Captured

Alex was still running over the roofs in the direction the last whistle had indicated. Suddenly he stopped at the edge of the roof he was running over. He had found his target.

He jumped down and grabbed the roof edge, dropped down again until he caught a window sill and jumped from there to the ground.

In front of him laid a girl of around ten years old, she had bright red hair.

"Weird,", he thought. "Why is she lying on the ground like this? Maybe she fell and hit her head? Anyway, doesn't matter much. We got lucky, I will bring her back and make her talk."

*shwiiii shwiiii shwiiii*

He gave the signal for retreat as he picked her up. She was extremely light and when he looked closely, she looked very malnourished, even more so then he and his friends in the last winter.

"Maybe, it's not her? Doesn't matter.", he thought.

He picked her up and put her over his shoulder, starting to make his way back to their base. All the while carefully evading the guards.

....

Sometime later, he finally got back to their base. It was very cleverly built. They had made use of a dead end and built an ordinary looking wall a few meters away from the far end.

Like that it looked almost as if it was part of another building, but was actually a room of around 7m^2 that could only be entered through a hole in the roof that they covered up with a 'hatch'.

It had never been found before, but even if, the 'hatch' that covered the entrance had a simple lock that could only be opened from the inside. And If someone tried to force their way in, the people inside the hideout would realize this. And in case that were to happen, they had already prepared a countermesure as well, they had weakened one of the walls enough that they could break through it if they gave it a little effort and then escape through there.

He made sure that no one could see him before he entered the hideout, bringing the girl with him inside and sitting her down at a wall. Eric and Gale had long since returned, and it didn't take long for the other three to return as well.

"So, Gale, Gardos, is this the one you saw?", Alex asked.

"Nope, definitely not, the one I caught a while ago was a guy.", Eric answered in his stead.

"Even though I couldn't tell the gender before, it's not her. I'm sure of that. No one in a state like that can run that fast, not even a mutant.", Gale confirmed.

"What to do now, leader?"

"I think we should help her for now, she looks like she hasn't eaten for days. But first tie her up, hands, feet, mouth and eyes, we have to be careful, I don't want her to make a disturbance."

While Gardos started to tie the girl up, Gale asked:

"Why should we help her? We have already enough problems just taking care of our selves, especially with that thief still being out there."

"Well, she looks kinda cute, even in the state she is in right now. Don't say that's the reason, boss?!"

"I'm not you, Jayden! Take a look at her ears, it's very subtle so look carefully!", Alex said.

Doing as told, the other five tried to get closer when Gardos suddenly exclaimed:

"Eh, she's a mutant!"

"I see, that's what you mean, it's true that it is never bad if a strong mutant owes us a favor. If it shows on her body, that means she has to be quite strong, but it would really depend on her abilities and attitude. We don't know if we can trust her."

"This may be a gamble, but honestly, when can you ever be sure if someone is trustworthy. I think it's worth a shot!", Gardos commented.

"Ok, I will wake her up now.", saying that, Alex gave the tightly bound girl a few soft slaps.

"Hmmm... Urghh *cough* *cough* Hmmm! Hmmmm!"

The girl woke up with a groan and then started to retch and cough because of the dirty cloth in her mouth. When she realized that she was bound tightly, she started to panic and struggle.

"Stop struggling and don't say anything. Then I will take off the gag, okay?"

It took a while but after she stopped struggling, the girl started nodding her head a few times.

When Alex had taken her gag off, he asked her:

"Okay, tell me, are you a wanderer or are you new in Harborton?"

"Wh-what? N-new, I think."

"As I thought. Why were you lying there on the street? Oh, and did you perhaps see someone with red hair, similar to yours?"

"I-I was running away from some people, they called me intruder and were chasing me. And then s-suddenly a boy came around the corner, he didn't have red hair, but he had a red scarf around his head."

*Whack*

"Ouch, that wasn't needed!"

"It was if you can't differentiate between hair and a scarf, idiot."

"T-that guy said... Right, my staff! Did you find my staff lying there?"

"Hmm? What are you talking about?"

"A wooden staff, very long and slightly silver in color."

"No, I didn't see something like that, why?"

"That... was my fathers..."

"Well, I'm sorry, but there wasn't anything like that. but why were you lying there unconscious?"

"T-that guy, the one with the scarf, he said something about my staff looking expensive and then suddenly punched me in the face. Then I woke up here..."

"Ok, thanks."

Pulling the other five over in another corner, he asked them in a low voice:

"What do you think about her?"

"I don't think she was lying, she sounded pretty honest. And considering that she still had that staff she was talking about, she couldn't have been in Harborton for long. At least if it is true that that staff looks expensive."

"Forsten, what do you think?", Alex asked.

Forsten answered with a nod of his head.

"Ok, take off her blindfold."

After Eric took of the blindfold, the girl opened her bright green eyes.

"Say, what's your name?"

"Alice, my name is Alice."