章 23: When darkness struck (6)
In this dream it's Cora. Again.
"Come on! I'm having a fucking horrible night, and don't need you to mess it up anymore!"
Cora fakes an offended look. "I thought you liked hanging out with me!" she says, then wipes the look off her face to an almost smile. I scoff. "What do you want tonight? To shove me in boiling water?"
A satisfied look crosses her face as she thinks of it and suddenly, I regret giving her the idea. "No, actually, I'm here to give you a heads up."
"I don't want your stupid warning! I just wanna dream peacefully for once!"
She continues to look at me with a cold hard look. I know she's gonna tell me what she wants no matter what. "It's about what you asked before, about if you're the last humans."
I still don't want to listen, or rather, I don't want to want to listen. Cora's my enemy, I shouldn't want anything she has to offer, but I do. I want to know if we're the last ones, and she knows it. In fact, she probably knows everything that I know, if she's still reading my mind all the time.
She holds up her hand with her pointer, middle, and ring fingers sticking out. "Three. There were three civilizations left." she puts her ring and middle fingers down. "Now, there's one."
"That's ours." I say. She smiles. "Right? That's ours?" I feel a sense of desperation. "Think again."
"No. No, it was fine, our village is fine! It has to be!"
The void around me melts away. The next thing I know, I hear footsteps. No, no, no! Stupid why would you leave without a weapon? I immediately think. I grab a big stick off the ground and stand facing the sound, preparing for anything.
Another footstep. Another. It's getting louder, it's getting closer. I hold the stick in front of me, preparing to be attacked. Then, from the thick leaves in front of me, Graham emerges. "Oh my god!" I sigh in relief, dropping the stick. "Don't do that to me!"
"Don't do that to you? What about me? You just disappeared into the woods, I've been looking for you all morning!"
"All morning? And I'm still alive?" I whisper. "Looks like it." he says. "Let's head to camp."
"Have you seen a minion, animal, anything?" I ask, he grabs my wrist and pulls me towards camp. "Nothing." he says.
What in the world is she planning? I think. I stop dead in my steps. "No," I say. "What? We need to go! You're unarmed, we'll talk back at camp!"
"Fine. we'll get weapons, Jaxon, and maybe a few for me, then we're leaving." I say. "Where?"
"Home." I respond. "Why? I'm not sure if you remember, but we'll be executed if we go back."
"I remember." I say. "But I'm not sure there's anyone left. Just- trust me on this one."
"Fine, we'll go home, then we'll head back home to check on it." he says.
We finally make it to camp, and I ran a whole lot farther than I thought. I run into the tent. "Jaxon!" I fall to my knees, beginning to shove things into my bag, including Willow, who was sleeping peacefully in the corner but his eyes widen when I grab him and put him, carefully, in my bag
"Jaxon, we need to go, now!"
He's completely caught off guard. "Where have you been?" he asks. "It doesn't matter, all that does, is that our home may be gone."
He looks confused. "Okay, let's just take a minute to talk about this, to gather our thoughts maybe." he says, sharply.
"Jaxon, I'm fine! Cora visited me, and she said she raided our home!" I say, desperately. "Oh, so now it's Cora? I still have no idea what happened last night!" he says. I put my backpack on my back. "Fill in the blanks, it's not hard to see that Jordan used to beat me but fine." I scowl. "Don't come! But I'm leaving!"
Next, I run up to the general. "Sir, I think our home's gone! Your men and you need to come!"
"How do you know?"
"Does it matter?! I'm the boss of this mission, what I say, goes." I respond. He stares at me like he wants to kill me, he probably does, but I don't care, it's not my fault he's too stubborn and used to being the boss to let someone else give an order fore once.
"Let's go men," he says, between clenched teeth. "We're checking up on home."
I hear some men groan but mostly they're confused.
We walk through the forest at a quick pace. Jaxon comes, but he lingers behind a little. Graham is by my side and the soldiers follow cautiously behind. No one says a thing, but I don't care. My only mission right now, is to get home.
We finally reach the huge wall. Or at least that's what we should've reached. Instead, we were greeted with smoldering stumps of the wall around the village.
