Sorry it's going to be short! I didn't have much time.
Jim's POV
We slowly creep up to the area the little red dots indicated on the map. I'm so close to finding my daughter, she could be in any one of these trees. I look up and around me, and the beauty of it all slides right over my shoulders because all I care about is Maddy. I just got her back, but the sixers had to ruin that. They're going to pay.
"Shannon, come in. Shannon, come in." My radio whispers.
"What?" I growl into it at the soldier left at Terra Nova to monitor the heat map.
"The person in the trees has moved." he reports. How could she move? If she was surrounded by sixers where could Maddy possibly be? It seems as though every one of my thoughts is a question.
"She's fallen!" The soldier tells me. I stop walking and so do Taylor, Reynolds, and a few other men behind me. The tree she was in was really tall, I don't know if Maddy could survive that kind of fall, she's very small and fragile.
"Wait,... she's moving." The soldier reports. My heart begins pumping again and I sigh in relief.
"Where?" The soldier gives me new coordinates and we switch directions. I am going to find Maddy if I have to spend a lifetime out here chasing her.
Maddy's POV
I'm hardly conscious as they carry me back to their glorified tree houses.
"Mira! You don't need the supplies, we've got her!" The man holding me shouts. I open my eyes when I sense an upward motion and I see Mira walking straight towards me. I panic internally, but I don't have the energy to do anything about it.
"What the HELL did you do to her?!" Mira yells at them. It fills me with amusement that I can work my plan so easily from here on out.
"We didn't do anything... She jumped." One of the men explains fearfully. I open my eyes completely and I can now tell we're on a suspended bridge between two buildings.
"Bring her inside, if she dies we'll never know the formula." Mira snaps. Perfect.
I look around cautiously, trying to get my bearings. My eyes slide over a bush down on the ground and continue, but quickly dart back to see the movement. Mark? I lean out of the man's grip and he readjusts his hands to support my new position. Mark makes eye contact with me and I want to scream for him to shoot this guy, to get me out of here. My dad's face also appears and that's when I start bawling.
Mark holds his finger up to his lips in a quick shh sign before disappearing back into the foliage. I wonder if any of it was real or if I just imagined it.
The man carrying me is clearly annoyed at my tears and dumps me on the ground in the hut Mira directed him to. The men leave, but Mira stays as the door behind us slams shut and I hear a scraping noise, probably some kind of wooden lock.
"Eat this." Mira tells me, handing me some sort of strange fruit. I can't eat, it's part of my plan, so instead I hold onto it like a lifeline as Mira tries to move me to a small cot in the corner of the room.
I grunt and moan in pain and she stops for a few seconds in between any big movements. If she didn't want me alive for selfish purposes I would say she's pretty nice.
"Eat it." She tells me. Now that I'm safely positioned on the cot, I shake my head and drop the fruit to the floor.
"Don't be a pain, or else..." She begins.
"Or else what." I question. "You going to kill me? I don't think so. You still need me because I'm so much smarter that you." I taunt her just because I know she won't hurt me. Her jaw clenches and I know if I wasn't so injured she would have hit me. If I execute my plan perfectly it's going to be foolproof.
Mira's POV (3rd person)
Why did it have to be a kid? Mira hates kids, kids hate Mira. Why couldn't the key necessary to the success of her project be an adult male she could punch around until she got the formula from? Mira looks down at the little bitch who is now unconscious and gets to work on attempting to heal her.
First she injects her with the last little bit of the sleeping drug she has, and then she moves to Maddy's right to reposition her shoulder. It's obviously just dislocated, it doesn't look broken. If it was broken it would have been a lot more swollen. She fixes it with one quick motion of her hand and doesn't even flinch when she hears the awful cracking sound of Maddy's bone moving back into place.
She restitches her old wounds and even stitches some new ones, like a cut on her forehead, bandages them, anything she can do to heal her. She doesn't bother putting an arm in a sling though, because both of them need it and it wouldn't work to put on two. The kid will just have to not move.
Mark's POV
When Maddy's eyes slide over mine my heart melts. She is in terrible condition and it pushes me to get her out of there even faster. It was all my fault any of this happened anyway. I left early, right after I dropped her off at the clinic, but I should have gone home with her too and waited for her family to come home. If I had just used a little common sense from the rock on top my neck Maddy would still be at home recovering.
She makes eye contact with me for a split second and my throat constricts. I look beside me and when I notice that Shannon is in view next to me, I feel disappointed that she's probably looking at him, she probably doesn't really care that I'm here.
Maddy suddenly starts bawling, ragged breaths escaping her mouth and tears running down her cheeks. the man holding her roughly carries her to a hut and drops her just inside the door. It infuriates me that he would do that. I remember the way I carried her the first time. I recall being scared of hurting her as I gently lifted her into the air. Her delicate frame fit perfectly into my arms and I relaxed quickly.
I think Maddy is absolutely amazing. She seems so small and vulnerable, but she's so strong. How else would she have gotten to Terra Nova without a pilgrimage? She fought with her life for her freedom, and now it's been taken from her yet again. If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to grant her freedom.
"I promise." I mutter in a whisper, not even realizing I did so.
"What did you say?" Shannon asks.
"Nothing." I tell him. When I glance over at him he quickly wipes a few tears from his cheeks. He has more of a right to feel upset, she's his daughter, I'm only an acquaintance. Well, maybe, hopefully, more than an acquaintance. After all I did save her in the jungle and take care of her, and now I'm going to rescue her again.
"How are we going to get her out?" I ask.
"I'm going to distract them and you're going to get her." He says. "Tonight, before they move her."
My heart races with anticipation for sundown.
I know it's short and crappy, I'm sorry, I have like 3 projects due tomorrow and I'm procrastinating. Please review! What do you think Maddy's plan is, what do you think Jim's plan is? Do you like the story? Let me know!
