At least a dozen men were pursing him from what he could tell as he crashed through the woods toward camp. Jason wasn't sure how they found him again or even how far they would go to catch him, but he wasn't about to find out. "Dammit! If I didn't get so close to them earlier they wouldn't have found me to begin with." Jason thought out loud as his pursuers inched closer. He continued running until his lungs felt like they were going to burst, and then finally, silence. "I think I lost them." He slowed down to a jog until he reached a small clearing. He knew that going through the clearing would be a mistake, but it would be the fastest way back to camp. He caught his breath and took off in a dead sprint. When he was about 50 yards from the edge of the clearing he saw the outline of something huge approaching him from the opposite direction. It was bigger than a bear and moved like a wolf. and was quickly gaining on his position. He knew he wouldn't be able to escape from it so he knelled down and took aim. He fired 3 shots into the beast. He wasn't able to kill it, but whatever it was got spooked and ran off in the opposite direction. "Damn! I am sure they heard that!" Jason cursed himself as he reached the woodline at a full sprint. He ducked down behind a tree and started to scan the area through his scope. "Nobody yet." he thought to himself. He waited there for another minute until he saw a single man emerge from the opposite side of the clearing. He was walking straight towards him. "How the hell can he see me?!" Jason asked himself exasperated. The man held out his hand and a ball of flame ignited in his palm. "Dpnf pvu opx! Xf ep opu xbou up ivsu zpv!" the man yelled. Jason kept his rifle trained on the man, ready to fire. "I can't understand a word this guy is saying." Jason said to himself. As the man inched closer Jason yelled for him to stay back. He then fired a warning shot. The man continued to walk closer, smiling. Jason fired a round into the man's leg, stopping him in his place. It was then the man hurled a huge ball of fire at Jason. He dove behind some trees as the projectile splashed down not more than 10 feet from him, causing the damp area around it to explode. Some shrapnel got lodged in Jason's leg causing him to immediately wince in pain. "Alright motherfucker, I tried to play nice, but you had to go and do this!" He took aim and fired once more, hitting his would be assailant through his forehead. He got back up and continued toward camp, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
One day earlier
"So you are going where to camp?" Samantha asked. "I am heading up to a place called Devil's Den. I will be setting camp there." Jason replied. "But why there?" Samantha asked. "From what I have been told, there are some huge white tails there. Also the trout there are huge." Jason stated. "I have to head out to sign out. I will be back in a bit." He leaned in and gave his wife a kiss before heading out the door.
As Jason drove toward headquarters he thought about how lucky he was to have a family like his. The have been married for more than ten years, and have two kids together, a boy and a girl. When they first started talking, he never would have guessed they would have even started dated. As he finally pulled into the parking lot of HQ, he pulled himself out of his day dream. He jumped out of his Jeep and began walking toward the staff duty desk to sign out. When he reached the desk one of his buddies was already there waiting for him. "Hey bro! I will meet you on the mountain tomorrow night right?" David asked. "Sounds like a plan. I am leaving in a bit so I will be there tonight. I will go ahead and set up camp before you get there." Jason replied. Both friends spoke for a while longer then left.
Upon reaching his house, Jason was met by his daughter at the door. She ran up and hugged him. He bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead and sent her on her way so he could pack for his trip. When he finished packing walked back into the house and sat down with his wife on the couch. "You almost ready to go?" Samantha asked. "Just about. All I gotta do is say bye to the kids, gas up, and go." He got up and went to his son's room. "You are gonna bring me next time right dad?" his son asked. "I will next time, I promise." Jason replied as he wrapped his arms around him and gave him a hug. "Be good for your mom when I'm gone." His son just nodded his head as he headed out the door. The next room he went to was his daughters room. With tears in her eyes she asked "Who is going to give me my hug and kiss goodnight?" Jason smiled and gave her a peck on the cheek and said," It will be alright. Your mommy will take care of that. I will only be one for a week." His wife was waiting at the door for him with a water bottle. "Be careful. Call me when you get there." she said. "I will." He replied as he held her and gave her a long kiss at the door on the way out.
The trip to the spot took several hours, but he finally made it right when the sun was beginning to set. He quickly jumped out and began to set up camp, racing against the setting sun. He then called his wife and let her know he made it safely. When he got off the phone he was finally able to relax. He took his folding chair out of the back of the jeep, laid back and looked at the stars. Everything was so clear from where he was. He closed his eyes and was asleep before he knew what was happening.
Jason awoke to the sun shining brightly on him. "Damn, I guess I fell asleep." Jason thought as he stood from his folding chair. When he finally was able to rub the sleep out of his eyes he realized the road he drove in on was gone. The entire area around the mountain was different. "What the hell?" he thought as he looked around. He opened his Jeep door and reached for his phone. "Dammit, no signal." he said. In the distance he saw what appeared to be a small town. "Well, since I can't seem to find the road I guess I am walking." he thought as he grabbed his rifle and camel back. "Maybe they can tell me what the hell is going on." He thought as he began his journey toward the settlement in the distance. It took about 2 hours of walking but he finally made it to the outskirts of the town. As he approached the front gate something stopped him. He immediately dropped to the ground and began to observe the area closely. There were several large men in what appeared to be chain mail rounding up people and putting them in cages. He crawled slowly toward one of the cages. There were men, women, and children inside speaking some weird language. The people inside were also dressed like peasants from the middle ages. "Okay, seriously what the fuck is going on here?!" Jason asked himself. Suddenly, one of the men inside the cage reached out and grabbed him. "HFU VT PVU PG IFSF!" the man shouted. Jason tried to run but the man hand a death grip on his jacket. He had to leave it behind. He began to run but not before he was noticed by one of the armored men.
*Author note*
Okay, To figure out what is said by the other language, you have to use "Shifted Alphabet Code".
The way you encode or decode is found below. This will come in handy for future chapters. There will be much much more interaction between these different cultures, so if you want to learn the whole story you have to decode the messages.
---The Shifted Alphabet Code is very very easy to do. Begin by writing down the alphabet in order on a piece of paper (or use the one below).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Now pick a number between 1 and 25. Got it? I picked the number 3. Now, when you write down your coded message, instead of writing the realletter, you find that letter in the alphabet and count forward - as many letters as the number you picked.
So, if my message was "HI, HOW ARE YOU?" I would begin by finding the letter H, then counting foward three letters, to get the letter K. Then, since the next letter is I, find the I and count forward to get the letter L. Keep going through the whole message like that.
Uh oh...what about punctuation (like that question mark at the end of "Hi, HOW ARE YOU?"? Just leave that exactly the way it is.