"You okay back there, Jackson?"

Romi's voice was breathy, exhaustion from the tedious hike starting to catch up to her. Not that she was complaining, she was quite enjoying it. The weather was hot, but not sweltering, and a cool breeze occasionally drifted about. All in all, it was simply perfect for hiking and partially the reason why she opted to do the trek in, instead of driving-up with her brother and the rest of his friends.

Well...all but one, anyway.

Not receiving a reply, Romi glanced over her shoulder to find her brother's best friend and her hiking companion, Jackson, still at the base of the slope. He was bent at the waist, his hat in his hand with both braced on his knees in obvious exhaustion. It was quite clear that while she was loving the nature hike, the same couldn’t be said for him. It made her wonder why he’d come with her in the first place. Even still, she felt a sense of responsibility over his well-being. Slowing in her step, she her heels and headed back down to check on him. "Jacks, you alright there? You want to take a break or something?"

"No, I’m good. I’m good.” Jackson replied in short little spurts, waving his hand (and hat) flippantly in her direction. “But I mean, if you need a break, don’t let me stop you." He then stood upright allowing her to take the time to observe him. With his hat gone, she could see that his black hair clung in clumps to his sweaty forehead, and his cheeks were flushed red with exersion and the warm temperature. She also noticed that at some point during the trek, he had taken off his red hoodie and wrapped it around his waist, revealing a black tank dampened around the neckline with sweat and a Han charactered necklace that flittered in the sun's light. Placing his right hand on his hip, Jackson exhaled through pursed lips. “Just, uh, we should be getting close though, right?”

"If by close you mean," She looked at her fitbit, "Four more hours, then yeah."

"Four-" Jackson gaped, looking back behind him at the long stretch of forestry, mountains and dirt trail from where they came. "Four hours? How-how long have we been walking?"

"It's only been about two hours." Jackson looked at Romi as though she were crazy, and seeing the time that had passed on her watch, she was actually surprised herself. It was a wonder how they hadn't passed out yet. "Hey, to be fair, Joah and I both told you this was a six hour hike. You were the one who insisted on tagging along." She retorted, removing her glasses from her face to wipe away the thin layer of prespiration from her cheeks. Damn, she probably should’ve worn her contacts. "Listen, let’s get up to the top of the ridge and then stop for a minute. Sound good?” Recieving a nod of confirmation, Romi slid her frames back up her nose, and her heels to continue walking up the preciptous incline. 

With the motivation of a break just a climb away, Jackson found himself pushing forward, wincing at every aching step. He'll admit, he was in awe and slightly jealous of Romi's stamina. Here, she was making making this trek with ease while he was wheezing, in pain and straining to keep up. It wasn’t like he was out of shape, he worked out and ate healthy enough to maintain a good physical condition. Maybe it was because he was unuse to steep inclines and rocky pathways.

The two laboured on up the slope towards the ridge in silence. The only sound was that of their feet trampling along the dirt road up the steep incline and the scraping of rocks their shoes ran across. Every now and then, Romi would glance back to make sure Jackson was still ambling behind her and hadn't collapsed face-first onto the dirt trail underneath them.

When they reached the top, Jackson exhaled heavily with relief, throwing his backpack down with significantly more force than intended before parking his on the ground. He leaned backwards, letting his whole rear side hit the patch of grass lining the trail and throwing one arm over his face to shield his eyes from the sun's rays while the other lie stretched away from his body. "Oh God, yes." He groaned in pleasure as the gentle autumn breeze cooled his sticky hot skin and his aching muscles began to relax.

The corner of Romi's mouth twitched in amusement as she drew her own backpack from her shoulders and tossed it down. "I take it you're regretting not driving up to the campsite with Jo now, huh?" She inquired, stripping off her dark blue windbreaker and tying it around her waist before taking a seat next to him. She routed through her packsack and pulled free two granola bars and her insulated water bottle.

"No, not really."

