Johanna POV

"Hey Johanna" I turn to look at my youngest brother, Damion "What are those things in the air?" He points into the sky. I look up to see 50 or more hovercraft that have the Capital symbol flying over the lumber yard. I look over at our supervisor, Ashby and she's staring up at the sky.

All the other workers have stopped doing their jobs and someone stopped the logging machine(A/N I don't know much about the logging industry so lets pretend that's the machine which turns trees into logs)

We've all stopped to watch what is going on overhead. On the bottom of each hovercraft, a secret trapdoor opens, revealing the ends of black ropes. I hear screaming in the distance, so I advert my eyes towards the sound and when I look back up at the hovercraft I see hundreds of men being brought down by the ropes. Most don't even wait until they reach the ground, and jump off the rope before they break through the trees.

Shock takes me over and I find myself unable to move my feet. I stare blankly ahead, until a piercing screech wakes me from my trance.

"Take cover!" Sage, our assistant supervisor yells panicky. I see hundreds of workers running from the opposite side of the forest, towards us. I'm flustered for a moment, but then I understand why everyone is running.

Chasing after the workers are hundreds, no, thousands, of Peace Keepers. They keep on coming, as well as workers and civilians. Elderly people, middle-aged widows, young men, children. Everyone. Everyone from District 7.

It's easy to pick out the workers from the crowd of Peace Keepers. The workers are wearing pale and worn down overalls, overtop of a scratchy green shirt. If it's cold or raining we are permitted to wear a hardly waterproof jacket that barely holds heat and occasionally a thick black sweater made of the same material as our shirts.

Our boots are caked in mud with pine needles, dried leaves and wood shavings sticking to them. If you're lucky enough, you'll get a pair of thin leather gloves to protect your hands from splinters. Some workers wear hats, including myself, forest green army caps are the norm.

The Peace keepers are very different from us. Some are our normal, patrolling Peace keepers, but some, I have never seen before. The new Peace keepers dress in black jumpsuits, padding embedded in the fabric. Their eyes are covered by some material, allowing me to only see their mouths. Their jet black gloves are holding huge machine guns, which, just at the sight of them makes me feel petrified.

I can't seem to move and everything I hear is blurred out. I hear someone screaming my name, a boy perhaps. I rigidly turn my head in the direction in which my name had been called. I feel all the blood drain from my face as a wave of dread smothers me.

I see my brothers fighting off a pair of the unusual Peace keepers and just now I have realized how much bigger and stronger these Peace keepers are. They tower over Eragon at least a foot and a half and he's almost 6 2". I've never seen someone so tall in my life.

I stare in awe as I watch the Peace keepers fight. I have never seen anything like it. Their body movements are so foreign and... unnatural. They fight hunched over so they look no taller than 6 5", but their knees don't bend, which makes them look like they have no knees at all.

With one arm they hold the machine gun and with the other is a large scythe which, when stretched out could be as long as 4 feet. I watch in befuddlement as one of the huge men takes a swing with his scythe at Damion's arm. It doesn't pierce all the way through, but is embeddedat least 3 inches in. He lets out a strangle scream which triggers something inside of me. I throw my arm back and hurl my axe across the forest floor. It cleanly takes off the head of the attacker, which only makes Damion scream again in terror.

Eragon stops fighting w ith a Peace keeper and turns to look at the corpse of the other, which is still standing on its legs. I look over at the head and watch in stagnant as the head, slowly disintegrates. I watch closely as each part of the head turns into a fleshy pile of sand. Before nausea consumes me, I look back up at the body and it's not long before it tilts to the side and falls down. It's body laying inches away from where it's head, had once been.

Fighting has surrounded us, screams of terror and pity consume our ears. The ring of weapons piercing the bone and gunfire. The smell of decaying bodies and burning fills our ears. Murder flashes before our eyes, haunting us for eternity.

But in the small circle which has myself, Eragon, Damion, Ashby and Sage, is silent. No one dares to make a sound, not even one peep. Our eyes are all fixed on the decaying corpse in front of us.

That's why no one notices the other Peacekeeper raising his machine gun at Eragon's head. Vengeance takes me over as I run towards the Peace keeper, hatchet raised.

"NO!" My voice causes my Brothers to jump. My voice is louder and more raspy than it has ever been before, and I don't even recognize it. The Peace keeper turns towards me and begins shooting, but I slide on the ground, which catches him off guard. I plant the hatchet and the back of his knees, inducing a vindictive scream from him. He collapses, and I lay there on the ground, breathing heavily.

What have I done? I killed a Peace keeper and injured another! I am a monster! What will my brothers think of me? Will they be afraid of me? I'm afraid of myself, now that I know what I'm capable of.

