"The Girl With Good Blood" (closed)

[PennySaver]

"The Girl With Good Blood"

Closed​

Hanna was playing in the surf, as she had nearly every day of her 14 years on the island, when she looked down the sand and felt a chill run up her spine at a terrifying sight. A motor boat she hadn't heard over the crashing of the waves beached itself at high speed, the motors rising for protection as the craft short two full lengths up the sand. In a flash, eight Boy People disembarked; some moved a few yards away and dropped to their knees, scouting the area, while others shot for the line of trees another thirty or forty feet up the beach.

She just stood there in shock: she'd never seen such an operation as this; she'd never seen Boy People in military-style uniforms; she'd never seen automatic assault weapons or firearms at all; and -- for the last decade, since she was 9 years old and her Daddy died -- she'd never even seen a Boy People!

Hanna, who was just short of 19 years old, had been on the island alone now for the past 5 years. The last People other than her had been her mother, who died after being sick for almost a year. Before her mother's demise had been that of Kendall, Sarah, The Imp, Daddy, Mister Evans, The Toad, and so many others.

Her family and friends had come here, to the island they called Paradise, aboard the SS Freedom, a 69 foot sailing vessel that had left San Diego just days ahead of the Cordyceps Plague. The original community had included Hanna -- then just 5 years of age -- her parents, one grandparent, two aunts, three cousins, and 12 non-family members; amongst them were two doctors, a nurse, a botanist, an organic farmer, four skilled construction/design workers, and a pair of teachers, as well as the children, who over the next nearly decade and a half would all learn to pull their weight on the tiny island.

Between them, under the very strict control of Hanna's father and then later her mother, they group turned Paradise into a thriving community. They lived through two cyclones, three droughts, and one fish kill that was environmentally related and left them on the verge of starvation at one point.

And in all that time, they'd seen no other People at all, not on the water or in the air. (In fact, although this island had once been within the sight lines of airline passengers traveling from three American airports to Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand, Hanna hadn't seen an airplane in the 14 years that she'd lived here because such air travel simply didn't happen anymore.)

Life had been hard in the beginning. But with Daddy as leader -- dictator would be a better word if Clara knew it -- they'd discussed and agreed to the distribution of resources, assignment of labor, the making and enforcing of Laws, and other important topics even before leaving to come here. The group had survived and at times even thrived on the little isle that could easily fit within the playing area of a professional football stadium.

They'd been able to grow many of the plant species seeds they'd brought with them; space had been very limited and ingenious ways of growing upwards not outward had had to be devised. They had chickens, ducks, and goats, too. There weren't enough trees to build daily fires, so most of the animal meat had been cut thin and dried under the sun. There had been pigs when Clara was a little girl but -- unknown to her -- they had been slaughtered because they simply did too much damage to the fragile habitat upon which the humans, other animals, and plant life depended. And they fished in the lagoons, harvested shell fish from the reefs, and collected bird eggs during the nesting season, too.

Although there had been Boy People in the beginning, Clara hadn't seen a male since she was 9 years old. And now a pair of them were hurrying across the sand her direction, followed not too far behind by yet two more pair of them. A closer look at the People revealed two women as well, one dressed in the Boy People clothes and one in all white, which Hanna had been taught was the color of Doctors and Nurses.

Suddenly, Hanna began to panic. She turned and sprinted up the beach toward the jungle, and within seconds she was gone. She knew every rock, tree, and grain of sand on this island, and before the Boy People had reached the trees, she was safely more than 70 yards into the thick foliage, safe from any chance of capture.

Of course, were they trying to capture her? Daddy and Mommy had taught her that is she ever say People who didn't belong here, she was to run and hide and not come out until one of them came to find her. But, neither Daddy nor Mommy were alive anymore to come find her. The only People on the island were the very People from whom Hanna was taught to flee.

She used a combination of open trails and hidden paths to disappear deep into the island, then -- when night fell -- she made her way out to a cliff edge where she could look down upon the camp that the People had erected on the beach. Hanna could see the boat on which they arrived, and now -- from this vantage point -- she could see the much larger ship anchored about six miles miles out, just out of sight from where Hanna had been playing when she discovered the invasion.

