The Objective, A Missing Person, and Mysterious Sound

She went back to the place where she met the two men but they're nowhere to see. Of course, what do you expect after your walkout yesterday? Dismayed, she looked around, only piles among piles of rubbles littered the ground. She covered her nose when the stench of decayed flesh permeated the air. She adjusted the sack.

She scans the ground trying to find any clue of the direction they went through. Tracks led to the west. Weird. There is nothing but the stretch of water that runs miles from the land. Why go there?

Her curiosity got the better of her, together with her sack and small spear, her bare feet trudged the uneven path down the river. She needed food for the upcoming winter, might as well go fishing. She can dry them and store them in the future. Smiling and feeling motivated, she ignored the nagging warning in her mind about how preposterous and insane her plan was.

She's been walking for a quite while now; still, there is no sign of the two men when she spotted them from the corner of her left eye. She stopped. Among the large, overgrown grass, near the river bed, they are crouching down, murmuring. Then a harsh voice echoed throughout the tract, faces grim. Slowly she treads forward but the younger one's thunderous feature halted her steps. The tall male tried to reason out but the smaller male was having none of it. Their voices are reaching new heights the longer they talk. Are they fighting? She slanted her eyes when she noticed something on the ground. She leaned closer, trying to decipher it. What is that thing? It was black and charred? She has no clue. Still far from them, she lies down and cautiously crawled towards the two, minding every dried leaves and twig. There was a crunch when her elbow crushes dried leaves. She winced, then waited for a moment, when nothing happened, she continued crawling and stopped at the foot of the tree when she heard the furious response of an agitated blond male ahead. This is far enough. She thought and bit her lip. She's dead once they know that she is eavesdropping.

'You can't attack them head-on! That would be suicide.' A deep, calm voice replied. 'The mission is to find his body, which we did.' The blond male started to open his mouth but a pointed glare from the older male made him shut his mouth.

Ignoring him, he continued. 'Deviating from that will result in further investigation from the council. If we want to make haste in finding them, then we need to do what we need to do here first. I will contact 'him' once we reach headquarters. We need 'his' help. As much as I tried to avoid 'him', he is the only one who can pressure those old crones to turn blind eye to any insubordination from us,' Dmitri explained.

'I don't want to be indebted to him,' Simone groused. His earlier outburst simmered to annoyance now but it was still there. He knelt to the ground and further inspected the remains and the area surrounding them. Drops of dried blood not far from where the burnt body was were scattered. Then he noticed a dark trail of it towards the interior of the shrubbery far from the river mouth.

'Old man,' he called.

Dmitri turned his head. 'What?'

'He was dead before they burned him or they torture him first then drag his body and burn him alive,' he started, eyes ablaze from rage. 'Fucking bastards. I'll skin them alive.'

Dmitri seized to stop him from marching away. He closed his eyes from the sudden headache threatening to overwhelm him.

'What?' He challenged. 'Don't spout the same nonsense to me, Dmitri. Don't you dare stop me now or I'll fucking k---.'

'Just calm the fuck down, brat,' He interrupted, voice hard as he glowered down as Simone struggled from the grip from his neck. 'There is nothing you can do about it right now. You are weak. You'll be dead before you find them,' and dropping him to the ground.

'Stop underestimating me, old man.' Voice cold.

'I am not. I can kill you right now and there is nothing you can do about it.' Dmitri said, pulling him up off the ground. 'You are the one who is underestimating here. They are not some back alley criminal back to your quaint little town,' then released him.

Simone nursed his bruised neck, he stood up and sought his eyes out, cold gaze was already on him, a silent reproach evident.

'Then what the hell do you want me to do?' he growled in anger. 'They fucking killed him. Tortured him.' He gesticulated. ' Look at him, old man.' The strong pungent smell of burnt flesh tickled their noses. It was unrecognizable even to them if not for the stainless bracelet attached to him, they would never know. But the biggest question was why left him here with it? A job poorly down? Or a trap?

'The bracelet was a trap.' Dmitri's voice echoed his thoughts.

He swivelled his head in his direction. Their earlier scuffle has forgotten. 'How sure are you?'

'They're baiting us, that much is obvious. Too many pieces of evidence were left here purposely....but....'

'But what?' He waited for him to further clarify his conjectures but the old man refused to speak anymore and merely look at him.

'Don't on my account,' but the old man simply ignored his bait. Stingy old man. He broke the eye contact and stayed silent. The heavy atmosphere lingers for an uncomfortable minute when the old man quietly grasped his gun, hidden from his coat when he felt it too. An undeniable presence. Somebody's here. Five o'clock. Behind the tree. Who?

Then he walks past Dmitri, footsteps soft against the dried leaves. The sinuous body moved with precision. He stops few steps from the tree and bends down.

What the?

The dumpster girl.

It was the kid from before.

'Hi.' A shaky voice greeted him.

'What in the bloody name of all unholy are you doing here?' He shouted. Eyes bulging from their sockets.

********

She was caught. She should've run away the moment she found them arguing but no, she idiotically stayed. A grave miscalculation. She flinched from the loud, booming noise. An aggravated face glared down at her, nose flared, eyes wide.

Definitely angry. As expected. She shrank from him. She's screwed.

'I can explain.' she said in a quiet voice. Trying to appeal as innocent as possible.

'You have been listening for a while now, little girl. What are you doing here?' The old man asked, leaning on the huge erect stone near a group of wild lilies.

'I was..... fishing?' She pursed her lips. Of all the inane things she can use as an excuse. Fishing? Really? But it was ONE of the reasons why she's here in the first place.