Inside what used to be the wall, there were blown up homes, crops set on fire, and bodies all around us. We are all silent. "The village is gone." Graham whispers in disbelief.
I don't say anything, just walk away from everyone else to check for survivors. One by one, people leave the group to confirm what we already know. Everyone is dead.
I quickly head to my mother's house first. I try not to look around too much at the destroyed homes and the bodies around me. Finally I find it. My mother's home is completely collapsed.
There are rocks, wood, pans and other household items, but no Mom. I see a hand sticking out of the rubble. "Mother!" I say, melting to my knees to try to dig her out. I uncover her face and upper body, knowing there's no way she's alive. "I'm so sorry mother."
Her eyes are wide and I can still see the last bit of fear in them. I close her eyes and begin to cry. I cry until the sun is about to set. Finally, Graham appears. He immediately notices my mother. "I'm sorry." he whispers. "Mine too."
"I'm sorry too." I say. He pulls me close to him so that I can hear his heartbeat. It makes me feel better. Like I'm not alone. Finally he whispers, "The general is getting ready to leave. I doubt he'll wait for you and I really doubt he'll listen to you now."
Right. I forgot. If there's no one telling him to listen to me, he probably won't. I think. Just another problem to add to my list. I head back to the rest of the group who is pretty shaken. The soldiers have sad, angry, and scared faces. Some even have tears on their cheeks the general looks more disappointed than anything though.
Jaxon walks up to me, and he's fine, except for him being worried he's fine. I remind myself he's only seen bad things from the short time we lived here. "I'm sorry for not trusting you, I, of all people should've."
I don't say it's fine cause it's not, out of anyone, he should've had my back. He should've believed me. So I just say "Thanks," and walk off towards the general.
"How's the survivor?" I hear the general ask. "Good, now that he's all poached up!" a soldier answers, cheerfully. I turn around the corner of a home with almost all it's walls but the corner is missing and there are shattered remains of the windows all over the ground. "Is he the only one?" the general asks. "Unfortunately,"
I peek into the home and see the last person I ever thought I'd see the last person I wanted to see. He's wearing bandages over his stomach where splots of red are. The man notices me. "Wait- I know you." he's trying to see where he's seen me. The general stares at me. Fire rises up in me. Of course he knows me, how could he not? And how in the world does he not know where from?
"That girl? Must've just seen her around." The general says. The man stands. "No, that's not it." he gets closer and I back away. "Stay away from me you monster!" I say in a low tone. "But, Oberon-"
"There's nothing you could say to fix it! You messed up my family, maybe even my life, and I'm not about to let you back in!"
I turn away and walk. I walk away from the man who's supposed to be my father. He never was. He only stayed to hit my mother and never bothered to get in touch with me when he left. I want nothing to do with that man.
Jaxon notices me and runs up to me. "Oberon! Are you okay?"
"No." I mutter. "Nothing's going right! Why, out of everyone did he survive? I'd rather everyone be dead!"
Jaxon grabs my arm. "Who is that man?" he asks, looking right into my eyes. "He um-" I try to say he's my father but with a million thoughts it's really hard to get out this one. "He's my father." I finally say.
"Father? I thought he was dead or something." I'm pulled from my thoughts. "I wish. Anyways, Graham was the only one who really knew."
"Oh," he says, looking disappointed. "It's not because of that I just don't think about him much and it was never brought up." I say. He looks a little happier. "So, shouldn't it be a good thing he's alive?" He asks. "He used to beat my mother and then he left us, so I don't think so."
"Sorry," Jaxon says. "It's fine, I just- I wish he was gone from my life. I thought he was gone from my life."
"Good news! Your favorite survivor is staying!" Jordan is walking towards us. "The general really likes him," he says. "Why do ya hate your father so much anyways?"
I must have looked surprised because he added, "The resemblance is very noticeable and he doesn't look young enough to be a sibling. Besides, your records don't say anything about a sibling."
"My records? When have you seen those?" I say, quickly. "We had to look at 'em before Kayden came to talk to ya. Duh," he answers. "I hate him for personal reasons, why do you care anyways?!"
"Woa don't gotta freak out! Just curios."
