Riley let out a pained groan, face mashed into her arm as she struggled to get her bearings. She took a deep breath and rolled herself over, leaves crunching as she flopped onto her back, eyes snapping closed as the bright sun streamed through the trees, causing pain to bloom behind her eyes. She struggled to push herself up and brought a hand up to her head, wincing when her fingers prodded and found an open gash, coming away bloody.

"Shit," she pushed herself up and swallowed against the nausea that churned in her stomach. After a few minutes she was able to stand, leaning over onto her knees for support and wiping away the blood that was drizzling into her eye. She took a few deep breaths and righted herself, looking around and trying to remember which way she came from before she had fallen. The normally familiar woods looked foreign to her and she cursed her luck. She reached into the pocket of her windbreaker and rolled her eyes. Of course the one day she didn't take her cell phone was the day that everything went to hell. She wandered for a bit, looping in a large circle to see if she could come across the trail she always ran on, with no luck.

The snapping of a branch had her stopping in her tracks, a chill running down her neck as she scanned the woods, half convincing herself that it was only a squirrel she heard. Another rustle of leaves had her heartbeat quickening, adrenaline replacing any pain that had been throbbing in her head. Maybe she was overreacting, it was probably just another jogger. It wouldn't be the first time. The paths behind her house were private but she still stumbled across a hiker here or there. She turned again and the blood drained from her face. A dirty man, dressed in black was standing no less than one hundred feet away from her, hand raised and finger poised over the trigger of a pistol.

"Holy shit," her blood ran cold as he smiled at her, half his teeth rotted away as he gestured to her.

"Hello miss, what's a pretty thing like you doing out here all alone."

She slowly backed away from him, mind reeling as she tried to put distance in between them.

"Look, I was just out for a jog, I don't want any trouble okay? Why dont you just put the gun down and we can talk this through, yeah?"

He smiled another rotted grin at her and she fought the urge to throw up.

"I don't think that's what we'll be doin,"

He took a step towards her and she bolted. Adrenaline coursing through her veins as she sprinted away from him, ignoring his shout of protest as she dashed through the woods. Her body worked on autopilot, weaving through the trees and wincing as a gunshot went off and the bullet buried itself in a tree trunk next to her. Her body was aching, running as fast as she could through the woods and away from the apparent psychopath that was trying to keep up with her.

She could see a clearing in the woods ahead and she set that as her goal, if she could get there, then maybe there would be someone there to help, a house, a police officer, anyone to arrest the crazy person on her heels. As she grew closer to the treeline she could see movement in the clearing, people moving quickly back and forth and she pushed herself harder, knowing that if she could only break the trees she would be saved. She was a few feet from the line when another shot rang out and pain bloomed in her arm. She hit the ground as tears blossomed behind her eyes but her body was moving before her mind could catch up. She pushed herself up and forced herself to keep running, finally clearing the trees and not stopping until she collided with something hard. The last thing she saw was a flash of royal blue before everything went dark.

When she came to again it was to a throbbing in her head and a numbing pain in her arm. She brought a hand up to her forehead to feel a rough cloth covering the wound. She glanced around and found herself in a canvas tent. She was lying on a cot that smelled as if it had seen better days and she pushed herself up to a sitting position, hissing as pain bloomed in her arm. She struggled to look over her shoulder to see the wound but could only see the matted blood that dripped down past her elbow.

She had no clue where she was, but the fact that she was in a tent did not bode well for her. Did she stumble across some sort of recluse village? Was this where the man that shot her came from? She cursed her luck and lack of cell phone and decided that she needed to leave and get back to real civilization pronto. Gritting her teeth against the pain she stood, one hand clutching her bad arm as she tried to look out of the tent to see if anyone was watching. The fact that there were more of these tents, hundreds in fact, only fueled her confusion.

"Nice job Riley, only you could find the village of crazies," she mumbled to herself.

She ducked down to sneak out of the tent, the sound of men talking and moving came from all areas. Maybe if she could just make it back to the woods she could find her way home. Facing one crazy with a gun had to be better than facing a while camp of them, right? She slunk along the outskirts of the tent, keeping her head down and making her way towards the tree line in the distance. She was sure she hadn't been spotted when a shout came from behind her.

"Oi! You!."

She glanced over her shoulder and her eyes widened as a stocky man with a beard was pointing at her.

"Where ya going?"

