Untitled Novel – Part 7 – Hope Szymanski

Again, if you haven’t yet read parts 1-6, do so now 🙂

After informing The Resistance of the situation, they all agreed Jason should leave immediately, taking a Calling Pearl of his own. He clasped a pendant around his neck, gathered some supplies, and set out.
But that was three days ago, and he was no where nearer to finding Katrina than then. Jason knew that every minute could mean disaster for his friend, and he was starting to become more and more anxious.
            “Where are you?” He asked softly, pausing briefly in a clearing to rest. The forest seemed to look the same no matter where you went, and without his compass, he would surely have been lost by now.
Jason sat down tiredly by his backpack, leaned up against a rock, and sighed. Katrina was more to him than just a partner – they had become very good friends. Losing her would drive him crazy…he couldn’t bear it.
            A noise to Jason’s left jerked him out of his thoughts and he was on his feet in an instant – knife in hand. He scanned the thicket, searching for any sign of a threat, but after several seconds with no apparent signs of danger, he relaxed somewhat. A branch must have fallen from a nearby tree.
            Jason put his knife back in his belt and took the opportunity to examine the rest of the clearing. It looked relatively normal, except for one patch of dirt near the center. The rest of the clearing was blanketed with grass. Walking over to the dirt patch, he noticed it was about the right size for a child to sleep in and wondered if he might encounter such children along his journey – for he had heard that the existence of jungle children was not uncommon in this area. No matter…it was not important to his mission anyway.
            He turned around and momentarily stiffened in fear. Protruding from the tree directly behind where he had been sitting by the rock was a long-knife. Jason whirled around, searching for the assailant, but everything appeared calm. Perhaps that was the sound he had heard after all? But then why had the attacker left without killing him? Cautiously, Jason approached the tree to examine the knife.
            The handle was made of wood and bound with leather, and the design encrypted on the leather made him gasp. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him as he realized the truth – this was Katrina’s knife. Just to be certain, he grabbed it and yanked it out of the tree. Yes, there on the guard of the knife was the mark of The Resistance and directly below it were her initials. Jason stared at the knife in disbelief. He was one step closer to finding his friend.
            “But why would she leave her knife in a tree?” He wondered aloud, turning to his backpack. Finding the knife had given him a second wind and he wanted to cover more ground before nightfall.
Perhaps she left it here so that when she entered The Collective camp she wouldn’t be under suspicion? But that seemed unlikely. Katrina was good with a knife – it was her best form of defense and she wouldn’t leave it behind. That left only one option…she was attacked and attempted to hit someone with the knife.
            But that’s silly. Jason thought. She never misses. And then it hit him. If she had not hit anyone with the knife, then either she didn’t throw it and someone else had taken it from her (a very unlikely story – it was nearly impossible for anyone to take Katrina’s knife), or she had been delirious.
            Jason stopped his packing with the thought, and he shuddered. He must be very close to The Collective camp if Katrina had been drugged here. Who else would try and capture her alive? And if they knew she had been here, then they probably knew he was here right now.
            Hastily, Jason snatched up his backpack and turned to evacuate this place as quickly as possible. Before he could decide which way to go, his eyes rested upon the patch of dirt again, and he noticed something he hadn’t before.
            Bending down, Jason picked up a small bracelet of fake pearls. Katrina’s. So it wasn’t a small child that had lain here. She might have been drugged many times, and curled up in the fetal position – thus the small size of the dirt patch. Something flipped in his stomach which he interpreted to be deep anguish due to the suffering of his friend, but it quickly turned into fierce anger towards The Collective.
            Jason now knew that she had been captured here. He wasn’t sure how long it took Calling Pearls to reach the source of help, but at this distance, if she had released it right here, it should have gotten to him many months ago.
            This could only mean that Katrina had been kept alive and she had released the pearl once inside The Collective camp. They hadn’t killed her upon capture, which meant that they were unlikely to kill her anytime soon. He relaxed slightly at the thought, but in the next instant, fear gripped him like never before. If she had released the pearl after a few months of capture, something must have gone wrong. Her security and potentially her identity would have been compromised and that could give them cause to kill her.
            Jason forced himself to stop thinking about whether Katrina was alive or not in order to concentrate on determining a direction. The thicket around the clearing looked all the same…except on his right.
            Although he couldn’t explain it, the thicket looked a little bit darker in that spot. Taking a deep breath, Jason plunged into the bushes on his right, pushing his way through to either rescue his partner, or complete her mission for her.