บท 22: When the day was over (5)
We walk to the auditorium. We're late, but honestly, I couldn't care less. We all carry backpacks with clothes, food, and weapons. I have a bow and Jaxon and Graham each have a knife in our bags.
When we enter the auditorium, there's about a dozen soldiers that don't look like they'll last a minute out there along with Kayden, Henry, and Jordan? Yes. there's no mistaking it. Jordan is here. Maybe he's just here to assist Kayden.
I walk up to Henry who's talking to Kayden. "What's he doing here?!" I demand, signaling to Jordan. "Umm, you said you wanted him?" Henry says. "Oh my god! You are such idiots! I don't want him here! I was being sarcastic! Apparently I can't do that!" I yell. The auditorium goes silent. Jordan walks over to us.
"I'm not leaving if that's what you want."
I scoff. "You're not serious."
His expression remains cold and hard. "I'm getting a very large amount for this, I'm not quitting now."
I roll my eyes. Of course. Of course that's what he's after. I think. "I'm not watching your soldiers, but him? I'm not sure if cora will be the one responsible for his death." I say.
I walk away and sit down at the large table. Every pair of eyes in the room is watching me but I pretend not to notice. Graham and Jaxon join me, and gradually, people begin to chatter again. "Hey," it's Graham. "What," I ask. Graham points at Jordan. "Who's that?"
"Jordan."
"Well, why do you hate him so much?"
"It's none of your business." I say, sharply to Graham, but now, Jaxon's looking curiously too. "Let's just get this over as soon as possible." I say.
Advenchally, everyone joins us at the table for the presentation. It turns out, the entire thing was about what we already learned. The whole time I was glaring at Jordan, as if he would just leave. I know he won't, he's committed, which means he is the most stubborn person ever and if he wants something he gets it.
Finally, he's not going to get something he wants. Finally, he's gonna fail. The thought nearly brings a smile to my face. "And I believe Jaxon knows where the plant is so it should be quick right?" says Henry, pulling me from my thoughts.
"No. That's not true. It won't be quick, and many of us won't make it out." I say. "None of you understand the monster we're about to meet. None of you understand what she's gonna do to us. And none of you understand that she is gonna do everything in her power to make this mission impossible."
"Well, at least she doesn't know we're coming." Jordan says confidently.
I scoff. "Do you really think she doesn't know? Do you really think she's such an idiot-"
Henry cuts me off. "While we appreciate the pep talk, could you please give it a little more, you know, pep?" I ignore him. "She's already visited me twice, both times I almost didn't make it, both times she was more lethal and powerful than ever!"
There are whispers around the table. "Wait, is she here?" a plump lady in a fancy pink dress asks. "No, not yet, we met in dreams, when she's in dreams she doesn't even have her full power because she's using it." I say. "Not to mention she shouldn't even be able to reach me here."
"Can she kill you in dreams?" Kayden asks. "When you wake, you have the same wound as in the dream."
"Incredible!" he murmurs.
Jordan scoffs. "Yeah right, you're just try'n to scare us!"
"Am I? Or am I trying to prepare you for the monster we'll have to go through?"
Jordan quiets. He sits back and crosses his arms and he looks like he's thinking. It's annoying he's trying to act like he knows everything that he knows nothing about.
Finally, it's time to enter. In our team's bags they have two tents, weapons, including one gun, and some extra food.
"Okay," the lead man says. We have a general to control the men, but we are the bosses of him. We make the calls, and I'm sure we'll have to make that clear to him later, but I will make that clear, because if he's calling the shots we're dead. He may be strong, and a good leader, but we're gonna need to be smart.
"Let's go men, follow the women!" he says in a strong, loud, voice. "The woman." I wonder how long I'll be known as "The woman."
There are temporary stairs to easily get over the wall. With every step, I hear the loud clunk of the metal beneath me. I reach the top of the wall, I see the seemingly quiet forest, there's a metal fence beneath me that they never bothered to take out when they built the wall behind it.
I jump down, trying to be as quiet as possible, but there's a crunch from the leaves anyways. Jaxon and Graham mimic my actions, however Graham sounds more like an elephant compared to us, and so do the other dozen men who follow. I sigh. There's no point in trying to be quiet, she already knows we're here, not to mention no one else other than Jaxon is trying to be quiet.
When the mens' feet touch the ground it's like they're dazed. They breath in the air, which isn't dull like the villages. It's full of plants and life. But the moment disappears. "Let's go men! We should make this as quick as possible!" he walks up to me.
"Do ya know where these plants are?"
