"EXILE" - Parts 1-4 of 4

When M.A.S. arrests her rebel parents, Hunter must venture into the wastelands with nothing but a magic staff to guide her way. Will she be able to protect her precious cargo, or will she be lost along the way?
"EXILe" is a musically-minded comic series with exposition sprinkled throughout the experience. If you haven’t listened to Demon Hunter (a Christian alternative metal band), and especially their "EXILE" album, the references will be lost on you. However, the world and story will keep you guessing, no matter your background (or lack thereof) with the band.

           “EXILE” starts slow. The first several pages are heavy on exposition about the world and how Hunter came to be in her present predicament, but once it gets rolling, it speeds by.

               Hunter narrates a memory of her father bestowing the ever-burning staff (later named “The Pathfinder”) and what resembles a landmine. He begs her to take it to the Ghost and run as M.A.S. agents bang on their door.

               Although she does run, Hunter stops atop the hill, hidden by a swath of trees. She looks down as the agents cart her parents away in their black vehicles. Unable to leave them, Hunter returns to her home and remains there for three years in the hopes that her parents will return to her.

               Alas, they never do, and the world crumbles beneath M.A.S.’s regime. Hunter’s first stop is the big city, where she is promptly beaten, and her staff is stolen. A mysterious stranger picks her up before any more harm can come to her and drops her off with a friend of her father.

               There, she is brought back to health and sent on her way to another member of the Lotus, an organization of rebels. As she trudges through the wastelands to find this new character, a M.A.S. drone finds and attacks Hunter. She fights back and loses a hand in the process, but manages to escape.

               She hobbles to a new friend’s doorstep. Although he doesn’t believe in her mission to find the Ghost, he believes in her father’s directive and helps her to a new hideout. Just as you’re really getting to know this guy, M.A.S. T-bones Hunter’s vehicle, killing her passenger, and capturing her.

               During interrogations, a guard tries and fails to snap the ever-burning staff and is subsequently shot for his failure. Another guard tries to tear it asunder, and the fire erupts around him.

               In the chaos of combustion, the mysterious stranger appears, concealed behind her chair, hands her a keycard, whispers, “against the wind,” and vanishes.

               Hunter needs no more incentive. She uses the keycard and busts free of her chains, snagging the burning staff and blazing a path to the nearest vehicle.

               When the M.A.S. car tries to capture her, Hunter abandons the rig and foots it, but to where? She stands adrift in the wind, and then realizes…the wind is blowing against the Pathfinder’s flame.

               She trudges through wind and sand until she finally arrives at Exile, and the Pathfinder is given to the mysterious stranger to hand to another lost soul.