Water Rebel

Chapter Seven

The next morning was peaceful. The sky broke up and revealed the pale blue. A slight salty breeze cooled the muggy air. The burns had healed, just like anticipated. And now, I was enjoying a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast that Yulliana had the pleasure of cooking for all of us. Who knows where she got this stuff, but I didn’t question it as I stuffed my face. 

    “What do you guys want to do today?” Jon asked us through bites.

    “We should probably find another boat.” Logan suggested, his hand rested on my thigh. 

      We tend to blow through boats pretty fast. 

    “Yeah, but who else would have a boat?” 

    Logan raised his brows and flicked his eyes to me for a split second, I knew exactly what he was thinking. “Maybe we could go for something a bit bigger than a speedboat this time..” 

    Jon laughed, “You aren’t serious.” 

    “Oh hun, I’m dead serious.” he winked at Jon. They mess around like that. Men are strange. 

    “That’s a suicide mission.” Jon attempted to end the thought, but Logan was persistent. 

    “We have tried to blow up the ship by crashing speedboats into it, acid, dynamite. Any way you can think of, we have tried to sink that ship. Maybe instead of destroying it, we should over-tqake it.” 

    “That’s crazy..” Jon said, but I knew his mind was reeling. 

    “It’s not. I went through eight of her men yesterday, easily. On my own. We could go through so many more of them, together. They are just average people who dress in clunky armor. And it’s not like she keeps many of them on the ship with her. They stay on the streets.” 

    “Do you actually think we could do it?” I could see the sparkle in his eyes. 

    He looked at me and nodded. That was enough to get me on board. If he believed in us, then so did I. 

    “Well okay then. We can start planning for the next couple of days, and then take action.” Jon stood from his chair, then left to gather supplies. 

    We all did. Yulliana and I went to the nearest town to get food for the next couple of days, and got supplies that we might need such as weapons that we found. Each of us needed a dagger of some sort. Though we would never use them, except Logan.

         He had an even darker side than the rest of us, he would never admit but he enjoyed the killing. I knew why. 

         Before he met Jon, he was recruited into the Queen’s army. He didn’t have a choice, he came of age and was shipped off. That was before people willingly joined her. He hated her, my poor little Logan. He was so young. When he escaped, the Queen wasn't very happy. She had men track him down. When they found his family, they slaughtered his parents and younger sister as some sort of crazy punishment for him fleeing. 

          After that, he met Jon and they've stuck together since. 

    “Charlie, look at how cute these are.” Yuli was drawn into a pair of heels on display at this shop’s window. 

    The town we were in now was a wealthy one. Lights hung over the streets, all of the shops had extravagant clothing, and the people walked around avoiding the surrounding towns conditions. It was a cookie cutter place. All of the houses looked the same, and full of color. The grasses were cut evenly, with white picket fences surrounding. It was almost sickening. 

    I hadn’t ever looked at clothes before and thought of them cute, just as something I needed. Yuli was different than all of us though. Sure, she did what was needed to survive, but she would prefer to live in a town much like this one and wear things such as heels. I wish I could give her that kind of life. 

    “Yeah, they’re uhm, cute.” I smiled at her. 

    She rolled her charcoal eyes at me. “Why do we have to do it?” 

    “What do you mean?” She walked into the store and started searching the racks. She didn’t want to have this conversation with me, I could tell by her hesitation, but she couldn’t help but get it all off of her chest. 

    “You know. The things we do. Why do we have to? Why can't we just be normal?” Her eyes were full of sorrow, and yearning for something that was long out of her grasp. 

    “We tried that Yuli. Remember having to rummage through trash just for our weekly meal?” 

    “I know that..” if I hadn’t grown up with her, I wouldn’t be able to understand a word she said  through her thick accent. “But, I just am tired of this stuff. I’m not cut out for this life like you guys are. I hold you back.” 

    I looked down at a pair of jeans on the table, “No you don’t, Yulliana. We need you.” 

    She walked to a different rack and didn’t talk about this again. She didn’t believe me, and I wasn’t going to push her about it. 

    “I need some new clothes.” Yuli changed the subject. 

    “Okay, like what? We can get you some stuff here.” 

    Her face lit up, “Really? From here?” 

    I shrugged, “yeah, why not? We might as well have some sort of nice possessions to our name.”

    She walked over to a shirt rack and pulled a pale blue blouse off, “This is cute.” 

    I smiled, “Yeah, it is.” and even I mentally admitted that it would complement her dark skin. 

    “I’m going to get this one.” she smiled and handed it to me. 

    I took it, then walked behind the shirt rack, out of sight from the camera and the clerk. In my bag I had a magnetized clip that we used to remove the anti-theft ink tag. With a simple click, the tag fell into my hand. I made sure no one was looking as I casually placed the shirt in my backpack. 

    Simple. Now she was looking at the jeans. That wouldn’t be so simple. I only had so much room in my bag.. 

    She picked up a pair, then looked at the jeans she was wearing and decided against getting a new pair of them. Phew. Then she wandered to the heels section. Just what she needs. But she was feeling a bit down, and I didn’t want to exactly tell her no to anything. 

    “Do you think we will ever go anywhere that I will need heels?” 

    I shrugged and examined the exquisite pair she had in her hand. They were royal blue, with rhinestones covering the heel. A bit gaudy if you ask me, but everyone has their own taste. 

“Nah, I don’t need them. Let’s just go before this place makes me any more sad.” 

I nodded and the store clerk waved goodbye to us. Our next stop was home. My bag was full, and starting to get a bit heavy for our mile walk back through the forest. These sandals I got yesterday weren’t meant for walking. 

“Why do we have to take over the Queen’s ship? Why can’t we just leave her be?” She brought the topic up again. 

I sighed, “Because she’s a bad person. Just look at the town three miles south of us, the place we were yesterday, they are dirt poor, while this place,” I motioned behind us, “Never has to worry about food. And that’s because of the Queen. She strips everything from most of these towns and let’s only certain ones flourish. No one should have the power to decide who lives or not.” 

“So then who are we to decide if the Queen gets to live or not?” 

I shrugged, “That doesn’t matter. Just drop it Yuli.” 

With that conversation, I started thinking. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted her to come with us tomorrow. I wanted her to live the life she wanted. Not be stuck with us. 

I contemplated it all the way home, then when we walked inside, the first thing I told Jon was that she was staying home.