Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Two: Hunted •EDITED•

September, Year 483
Forest of Lacau
State of Nicia
North

They're going to kill us all.

Esau stared, eyes wide with fear, at the armed men lined up in front of him. At a glance he could tell that they were well-trained.

Unlike the men in town whose gazes were unfocused and postures undisciplined, he could tell that the men before him now weren't trained to hunt animals, humans were their sole prey. He also knew enough about the military of the four nations to know that the soldiers belonged to none.

He had no idea where they could have come from or why they had come to the border of North and East to accost he and his mother.

They wore crisp white uniforms with a golden eagle pinned over their hearts, easily standing out from the rest of the forest.

Every single one of them possessed an air of command and even their guns were the newest models. With their looks they could have passed for nobility, yet their bright red irises warned Esau that they were neither mercenaries or part of a private army. They belonged to a group much more sinister and for some reason they wanted his town and everyone one in it destroyed.

Every fibre of his being told him to get as far away from here as possible while dragging his inexorable mother along with him.

He tugged on her wrist unconsciously despite knowing that his efforts would amount to nothing.

He had been prepared to move long ago, even though he knew that most of the buildings in town had been burned to the ground, and his mind went blank whenever he tried to think of where they could hide. He still wanted to leave.

They had to leave. Somehow, they had to escape, the both of them.

But his mother had always been stubborn and he knew she was having none of that. She just wouldn't leave with him.

Harriet held Esau in place and stood her ground, keeping him hidden behind the ripped folds of her once voluminous skirt as she stared down the soldiers in front of her, daring them with a steely gaze to attack.

We're dead. Esau's dread intensified when the men shuffled even closer, not one bit deterred by his Ma's vindictive glare. Avarice burned in their eyes as their hands slid across the glowing grooves that ran along the barrels of their guns, loud clicks following the motions.

Esau gulped down his trepidation, very familiar with how Solari gun models worked. The weapons' lethality settings had just been switched to the highest level. There was no more doubt in his mind that they could survive the impending attack.

"Ma," he looked up at the woman that held on tightly to his hand then turned back to stare at the reason they hadn't been able to outrun the soldiers in the first place.

It was easy for him to decide which was the lesser evil, the men who scowled and pointed their gleaming guns his way, their red eyes glazed over with greed; or the ten metre high monster that bore it's fangs at him from behind, its saliva dripping as it growled, as though every being its gaze reached meaningless.

It was because of it that his only options were limited to being shot to death or being eaten alive.

"Esau," his mother called, snapping him back to attention. He forcibly drew his gaze away from the grotesque creature and looked into her warm golden eyes, a striking contrast to his terror filled blue. "Get your sister and run. Get as far away as you can from here."