I hear the general say, "Time to move out! Nothing more for us!" I look at Jaxon. We can't travel at night! We'll all die in this big of a group!" he nods. I make my way towards the general.
"Look sir, if we travel at night we die we should stay the night here." I say. "That's ridiculous! We haven't had any attacks since we got here! If you and your friends wanna stay I don't care."
"you will die!" I say in a stern voice. I don't care that he dies but his men are innocent. He slaps me across the face and kicks my shin so hard that I fall to my knees. "You don't give me the orders anymore!"
I'm sitting on my knees. "Neither do you," I say in a quiet voice. "Why don't you say that louder?"
I look dead in his eyes "Neither do you! The ones who put you in charge are dead too!" I scream. "Need me to say it again Aron?" I ask loudly. It's extremely disrespectful to call officials like this by their name but I don't care, he doesn't deserve the title of General. "Don't you dare call me that!"
He kicks me again, this time in my stomach and I fall on my back hard and cry out. "I don't respect you so much that I'd call you general!"
"Sir will do just fine, come back if you're ever ready but if you do, you better act right!" he turns, his men following him in three neat lines. I stagger back on to my knees and I'm surprised to see Jordan walk up to me first.
"Wow, you really have changed. You used to just take it, didn't say a thing!" he says. I glare at him. Graham and Jaxon run up to me. "We'll camp here for the night." Jaxon says. "No." I get out. "I have to protect those men."
"Oberon, he'll kill you." Jorden says. "Since when have you cared?"
"Since I saw how general Hothead over there acted, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last two days with him."
"Well, your not as dumb as you look." I say. "Okay, let's go then, we can catch up with him if we go at a quick pace." Jaxon says. "She should rest." Graham says.
"No I shouldn't." I chime in. "I"ve ran with worse." I say and glare at Jordan. I see his expression change to something that that almost seems like guilt. No he's a monster. Monsters don't feel guilty, I assure myself.
I begin to walk and just wanna lay back down again as pain surges through my shin where he kicked me. I walk as fast as possible with my hurt leg. I hear a loud scream ahead of us. I look at the others. "You guys need to go now, I'll catch up! Make sure to follow Jaxon!"
They run off but Graham stays. "I'll stick with you, just in case."
I don't want him to stay but he won't listen to me anyways. Ignoring the pain, Graham and I run in the direction of the others. I grab the bow from my backpack, holding it ready and loaded.
As soon as I get there, I see the men trying to defend themselves against the trees but it's no use. Cora created the tree minions to be indestructible. The perfect soldiers. And they are their only weakness is her's. The plant.
I see Jaxon trying fight the trees the best he can but he gets no where. "It's no use!" I scream. "Their only weakness is the plant! We need to go!"
There's a boy who looks around 15, way too young for this, fighting the best he can but he's backed into a tree and can't run because there's a minion in front of him. The tree prepares to stab it's long arm through him when I shoot an arrow at its arm. The arrow makes a loud thwak It turns towards me, the boy wastes no time he runs after everyone else.
I take off running as well, now the only person alive still here. The tree and a couple others don't let me get off so easy though. I can't run fast enough because of my leg, which still throbs. A tree catches up with me and grabs me.
Endless pits replace it's eyes and it holds me with an iron grip. I scream the first name that comes to my mind. "Jaxon!"
Before long, Jaxon appears. He's holding a torch that was part of the provided supplies and lights the tree's arm. The tree is on fire for only a minute before it is put out, but it's enough. I tug my arm hard, causing the tree to loose grip and Jaxon and I take off, three trees right on our tail. "Run into the tent! I'm not sure they're smart enough!" Jaxon screams.
Not sure is all we have to go off of right now. I duck into a tent, Jaxon right behind me, then some trees. He quickly zips the flap closed. The trees look around at our foreign items, but luckily, don't notice there are people in the tents.
Inside my tent is Graham, Jordan, Jaxon, and the boy from earlier. "I have a feeling they aren't leaving anytime soon, we should do our best to rest for tomorrow." I say to everyone in a hushed voice. "I agree. Even when they leave they'll stay near, looking for us." Jaxon says.