“Huh, well, that's good then. I figured with how you were complaining about the remaining hours left, you were regretting the decision to come with me.” She handed a bar to Jackson, snickering when she caught him setting his lips into a quick pout at her comment. "I'm teasing. But for real though, you could've already been at the camp sitting under a tent and eating s'mores with Joah in like five-ten minutes." Romi untwisted the cap from her water bottle and bringing it to her lips. She hummed in content as the cool water slid down her dry throat, quenching her thirst.

"Hm, that's true." Jackson drawled as if pondering the obviously better outcome for him. He then lifted his arm slightly to reveal eyes crinkled and gleaming with amusement, the corner of his lips upturning into that of an enigmatic crooked smile. "But then, I would've missed out on all this."

Mulling over Jackson words, Romi shrugged a nod of agreement as she pulled the bottle from her lips with an exhaled breath. It was quite true. No shade to Joah, but how could one not choose to hike when you had the fresh air, amazing scenery and a chance to connect with nature?

The two grew silent after that, Jackson deciding to close his eyes and relish as much rest as he could before they started back on the trail while Romi turned her attention to the surrounding mountains and forest terrain stretching the horizon. The view seeming to take the stress and bustle of the outside world away. She took out her phone to capture a few panoramics of the scenery and made a mental note to thank her brother for inviting her.

The trip had been Joah’s idea. A get together he and a few college friends did in the fall every year. This year, Joah invited her to come when she told him of her return home after living abroad in Norway for the last five years working on her Masters and doing fieldwork on the Northern Saami language. Despite enjoying hikes, she had been slightly reluctant to tag along, but with affirmation that her attendance was not at all intrusive, she ultimately acceded. She looked forward to spending time out in nature with her brother, gorging on s'mores and stargazing. Though, seeing Jackson came as a rather pleasant surprise since the last she had heard of him, he was in Hong Kong.

Friends with Joah since the sixth grade, Jackson had spent quite a lot of time around her home growing up. She remembered not being all to fond of Jackson at first. However, with his charming, energetic and affable personality, she found it difficult not interacting and become partial towards him. And it was by the end of seventh year that the two of them had formed a friendship of sorts, something that seemed to elate Joah. It wasn't until the summer of their Sophomore year in high school that she had last seen and spoken to Jackson, as that was the year he moved to Hong Kong. They shared a few conversations or pleasantries whenever he and Joah talked, but that hadn't lasted long and soon the years spent was enough to make them strangers. Though, he and Joah still clearly kept in touch, which in all honesty made sense. Joah always did say Jackson was his one and true best friend--aside from her, of course--.

Romi found herself looking over to the male next to her, whom was now sitting up nibbling on the granola bar while gazing out at his surroundings with child-like wonder. It was hard to imagine this was the Jackson Wang from childhood.

She took the chance to let her mental image of him change, her memories of the charismatic, rambuctious kid from childhood morphed into that of the man before her. Despite the lapse of time, nothing had changed, but appearances. He had grown in stature, coming an inch or so taller than her. He had lost the roundness in his face, becoming leaner and angular, though he still had a slight boyish look to him. His once slim frame was now bulked with well-defined muscle. She'll admit, he looked good. Damn good.

Lost in thought, Romi didn't immediately notice when Jackson craned his head around and caught her eyeballing him. He couldn't resist the temptation to wink and flash her a knowing grin, only laughing when she snorted and reached into her backpack for the map. No doubt to hide her embarrassment of having gotten caught staring. Though, he couldn't blame her, he may have been doing the same thing ever since they met up at Joah’s apartment this yesterday.

Although, he hadn’t harbored a crush on her in their youth, he did find her to be intriguing. He was fascinated in how she and her brother didn’t look identical despite being twins, as well as how standoffish and shy she had been towards him than her brother. Yet even now, knowing that they are fraternal and that she was still aloof towards people—albeit, Romi did warm up to him the minute she recognized him—, he still found her to be enthralling. Though, he suppose it was due to not seeing her in years. 

