60 miles north of Richmond, VA
45 miles south of Arkadia
November 1st, 2149

Thwack! The sound of Corporal David Grissom chopping away at the thick, overgrown brush with a machete filled the squads' ears. They'd been at it for hours today, rotating in shifts to move slowly and steadily north toward their goal. Barring the massive marsh in the Chesapeake there were still mired in after days of slogging, they would have been to the primary station by now. Unfortunately, it seemed mother nature seemed to have gone even more haywire the farther north they traveled.

Grissom took one last swing at the plants, pausing to gather his breath and wipe the sweat from his forehead. If it wasn't for the fall chill, he'd have been burning up by now. Sheathing the machete, he put his hands on his head, staring out into the forest floor. "God damn, this is some thick brush."

Sergeant Lopez grunted in agreement. "Damn kudzu. The shit's all over the south, you guys remember that mission to Atlanta? Whole damn city was covered with this crap. Just didn't think it would have grown this bad this far north."

"Technically," Simmons piped in. "we're still in the South, at least if we reckoned correctly. A few days ago we passed Richmond, which was actually the capital city of the South way back during the Civil War. If we could have waited a month or two I think the winter would have killed off most of the brush, until the spring at least."

Grissom dropped his hands. "Yeah, but then we'd be walking on snow and that sounds even less appealing than this." He gestured around the crew at the field of green surrounding them.

Again Simmons had a rebuttal. "Probably not, if the weather pattern holds here as it does back home, winters are way probably way warmer than before the bombs. Hundreds of nukes going off at once threw the climate into chaos. I mean, there would probably be some snow, but not as bad as pre-war at least."

David glared at his teammate. "Simmons, would you shut up and let me complain in peace?"

In the back of the group Specialist Jenn Blake suppressed a laugh as she listened to the two bicker back and forth. A strong breeze swept up, rustling the vines on the ground and causing the tree branches to creek against one another. Blake looked up into the empty forest that seemingly went on forever. It was beautiful, if a little intimidating. Amidst the noise, a soft snap of wood drew Blake's attention to the rear of the group. She spun around and quickly brought her assault rifle to bear, dropping to one knee, finding only empty ground behind her. The group tensed at the action, each instinctively reaching for their own weapons.

Jarin came up beside Blake, pistol in hand. "Contact?"

She shook her head and stood up. "Don't know sir, thought I heard something." She narrowed her eyes as she swept her gaze over the forest floor. "It sort of sounded like a foot fall, but it's damn hard to see in all this brush."

Taylor raised his right arm to give the team orders, his hand going in a circle, while his eyes never left the trees as Blake covered the ground. "Eyes up and on the perimeter." Taylor's young team did exactly that, each training a weapon to the exterior of the group. "We're exposed and need to move." Taylor looked around the area, spotting a large swath of fallen trees to the group's left. He nodded in its direction. "We'll head for those trees, should give us some cover. Sergeant Carver, take the machete and cut us a path. Everyone else, move in formation and cover him. Lopez, Grissom, you're on point, flanking the cutters. Got it?"

For a brief moment the noise of the trees and the brush swaying with the breeze was the lieutenant's only answer. "Lopez!" Taylor turned sharply to locate his second-in-command, shock briefly crossing his face as Lopez wasn't standing where he was just a moment ago. But Lopez wasn't the only one missing. "Anyone have eyes on Grissom or Lopez?"

A series of negatives and shaking heads was all he got in reply. He gritted his teeth in frustration. The whole team looked around in confusion until Carver bent down, picking up Lopez's rifle while Williams found Grissom's machete, having not yet given it to the sergeant, in a similar state. A plan quickly formed in Taylor's head.

"We're not alone out here. Everyone partner up, one person has their eyes in the trees, the other on the ground. We're going to fan out and look for a trail. Stay within visual contact of another pair at all times. Call out any contact on the radio. We meet back here in 10." The lieutenant looked around as they quickly paired off. Once the teams were set he turned to Blake. "Move out."

The five pairs quickly set out away from the spot, moving steadily across the ground, searching for clues as to where their teammates had been taken. Blake and Taylor moved back along the group's original route. Jarin scanned the trees, praying he was wrong about the apparent hostile contact.