'I do not believe you.' The younger man, holding her countered. 'The river is down there, quite far from where you are.' He pulled her closer while donning a shark-like smile. I'm taking it back. He's scary. 'So I am going to ask you again, why are you behind that tree, hiding? Hmmm?'

'I...I am not lying,' she shouted. 'I was you know...umm...fishing down the river when I heard voices. Loud voices.' The blond male all but raise his eyebrows but she disregards his 'are-you-sure look' and plodded on with her explanation. 'I got curious and followed it and saw the both of you fighting?... I stayed and ....you know the rest.' Her voice was all but a faint whisper when it ends.

A pregnant pause. No one move. That made her nervous. She's started to sweat around her neck...Gah... I can't take this anymore.

'I never heard....that. ...much. Promise.' Crossing her fingers, she needs to take her chance now. In a sotto voce, she asked, 'will you let me go?'

If he let go of her, she will run away from here. She knew this place like the back of her hand. They'll never catch her. A chance that is all she needs.

'Sure,' that was all the blond make said and let her go. She forgot the fact that she was suspended in the air, dangling.

'Ahhhhh!!!!' She braced for impact with the ground and closed her eyes but it never came. She peeled her eyes just to see the grinning face blond male. His emerald eyes, full of mirth. She glowers at him and tried poking his eyes, the devil of this guy, and evaded her surprised attack.

'Whoa! Bad girl.'

'Let me go, you big gorilla.' She struggled, kicking and slapping him for all she's worth.

'Not a chance girl.' He all but said before tightening his hold on her. A startled gasp escaped her before panic sets in.

'What are you doing? Let me go, you bully!' She tried to wiggle around but he did not let go. She tried biting him, still no response. He chucked her sack and wooden spear to the ground and started walking away. The nerve.

The older male only shook his head, muttering unintelligibly. He followed the younger male with the struggling girl in arms, trailing them after picking the cloth the contains the ashes from the ground.

'Where are you taking me?!' She is now panicking. No one will help her if decided they kill her. Her eyes started leaking tears. She struggled with renewed strength against the bolt called arms coiling around her thin body.

'Please..... let me go. This is a mistake. You are w-wrong. It's not what y-you think. I just ch-chanced upon you. T-that is all.' She all said, hiccuping. She did not notice that they were back at the dumpsite. She is still crying openly. Snot and all.

'Stop scaring the child, you imbecile.' The old man slapped the back of his captor's head. She felt herself being put down but continued bawling her eyes out.

'What the fuck, old man?'

'Such unrefined young man, making a child cry. ' He lectured. 'Make her stop.'

'Hey, stop crying now or I'll throw to the river!'

She stops crying behind wet hands. Who would even dare to cry after hearing such a threat? Uncultured swine. A few hiccups here and there and she forced herself to stop at all.

'There, old man. What now?'

'We need to take shelter. The day is almost over.'

That's when she noticed the day is almost over. She paled. The two men are now the least of her worry. She needs to go.

'Yes, now that you mentioned it we need to find a place to sleep.'

She tuned them out. The daylight is almost gone. This is not good. She started shaking, eyes wide, frozen in fear.

'Don't tell me you are going to cry again?' She looked up. The two men are now staring, one with dry irritation the other with uncertainty.

'Umm....' She started but her mouth was dry. She tried to swallow. The fear she feels right now overshadowed her fear of them. They haven't truly hurt her yet but the fact remains that they can but...The sun is almost at its limit.

'What?'

She steadied herself. The staccato of her frenzied heart moves in rhythm with the darkness swallowing the remaining light.

'Are you going to start talking now?' The blond guy kneeled down. 'Listen here, how about you go out of our way and make your way to wherever you sprouted? He frowned. 'No. How about you lead us to your house? That can be a good com-------

'Can you run fast?' She interrupted him.

'Why?'

'Can you?' The cold breeze shyly caresses their exposed skin. She shivered. The sun's set now. They're here. She can feel that malevolent power from where she stood.

'Old man?' Simone called, his serious demeanour did not escape Dmitri's eyes.

'Little girl, stay close.' He shifted his body closer to her sheathing his sword and the old man pulled his gun out. They have weapons but... they're not enough. No. She needs to escape. Run. Run.

Without a second thought, she burst out, running as her life depended on it because it is. She heard shouts behind her but she ignored them. Then a set of footsteps followed behind her. She forced her skinny legs to move with all their might, lungs burning from the effort. She jumped when protruding roots was sighted, a twig caught her shirt, tearing when she sharply turned to her left. She skidded into a stop when she spotted them waiting.

'Why did you run?' Dmitri asked her.

'No time. They're near,' she said, heaving.

'Who's near?'

She averted her eyes. She does not need to design them with answers, they're wasting more precious time talking.

'You will not run. Answer us.' She stayed silent, crossing and uncrossing her arms. A habit when she's nervous. She glanced back. They're not moving. Why? Are they waiting?

'Hey?' The impatient voice broke her concentration. She does not have a choice now.

'You have felt it too, haven't you?'

'Yes.' They said slowly. 'Tell us.' She shook her head. Run. She clutched her head, trying to block the shrill screech from afar.

'Hey!'

'Ugh... Quiet .' The force knocked her down and Simone caught her. 'You, alright?' He started shaking her. She gritted her mouth.

Run. Run. Run. She groaned.

'Hey! What is happening to you?' He started shaking her shoulders harder when no response came from her.

'Carry her.' The old man ordered, face grim.

'Q-quiet...R-run.' She kept murmuring.

'We need to get out of here. This feels dangerous.' The wind suddenly picks up strength followed by the quaking of the ground.

'Go. Run!'

And run, they did.