War Doesn't Stop For Love

Chapter 12- Bentley's POV

16 days until the war.

We have 16 days until the war. I wake up with a bad feeling in my gut. Something sad. Like someone is finally gone from my life. I can't believe Veronica is dead. The shock never really goes away. Watching her just fade away. Bullets plunging into the water. Me not doing anything. I was helpless.

I need to take a walk. Clear my head. I put on my capes and put my gun in my holster. The normal routine.

I walk outside and I listen to the sound of my boots crunching on the grass. The air smells cold and crisp. Like apples. I feel the cool wind against my skin as my fingertips touch the smooth top of my gun.

As I walk I think of my nephew Grahm. So free. Ready to let go. Just like his parents. If only I could be more like my sister. I might be successful and powerful but she has the love and the emotion. Nothing like I will ever have. No love. I don't have emotion and happiness is not there.

I walk to where it all happened. When I saw her plunge into the water. I look across the river to see a ceremony going on. A funeral? Not many people get funerals by the river, especially in the West. I look at the picture and see her. Why does it look so much like her? As I watch the casket get lowered into the ground my heart seems to ache. Like it lost a best friend.

People around me die. Maybe at my hand or others. Veronica, my mother, my father, and just other innocent people. Staring at the picture of the girl's funeral, I know the person. It's Veronica's funeral. Chills run up my back as I watch the people there.

There is a girl with green eyes and brown eyes. I don't think Veronica knew that many people. I realize the people next to her, apart of the government. Hutch, Ashley, Tyler, and Nathen. Veronica never wanted to be a part of the government so why are they there? They experimented on her. Hutch catches my eye and whispers to the girl with the brown hair and green eyes. She looks around and locks eyes with me. She whispers to Hutch and they get up in a hurry. Why did they leave? I don't know her.

They push past the priest and get into their limo. I grab my phone and take a picture of the group and the license plate. It's what Veronica would have wanted. She wouldn't want strangers at her funeral. And who would pay for her funeral? Certainly not the Crudes.

I walk back to the villa and meet up with Hawk.

"How are the planes going?" I ask.

"I have 4,000 built and ready for takeoff." Hawk says.

"Great. That is just great." I say.

"Anything else sir?" Hawk asks.

"Battle plans." I say.

We pull up a hologram of the East and he pulls out the plans.

"We make up different squads. Each one having the same power as the other flying in from here and here. We will send my team down the middle with a hand-picked squad. And bombers will stay back here until we need them. Transport planes will be back here packed with guns and rations as well as ammo." He says.

"Okay, you can pick the teams." I say.

"Do you need anything else, sir?" Hawk asks.

"No. Can you get Thorn for me? And then you may leave." I say.

"Yes, sir." Hawk says. He walks out of the room going to get Thorn. A few minutes later Thorn walks in.

"How has making the supply been these last two days?" I ask.

"Sir we have had the metal factories work around the clock. We have reached the goal. In the total of the past two days we have made 134,437,928 guns in the two days and 250,419,725 bullets." Thorn says.