 

[BehaviorMod]

"...An overwhelming amount of crops tainted with fungus were discovered..."​

"...Several food chains are asking for involuntary recalls..."​

"....The number of confirmed deaths has passed two-hundred..."​

"...Hundreds and hundreds of bodies lining the streets..."​

"...The Center for Disease Control has named the fungal plague the Cordyceps Brain Infection, or CBI for short, due to the origins of its..."​

"...Panic spread worldwide after a leaked report from the World Health Organization showed that the latest vaccination tests have failed to show..."​

"...Los Angeles is now the latest city to be placed under martial law..."​

"...California is now closed to all forms of travel in or out of the state. Caution is..."​

"...All residents are required to report to their designated Quarantine..."​

"...Riots have continued for a third consecutive day and winter rations are at an all time..."​

"...The return of all branches of governing offices has been ordered by an organized group of trained milit..."​

​

"...The more numerous a species becomes, the more likely it is to be preyed on..."​

Humanity, beaten and rendered down to just those last surviving pockets, by fungus. The Cordyceps is a parasitic fungi that can take over a host's mind and alter its behavior and, until it suddenly caused the fall of civilization, only affected insects and arthropods. Until nature had decided humans had outgrown their pen and the Cordyceps mutated to include human biology. Fun times...

It had been too many years since the Cordyceps Plague took out humanity than Jake cared to remember or recall. Almost all law enforcement and military , even para-military, fell to the fungi. Pockets of survivors remain; some civilian. Some medical professional. A few with combat training and military expertise like Jake and the team he was being sent in with. His team.

A team of eight that consisted of Jake; the commanding officer, along with a female doctor, a medical scientist, a communications specialist, and their sniper; the only other female on their team. Which left three scouts...and scout they did, which turned up absolutely no survivors.

Perfect.

They needed to find that girl who escaped from the beachfront when they made landfall. As far as Jake was aware, she was the only remaining living survivor of the SS Freedom, a very special sailing vessel carrying very special personnel to conduct a very particular mission to a certain island that was nowhere near the one Jake had landed on. Project Freedom, it had been called. A paradise where twenty-one people would work together to develop a cure for the plague far away from civilization where they would be at any risk.

If the girl was the last remaining living passenger of that vessel, she was now the most important living person in the entire world.....and protocol of the SS Freedom dictated she didn't even know it.

Jake was surveying the landing location when the scouts returned.
"Report. I hope you have something helpful to give me?"

"Apologies, Sir, we lost the girl in the brush in the center of the island. The island isn't big, buy average landmass standards, but she knows the terrain better than we. Should we make another pass?"

"No, that'll be all, for now. Our daylight is fading fast and, with it, our chances at collecting what we need to build a perimeter and a fire. Get back to our boat and get the gear. All of the gear." The lead scout turned and directed the other two to follow.
"Doctor?" Jake turned to the woman wearing a rather well fitting healthcare outfit. "Exactly how old would the girl be by now? What should her health be given what they had to subsist on? What about her mental state? If we are going to check her for signs of infection, we need to make sure she wont try and murder any of us in our sleep."

Jake and the doctor exchanged a bit of conversation until Jake felt happy with the answers, and then camp was set. He kept the sniper on constant watch of their perimeter, while the scouts would occasionally disappear into the foliage of the island and return back only a brief few minutes later. There was no way they were going to find the girl like this....if the couldn't come to her, they would need her to come to them.

 

[PennySaver]

"Report," the team's commander ordered, adding, "I hope you have something helpful to give me?"

"Apologies, Sir," one of the scouts responded. "We lost the girl in the brush in the center of the island."

Constance Cramer laughed wryly at her team mate's assessment, and when the others looked her way, Connie clarified her humor with, "We didn't lose her because we never had her. Sir, this little minx is slippery. Five, maybe six times I swear I saw her shoot past us, maybe within ten yards, maybe less! Then, poof! Nothing there. I'm telling ya."

Connie was by far the most unlikeliest of members of Jake Solomon's team. She was barely 23 years of age, barely more than half the age of the team's eldest member, their Weapons Specialist, who was on the big boat anchored off shore. She stood all of 5'6" and was barely into the 130s weight wise. Anyone of her team mates could pick her up over their head and throw her ten feet.