Romi still looked the same facially, albeit slimmer from having clearly lost weight since the last time he had saw her. Now, by no means was he calling her fat, never that, but it was obvious that she spent the years being quite active as her curves were now more accentuated and body taut. Jackson lost count on how many times he had tripped all over his feet because he couldn't seem to take his eyes off the way her light grey leggings stretched and curved with her ample backside in every stride she took. Her hair had changed also, as it was no longer straight. Instead, it was a large puff of soft-looking springy curls at the nap of her neck. He also noticed that there was a sort of glow to her. Though, he wasn’t sure if it were natural or if it were just the sunlight hitting the thin layer of prespiration on her natural ochre, mellow brown skin. Whichever it was, he’ll admit that he was particularly mesmerized by it.

Even so, he wasn’t going to let that take away from the fact that he was truly glad to see Romi, herself. Seeing her yesterday made him realize that he had strangely missed their kindred friendship. 

Pulling his water bottle from his lips with audible delight, Jackson stood and stretched his arms over his head, wincing at the ache in his shoulders and neck. "So, Dora the Explorer, where to now?"

"Ha. Aren't you hilarious." Romi replied aridly, looking up from the park map in her hands to Jackson. Folding up the map, she slid it back into her backpack along with the granola wrappers and water bottle. Rule one of hiking: Leave no trace.

"Thanks, I do try." Jackson responded, offering his hand to help Romi to her feet before bending down to pick up his backpack and sliding it across his shoulders. "So, we have four more hours,” He glanced at his hiking partner. “Any way to, you know, cut that down to two?”

Romi gave a low hum, bending over to grab her bag after dusting her bottom. Sliding it across her shoulders, she began adjusting the shoulder straps. "Only if we take less breaks and put an inch or two in our step, but that doesn’t really guarantee we’ll cut any hours."

"One could hope though, right?" Jackson replied on an exhale as he flopped his hat back onto his head and pulling the bill just over his eyes before pushing it back a bit.

“It’ll be fine, you got this.” She grinned, giving Jackson an encouraging pat on the back. "Let's go, Boots. Vamanos." Turning on her heels, Romi began walking down the side of the ridge with Jackson not far behind.

It was gonna be a gorgeous weekend to be in the mountains.

The two continued back on the trail. The fatigue from before replaced by an excitement for the destination. The two shared small catch-up conversation while hiking down the switchback trail along the side of the steep ridge and into a small coniferous forest at the base. Jackson spoke about life in Hong Kong as well as his time at Stanford university, while Romi shared about her time abroad studying and documenting endangered languages, before the two began reminiscing on childhood memories.

Passing through the forest, they resumed their trek across open subalpine terrain, passing through meadows and a plethora of wildflowers. Romi let herself get lulled into the trance of the hike, breathing in the sounds and smells of nature. Occasionally, they'd stop to take photos, one of them having spotted a moose, small animal or just a particularly pretty sight.

After another brief rest and restroom break, the two continued along the trail enduring a few more grueling ascents until it leveled out, revealing sweeping views of the surrounding snowtop mountains and woodland greenary. Romi looked up from the park map and pointed out towards the forest ahead. "The site isn't far now, it's right after that forest."

"You sure? Because I could've sworn you said that like a meadow and seven thousand wildflowers ago." Jackson panted, reaching up to wipe the thin layer of sweat from his forehead with the hem of his shirt. He was exhausted with both his own failure to keep up and the painful aches in his thighs and feet. All he wanted to do was get to camp and lie down. "I'm starting to think I'm going to die out here.”

Romi rolled her eyes at Jackson's dramatics, yet decided to keep quiet as they continued forth towards the last half mile separating them and the campsite.

The walk through the thicket was relatively silent. Both enjoying the peaceful sounds of the woods and not wanting to disturb the tranquility and balance of nature around them. The sun shine flooded the area through the large gaps in the treeline, birds over head and those perched on branches chirped to a song only they knew.