I look at Jaxon, he nods unsure. "Of course. Let's hope she hasn't already got to them."
"According to smart guy back there, she couldn't have." Jordan says, joining us. "Yeah well smart guy isn't always right, and he knows nothing of this place." Jaxon responds in a sharp voice.
Graham joins my side. "We should go, this place is already makeing me go slightly insane."
"What do you mean?" I ask. "It- um- it was nothing."
"Tell me." I say, annoyed. He hesitates. "I thought I saw a walking tree."
Jaxon and I look at eachother, some of the men chuckle. "Great, they're already here!" I say. "Where was it?"
"It, uh, it was walking away. I only saw it for a second."
"What is she planning?" I whisper to myself.
"Let's try to hurry then." Jaxon says. Most of the men follow in an orderly fashion, but Jordan just acts like he's still the boss and follows closely behind next to Graham.
Jaxon and I are side by side walking through a familiar home. Finally, we reach our destination. But instead of the bright cactus like plants from before, we find browning stems lying on the ground. "Will these work?" I turned to Jordan. "No. They have to be alive, or recently alive," he reaches down and touches it. "These have been dead for at least a month. and she took the seeds too."
"Great. So, are there any others?" I ask Jaxon. "This forest is pretty much endless. These couldn't have been the only ones."
"Good, because we're not leaving until we have them." I say. The sun's already beginning to set. With this big of a group, and being further away, it took much longer.
"We need to find a spot to make camp." I say. "It doesn't look like we can go to the cave today."
"I saw a pretty clear spot on the way here, let's go back there." says the general.
"Okay." I respond. "We're gonna have to make camp! Let's go, men!" he turns away down the path we came, this time, with us following. I swear everything the general says is yelling. It's honestly already getting to me and it'll probably get us all killed. We stop and go in a different direction, and sure enough, there's a large clearing, enough for several tents.
The sun is now a sliver over the trees. I'm pretty impressed with how fast they set up the tents. The tents are pretty big. "My men and I will sleep in this one. The rest of ya can have the other one."
"Okay," I respond. We have the smallest of the two but they have way more people than us three. When I enter the tent, I see Jordan making himself comfortable, laying down a grey blanket to sleep on. "No." I say. "Your sleeping in the other one." I try to stay calm, but the truth is I'm freaking out. I can't sleep next to him.
"He said 'him and his men' I'm not one of his men." he says. "Well, I'm sure he can make an exception then!"
"Pfft! Ya think I'm gonna risk getten on his bad side so I can sleep in a tent with a bunch of sweaty men?"
"I didn't ask!"
"Neither did I. I'm not leaving!"
We stand there for a minute staring at each other. I see a flame in his eye. I feel like I'm going to kill him, but I just stand there, staring. "Guys, we should get some sleep, I have a feeling the general doesn't care how much sleep we got when he wakes us all up. "Whatever," I say, and walk to the opposite corner of Jordan.
I unzip my bag and pull out a thin blanket to sleep on. It's not cold enough to need to use it, now that I'm thinking about it, it never really gets cold here. It's usually a nice moderate temperature. There's a long meow in my bag. "What the fuck is that!" Jordan demands, and he seems completely confused. I scoff "You've never heard a cat before?" I unzip my bag again, this time letting Willow out.
"No, most of us don't have that privilege." says Jordan, admiring Willow. Jaxon and Graham stare too. "I didn't know you were bringing him!" Jaxon says.
"Well, of course I did! He's our only chance of survival here!" I say. Jaxon lays back down. "If ya say so." he says.
Jordan and Graham continue to pet Willow, and I'm determined to stay awake to keep an eye on Jordan. Jordan notices me staring. "Relax, it's not like I'll beat your cat, I have no reason to."
A flame burns inside me. "Oh, and you had reasons for me?"
"Yeah, you were always getting into trouble!"
"So bumping into a random lady who didn't care at all was a reason? No, you just couldn't stand the fact that I was there, that I got another chance! I don't know why you were so jealous, but I was there so that I didn't die, so why'd you hate that so much? What was so horrible about that?!"
He scowls. "What was so horrible, was that everyone else doesn't! You're the only one they gave a second chance and it's not fair! Someone close to me was executed for talking back to an officer and died!"
"So I should've died too? I should've let them kill me when I had a way out? Well, I'm sorry if it upsets you so much that I got to live instead, next time I'll be sure to let them kill me!" I scream.
I barely get a glance at Jaxon's surprised face before I storm from the tent.
I have no idea where I'm going, I'm just going. I stop at a large tree that looks older than the earth itself, and curl into a ball and cry myself to sleep.
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