King of Darkness and The White Flame

Chapter 12

"Thanks Hunter, I'm ok now. You can go ahead. I just need a minute." It's still dark. The moon is our only guide. The trees loom above and I feel a different presence. The air shifts and I feel eyes watching me. I wonder whether the monsters camera's are on this side of the wall too. I don't want to stick around to find out, so I sprint to catch up with the rest. 

"How are the others going to catch up to us?" Jessie asks me. I don't know how to answer him. How am I supposed to tell him that I made a deal with the devil? He can see somethings wrong. 

"We should all rest." He says to me after a minute of silence. I nod. He's right. Everyone's been walking for hours. We had just left the trees and come into a clearing. Still no other civilization but the 16 of us. I don't know how I got to this place. How are we supposed to win a war with only 16 of us, one of which is a woman. We might as well have gone back home. I don't even know how we're supposed to get back home now. Our only route was the one I'd just blown up.

Hunter helps Bear and Atticus make a fire. Ranger takes a few men and secures the perimeter, setting a guard at each corner of the camp site. Indra sits alone, at the furthest end. He still looks upset. All the other men set up blankets to lay down on and get comfortable under the stars. They have yet to realize their friends are no longer joining us. 

"You look exhausted." Lilith observes. It's the first time she's talking to me since we've arrived. "I have a lot on my mind." I admit. 

"Care to share?" she asks, she's never pushy. Her demeanor is always welcoming. I really want to tell her but I know that it wouldn't go too well. 

"I don't think so," I say. She nods. She takes my hand and leads me to the fire beside Jessie and Bear. Atticus went to sit with Indra and Hunter went to help Ranger. After a while, Lilith gets up and walks to Hunter. I hate that they're this close. 

"What's eating you kid?" Jessie asks. It's difficult to keep dodging these questions. 

"I'm regretting not listening to you when you said this trip is too difficult and we should just go home." I confess to him. He doesn't hide his surprise. 

"Well, well I never thought I'd see the day when Jo Bones admits when he's wrong about something. Why the change of heart?"

"Well, you were right. This trip is just much harder than it needed to be." 

"True, but I've been thinking about your point too." He stokes the flames. "Mole City will continue to let our people die if they catch a whiff of how soft you've become." I feel the sting of his words. 

"Why are so many people saying that?" I groan.

"Because they see that you're not as ruthless as your mother. They feared your mother, they didn't respect her. You, on the other hand, they do not fear, nor respect. I do admire you though."

I roll my eyes at him "Why's that?"

"Because I can see you struggling with your duty versus, what you know is the right thing to do. Your people are looking for a leader who will kill them first, ask questions later. You're the type of guy to ask first." I put my head in my hands. He's right. I worry too much about what people think. 

"Jo, what you're doing isn't a bad thing. Your people, however, don't know a different life. They will always blame the leader."

He's right of course. They need a leader, not a friend. I need to be tougher and gain their respect or fear, whichever comes first. 

The trip to Mole City is less than a day away. We still don't have a plan of attack and now we're down hundreds of soldiers. Why did Evan say that we'd win if we don't even have the manpower. We're out numbered. The worst of it all is, nobody else knows this but me. 

"Jess," I hesitate. I know he's going to blow up at me. "There's something I have to tell you."

After explaining to him that I had been captured and watched someone being tortured in front of me. That I had seen the cameras that they had hidden in the woods and that they'd promised me that if I hadn't done what they commanded that they'd capture Lilith and do to her what they did to the other guy. I didn't have a choice. I had to hand the people over to them. Tears fall down my face. I wipe them before anybody sees. Luckily it's dark and everyone else is preoccupied. 

Jessie looks sympathetic. "I'm sorry Jessie. I didn't have a choice." 

"You did have a choice. You could've told me this before we left. We could have figured something out." 

"What!?" I shout. "What could we possibly have done? They're stronger, they're smarter, they're much faster. We wouldn't be able to outrun them or hide from them. We don't have enough men to fight them and we would have all died. Don't you get it? If there was another way then I would have done it but there isn't!" 

"Calm down, Jo. We don't want to alert the others." He's right. We don't need them to panic. "You can't make these decisions by yourself. We could have come up with a plan together. You let fear drive your actions and this is why you get into these situations."

"I'm warning you Jessie, you better not get up in my face about this. I made the right choice, the only choice that I had to make."

"So, if that was the right and only choice, tell me what good that does us right now? How are we supposed to win this war that YOU wanted? I came here for you, to support you and you go and give my men up for s*******r without even telling me about it." I don't know what else to say to him. He's completely right.

"How do we even get back Jo?" he asks. Before I have a chance to answer him, Hunter clears his throat. We hadn't even noticed him approach. "I'm sorry to interrupt Sir," he says to Jessie. "We have a problem."

Great! Another problem. I don't know how much more of this I can take. 

"What Now!" I shout. Jessie gives me a stern look. Hunter isn't fazed however, he simply says. 

"We're trapped." His right of course. When Jessie and I finally take a look around. We're surrounded by hundreds of men with weapons.