She took off at a sprint, ignoring the man shouting behind her as she weaved her way through the tents, ducking behind a tree as a group of men passed in front of her. She did a double take as she took in their uniforms, complete with time era swords and guns. If she had time she would have rolled her eyes at herself. Of course she managed to find a bunch of civil war reenactment freaks. She was seriously the only one with this kind of luck.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the bearded man rounded a corner in front of her, gaze up and looking for her. She plastered herself to the back of the tree and when he finally turned away from her she ran, coming across a rickety barn and ducking into it, looking through a crack in the wall and sighing in relief as she saw the bearded man run right past her.

A throat clearing behind her had her freezing, slowly turning to face another man, dressed impeccably in his reenactment uniform and pointing a pistol right at her forehead. She gave him a meek smile and held both of her hands up in defeat. He opened his mouth as if to speak but was beaten to it by the bearded man rushing through the door.

"Benny I don't know how she did it but she got away. Snuck off like a thief…" he trailed off as he saw his friend pointing a gun and turned to find Riley standing there, bleeding from her arm and hands in the air. She saw the bearded man and her eyes narrowed. He glared right back at her and approached her, reaching out for her. He barely had time to blink before her fist was meeting his face. He let out a curse and clutched his now bleeding nose.

"Bloody hell! What the shite was that for!"

Riley glared at him and shook out her hand.

"Don't fucking touch me."

"Touch you! Lass I was tryin to help ya."

Riley snorted and gestured to the tall man in uniform.

"Yeah, really seems like your friend is trying to help. Were you assholes also trying to help when you fucking shot me?"

The tall man's brow furrowed and he shook his head, lowering the pistol.

"It was not our men who shot you."

Riley scoffed and shook her head.

"You are all out of your minds! Look if you just bring me to a hospital I won't press charges okay? You may all be looney tunes but I happen to like my life. So please, if I could just borrow a cell phone I will forget this ever happened okay?"

They both looked at her like she was crazy and she let out a huff of frustration.

"Seriously, I get that you take this war reenactment stuff seriously and I get it, everyone needs a hobby, right? But seriously, I am in a lot of pain and really just want to go home so I can go to the hospital, get some stitches and then down a bottle of wine. So if one of you can please let me use a phone or point me in the direction of the nearest taxi that would be great."

She was slowly running out of patience.

"You broke my nose. Why the hell would I be lettin' you go anywhere?"

Riley glared at him and gestured to her arm.

"You assholes shot me and chased me through the woods! What was I supposed to do?"

"Miss, as I assured you, it was not our men who wounded you. If you would please sit down perhaps we can get to the bottom of this."

"I'm not sitting down! What is wrong with you people. Grow up it's fucking 2016 and you are playing dress up! I need to get to a hospital NOW."

She was seething, her anger growing as the two men looked at each other.

"Miss, I think you may be confused, it is the year 1776."

Riley swore and looked towards the heavens.

"Okay, sure, in your peabrain make believe mind it's 1776. But in reality its 2016, so if you can just get me out of this weird sausagefest camp you have going on here that would be great and then we can never see each other again."

The tall one shook his head again.

"I'm afraid we can't do that miss. You were seen emerging from the woods being chased by a British loyalist spy, we cannot release you until you have received a full interrogation otherwise you will be tried for treason."

Riley groaned and leaned back against the barn wall, sliding down and sitting in the dirt before dropping her head into her hands.

"You crazies aren't going to let me go are you?"

Her voice was laced with panic as the fight drained out of her.

The tall man gave her a gentle smile.

"I'm afraid not. I assure you that you will be treated with the utmost respect while here until we can decided if you are a threat to the continental army or not."

Riley looked at him confused.

"Continental army? Like the revolutionary war?"

"We are fighting for freedom against the King, yes."

"I've never heard of revolutionary war reenactments before."

"I am not aware of what reenactment you are referring to. But please, if you feel more comfortable here we can insist that the camp doctor be brought here instead."

Riley shrugged, wincing when pain shot through her arm at the movement.

"Whatever."

"Miss, if I may inquire as to a name to call you by?"

Riley debated giving a fake name for a second before shaking her head at herself. She was already in a hell of a mess, giving a fake name wouldn't do any good at this point anyway.

"Riley. Riley Sammis."

"Sammis, eh? You have any relation to the Sammis' of Huntington?"

Riley looked at the bearded man in confusion.

"That's where I live. How did you know that?"

The two men shared a look and a small smile before the taller one reached a hand to help her up.