Of course, they had to get a hold of her to pick her up first. Just like their target out there in the woods, Connie was wiry and quick. The others might be big and built, but she could still kick the ass of each and every one of them and on two occasions had! She'd been training in martial arts since she was able to stand on her own two feet, gaining black belts or their equivalents in five separate disciplines. She had a wall of tournament trophies in the basement of her parents' house, the only place she'd ever called home other than the barracks or the field with these big lugs, the men (and now the woman) who were her new family.

Oh, and weapons...? Fuck...! Don't get her mad while she had one in her hands.

"No, that'll be all, for now," Jake told them before sending them to collect their gear and set up camp.

"Doctor?"

The second and newest female on the team had been listening to the conversation from near the boat, where she was checking the condition of her Med Packs. Olivia King had the regular, expected med kits for rendering first aid, of course, but the special gear she'd brought with her including items of three very specific purposes: performing a field analysis of their target's blood, if they ever caught the girl, which right now was looking like it might take longer than expected; detecting the original and mutated variations of the Cordyceps Fungus; and, if someone was to become infected, put down that person in the most humane fashion possible before one of the other team members was forced to reluctantly put that member down with their weapon.

"Exactly how old would the girl be by now?" the team leader asked.

"She'd be 18-20 years of age by now," Olivia said when she realized that Jake's question was meant for her. She rarely if ever called him Sir like the others; she wasn't actually a member of the team but was simply on loan. She'd never had to report to a military type on a regular basis until this mission, and having had female supervisors for the entirety of her career until now, sir wasn't something that habitually slip off her tongue like it did Jake's subordinates. "Boat departed San Diego 14 years, 4 months ago ... girl was 4 or 5 years old we think. The records were destroyed, so."

She'd been walking toward Jake and reaching him now shrugged. "Best I can tell you is she's adult age but still young enough to be actively producing the antibodies we are looking for ... assuming she's even got them."

Their target did have the good blood that she, Jake, and all the people back home were hoping she had, but they wouldn't know until Olivia could stick a needle in her arm. Jake asked about the girl's physical fitness, to which Olivia chuckled. "I'd be surprised if she weighs a hundred pounds. Actually, I'm kinda surprised she was capable of avoiding your men..."

Olivia glanced past Jake and gave an acknowledging nod to Connie, continuing, "...and woman."

Looking to the commander again and described the conditions of having suffered a lack of sufficient nourishment over the course of nearly a decade and a half. "Once we have her and have tested her, she'll need to be put on a course of anti-biotics and vaccines immunizations, to protect her from anything we might be carrying, from colds to the flu to the variations of Cordyceps for which we have been immunized but for which she won't have a resistance."

She looked between Jake, Connie, and two of the other team members who were within hearing range and told them with a serious tone, "We have to be careful with this girl. She'll be fragile and vulnerable. Remember your history lessons about what happened to the Indigenous peoples of the New World, when the white man brought their small pox and their measles and their typhus fever over from Europe...? This could be very similar. This girl, she could very well catch a cold germ from one of us and die within three days, which would put a damper on us trying to use her to save the world."

"What about her mental state?" Jake asked. "If we are going to check her for signs of infection, we need to make sure she won't try and murder any of us in our sleep."

"Isn't that what the big guns and brawny men are for?" Olivia asked with a smile. Again she nodded to the female member of the military team, then looked to Jake and answered, "I don't think she's a danger to us. Look, the satellite images only ever caught sight of one individual still alive on the island. She's alone and scared and hiding because she doesn't know we're the good guys."

That was kind of a questionable statement in Olivia's mind. She didn't know the full extent and intent of this mission; she'd only been told that there might be an Immune on the island and that she was to help determine the value of this individual in the research of a vaccine to fight CBI.

+++++++++++++++​

From up on the cliff, Hanna looked down upon the Peoples who were milling about on Paradise's beach and wondered about their conversation. She couldn't know that they were talking about her ... and that they were so wrong about her.