Exhaling a dreary sigh, Romi let her gaze fall to the trail as her mind wandered on the first thing she wanted to do when they arrived at the camp. While she enjoyed the hours spent on the hike, she was glad it was coming to an end. She was exhausted, filthy and starving, all she wanted to do was get clean and eat until her stomach burst before going to sleep. God, she hoped Joah had put up the tents as that was the last thing she wanted to deal with after walking for six hours. But then to, it would be just like Joah to be petty and have her set up-

Suddenly, Romi lurched forward, stumbling-almost falling to her knees-as if the world had shifted beneath her feet abruptly. She let out a gasp only to have that very breath from her lungs as the world around her suddenly began to whirl and turn into nothing, but a rushing blur. Increasing pressure-a sort of tightness-began to fill her chest and ears, distorting sound into a steady distant drumming and causing a strange tingling hum to overtake her body as if every molecule in her being was vibrating at high speed. 

She grappled for air, hungry to breath. Colored spots danced about her vision and she was sure that any moment she was going to lose consciousness and die. 

Then, as quickly as it began, it ended. The world had stopped whirling past her, leaving Romi sitting on her legs amongst the thicket, drawing breaths in deep yet rapid successions. The pressure in her chest and ears had lifted, the drumming grew silent and the haze in her vision cleared. She felt nauseous as a splitting headache drilled away at her skull. Her lungs were burning and her body still buzzed like an electrical current. She was dazed and confused. Her mind trying to fathom what just happened. 

"Oh, ." The acquainted groan had Romi snapping her head to the side and she winced at the throbbing ache that followed the action. Pressing her palm against her temple, she looked around, passing over trees until her eyes fell upon Jackson. He was a few feet away, moving himself into a sitting position before slumping back against an overturned tree. His head was tilted back against the trunk with a hand pressed to his chest like he too was having difficulty breathing. Fleetingly, she wondered how he ended so far away when he had been trudging behind her.

Romi pulled herself to stand upright, staggering when her vision span from moving too fast. Once the feeling subsided, she moved towards him. “Jacks?" She said, lowering into a squat alongside the male and resting a hand on his shoulder, noting that it felt clammy and cool to the touch. “Hey, you alright?"

"Aside from feeling woozy, sick to my stomach and having my body ache from having walked more in the last few hours than I usually do in a month?" Jackson drew a breath and gave her an impish grin, "I'm doing great."

"Well, if you still have the energy to be a smartass, you must be okay." She smirked before it faded into a serious, earnest expression as she looked Jackson over critically. He didn't really look fine. His skin seemed pallid, and his eyes looked sunken in. Probably heat exhaustion. Romi reached for the backpack discarded next to him and ped it intending to fetch his waterbottle.  

"If you're looking for my water bottle, I drank the last of it a while back."

"Right.” Romi muttered, withdrawing her hand and zipping the bag back up before shrugging off her own. Pulling it in front of her, she took out her water bottle and offered it to him. "If you don’t mind sharing, here, you can drink mine.” She then added, “and if you’re worried about diseases or anything, I don’t have any. Promise.”

Jackson shook his head. "I'm not. But, uh, what about you? Won’t you get thirsty?”

"I'll be fine."

Jackson eyed Romi with askance. Considering how hot it was, he had his doubts. “You sure?”

“Are you going to drink all of it?”

“No, but-”

“Okay, then.” She pushed the bottle into his hands, and insistently, replied, “Drink it.”

Jackson stared at her for a few more seconds before reluctantly accepting the canister. He gave it a brief shake before hovering the mouth piece a few inches from his lips and free pouring the water into his mouth. An accidental moan escaped his throat as the cold drink cooled his throat and insides. He took three more mouth fulls before handing it back with a breathless yet grateful ‘thanks’. Then bracing his hand against the tree, he pulled himself up into a standing position. “Alright. Well, I’m going to go use the bathroom and then we can head back out."