Blake tapped his shoulder, pointing to the tree on their right. Jarin was puzzled as to what she was on about, at least until she pulled a very cleverly camouflaged rope away from the tree trunk.

She tossed the rope to him. "They're definitely using the trees, sir."

Taylor looked over the rope in his hands. "Doesn't explain how they managed to grab two our guys without anyone noticing."

Blake shrugged. "Whoever they are, they let the wind pick up before they made their move. Probably used the vines to deaden the sound their weapons falling. They're smart, I'll give them that."

Jarin tossed the rope aside, letting it swing back to the trunk of the tree, and the pair continued back along the path they'd cut through the vines only to be knocked sharply to the ground from behind. Taylor braced himself in the soft dirt, but his face landed square on his pistol, causing him to see stars. Blake, being the lighter of the two, was completely thrown off balance, her rifle flying out of her hands. As she scrambled along the ground after her weapon she screamed out in pain as she felt a knife plunge into her shoulder before being violently ripped out. Her attacker flipped her over and she stared up in shock a man, wrapped in vines and sticks, raised his arms above his head before shouting down at her, "Die Mountain bitch!"

Blake tried to move, but was pinned. She closed her eyes she saw the knife start to dive down through the air. Two shots rang out as the bullets from Taylor's pistol ripped clean through the assailant's chest, splattering Blake's face with blood and his lifeless body crumpled on top of her. Jarin stumbled over to his teammate, wiping at the blood running freely from his nose before pushing the dead body off her. She winced sharply as he helped to her a seated position.

"How bad it is Jenn?"

Blake grimaced and tried to move her arm while Taylor looked at the wound through the bloody uniform. She exhaled sharply before chuckling. "Well, I've never been more glad to be a righty than right now."

Taylor shook his head. "You know, if you were as smart as you are tough, then we wouldn't be hundreds of miles from home having to patch you up on the fly."

"Excuse me, but who's the dumbass who looks like he pistol whipped his own face?"

Taylor bent down to pick up her rifle. "Well, at least I didn't lose my weapon and get stabbed in the back."

"Yeah, you're just the fearless leader who broke his nose on his own gun, no big."

"Are you worried I marred this ruggedly handsome face of mind?" Taylor pulled out a rag and a bottle of whiskey from his pack, tearing Blake's uniform just a bit wider to allow access.

"Keep joking while I'm bleeding in the middle of a forest and I might put a few scars on it myself."

"Remind me why I put up with this from a subordinate, Specialist?"

Blake saw, of rather felt, what her CO was doing and braced for the pain, inhaling sharply as Jarin pressed the alcohol soaked rag onto the wound. Exhaling, she answered the question, grateful for a reason to not focus on the pain. "I can think of a few reasons Jay."

Jarin pulled away the rag and examined the wound. "Remember the deal, keep it professional when we're in uniform."

She grimaced as she felt him wipe around the wound. "Hey, you're the one who started using first names, remember?"

"Well, to be fair, I did just see you get stabbed and then almost die at the hands of a murderous asshole, who also called you a bitch, so I think the concern is warranted."

Jenn grabbed Jarin's hand on her shoulder "Hey, I'm fine." They quickly broke the small embrace as they heard the rest of the team running through the brush.

Simmons reaching the injured duo first. "We heard shots. Who got shot?"

Jenkins came up behind his partner, kicking the dead attacker's body. "I think the dead body's your answer, genius."

"Shut it you two." Taylor nodded to the rest of the team as they re-joined the group. "Jenkins, get the kit out. Blake took a knife to her shoulder, it's pretty deep. I already wiped it with some alcohol, but make sure it's cleaned out properly. Wouldn't exactly want to deal with an infection this far from home. And check the knife for poison too. If I'm remembering my dad's journals the people in this area are partial to dipping their blades in some weird stuff."