Finally we all lay down. I let Willow out of my bag and he cuddles up next to me in a small ball. I lay on my blanket like last night and before long, I'm asleep. Tonight is the first night in a while that I dreamt without Cora visiting.
In my dream tonight, I remembered one of my beatings from Jordan. Instead of being hit, I'm watching. I'm trying to stay standing as he hits me again and adain. I don't say a thing just scream sometimes. It's pathetic. It's like watching a new person, except this person is a failure. This person won't even try to defend herself.
I'm not the only one who's different though, I notice things about Jordan that I never did before, like the darkness in his eyes which now seem a little brighter. Jordan's face also remains expressionless the whole time, like this is only work he's getting done.
I hate watching myself like this. Helpless. He hits me over and over until I finally turn away.
When I wake, it's still pretty dark out. I want to leave my tent but I'm not sure if it's safe. I'm not the only one awake. The young soldier is sitting up in the back of the tent, completely still. I walk over to him and sit down.
"What's your name?" I ask. He continues looking down. "Logan." he answers. "Logan," I repeat. "Did you sleep okay?"
He shakes his head. "Did you sleep at all?" I ask. He shakes his head again. Now that I think about it, this is the same spot and position he was in last night. "You should try to get some rest." I say. He doesn't move. "Do you know what's here yet?" I ask, and again, he shakes his head. "Of course General Asshole didn't tell you anything,"
"Well anyhow, I lived here a while. There's a woman named Cora who sorda wants us gone so she can go home. It's really no big deal after you know what to do, you'll learn. There's beautiful things here too, I loved seeing the fish and butterflies! I even saw a few deers and rabbits."
He doesn't move still. "You'll move past it. I guess this mission was lucky after all since we're still here." I say. "It doesn't feel lucky." He says quietly. "I wish I never left I wish I died. At Least then I would've been with my family that way."
"Aww you don't mean that! You'll get through this, besides we'll make a new home out here!"
"Jordan!" I say. He's in the wrong mood. This boy was mourning everyone's death and here Jordan Is talking about how great life is. I hit him lightly. "What!" he exclaims. "He just lost his family!"
"Oh. right." he says. "You seem a little young for a big mission like this." Jordan says, walking over to us. "I overheard the general talking. He said it was cause I was 'disposable' but I wanted to prove that- that-"
"Hey kid, calm down, we've all done things we regret. Trust me I've got way worse." Jordan looked at me then away. "Do you really- regret that..?" I ask, surprised. "Yeah, more than anything."
The boy finally looked up, curious, but didn't say anything. I wonder what caused his change of heart. "That's- that's good to know."
The sun begins to rise. I hear the general outside. "Alright men, let's warm up for the day!" He yells. The others wake up. I storm outside. "What do you think you're doing?" I yell to the general. "I was hope'n you were one of the dead ones." He says, clearly disappointed.
"Then you can only imagine how I felt when I heard your putrid voice." I combat. "Need another beating, do ya?" he asks. I glare at him. "I won't be the one being beat this time."
"You try'n to say som'en girl?" he asks. "We don't know if those things are gone and you're out here yelling like an idiot!"
"You just are dieing for more aren't ya?"
He tries to punch me but I dodge it, twisting his other arm behind him and putting my hand on his neck. "Move and I'll break your neck!" I say. The truth is, I have no idea where to put my hands to break his neck but I can act like I do, and if he does move, I'll pull my knife from my boot.
He stays still. "Let Aron go." Jordan exits the tent. "Why?" I ask. "There's no reason I should."
"We have few humans left, besides, I have a feeling some of his soldiers won't take it too well." Jordan says. I look around at the whatchin soldiers and they definitely don't look happy. I let go. Graham and Jaxon came out. "Where's the food we need breakfast." I say turning to the general. The general's eyes have so much anger, I think he's gonna kill me, but my hard look remains.
"In my tent. There's a man guarding it I'll need to come with."
He remains still though. "Well," I say signaling to the tent. "I'll come after my men warm up." he says. We stare into each other's eyes. Still staring into my eyes, he says. "Men! Let's start easy with fifty jumping jacks!"
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