"Miss Sammiss, allow me to introduce myself. Major Benjamin Tallmadge, of the Continental Army. And my colleague Lieutenant Caleb Brewster. Let us say it is our absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Riley couldn't help but glare at their change of disposition and crossed her arms over her chest, starting them both down before responding.

"Pleasure," if they gave awards for sarcasm, Riley would have taken first place.

Ben couldn't help but stare at the woman as she all but snarled at the camp doctor. He had never seen anyone like her and he was intrigued by her mystery. He let out a little smirk as Caleb moaned about his nose, not sure whether to be concerned that she had assaulted an officer or impressed behind the strength and accuracy of her blow. The medic, General Washington's own personal attendee, was trying to calm her down and explain that the bullet had grazed the back of her arm, not hitting anything vital in its trajectory.

He listened to Caleb rant in the background as he took in her odd attire. She was baring more skin than any women he had ever laid eyes on, her tight black pants sticking to her like a second skin and what was left of the short sleeved shirt she was wearing covered in blood. Her accent wasn't' like any he had heard before and her crass attitude was something to be found amongst soldiers, not ladies. She had originally been wearing some sort of light weight jacket when she had barreled into him in the clearing, quite embarrassingly knocking him off his feet before she slipped into unconsciousness. The men hadn't been able to capture the man that was chasing her, but a few got a good look and had recognized him as one of the low level possible British informants that had been seen snooping around camp.

Miss Sammis, or Riley as she had called herself, sat patiently as the doctor tended to the wound on her arm, chastising her for reopening her stitches in her escape attempt.

"Well I don't think that would have been a problem if you freaks would actually take me to a real hospital."

The medic looked at her alarmed, as if he couldn't believe such words had actually fallen from a woman's lips.

"That'll be enough, thank you Thomas."

The medic nodded at him and left, leaving Caleb, Ben and Riley in the barn that had become their IHQ over the past month.

"Miss Sammis, if you don't mind we do have a few questions for you."

"Damn right we do! First off, where does a lady learn how to throw a punch like that?"

Riley smirked at Caleb, the small smile was the first one he had seen since falling into this predicament.

"I've been studying MMA for the past five years."

"MMA?" Ben questioned, he had never heard of such a thing.

"Mixed martial arts? You know, like on TV?"

At their shared confused looks Riley sighed and flopped down against the cot that the doctor had her on.

"Man, you guys really take this seriously don't you?"

Ben had a feeling that the question was rhetorical but he nodded anyway.

"We have a war to win, so yes Miss Sammis, we do."

She pushed herself up and rolled her eyes at him causing him to bristle.

"Ok first of all, please call me Riley. Miss Sammis makes me sound old. Secondly, is there anyway that I can have a shower or something. If you people are going to keep me here like a prisoner can I at least be a clean prisoner?"

"I'm sorry miss, but in order to draw a bath would take hours. If you can wait for tomorrow I can call on a lady's maid to have one drawn for you."

Riley sighed and slumped back to the cot.

"Fine. Can you at least tell me where I can go to sleep?"

"I think it's best if you rest here tonight."

"Benny," Caleb warned and shot him a look. Ben leaned closer to him and whispered so their guest couldn't overhear.

"I don't think it is wise to put her up with the rest of the working women. We still do not know if she is working for the enemy. Here at least we can keep an eye on her."

"I don't like the sound of this one."

Ben shrugged and told him there was nothing else they could do tonight.

"We will leave you here for the night, however there will be a guard stationed outside at all hours in case you think about trying to escape."

He smirked as she scowled at him and he gestured to a pile of blankets on the foot of the cot.

"The hour is late, please rest. We will speak more in the morning and I will see to it that fresh clothing is brought out for you."

Caleb snorted, taking a sip of the flask at his hip.

"Clothes that be fit for a lady no doubt."

Riley turned her scowl to Caleb, glaring him down in quite an impressive stare.

"Oh what, and my clothes aren't fit for a lady?"

"Not one that's not lookin fer any unwanted attention. Lady of the night more like it!"

"Caleb," Ben warned, but Riley had already pushed herself up and was stalking over to his friend.

"Watch it little man, I don't want to have to break anything else."

"Little man! Why I-" Caleb was cut off as Ben dragged him from the barn, trying to hide the small smile on his lips at the fire that the woman had shown.

"Bloody hell Ben, she's a right Tory informant if I've ever seen one. The mouth on 'er."

Ben shook his head and lead his friend away from the barn.