Romi eyed him wearily, a hand out on standby to catch him incase his legs gave out on him. "You sure about that? Because you look like you’re a step away from passing out.”

"Trust me, I’m sure." With that said, he trudged over towards a large pine tree and disappeared behind it. "Plus,” He called out. “While it’s been lit, I’m officially over this hike, you know?"

"Yeah."

While Jackson relieved himself, Romi looked around the surrounding woodlands for nothing in particular as she listened to the peculiar song the birds above sang. The smell of fresh soil, fungi and plants was strong, almost overwhelming so, that she barely caught the curious scent of fresh pine and vertiver wafting in the air.

She shuddered when a breeze of chilly air wrapped around her, cooling her skin and raising the hairs on her arms. She thought it rather odd considering it had been hot a few moments ago. Then too, the weather was unpredictable.

Not one for the cold, she untied her jacket from her waist and slid it over her shoulders, zipping it up her chest.

Glancing up, she found that the sun no longer hung above the tree line like it had been earlier, instead, it peeked through the trees from the southwest, scattering golden-white light through the branches. She frowned.

That was odd.

Romi pulled back her sleeve and tapped the screen of her fitbit only to find the display screen blank. Her frown deepened, it was new and had been fully charged, so it definitely shouldn’t have died. She held down the home button for few seconds in the hopes that it would reboot yet still nothing. Dead. Muttering a curse under her breath, Romi took her phone out of her jacket pocket and hit the power button with the pad of her thumb. It lit up (thank God) with a photo of books in the background, the day September 16, 2018 and time of 4:42 blaring in her face before it unlocked to home screen. Locking her phone, she gazed back up at the tree line even more confounded. Sunset, at the very least, was not for another hour or so, meaning the sun should still be somewhere above her head. Not setting.

Romi looked around the forest, really taking in her surroundings. Maybe it was due to exhaustion or perhaps her being so focused on getting to camp, that she hadn't noticed before, but it were as if she had skipped over a key part in a book or a movie and was now realizing just how...off everything around her was. The once slim and narrow spaced out young aspen trees they had been walking in were now a tall, thick, clustered mixture of lush spruces, pines, firs and birch that shaded the sun-or lack there of- from the vegetation and shrubs below her. It were as though they were in a completely different forest.

She then drew her attention downwards and was overcome with a sense of dread when she discovered that instead of trampled grass from years of use under her feet, there was dewed tall grass and strange vegetation.

This was wrong. All wrong.

In an instant the map was out of her bag and in her hands. She alternated her attention from the map to the area multiple times trying to pinpoint their location. No way they wondered off the beaten path in a few seconds. Romi was sure they had been on it. Hell, she had been staring at it a while ago. So what happened? Where did she go wrong?

“What's wrong?" Came Jackson's voice from over her shoulder.

“Nothing.”

“When a woman says nothing’s wrong, everything’s wrong.”

Romi tossed an unamused glance over her shoulder-- in which he ignored in favor of putting on his hoodie-- before returning to look back at the map. It had only been ten seconds of staring when she crushed the map closed in frustration and let out a lengthy breath of air. “The trail is gone.”

“What? No way.” He paused, “You serious?”

She nodded and gestured to the scenery around them. "Very. See, look."

Jackson lowered his gaze to the ground, following nothing but greenery and small shrubs growing all around him before staring at Romi, perplexed. "How? Did we walk off the trail or something?” A feeling of uneasiness overcame him as he saw Romi shrug her shoulders. “So, we’re lost?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t say we’re lost.” Romi said, her voice trying to not only convince Jackson but herself. Though, if Jackson picked up on it, he didn’t comment on it.

She continued to look about, doubt slowly seeping in the longer she stared at the surrounding unfamiliar verdure. Maybe she hadn’t been paying much attention as she thought she had.

“Do you think we should call someone? Maybe a forest Ranger or police?"