The People of Freedom Island had had their lean years, of course; two deaths had been attributed to a lack of proper nutrition over time. But as the People of Freedom died off one by one with not a single new birth amongst them to increase the population, and the food supply remained relatively close to what it had been overall, the remaining survivors -- including Hanna, of course -- had only eaten better as time went on. They'd had at least one doctor in Hanna's mother, so they and Hanna had been well looked after medically.

And Hanna was a strong willed person who understood the necessity of keeping healthy and fit. She was going to surprise the hell out of them once they finally got a look at her ... which, wasn't going to happen tonight.

She watched the group below her for almost three hours before finally turning back into the forest and heading for her little home in the woods. She stopped short of it, though, after realizing that it was being watched by the pair of Peoples she'd seen enter the forest by not leave.

Hanna squatted and studied them for another hour or so before smiling to herself devilishly. She began making a clicking sound with her tongue and cheek, and within a minute the trees above the men were filled with hundreds of the island's only indigenous mammal species: bats! Oh, they weren't dangerous to the men on the ground or anything like that. But they were noisy and never stopped moving as they looked for the source of the mayday signal Hanna had been making to lure them to the trees above.

As the sky rats shuffled about the limbs, causing all sorts of racket, Hanna snuck up on the nearest of the Peoples until she was literally closer to his foot than was his own head. She contemplated reaching out and touching him, just to see him jump in fear; it was a game she'd played with The Imp before he'd died from a stingray injury when Hanna was still a young girl.

Instead, though, she reached out and quietly snatched the field glasses he'd set on the ground near his canteen of fresh water ... and then, just for the hell of it, she took the canteen, too. She slipped away undetected and descended to the beach to spy on the Peoples down there through the binoculars.

She knew what they were, of course; she had two pair of them back in her hut. These were strange, though; even hours after the sun had gone down, Hanna could look through these and see the People's as clear as if it were high noon. A button on the side of them zoomed in and out without having to twist a knob, and another button clicked softly when pressed and -- in the upper corner of the image -- maintained an image of that at which she'd been looking when she pressed it.

More People came in from the sea, likely from the big boat Hanna had seen from the cliff top, while some of the men on shore returned to the sea. But one of the People remained through it all, and all of the others went to him as the People of Freedom had gone to Hanna's dad. This man was the leader, Hanna knew this to be certain. She watched him intently through the early morning hours, until finally he went into a tent and didn't come out.

+++++++++++++++​

When the early morning hustle and bustle of the camp awoke the team's commander and he lifted himself from his sleeping bag on a short, squat cot sitting just inches off the sand, the most obvious thing that had changed during the night was that a beautiful, young woman scantily dressed was sitting just feet away from him, smiling from atop a trunk filled with gear. She was eating one of his ration bars and drinking a delicious but never before tasted juice from a plastic bottle.

She smiled to the People once he'd blinked his eyes clear and set his gaze upon her, asking with awe as she jiggled the now empty bottle before him, "Got any more of this. I like this."

 

[BehaviorMod]

Jake woke to the normal sounds of hustle outside the command tent; a sound he was previously used to during his various military services. What was not normal, and certainly something captain Solomon was not previously used to, was waking to find a nearly naked, young, highly attractive woman in his tent who he had NOT invited in the night before.

Jake instinctively went for his sidearm on a locker case by the cot but she spoke before he could aim the desert eagle at her. "Got any more of this. I like this."

He left the gun where it was and pushed himself into a sitting position with strong defined arms, the entire fluid motion showing off his broad powerful inked shoulders and well defined abdomen and chest. The girl...woman...as was immediately clear as he blinked a few times to focus his eyesight, was stunning. Jake had to wonder if the purity of her blood and its antibody potential weren't the only things engineered by this project.

He raked his fingers through short, dark brown hair and set his observant hazel eyes upon her, trying his damnedest to look at her face and not her other features prominently displayed by her wet clothes...or lack of what could be considered clothes.
"You like that, hm? Do you know what that is? Or what you are eating?", he asked her, thinking better of telling her she was perched on a weapons locker. "A better question, how did a little thing like you get in here without alerting anyone? You know I have an entire team of people right outside, looking for you in fact?"

