for attacking the camp. We needed to keep an eye on the area and pick a good moment to lure the scouts away. I would investigate the camp while the scouts were distracted for our friends and free them if I could. We found our spot from last night behind some dense bushes and spied through the cracks at the scout camp.
Stolen story; please report.
We could not understand the Norx native tongue but the mood in camp was clear, they were angry. I decided to risk backing up and climbing a tree to get a better vantage point. I found one not too far away and began climbing when a shout sounded from the camp, they must have seen me. I scrambled back down the tree and began to run when I realized I did not hear any pursuit. Fearing the worst for Cass I hurried back to our hiding spot and saw three men standing over his lifeless body.
I turned and ran before they could realize I was there and did not stop until I could not run anymore. I was alternating between panting and crying, I had been holding myself together through the last week with all of my willpower, losing Cass was the last straw. I stood against a large tree and collapsed into the ground at its feet. I lay there for hours catatonic and grieving the loss of my friends and family.
Some time later I heard the snap of a twig and the telltale movement of leaves. I whipped my head around and saw one of the scouts one hundred feet away from me, already past my position. I lost control of myself and chased after him, grabbing a large rock from the ground. He took his bow and aimed it in my direction and released, I closed my eyes, knowing that I was about to die. I heard the sound of the arrow whistle over my head and opened my eyes again, I was thirty feet away and the scout was knocking another arrow.
This time I flung my arm forward and released the rock I was holding, managing to hit the scout in the arm. He dropped his arrow out of surprise and I closed on him with a punch to the chest. I had never been particularly strong but I did have to participate in physical training and combat drills during the academy. I quickly drew back my arm for another punch but stopped short as the scout hit me first.
He punched me in my abdomen so hard that I lost my breath and bent over in agony. He then kicked me in the side and knocked me over where he kicked me a few more times. I was curled in a ball with my head covered by my arms while he shouted at me in Norx. I grabbed a throwing knife off the brace on the side of my torso and managed to cut him across the leg during a kick. “Ahh” he roared as he stepped back. I took my chance to rush up and tackled him, he tried to grab me but I jumped back up and ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction. I ran again for what felt like hours until my legs were numb. I hadn’t heard any pursuit but I just kept running. It must have been mid day by now and I knew that no matter how scared I was, if I didn’t turn back now I would lose my chance to find my supplies or see if my friends were alive.
It took me until dusk to find the place I had left my pack, I had hoped that it was far enough away from where I brawled with the scout, it wouldn’t get found. It took me the rest of the daylight to get back to the original ambush site and Cass' body was gone. I did not know if that made him more likely to be dead or alive, rumors had always circled about Norx being cannibals amongst children.
I skirted around through the forest to the other side of the clearing trying to get a good look at the camp and locate my friends. There were still too many tents in the way for me to tell. I could get to within fifty feet of the closest fire without being in the direct line of sight of a guard but if they turned I worried I would be visible. I checked the timer in the corner of my vision. There were two hours remaining, I did not know what would happen when it counted down to zero but I was worried it wouldn’t be good for me.
I needed to do something to find my friends and do it quickly. I thought about my supplies and realized I still had some poppers, I could use those to make the distraction the same way we planned earlier. I counted out all six that I had left and got ready to throw them. Their small size but fairly heavy weight made them easy to throw far. I threw two of them into the camp and they made an audible pop when they hit the ground. I turned and threw four more into the forest behind me and to the left. I hid behind the bushes and waited to see the reaction from the camp.
There were shouts and angry voices, I saw the guard from the other side of the clearing ready their weapons. Three of the six or seven scouts left, it was hard to count them all, and went into the forest after the sounds. Two more spread to opposite sides of the camp and stood sentry while the final two were next to the fire talking loudly. I knew I wouldn’t get a better chance than this so I sprinted in, sliding down behind the closest tent, cut the fabric with one of my knives and slid inside.
The timer in the corner of my vision was down to thirty minutes, I had to act fast. There was no one in this tent so I stepped back out of the side and tried one after the other, going slow and being as quiet as I could. The next to last tent had four bound bodies in it. I almost yelled out when I noticed my friends, all still alive looking at me. They were shaking their heads frantically and trying to speak through the gags.
I could not understand them and instinctively looked behind me to find one of the remaining scouts closing in with a nasty looking dagger. I dove away from him and tried to get to my friends to cut the ties on the wrists but the second scout came running in. I yelled “I'm sorry! I'll come back for you!” and ducked outside the tent and ran towards the fire to try to hide my shape from the sentries with the bright light.
I thought of the explosives in my bag and looked to the corner of my vision, the timer read just over a minute. I spun in a circle and saw my pursuers closing in, it was over. A last ditch idea came to me and I threw my bag in the flames and took off running again, the tent that held my squad captive was too far away to be affected. The smokers went up immediately spewing orange smoke. I ran as fast as I could knowing I only had seconds to get away. Right after the timer in the corner of my vision hit 00:00 the world went white and I was blown off my feet, the sound was deafening.
When I could sit back up and look around my eyes went wide, the entire camp was flattened, total annihilation.
Initialization Complete - Information crystal finalized - Welcome to the Framework!