"With what service? Not much cell coverage in the mountains. Well, none really." To emphasize her point, she held up her cellphone, the screen automatically lighting up and briefly revealing the ‘No Service’ text in the left hand corner before putting it back in the pocket of her jacket.

"Right, right." Jackson muttered, once again looking up at the sky through the tree tops and then around at their surroundings. He knew that. She had told him as much when he complained about his Spotify not connecting. He glanced at her. "So, what now?"

Romi took a deep breath before letting it out slowly, pinching the bridge of her nose and effectively pushing up her glasses in the process as she processed what to do next. There wasn't much they could do at this point. If they moved forward and continued walking, they risked getting even more lost. It seemed safer to stay put. However, staying out in the woods directly wasn’t really a grand option either, as it could be hours before they were found. Especially since they were without anything useful to help make locating them easier. Maybe they could build a fire...or find a clearing. This was one of those times she wished she knew how to read a compass.

Adjusting her glasses, Romi looked at Jackson to see him waiting for a response and a twang of guilt struck her. He was so clueless and relied so much on her and here she was getting him lost on his first trip. "Uh, okay, well, the only thing I can think of is going back the way we came. We couldn’t have wandered that far off, so we should either come up on the trail or a clearing pretty quickly.” She knew they had been going West to East, so by that logic they had to travel back West. It was a big risk, but it was probably their best bet.

Relying on the fact that she knew Canada was due North, Romi mentally recited the silly mnemonic phrase of the four cardinal directions while simultaneously rotating her body to each direction until she was facing the direction the majority of the sun was being filtered through the trees. “-Watermelon. Alright, we go this way. Hopefully, it takes us towards something familiar otherwise-” She cut herself off, choosing to stick with the positive that they will find the trail.

Jackson reached out and touched her arm comfortingly, a smile of complete trust on his face. "It’ll be alright and if it's any consolation, I'm not all that worried. Okay, I am, but I know we’ll get out of this." He meant the words to be reassuring, she knew that. However, all it did was make her feel pressured, worried and even more guilty. What if they didn’t find the trail? Would he blame her for getting them lost? She certainly would.

The thought of Jackson blaming her had her reconsidering her decision to find the trail. They could wait it out, couldn’t they? “You know what, maybe we should-” She began only to stop short at the sound of nearby rustling grass and the snapping of twigs. The two froze in their spot and glanced curiously at one another. What was that?

“You heard that, right?” Jackson asked in a voice barely over a whisper while scanning the local wildlife for motion.

“No.” Noone wanted to hear random rustling in the middle of the woods when they were alone.

The two continue to stand there, simply paralyzed. Their hearts pounded, and their minds raced via active imagination of what it could possibly be. Could it be a bear? Cougar? Maybe it was a Wendigo or a potential murderer. Ah, hell. Now wasn’t that a terrible thought.

"Uh, hello?" Jackson calls out tentatively earning a jab in the arm from Romi. Immediately, the rustling stopped and they were met with an eerie silence, like whatever it was didn’t want them to know it’s location. Jackson made a fretful noise in the back of his throat, “Okay, that’s really creep-.”

The two share a look when a voice called out from somewhere in the thicket.

Flashing Romi a triumphant grin, Jackson answered back eagerly. "Uh, hey! Hey! Over here! Can you help us? I think we're lost!" There’s more rustling, much closer this time and it’s accompanied by the heavy clunging of footsteps. Much too heavy to belong to another hiker.

Stepping out of the bush, was a man in what appeared to be a red tunic with overlapping iron and leather strappings, reminiscent to that of Greco-Roman armor complete with a sword on his hip. Jackson pressed his lips together to stifle his laughter at the man before him. Just what the hell was he supposed to be?

The man stood there staring at them before yelling over his shoulder to someone out of view. He then turned back to them and spoke in an authoritative and commanding voice, his words rapid and unintelligible.

The smile on Jackson's lips fell as his eyebrows knitted in confusion. That wasn’t English. “I, um, that's not-" He turned to Romi. "Do you know what he’s saying?"

