Dawn Of Rebellion Collection

8. Dawn

We"re trapped. In this cargo bay. In this mission. Our choices have been stolen from us. Now there is only purpose.

The flight seems never ending. My whole life, I"ve always been looking for escape routes. I don"t confront things like my sister does, I run, but there is nowhere left to run to. I don"t know what kind of dangers wait for me when this plane touches down. For the first time in my life, I am heading straight for the fight, straight for trouble. No more avoiding, no more hiding behind Gabby. It"s my turn to be there for her and I won"t fail, I can"t. Even though I have no plan and my only ally is this boy I only know by his bad reputation, I will do this. I may be daft for trying, but I will try.

“Dawn?” Drew interrupts my thinking. “Are you hungry?”

I lift my head and turn to look at him. He is sitting on his knees, leaning towards me, and holding out something in his hand. In it is a long, thin, red and yellow package. “What is it?” I ask.

“Jerky.”

“Huh?”

“Seriously? You"ve never had jerky? These things are the best.” His face-splitting grin is enough to lift my mood and I take the food, opening it slowly. It"s tough and hard to bite in to, but as soon as I do the delicious juice fills my mouth. It only gets better as I chew and soon I have my own smile to match Drew"s. I wouldn"t have admitted this to Drew, but I was famished.

In between bites, I try to explain, “We could never afford stuff like this. Food was in short supply in our flat.”

At this Drew is silent. I look up from my food and catch him watching me again. Sensing I don"t want to elaborate on my money issues, he says, “Well, it looks like it"s a popular food in the colonies. They have whole crates of this stuff here.”

“Yeah, must be a treat for the officers or something.” Drew hands me another piece of jerky and as we"re eating, I think of something. “How did you do it?” I ask.

“Do what?”

“Get us on this plane,” I answer.

“I had help,” he says. “The officer in charge at the airport is a friend and a sympathizer.”

“Seriously? You made a deal with a sympathizer? They"re dangerous.”

He shrugs. “Not as bad as the rebels.”

An image of the gaffer I saw gunned down in the middle of the street flashed across my mind. “I guess you could say that, but at least rebels don"t hide their views. Sympathizers in the government and military believe in the same things - independence from military rule, freedom – but they don"t actually fight for it. Is it worse to push disobedience and disorder or to have those ideals and choose to turn your back on them instead?”

Surprise twists his features, his smile slowly growing. “You sure you weren"t a rebel?”

“I"m not sure what I believe.”

“I don"t know.” He scratches the side of his face. “Sounds like you chose a side.”

One of my shoulders lifts in a shrug. “My sister is the fighter. She"d probably ended up a rebel at some point.” Then I stopped, realizing who I was talking to. “I mean … shite. The rebels are fighting your father. I didn"t mean …”

“Dawn. Chill. To be honest, I support a lot of the things the rebels say.”

“So, you"re a sympathizer?”

“I was.” He looks around. “But I guess this is my coming out party.” Lifting a hand, he gestures to the plane surrounding them. “Hate to break it to you, but we"re rebels now. There"s no going back.”

His words echo through my skull. No going back. Rebel.

For Gabby, I"ll be anything she needs me to be.