"I don't think so, although I don't really know what exactly to make of her."

"I can't believe yer just leaving her there thinking she ain't going try an escape."

Ben smirked at his friend and nodded to the guard that was posted outside of the barn.

"I never said she wouldn't try."

Riley sat on the cot inside of the smelly barn and shook her head. She pinched her arm again and begged herself to wake up from this weird dream. After squeezing her eyes shut and opening them at least a dozen times she sighed and came to the realization that this was in fact her fucked up reality. Her arm was killing her, as was her head and when she had asked the doctor for a Tylenol she had been met with a blank stare. Whoever this band of freaks was, one thing was for certain, they were absolutely convinced it was 1776.

She knew that there was no way she could stay, if she were being honest, the guns that the men toted probably were filled with blanks. That's what the civil war reenactors did right? Just because the one crazy that shot her had actual bullets didn't mean that all of them did. She sat on the cot patiently, watching the lone candle burn down to its wick before flaming out.

She decided that early dawn would be the best time to make her escape, maybe whatever guard that had been placed would be asleep, as would most of the camp. She spent the night staring out of the cracks in the barn, trying to see through the dark if there were any potential escape routes. She quietly walked the interior perimeter of the structure, pushing against different panels and trying to find any that were loose. Almost at the end of her pacing she found a few that had rotted through the nails. Smiling in success she felt around in the dark, slowly pulling the boards from their places, producing a small hole. She used her good hand and started to dig, the light from the night lamps around the camp slowly filtering in. She was able to pry loose a few more boards allowing a big enough hole for her to squeeze through.

She bit back a groan of pain as she tried to squeeze her bad arm through and stayed low to the ground as she slinked her way through the tents, staying to the shadows and trying to get towards the tree line. She caught glimpse of a main road leading out of camp and figured if she could stay in the cover of the trees and follow the road it may lead her to a town or a highway where she would finally be able to call for help.

She couldn't help but smile as she made it to the tree cover undetected. She ran as lightly as she could parallel to the road, ducking for cover whenever she would pass a guard or group of men on night watch. She couldn't even fathom the extent of the scope of reality that these people had.

She was breathing heavily by the time she could no longer see the lights from the camp. Despite the pain in her arm she pushed forward, losing track of time as she kept the road to her right, nothing but the bright light of the moon to guide her way. She had lost track of time when she heard hoof beats on the road, pulling up to a stop and lying low behind an embankment, eying the road as a lone man came into view, running as if his life depended on it. She was about to stand and approach him when a man dressed in red on horseback appeared, chasing after him as the man running yelled and tried to escape. His efforts were futile as the man on the horse drew a sword and brought it down in one stroke, severing the other man's head from his body.

Riley stood in shock about to cry out when a hand clamped over her mouth, pulling her down and away from the eyes on the road. She struggled against her captor before she was turned over to see Major Tallmadge hovering over her, his hand firmly clamped over her mouth and his other signaling her to be quiet as he looked over the mound at the man on horseback.

Riley froze as she heard hoofbeats approach, now scared that she had made some noise to give away their position. Major Tallmadge pressed himself closer to her, shielding them both as the horse came to a stop right in front of them. Riley could swear that her heartbeat could be heard from a mile away, beating erratically against her chest as she struggled to control her breathing and stay silent. Her eyes met the Major's and he held her gaze, begging her to keep quiet when he could see the panic in them.

After what seemed like an eternity the hoofbeats retreated, galloping off back down the road in the direction they originally came. Major Tallmadge waited until he was sure that they were out of earshot before releasing his hold on Riley, watching as she backpedaled away from him, wide eyed with panic as her gaze shot between him and the decapitated man on the road. Her breathing was erratic and she looked to be on the verge of a panic attack as her body shook.

"What… what the fuck was that!"

Her voice was hysterical as she stared at the pool of blood surrounding the man on the road and Major Tallmadge turned her face away from the scene.

"I am sorry you had to witness that Miss Sammis."

Riley dropped her head into her hands and let out a sob.

"I don't. I don't understand. How is this possible? Where am I?"

Major Tallmadge watched as she finally came to the realization that she was not where she expected to be, lost and not aware of her surroundings.

"It is the year 1776 and you are currently in New Jersey."

He watched as she took a shaky breath and shook her head.

"That's impossible."

"Maybe, but I assure you that is where we are."

Riley sunk her head into her hands, fighting against the tears that threatened to roll down her face.

"This can't be happening."