“Why would I know that?”

He raised and lowered a shoulder, gaze shifting between the man and his friend. “Didn’t you say you know languages? I figured you’d know.”

“Yeah, that's-that's not what Linguistics is.” She said, narrowing her eyes in both wariness and inquisitiveness as the man began to advance upon them. Though she didn’t understand him, she did recognize its sound as Italic. Almost reminiscent to that of Peninsular Spanish or Italian. However, the closer the man came and the more she focused, the more disparate it became. Like a strange amalgam of Italic languages or Greek. It was slow and melodic yet austere and slightly harsh due to the guttural undertones. There was also a certain primitive elocution to the speech that made it particularly difficult to relate it to any of the languages she was familiar with, past or present.

She wondered if it was really a language. Perhaps, it was an auxiliary language. Maybe Esperanto or Interlingua. Given his clothing of choice, it was logical. He was probably a part of either a private LARP group, a Roman re-enactment or an actor that was using the language. That had to be it. 

Feeling as if they were wasting daylight, Romi stepped forward, only to pause when the man’s hand touched the hilt of his sword and he growled a warning of sorts. "Please Sir, I know you’re trying not to break character, and I’m sorry to ask it of you, but we really really need to get back to the trail, so if you could...just...” Her voice began to trail when three more men in the same armor get-up stalked out of the surrounding bushes. Two carried bows, each with an arrow notched and aimed directly at them. Warning bells blared loudly in her mind as the group slowly began to advance upon them. This didn’t seem right.

Romi took a step back just as the men began to circle around them. She and Jackson needed to get out of here. “Jackson...” She called out, her eyes never wavering from the men in front of her. “We should le-“

"Wha-Hey! Hey man, what are you doing?! Get off me!" Romi turned around in time to see a fifth Greco-Roman soldier grabbing Jackson roughly by the arm and spinning him into the tree behind him. “Get off!”

The man reeled Jackson from the tree and slammed him back into it as he snarled at him. A pained hiss passed through clenched teeth when the right side of Jackson’s face connected harshly with the trunk, stunning him momentarily.

"Uh-Hey, Hey! Stop! Stop! Let him go!" Romi stammered, rushing forward in an attempt to get the guy off Jackson. She had just managed to get her hands in the space between them when she was siezed by the back of her jacket and slammed to the ground, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs and leaving her glasses askewed on her face. Stunned and completely taken aback, she struggled to get a hold of what exactly had happened. She had been rushing towards Jackson, then the next moment she was writhing in pain on the ground. As Romi groaned, someone rolled her over onto her back and bound her hands together with something abrasive before shoulder dragging her off.

When the initial shock wore off and panic took its place, Romi started to struggle against the firm grip that held her. “Get off me!” The soldier grunted something at her as he tightened his hold on her. “No! Get-let go of me! Get off! Get off! Help! Somebody help!" It was futile to scream, but she had hope that maybe-just maybe-someone could hear her. She continued to yell, violently kicking, thrashing and twisting in the large guard's hold trying to get him to loosen his grip.

The guy shouted, though the words were much too foreign for Romi to understand as adrenaline propelled her to continue fighting. Behind her, she could hear Jackson's own protests and struggle before he abruptly fell silent. Fear shot through her like a bullet and put a halt in her efforts to free herself as her mind immediately thought of the worse. The familiar burning of on coming tears brimmed her eyes and a sob was caught in . Had they killed him? They had hadn't they? Dear God, was she-

Her head snapped to the side as a sharp, mighty blow caught her in the temple. Her brain shook from the impact, the world around her tilting and muddling as her body went lax.

There was garbled extrinsic conversation from above and multiple hands upon on her, around her, all over her as she was lifted into the air. The movement left her head swimming, her ears ringing and vision misaligned while the men carried her towards...what looked to be...horse-drawn carriages...with people...and Jac...

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I present to you, Ch.1. This story is about to be one hell of a writing challenge...but I am HERE for it.