Jenkins nodded as he laid out a blanket for Blake to lie down on. He opened up his pack, which nearly rivaled the weight of the radio equipment Private Smith was carrying. Finding the field spectrograph, he took a quick sample from the knife from the dead attacker that Jarin had tossed to him. While the machine did it's work Jenkins cleaned Blake's shoulder and prepped the stitch kit. The machine beeped three times, drawing the attention of the team.

Taylor kneeled down beside Jenkins. "Three's good, right?"

Trent nodded. "It's not a full lab analysis, but the knife doesn't appear to have any poison residue."

Jarin let out a long exhale. "Good, one less thing to worry about. You good with the stitches?" Again Trent nodded. "Alright, well work fast." Taylor stood up, looking around the group. Don't suppose anyone found a trail?" No one answered as his eyes found them, until he saw Sergeant Sam Carver motioning for him to follow him away from the group.

The two walked a short distance from the team before the sergeant spoke. "I think I found a trail. It's faint, and very well hidden, but it looks like they're headed in the same direction we are."

Taylor knew what that meant. "They're probably headed to the DC ruins, they have a city there, or maybe their going to Polis, their capital." Taylor put his hands on his head, trying to piece together a plan before Carver caught him staring back at Blake, who was still lying on the ground being worked on.

"She's gonna be fine man, she always is. One of the toughest I've ever served with."

"Yeah, try being her boyfriend." The two stood there in silence for a moment. Jarin always respected Carver, in part because he'd served longer than anyone on the team but Taylor himself, turning down promotion after promotion to stay in the field, not to mention turning a blind a to his CO and a subordinate having a relationship. While Jarin was fairly sure Commander Williams would be fine with he and Blake making a go of things, he would rather not have reason to justify anything to the Outpost's CO.

Getting his mind back on track Jarin looked back at the swath they'd previously cut into the brush before turning to Sam. "So, were they moving slow or hauling ass?"

"They were moving fast, didn't look like stealth was their primary tactic after nabbing our guys. If that's the case then my guess is they want us to follow them. Taking only two makes me think they didn't have the numbers to take us all down. But them not just trying to outright kill us-"

Jarin cut in. "Umm, one of them did try to kill us."

"Key word being 'one', sir. That's not enemy action, that's one man on a suicide run." That the rest ran off with our men would suggest that they're just as unsure of who we are as we are of them. Couldn't tell how many people they have based on the tracks, but they'd have to be huge to move fast enough to get our of line of sight while carrying Lopez and Grissom; those boys aren't exactly small fish."

"I'm still stuck on the nutjob that called Blake a 'Mountain bitch', whatever the hell that means."

Carver mulled it over. "You don't think he meant Mount Weather? Didn't you say there was a big dustup with that place and the people at Polis when you dad's team was up here?"

"That was three decades ago, there's no way the people in that mountain should have lived that long. Hell, they shouldn't even have been there in the first place." He saw Blake getting to her feet and Jenkins fashioning a sling for her arm. "Whatever it means, we need to go get our men back. Preferably without running into an ambush.

Sam nodded. "Works for me."

Jarin looked back at the group as he spoke. "Take me to this trail you mentioned. Looks like Jenkins has Blake ready to go, once we get every repacked, we'll head out."

A few miles north the men carrying the unconsious Sergeant Lopez and Corporal Grissom slowed as their rear scouts caught up with the main group.

The leader dropped Lopez's dead weight on to the ground. "Tryol, report."

The scout took off his ghillie mask. "Gaeta, the enemy has not followed so far. They are tending to the woman Galen injured in his attack. It seems he failed to kill her"

The leader scoffed. "Galen was a fool, and he died like one. Attacking was not the purpose of our mission" He picked Lopez back up, slinging him over his shoulder. "Come, we must get these two back to Polis. When Lexa returns from the Mountain she will want to question them, find out where they are from."

Tyrol nodded, slipping his mask back on. "So you do not believe they are Skikru?"

The leader nodded. "And not Mountain Men. Their symbols are not the same." He pointed to the NASA logo on Lopez's arm. "Skikru has no such mark. Whoever they are, the Commander will get the truth out of them. But we must get them to Polis before their people attempt to get them back."

A/N: Yeah, lifted those names from a certain series. Let me know what you think of the story so far in a review!