I know NaNoWriMo is over, but I'm gonna finish this dang it!
Chapter 2
No idea where she was headed, Flist had remembered her mother had always said something about a refugee camp. What would she say when she got there? She was covered in blood, dirty and tired. She continued on the bleak desert like terrain. Everything had been wiped away from the land. No vegetation, water or shade. The heat bore down on her weary body as if telling her to just stop. Every step she took, she could feel the blisters on her feet rub on her shoes. She had to keep going. Even though the land was deserted, she occasionally saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She stopped to look for whatever had been moving but whatever it was, creature or delusion, didn’t bother her in the slightest; she thought it best to keep moving.
On the evening of the second day of travel, she had only stopped to rest for a couple of hours, and kept on moving. Staring off into the horizon she saw what seemed to be a city. Excited at the possible sign of civilization, her pace quickened and that’s when she saw the movement again.
Convinced she wasn’t imagining things, she yelled out “HEY! Who’s there?!” She saw movement again. This time right in front of her, but she couldn’t tell what is was because it was getting darker outside. Flist gripped the carving knife she had stolen tightly in her hand. It looked like the outline of a small person, a child perhaps? Maybe she hadn’t killed everyone in the village and this child had followed her the whole way out here.
A little softer she called out again, “Hey, it’s ok, come here so I can see you. Are you from the village?” The child hesitated and then slowly began to move toward Flist. “It’s alright, I won’t hurt you.” She squinted in the darkness. The child, it had to be a child was arms length in front of her now, but she still couldn’t see. “Hold on. Let me light a lamp.” Flist reached for a lantern hanging off of her sack. She had almost forgotten that she had it. “Let me just…” she struggled with the flint as she tried to light the lamp. Setting her belongings down on the ground, she bent down on one knee, trying to light the fire. “Heh I’m not that good at this…” she admitted. “Are you from the village?” The child didn’t respond, all she could hear was his ragged breathing. With a clever movement of her hand she was able to light the lamp, but as soon as she did she heard the creature shriek. For a flash of a second she saw that the creature was, in fact, not a child but a horrific beast. Its soulless black eyes were the size of dinner plates and its hairless grey body was covered in putrid slime that oozed from various openings. Bits of skin had melted away from the creatures face exposing a good amount of sharp yellow teeth underneath. It had been sitting, crouched on its back legs and scampered away on all fours like a gorilla at the first sign of light.
Scared and confused Flist continued kneeling there for a few minutes. She could still see it, hanging back a good distance from her lamp, its silhouette visible against the light. “What… what are you?” No answer. The thing seemed to understand her but it would not or, maybe, could not respond. She kept the lamp close by and had a mostly sleepless night waiting for daylight to come hoping this creature would just go away and she could get to the city. She must have dozed off somewhere between twilight and daybreak because she never remembered seeing it leave. Shaken and tired, Flist continued on her journey.
This refugee camp was filled with a lot more people than Flist had initially anticipated. She had arrived before anyone had awoken and she could tell that the couple dozen tents were filled with people. The tents looked as if they could hold ten people at a time and that life here was just temporary. ‘I had wished for a more permanent solution than this, maybe I should look somewhere else.’ Flist thought to herself. She began to turn around when she heard some rustling in the tent next to her. Flist immediately tried to hide behind the tent and get out of the doorway unseen. She silently watched the door of the tent as the woman inside unzipped the door and awkwardly crawled out trying not to trip on the bottom flap. She was a woman of middle age, probably in her mid to late 40’s with dirty blonde hair and a plump build. “I will NEVER get used to these tents!” she whispered as she tried to stealthily make her way to a bunch of cooking gear that sat upon a group of tables toward the center of camp. The woman started to set up for what Flist guessed was breakfast for the camp. She heard her belly rebelliously rumbling at the mere thought and she could have sworn it echoed throughout the hushed campground. Flist continued to watch the woman when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Violently turning around with knife in hand Flist backed into the tent.
“It’s ok, I’m not here to hurt you.” The man in front of her looked friendly, but a bit tired. She could tell this world had been hard on him. He looked to be about 50 years old he was very tall and of athletic build, bleach blonde hair and he was wearing a uniform of some sort, different from the Coalition.
“Please, put down the knife, my name is Emanuel, you can call me Manny. What’s your name?”
Flist quietly murmured, “Flist, my name is Flist.” She could hear the people in the tent she was leaning against start to get up.
“Who’s out there Manny? Is it a newcomer?”
“Yeah, I think she’s hurt, call Helen, she’s covered in blood.” He replied.
Overwhelmed by the people starting to surround her and the sleeplessness finally catching up with her, Flist could feel the ground move beneath her feet. She felt the man quickly grab her and the last thing she heard was “It’ll be ok Flist, just hold…” The words faded out.
The next thing Flist felt was hot pain. It was dark all around her and she heard a voice. “Hey my little mass murderer, it looks like you put my power to good use. I have a present for you…” She immediately recognized the voice.
“What do you want? My parents are dead! You didn’t help me save them at all!” She screamed into the darkness.
“I gave you the power to do what you wanted and you chose to do what you did with it. You must have wanted everyone in that town dead otherwise they would still be alive today.”
Maybe it was her fault that all of these people died… “No! The Coalition MADE me resort to these measures! I wouldn’t have even had to use that power if it wasn’t for them! And LOOK what they’re doing to these people, forcing them to live in camps.”
“You’re absolutely correct Flist. You still owe me that favor, but in the meantime, I want to help you take revenge on the nasty Coalition forces that, essentially, killed your parents and your hometown.”
“You do? But what can you do? I don’t want to kill any more innocent lives.”
“I have sent one of my pets to keep watch over you and he will do your bidding. Use him wisely though because if you lose him I will be very very cross. He will make you stronger by just binding himself to you. He must never be discovered by humans.”
“Okay I understand. How do I call for him?”
“If you think about him, he will appear, he can teleport between dimensions easily. Now it’s time for you to wake up and continue on your mission.”
“Wait! But I have more questions!” Flist felt a painful surge of heat and she slowly opened her eyes.
“Well, well, well it looks like Ms. Flist is finally awake. You’ve been asleep for two days now! My name is Helen, I’m the resident nurse.” A young woman, barely in her 30s with brown hair bundled into a bun stood before her, wearing a nurse’s uniform. “We were worried you wouldn’t wake up! Welcome to Camp Hope, a little corny I know but it works!” She smiled cheerily at Flist.
Flist was on a sleeping bag on a stretcher, covered in blankets. She was in possibly the biggest tent she had ever seen. There were other patients in beds just like hers hooked up to heart monitors and IV drips. She was astounded that she didn’t see this tent from outside. “I know what you’re thinking,” said Helen, “this tent is huge right? I don’t care what the Coalition says, magic is wonderful!”
“Helen, are you talking too much again?” Manny walked up beside her. “We still aren’t sure who this girl is. We should probably get to know her a bit more.” Helen pouted and shuffled off to another patient as Manny walked up to Flist and helped her sit up.
“First of all, I would like to tell you that I’m not here to pry too much. We all come from stressful situations and I don’t want to force you to say anything you aren’t comfortable with. We are a refugee camp for Magic users and for humans who have nowhere to go. Now, where did you come from?”
She looked into his eyes and started to tear up at the question. “Ok ok, I can see that wherever you are from is traumatic for you. Were there any survivors beside yourself? Should we send out a search party?” She shook her head no, “No survivors.”
“Alright,” Manny responded, “we’ll get you set up here and I’ll watch over you since you are still very young.” She flinched at the words ‘very young’. She was old enough to take care of herself, but she agreed since this place was the only place she had.