I feel a pair of strong arms lift me up and when I tilt my head to look at the person, I recognize them immediately.

"Lets go, Johanna! We have not got time to sit down!" Sage says in his rough, raspy voice.

"What? Why? Where are we going?" Eragon asks frantically. I notice that he's holding up Damion, whose arm is gushing out blood. I almost throw up at the sight of it, but I choke it down.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, we are under attack!" Ashby yells in her hostile voice, while dodging a piece of debris being thrown at her head

"Come on! We need to get to safety!" I yell, taking charge. I make my way towards my brothers and help carry Damion into the safety of the trees. I hear gunshots and screaming and I have this urge to turn back. Instead I keep my eyes on the path before us. Damion has his right arm draped over Eragon and I'm holding him up by his waist. I look over to the left and through the smoke I see Sage helping Ashby along. I notice she has a large tear in her shirt and a large gash has formed on her arm.

I pull my brothers towards my supervisors and unlatch myself from Damion.

"Take him beyond the woods, into the mountains. You should be safe there" I direct Eragon. He nods and takes Damion the way I pointed.

"Where are you going?" Sage asks bewildered

"I'm going to camp, I need to get supplies" I yell irritated

"Supplies? For what?" He questions

"For living out in the wilderness! There's no way we're staying here, due to what has recently happened" I yell

"Fine. But I'm coming with you" He says as he whispers something in Ashby's ear. She unlatches herself from him and runs off in the same direction as the boys went.

"What? That's crazy!" I yell, flustered

"No-"

Boom-ka-boom

I fall to the ground as a nearby explosion induces an earthquake. A few of the weaker trees around us mimic me and once again I feel myself being lifted up.

"No, I'm going with you and that's that" He states and I nod vigorously. I scramble to my feet and we run towards our campground.

You see, not everyone has to work in the forest, cutting down trees and working at the mill. Some people work in town, making their living there. Although I don't understand why anyone would want to live in town. It's so tight and cramped there. It reminds me of a tight, old western style town. In our house in town, my parents had these old western movies which usually involved lots of shooting. I thought they were the most ridiculous movies I had ever seen, but I thought they portrayed our town perfectly.

When you sign up for the lumber mill, you don't get to stay in district 7. You can sign up for a certain amount of time and you have to stay in the forest for that amount of time. That certain amount of time is called a league. The shortest league is 1 week, then 2, then 1 month, then 3 months, 4, 5, 6, 9. Most people, including me, right after they finish their time at one of their leagues, they immediately begin another. There was never any real reason for me to stay in town.

Ever since I was 14 I have worked at the lumber mill, due to the fact that my Mother had recently died and Father was of no help. At the time my brothers were only 10 and 5. Mother had died accidentally being hit with an axe. The doctors tried to heal her, but the blade had screwed up too many parts of her. We didn't have enough money to afford a real doctor, so we paid a healer instead. We're not known for our medicine, and she died within a few hours.

I'd tried to forget about that night, but Father had other plans. Every night he would mourn for her, crying himself asleep. He stopped working, leaving us to starve. He payed no attention to us, almost as though we didn't exist. I couldn't believe that someone who I had looked up to for years, could show suck weakness. I lost all my respect for him one night when he lashed out at Damion for being too happy.

Damion was too young to understand what had happened, but since everyone else was sad, he became sad as well. He's a very empathetic person. Ever since that night, Damion has tried to not to show any emotion since. It's really quite sad.

When I was seventeen Father came out of his depression and turned to something different, abuse. When I went away on my leagues, he would beat my brothers into bloody, bruised pulps. When I came home, he'd attempt to beat me too. This went on for years, but something came up that made a bigger impact on life.

When I was nineteen, my Father left. I didn't know where he went, why he left. All I knew was that he left to some other district, for good. I was relieved at first. I didn't have to feel guilty about leaving for my league. But then I started to wonder what the boys thought. If him leaving would cause them to have a hollowness in their hearts and never be able to trust. They were just boys and still are, but something like that, leaves and impact on your life. I know. When my Mother died I vowed I would never love again, in fear that they would leave. They always have and alway will.

Right. Left. Right. Don't look back. Keep your eyes on the path before you. I wonder how Damion's doing?... Stop that! You can't think about that now! You need to stay focused!

These are the thoughts going through my head as I run through the Peace keeper infested forest. My adrenaline is running high and I can barely breathe with all the smoke I'm inhaling.

They must have gone to setting the trees on fire-Oh! Jump! Oh, crap! I can't see anything!

"Sage! Sage, where are you?" I stop in my tracks and do a 180 degrees turn. All I see is smoke, all I hear are the cry's of innocent citizens. All I smell is the scent of burning flesh. My eyes are burning and I can barely see three inches in front of me.