Jake stood and reached for his pants, but in doing so revealed a hint of his superior endowment when the sheet wouldn't stretch far enough and was slipped from his hand abruptly. The woman obviously wouldn't have been looking in that direction, but if she had been, she would have noticed the smoothness of it. How the considerable thickness made the veins that traced along every longer than average inch more prominent. The lack of hair anywhere down there may have also caught attention and seemed unusual to the girl who had spend her entire informative years on an island where the men may not have had access to such precise grooming tools.

Slipping his pants on quickly, he added, "What's your name? What should I call you? My name is Jake. Jake Solomon."

 

[PennySaver]

Hanna barely flinched when the Boy People reached for the object sitting on the locker case. She'd never seen a firearm since the day the Freedom left port, when Daddy ordered all the pistols, rifles, and shotguns stored away in the ship's hold and in specific hiding places known only to the adults tasked with providing security.

Apparently, the Boy People decided he didn't need whatever it was, instead turning to watch Hanna as she devoured the rest of the energy bar and tipped the bottle to get the last couple of drops of juice.

"You like that, hm?" he asked. She nodded energetically. "Do you know what that is? Or what you are eating?"

Hanna shook her head. She wanted to snatch up another one from the soft sided pack from which she'd taken it. But one of the greatest lessons Daddy had ever taught her about nutrition was to consume only what you needed at that time, for you may find there was nothing more to be had later.

"A better question, how did a little thing like you get in here without alerting anyone?" the People changed to another topic. "You know I have an entire team of people right outside, looking for you in fact?"

Hanna held up a sea shell that, now broken, had an edge that was nearly as sharp as a razor. She pointed to where the back and bottom of his tent met on the sand; there was now a nice sized hole in the fabric through which she'd crawled to avoid the two men who at that time had been watching the camp from inside of it rather than outside of it.

"You snore," Hanna said softly, her lips widening in a playful smile. "Probably why you didn't hear me."

She watched the People rise and move to dress, and when his sheet fell away to reveal his groin, she almost giggled at the lack of hair in his Pee Pee area.

"What's your name? What should I call you?" he asked as he dressed. "My name is Jake. Jake Solomon."

"You're a Boy People," she said casually, ignoring his questions. She looked to and waggled an extended finger at his groin and said, "Daddy had one of those, for pee-pee. Momma didn't. Neither do I. That makes you a Boy People. I'm a Girl People"

Anyone who didn't know Hanna -- which, essentially, was every People on the planet now -- might have thought that she was simple minded or that her metal development had ceased at age 8 or 9. That wasn't the case, though; she was smart, intelligent, sensible, and quick. At the same time, though, she had very little experience with proper social etiquette. She didn't know it was improper to point at a man's cock and note that he did in fact have one.

Hanna had become aware of feet moving on the sound outside the tent and had noticed a shadow falling on the fabric. There was sudden movement from the back to the front and the unzipped door flap suddenly flew open, revealing the guard who had found the slice in the back of his Commander's tent.

When the Boy People looked to the guard, Hanna snatched up a small pack that had been sitting there and threw it directly at his head. In a flash, she'd leapt for the cut in the tent and was out the back and running down the sand toward the water. She could hear men and women behind her hollering for her to stop; she didn't look over her shoulder but could hear boots on the dry and then the wet sand, chasing her down.

Hanna entered the surf without slowing her speed, skillfully leaping the crests of the smaller breaking waves and then with a final jump forward disappeared into the surf over the top of a final last wave...

...and she was gone!

Connie -- who had been tending the beach fire and pouring coffee for any who needed it, which was most everyone -- had spotted the fleeing girl just seconds after she appeared from behind the tent. She wasn't weighed down by her gear and coat, and she gave chase immediately. She was very fast relative to the shorter length of her legs and yet even heading for the surf at an angle, the girl was diving into the water before she herself had even gotten her boots wet.

She continued forward up to her knees, then got hit by a wave that soaked her all the way up to her neck. Turning back toward the others who had given chase, she barked, "What the fuck is it with this girl? Is she some kind of Tarzan-Aquawoman chick or what?"

Connie noticed that a couple of the men were staring at her ... specifically at her well formed, well firmed C-cup breasts -- concealed behind a now very wet tee shirt and a sports bra -- which were now as much on display as had been their target's tits the day before.

