Note: Edited by Zia Westerman 2/4/2017  

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Chapter 3: Impressions

Planet: Earth

Location: Camp Jameson

On the way to see this human doctor I noticed almost every person had their eyes on me. I wasn't sure if it were the fact I was walking next to James or that they thought I was a spy for the ROGS.

I ignored the stares and followed James up a small hill until we came to a medium sized building. A red cross was hanging on the wall for everyone to see. "Is this the place of healing?"

"What?" James stopped just outside of the door, he turns to face me with an amused look on his face then said, "If by place of healing, you mean medical building then yes." He opened the door for me to enter, but I did not.

My eyes looked up at the large red cross, memories of the war back home flooded my mind and the bodies of the fallen took over my vision. So many dead, so many I could have saved.

"Jewels?" A hand was gently placed on my shoulder and my gaze shifted from the cross to his hazel eyes. "Come on, let's get that leg checked out," James spoke calmly, pushing the door open and walked in the building.

I followed behind him.

The first thing I noticed was the raised surfaces with curtains tied back around them, a few of them had some men sleeping on the raised ground.

"Ah, James. What brings you here, mate?"

I jumped slightly at the sound of an elderly voice behind me.

James took my hand and lead me over to one of the surfaces. "Sit on the bed," he said then forced me to sit down. "This girl, actually, Doctor."

I watched an elderly man, the voice belonged to, come into view. "What can I do for you, miss?" he asked, moving in front of me. When he walked I noticed he had a limp in his left leg.

"Doc," James pulled the curtain around the bed, closing us off to the other people in here, "she's different." Was all he said for the doctor to stroke his long white beard.

"Different how?"

"I do not have blood," I simply replied for James. "My blood is not like yours."

"It glows." James turned his attention to my injured leg. He gently rolled up my pant leg, revealing my injury to the doctor's eyes. "See?"

The doctor undressed my wound. "Did she by any chance come into contact with bad water?"

"Bad water?" I questioned, watching both men study my leg. "What is bad water?"

"Water filled with nuclear waste." James's eyes locked with mine before he looked away. "Doc, I need to go on a hunt, unfortunately, she has to come with me."

"You make me sound like baggage."

"You are," he spat. Once again looked at the little thing wrapped around his wrist and said, "Doc, please tell me she's good, I'd like to leave before sundown."

"Alright, relax James, just let me clean this and wrap it up, yeah?"

James huffed, folding his arms, but nodded.

In a matter of minutes my injury was cleaned using some very strange stinging liquid then it was wrapped with a white material. The doctor looked over my body. "She's very skinny, when was the last time you ate, girl?"

"I do not know."

Possibly when my parents sent me away was the last time I truly had anything worth eating. The people who kept me captive fed me this white soft substance. It was tasteless.

"Alright, she's good to go, but James she needs a good meal."

"That's why we're going hunting." James sighed, running a hand through his black hair.

The doctor gave a nod. "Who's going with you?"

"Just us, and don't give me that 'it's unsafe' crap. We both know I can take care of myself."

"I believe you, lad, but can you take care of her?"

Both eyes turned to me as I stood to my feet. "I am very capable of looking after myself."

"Oh, I see, so you've faced a Borum before?" James smirked, folding his arms across his chest. I shook my head because I was unsure of what that even was. "Borum's are cunning, they're creatures of the forests, twisted and corrupted by the badlands."

"I escaped the ROGS, did I not?" I fired back, mimicking his actions and folded my arms the same way he had done.

The doctor's eyes shot over to James. "She's from the ROGS? Are you crazy? Bringing her into Camp Jameson! Our home? Allowing her to see everything! James get a hold of yourself!"

"Tom, relax, she was a prisoner." James tried to reason, but the doctor I now know is named Tom, took hold of my arm and pushed me up against a wall pulling a small dagger object from his boot and held it against my neck. "Release her!"

"Never! She's seen enough!"

"He said release her," a second voice, belonging to Jeremy, roared from the entrance. "Tom, I would do as my cousin says or things might get ugly."

"Sir, she might be a spy." Tom held the object against my neck harder. "You know what happened with the last spy."

"I'm not asking you to release her, I'm ordering you."

I suddenly placed one of my hands over the hand that was holding the object. "I am not afraid of you," I stated, looking Tom in the eye. "I am not afraid of any of you." I quickly added, and put pressure on the object against my neck. "I have killed your enemy, so tell me, if I am a spy why would I kill my own?"

"She has a point, now release her," James spoke from behind Tom.

I watched Tom as he closed his eyes with a sigh before he reopened them and released me. "I might be easily convinced, but you know members of the camp will kill her when they find out where she's from."

******

"Jewels." Jeremy approached me as I leaned against a tree, waiting for James to come out of a supply shed with the hunting equipment. "I'd like to apologise for the doc, he means well."

"I understand."

"Do you?"

I took a moment to answer. "Yes, he is just trying to protect his people. I would do the same but I never got the chance to protect my people."

"What happened to them?" he asked, and stood beside me. "We know so little about you."

"I do not want to talk about it." I tried not to feel the pain in my chest, I tried so hard but I could feel tears forming in my eyes. "I could have saved them, I could have ended the war."

"War? What—"

"Ready," James interrupted Jeremy as he exited the building with a backpack and some other bags. "Jeremy, we'll be back in two days, hopefully with some deer and maybe bear."

James lead me from the protection of the wall around the camp. We walked along a pathway through the trees, I took note at how the trees were so different from the ones back home. The trees here were tall and blossomed with green, and flying creatures made nests in the green above our heads while the ground beneath was covered in that brown tasteless stuff. The further we walked along this path, the thicker the trees became.

Although my leg hurt, no words fell from my lips.

After walking a great distance James finally broke the silence between us. "You seem to be getting along with Jeremy," he spoke without looking back at me. "It's odd, he never really speaks to any women from the camp, then again you're not from there."

"I do not understand?"

"Of course you don't."

Silence once again took our tongues, there were no more words spoken until James stopped and I almost bumped into him.

"What—"

"Sh!" he silenced me, kneeling down. I watched as his fingers traced outlines of some marks in the ground, possibly left by a creature. He studied the marks moving his fingers in the five deep holes then the larger one. His head snapped towards a trumpet noise echoing throughout the trees. "Damn it!"

As he stood to his feet I opened my mouth to speak but James got behind me and placed his hand over my mouth, and then pulled me behind a tree. "We have to be quiet and keep off the trail. You can be quiet, yeah?"

I nodded and he released his hand. "What is it?"

"We're being hunted."