Sound disappears when you're traveling back in time, and so do a lot of your other senses. It feels like you're in an extreme weather tunnel. Sound might be the first thing to leave you when you're traveling back in time, but it's the first sense to return once you're settled.
   
For us when we arrived it was the sounds of absolute chaos. There was screaming, there were gunshots, horse hooves stampeding. My lungs choked on smoke. My vision hadn't settled, but suddenly felt yanked to the side and my feet began to run to not trip over.
   
"Dad?!" I yelled in fright, it was terrifying not being able to know who was holding me, or where I was going.
   
"Yes, it's me just keep running!" I calmed slightly at his voice, but fear still prickled through. We weren't supposed to be in the thick of the army's assault on the Vendeans, we were supposed to be watching from a nearby tree line or a hill.
   
Slowly my vision came back in blurry spots, and then I could see again, but the minute I could I wished I couldn't. The devastation surrounding us was a bloody blaze of destruction. Smoke was everywhere and my eyes began to water from its thick concentration.

Men, women, and children in tow all racing from the devastation. Hooves came pounding down the narrow cobbled lane and a soldier in his brilliant decorated French uniform came charging down with his cutlass drawn. The women with her child gripping onto her arm saw the soldier coming through the smoke and started running in the opposite direction, but the soldier was on horseback, he was quicker. His blade broke through her chest and she collapsed in a final agonizing yell. The child kept running, but tripped over a loose stone, and the hooves of the horse finished him off.
   
My dad clamped his hand over my mouth as I almost screamed over the two deaths that occurred in front of me, but he made us duck into a narrow passage, kicking down the door to a house that was boarded up. He shoved me into a cupboard and locked it up which was extremely uncomfortable, but he whispered to me through its crack.
   
"Don't make a sound, don't even move from here. Do you understand?" he was serious and severe and absolutely scaring me.
   
"Dad let's go back. Come on let's go back right now!" I held up the wrist with the Escape Key bracelet but my dad shook his head.
   
"Remember, what's the first rule?" He asked me, and my heart sunk when I realized what he meant.
   
"'The mission comes first,'" I recited dejectedly.
   
"Exactly." He nodded and he began to back away from the cupboard.
   
"What about you Dad?" I whispered. I could feel myself trembling, my knees were weak.
   
"Don't worry about—"
   
"Dad no!" I knew he was planning something to put my safety over his own.
   
"Charlie, don't cry. Do you hear me? I'll be fine. You need to trust me. Don't you trust me?" All I could do was nod as I felt tears fall down my cheeks. "Then be a good girl and stay quiet. So quiet you can barely hear yourself breathe, understand?" another nod.
   
My dad disappeared from my view and I did as he instructed. I tried making myself as quiet as physically possible. I covered my mouth to muffle my breathing until I got it under control. Then, the only thing I could hear was the sounds of the fleeing people, the horses with ruthless soldiers, the raging fire. Where was my dad? I wanted my dad.
   
Then a sound coming close caught my attention. I stilled like a statue as I heard a pair of voices. They were talking carelessly to each other, these two men. I assumed them to be soldiers since they cared so little about the situation around them, and when they passed in front of the crack of the cupboard I saw that indeed they donned the brilliant uniforms. I spoke multiple languages at my age, my dad having taught me Spanish, German, Japanese, Greek, and of course French. I understood Spanish and French perfectly, but my conjugation and actual pronunciation could use some work. I focused on their chatter trying to keep my panic down.
   
"How many villages is this now?" the first one said carelessly.
   
"Do you think anyone is even keeping track?" the second one scoffed.
   
"Destroy all the Vendeans," the first one sighed, "leave nothing behind. Well it's a lot easier to say then to do. I don't see his grand General Louis Marie Turreau coming down here and helping us out."
   
"Well that's to be expected isn't it?" the second one came dangerously close to my cupboard. What if he opened the door? My heart was pounding so hard I feared the soldier could hear it. His hand reached for the knob. Once he opened the door I was dead, my hand went for the pad on my bracelet. First rule or not, I couldn't get captured.
   
"Hey, Archambault!"
   
"Oui?"
   
"There's some movement over here. Come on!" The pair of soldiers raced out of the house. I waited a few moments before coming out of the cupboard.
   
"Dad?" I called out softly. Going upstairs but he was nowhere to be seen. "Dad?" My voice holding back tears. I shook my head and took a deep breath. If I knew my dad I knew he couldn't be far. After all, rule number six was "Never leave your partner."
   
Peeking out of the house I made my way down the streets heading away from all the panic. I circled around hoping to see my dad somewhere, but he was nowhere to be found. I found myself on the edge of the village next to a forest. Through the cover of shadows and trees I crept along the forest holding up the folds of my skirt so I walked silently. I couldn't be found, but I needed to find my dad. The only problem was that I didn't even know where to look for him.
   
I'd ventured in too deep to realize that I wasn't the only one who thought the forest would be a good escape route. I had ducked into bushes several times as Vendeans ran in haste trying to escape the massacre taking place in their home, but I quickly realized. If the Vendeans all flocked to this place then that must mean that the soldiers were following too.
   
I tried finding the end of the forest to escape whatever horror was following the Vendeans, but the trees seemed to stretch on forever.
   
The smoke began to creep in like fingers through the branches of the trees.
   
Before I knew it a glow of orange was at my back, and smoke hung like a poisonous fog throughout the forest. My eyes watered, my lungs heaved trying to pant in air that was no good for it. I got dizzy and felt very weak. The smoke was overtaking me if I passed out, I'd die. I should go back to the Terminal Bay, but I needed to find my dad. That was my last thought, as everything went completely dark and silent.