She glanced downward, realized the issue, looked up again, and as she headed back up the steep beach snapped, "Oh, fucking grow up."

 

[BehaviorMod]

"....even got away with my canteen and binoculars!" Jackson, the scout who the girl had stolen from at some point between last night and the happenings in the tent complained out loud, to no one in particular.

Connie couldn't help herself. "Maybe if you weren't such a pussy, and kept track of your shit like we were taught, the girl wouldn't have a way to spy on us from afar now. To think, someone who carries a cock around all day can't keep their shit clipped to their belt?"

"How about I whip it out on your forehead and you can see how I carry my shit, Constance?"
The sniper growled, which made her nose and lips turn up in a snarl, "Not if you want to keep that thing in tact."

Jake stormed out of the command tent, hazel eyes piercing and aimed right at them. "How about you both close your cocksuckers and fall in," he said in that strict and commanding tone that demanded attention from even their hard ass Connie. "I need to know how this girl got passed our perimeter and into my goddamn tent. Now, people."

Olivia was trying to conceal her amusement, but she didn't escape the observational skills of of Jake. "Doctor King, care to grace us with your presence? This is going to require more planning than I imagined. This girl is your charge, as your future patient and area of expertise while en-route. I'll need your opinions to make sure we don't harm her. Or scare the life out of her. Clear?" Jake waited as she put on her straight face and walked over, acknowledging his 'command' as she did so, before he continued.

"Island size. What are we dealing with here?"

"It's about one-hundred meters by seventy-five meters. This island can fit snugly in Denver Stadium, which served as mass triage before the city fell. There is a tall rock formation at the very center that rises barely above the tree line, there, and a natural waterfall that falls backwards into the middle of the island."

"Did you say a waterfall? On this tiny thing? How is that even possible?"

"Our drones took NV pictures last night of structures. Viewed in Infrared, the island shows no heat signatures that don't belong to biological life, so there I don't mean machinery. I mean manually built structures to capture, store, funnel, and otherwise utilize water. Both rain water as well as the ocean water surrounding us. The fall empties into the ocean through a pool of sorts. Probably ocean water. Most likely there is a cavern of some sort under the island and the ocean flows up through it. It's also not the only thing that was built."

Jake grabbed the tablet out of his hands and leafed through the digital images. "Well fuck me, they were growing food. Rationing it. Is that what's left of a mini greenhouse? What the hell did they think they could grow out here surrounded by salt water?" He handed the tablet back and sighed. "Alright. I see one option that doesn't injure her in the process. Gather all the drones from the main ship and get them back to the island. Break off into pairs. Luke will stay behind and maintain control of all the drones with me while I give radio commands. Use of lethal force is prohibited. No weapons. Not even flash grenades. You catch this girl with your hands or not at all. Convince her we're here to help her if you can, but getting her in our custody is priority," Jake looked to Constance who was still visibly upset, "You. To that rock up there. Your eye is either in your scope, or on the girl. Might cool you down while you're up there. You have your orders, get them done."

As the soldiers were splitting up to follow their orders, Jake looked to Olivia, "Do I snore? Pretty certain I don't snore in my sleep. Damned girl..."

+++++++++++++++++++++

It took the remainder of the day, all night, and a good portion of the next morning until the girl was brought back and plopped down in plastic wrist restraints directly in front of Jake.

"So, where were we, girl? Would you like more of what you were eating yesterday morning? Or maybe you'd like to return the things you borrowed from my team? Maybe we should start all over. My name is Jake Solomon. You are Hanna. Hanna....," Jake looked over to Olivia, "Do we have a last name?", before looking back at the girl. "We have come to get you off this island. How does that sound?"

 

[PennySaver]

The hardest part of Hanna's escape from the Peoples trying to capture her -- still for reasons she didn't understand -- was getting from the tent to the water. After that, staying out of their hands until they'd cornered her at the falls had been easy.

She knew the coral structures just off the beach like the back of her hand, just like she did the rest of the island. Catching the outflow of the surf to reach the deeper water, she maintained her depth, skimming right over the sandy bottom and turned this way and that through the maze of colorful growth.

