They looked like they’d lost their minds...
When Magnus and his group got out of the vehicle and reached the door to the underground granary, the sight in front of them finally made sense of Isabel’s earlier words.
Fourteen won. All of them kneeling, hair a ss, covered in blood and gri, sobbing, begging, voices hoarse.
They were dressed in the oversized uniforms of Cliff’s troops. n’s clothes, half hanging off, so torn open - with nothing underneath. Any woman with a shred of sha would’ve at least tried to adjust her clothes in that state.
But not them.
A few, when they saw Magnus, went straight to pulling open their shirts, yanking down their pants, eyes hollow and desperate.
Springvale’s slave camp, wasn’t it?
Magnus had a pretty good idea.
He turned his head away slightly. The mont Isabel and the others saw, they stepped forward, scolding sharply, "What the hell are you doing? Cover up! Don’t pull this crap here!"
Slave camp won. Whether they were Awakened or not, Ice Regint would take them. They had their uses.
Stay alert in comfort. That’s the point.
The comfort was this granary.
The danger?
These won were the perfect reminder.
Magnus walked forward, slowly. He crouched down and adjusted a woman’s clothes. She stopped crying for a mont, grabbing onto his leg with both hands, eyes red and swollen as she looked up at him.
"Commander... please, we know you’re a good man... we ran here for you..."
Thinking he showed her favor, the woman begged again, more desperately this ti, "I’ll do anything - anything. I know how to serve a man. Any position, any way - I’ll do it all, so long as you let stay. Please don’t send us away... Please..."
Her sobs broke again, full of despair.
Magnus sighed. He gave her shoulder a light pat, stood up, and spoke over his shoulder. "Isabel, take them to wash up. Get them in the camper after."
"Magnus, you’re really keeping them?" Isabel hesitated, blinking.
"Just go."
Seeing them like this left a bitter taste in his mouth. He couldn’t help but rember the last life, the won he’d seen in the camps then. Turning back to Isabel, he added, "Don’t worry about wasting water. Let them clean up properly. Hundred liters each. Boil so water too, don’t let them use cold."
Two hours later, Isabel, Sarah, and Taylor led the fourteen won - now bathed and dressed - into Magnus’s camper. Magnus, along with Emily and a few others, paused their conversation when they entered.
Clean clothes, washed hair, so color returned to their faces. They looked like people again.
Magnus stood up and gave up his own seat, taking a smaller one ant for team leads. The fourteen won quietly sat down; Sarah and the others lined up behind Magnus, arms crossed, eyes watching. Magnus’s gaze swept over their faces. Most of them still looked uneasy, except for one short-haired woman whose eyes held a flicker of defiance. He locked eyes with her and asked, "Tell , how did you escape from Cliff?"
That woman was Vanessa. She’d cald down now. It had been her idea to ram the barricade earlier. Standing firm, she spoke with quiet resolve, telling Magnus everything - their brutal escape from Baxter’s control. As she reached the end, her fists clenched; she stood up and stared straight at him.
"You only recruit won, right? Then why didn’t you take us in earlier? Why wouldn’t you let us join? Do you think we’re dirty or sothing?"
Her attitude rubbed Isabel the wrong way. She had been the one who refused to let them in.
"We do only take in won," Isabel said coldly from behind Magnus, "but that doesn’t an we take anyone. You lot stripped down the mont you saw our leader. What, trying to seduce him already? You think we need that?"
Her tone was sharp, biting.
Magnus raised his hand to cut her off before she said more. His eyes shifted to a crate of unopened soda on the bar counter.
"Isabel, grab so drinks for them," he said calmly.
Isabel pouted, clearly unhappy. She was only following the troop’s code - how did that make her wrong?
"Hmph," she muttered. Throwing a little tantrum, she turned and stomped off. She and Magnus had once been schoolmates - he didn’t scare her.
Magnus managed a faint smile, then turned back to Vanessa and the others. "So, what was it like under Baxter? Why did you risk running away? Can you talk about it?"
Vanessa looked away, jaw clenched. The other thirteen won dropped their heads. Silence. That hellish past was sothing none of them wanted to recall.
Magnus expected this. He had to ask anyway. His team needed hard truths to stay sharp. Harsh as it was, silence wouldn’t help them.
After a mont of hesitation, he added deliberately, "Our group isn’t on good terms with Baxter right now. There’s a chance he planted spies among us. If you’re unwilling to speak, I won’t force you. I’ll fix up your vehicle, give you so food, and you can go wherever you ca from. Or wait till Baxter sends his n for a supply trade - we can hand you over then."
"No!" several of the won cried out instantly, panic blazing in their eyes.
"Please, Captain! Don’t send us back! We’ll talk! We’ll tell you everything!"
Once soone broke the silence, the rest followed. One by one, they poured out their stories - horrors endured at the hands of Cliff and his n. Things they’d heard, guessed, or lived through.
Like how, for seven straight days, the soup they drank always had at in it...but none of them could tell what kind.
Each woman had to serve eighteen n a day. The soup kept coming. They barely got any sleep. Every day soone fell ill, every day, soone took their own life. Every damn day, soone died from torture.
Their tears flowed as they spoke.
In the RV’s lounge, Magnus’s female team mbers - Taylor, Emily, Liana, Charlotte, Sophia - stood stone-faced. Fists clenched, eyes red. The pain hit ho. They felt it too.
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