Suddenly I feel a pair of strong arms grab me from behind and I instantly recognize the touch. Sage. Thank god, I could and probably would, have died if it weren't for him(many times.) He drags me away from the smoke and I can almost see the outlines of camp.

I lunge forward, eager to get away from all this mess.

I throw blankets, extra clothes, food, a waterproof tarp and rope into a backpack. I open my rucksack and stuff my weapons(a few knives, several axes and a couple of hatchets) a flashlight, three sleeping bags, a shovel... and some tools that Eragon brought along with him. He enjoys building things with the left over wood from the mill.

"You ready, Johanna?" Sage hisses from the opening of the tent

"Yeah, I just can't close this zipper" I grunt as I try to close the rucksack

"Here" He rushes to my side and tries to tackle the overflowing bag.

"There" He zips up the bag and swings it over his shoulder. We run from camp into the wilderness beyond.

We keep on running, not daring to look back. Soon we reach the mountainy part of the woods and we begin to climb the small rock slopes. I find a grip in one of the rocks and pull myself up. I grab onto a ledge and use my upper body strength to force myself on top of the ledge. I reach down to help Sage, and soon we are over the slopes. I wonder how Damion, Eragon and Ashby did? Did they even make it past the slopes?

"Come on, girly. We need to keep going if we want to meet up with your brothers and Asby" Sage says, clearing my thoughts.

We trudge through the forest, looking for any signs of the boys and Ashby. At one point Sage starts whistling like you would for a dog. I look over at him with an unsatisfied look on my face. He chuckles and mutters something under his breath. I ignore him and call out "Eragon, Damion! Where are you? Ashby?"

I pause for a moment, but when I get no response I start forward again. I feel a pair of arms grab onto me and pull me into the nearby bushes. I thrash around, trying to free myself, but it's no use. The person is too strong. I try to scream for help, but I feel a leathery hand over my mouth, preventing me from even opening my mouth. I hear rustling from bushes and some yelling that I can't make out.

Suddenly someone removes their hand from my face and I'm able to breathe fully again. I sit up and take a look around.

"Got you scared now didn't I" I look over and there's Eragon beaming. I look behind him and spot Ashby trying to calm Damion down. I can't tell for sure, but I think she's trying to stop the bleeding with a shirt.

"Shut up" I mumble as I stand up and brush the forest floor off me. I look over and see Sage unpacking his bags.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't we keep on moving?" I ask worried, someone may have chased after us. Eragon and Sage exchange a look, then look over at Damion.

"But Damion is too weak for travel, it might be best to stay here" Sage interjects

"Damion looks pretty serious and won't be able to travel, unless someone brought a medical kit. But even then, we'll probably need to make lots of stops to change his bandages and we'll need to find a water source before nightfall" Ashby tells us. Sage rummages through his bag and pulls out a metal case with a large cross on it.

"I have a medical kit, let me take a look at him" Sage says. He opens up the kit and talks quietly to Damion. The rest of us give them their space and begin to organize a plan.

"I've never been in this part of the district before, and I don't know where the nearest sources of water are" I say in a hushed voice, for no apparent reason

"Well, that's because this isn't part of the district. Where the rock slopes are, is where the fence used to be. I don't know why the Captiol never put up a new one though" Ashby informs us "But I'd say we can't be to far, since there is a lot of water dependant plants around here" I take a look around and agree with her, also noting there is a fair amount of animals as well

"How about after Sage is done wrapping up Damion we take a little hike around the forest" Eragon says with a smirk on his face.

"Fine"

After about a few hours we reached a small spring thriving off a beautiful nearby waterfall. There were quite a few rocks around it, and we made camp not far from it. We washed Damion's bandages in the spring and set up camp. Sage went hunting and came back with a squirrel and some bird. We cooked them over a fire and indulged into the delicious meat.

After dinner, I set up the sleeping bags and the tent Sage brought. Damion and Eragon took to the tent, while Ashby and I made ourselves at home in the sleeping bags. Sage has first watch and will wake up Ashby in a few hours. After that, it will be my turn.

I shut my eyes the second I hit the sleeping bag, eager to get as much sleep as possible. After a few minutes, my eyes begin to get heavy and the last thing I see are the stars surrounding the full, bright moon.

Okay, so I know that was a weird place to end the chapter, but come on! That was 3, 159 words right there! Yeah, it doesn't seem like it… I'm sorry the last few chapters haven't been that good. I know how this story is going to end, but I'm stuck on how I'm going to GET to the end! I have it all planned out, but there is a huge hole in the middle, which I'm trying to fill! Please stay with me on this rollercoaster, for there are some twists in the story to come!

(I posted a picture of the spring on my profile, it's EXACTLY how I imagined it!)

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