Most people without medical conditions related to their lungs can hold their breath for up to or even more than a minute. Most professional or skilled, dedicated divers -- particularly such men and (now) women like Navy SEALs and other water-borne Special Forces -- can go without the need for additional breaths for several minutes. From the time she entered the water and completed her route to reach the shore out of sight of the Peoples watching the surf where she'd entered, Hanna had been under the surface of the beautiful bay for 11 minutes ... and that hadn't even been the longest she'd ever been underwater before.

She disappeared into the jungle again, making her way to the outcrop from which she'd watched the Peoples the night before. She hoped maybe they'd give up and leave her alone ... but it wasn't long before she heard buzzing in the sky and looked up to see the strangest of flying animals she'd ever seen before.

It didn't take long to realize that they were machines, not birds or bats. And it didn't take a genius to realize that they somehow could see her on the ground below her. Hanna abandoned the outcrop when one of the drones hovered almost directly above her. It followed her through the jungle until she lost it by disappearing into the thick canopy, but again and again by some magic she couldn't understand, one or more of the objects found her.

Hanna tried a different tactic when she realized she couldn't outrun the drones: she attacked. One offensive move came when she reached the cliff over which the waterfall flowed. She let the drone see her, moved out of its sight, then grabbed onto the counterbalanced rope line -- the isle's primitive elevator -- and shot up to the top in just seconds. She waited for the drone -- which hadn't changed its elevation -- to come in close, seeking her, then clobbered it with a well throne stone that took out one of its 8 propellers.

She took out another one an hour later by throwing one of her fishing nets up into the air before it as it short through a narrow space between two groves of trees. But try as she might, Hanna simply couldn't escape the combination of advanced technology and well trained Peoples. The island simply wasn't large enough to hide forever. She did avoid capture for almost 9 hours, but in the end, the Peoples cornered her -- back at the falls for the fifth time this day -- and, after she slipped on the slick rocks and fell to the pool below, they fished her out and bound her with odd ropes that made zipping sounds when knotted closed.

"So, where were we, girl?" the leader man from earlier in the day asked when Hanna was brought back to him, kicking and screaming and -- in one instance -- biting and drawing blood on the Girl People who very nearly slapped Hanna but was stopped by one of the Boys. "Would you like more of what you were eating yesterday morning? Or maybe you'd like to return the things you borrowed from my team?"

Hanna had to smile at that comment. She'd taken more than just the binoculars and canteen, of course. Before she'd entered Jake's tent this morning, she'd gotten her hands on some things she didn't recognize but found interesting: a flare gun box with a full array of 12 flares; a solar powered LED emergency flashlight/strobe; a small hip-pack filled with all sorts of personal gear, some of it specifically female oriented and yet still mostly unfamiliar to Hanna. (Connie hadn't been happy when she'd realized it was gone and was still unhappy now because their target had hid it somewhere in this God forsaken jungle.)

But it went even farther than that. Three times, the team members had hurried past a hidden Hanna so closely that she'd reached out to snatch things off their belts and pack. When they finally caught her, she had some of those items (and the items from earlier) in a handmade fiber bag thrown over her shoulder: an 8 inch blade military style knife; another canteen, this one filled with an unauthorized quantity of Vodka; another smaller LED flashlight; and -- for which he was taking shit again -- Jackson's good luck charm, a faux shrunken head with long blonde hair that had a striking resemblance to a girl who had broke his heart years earlier.

"Maybe we should start all over,: the People Leader continued. "My name is Jake Solomon. You are Hanna. Hanna....,"

He looked to the team's doctor, asking "Do we have a last name?"

Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "The records were wiped a decade and a half ago, so, no. What we gathered from other sources is minimal. Hanna ... that's all we have."

Jake looked back at the girl. "We have come to get you off this island. How does that sound?"

Hanna donned an expression of total confusion. "Where would I go? This is home. This is Freedom. There is no other place to go."

Then, looking around to the multitude of faces studying her, she asked with a sincere tone, "Where did you come from? Daddy says there is nothing out there but water. Do you live on the water? In that big boat? Can I see it ... your boat?"

That last question had a bit of hopeful joy in it. Hanna wasn't truly afraid of the People; she simply didn't know who they were or what they wanted with her. She was just a girl living in Freedom; what could they possibly want with her?