The Hijinks War

41. Mutiny at the Nest

Footsteps crunched past us every few minutes and I held my breath every time, face pressed against the front of Kellen's jacket. We laid still—and increasingly numb as time slowly stretched to an hour—pressed between fallen logs beneath a blanket of underbrush. I had no idea where Mark and Rebecca were, having seen nothing but Kellen when he slammed into me like a linebacker and tackled me into our hiding spot. I could only hope that they were safe in their hiding spot and the wardens wouldn't find them.

Another set of boots clomped past us, closer this time, and I felt Kellen's heartbeat quicken under the palm of my hand that was squished between us. Shivers ran through my body; I was going to get them all killed. Stupid, Nicole, you're so stupid! Biting my lip to stop myself from crying, I tapped my thumb slowly on Kellen, following my usual running cadence. With each tap I reminded myself, breathe in, breathe out.

I have no idea how long I'd been doing that before Kellen's fingers laced with mine and he rolled us sideways.

"I think they're gone," he whispered, peering cautiously over the top of a log. He made no effort to move, and settled his head back down. His gaze wasn't anything like the one I'd become accustomed to. His hard and angry expression slowly washed into one of concern, and he wiped at my bloodied lip. "I'm sorry you couldn't get Eddie. You okay, Babe?"

I could only nod, afraid if I opened my mouth, I might cry out loud and bring the wardens back.

"Good." He crushed me into a hug. "Because now I won't feel bad when I kill you! You're such an ass, Cole!"

"What's this about Nicole's ass?" Mark's whisper broke the silence, and he leaned into the space between the logs with a ridiculous grin.

"I want to kick it." Kellen grumbled as he stood. "Let's go before any of them come back."

-.-

"Woah!"

Alarm rang in Kellen's voice as he and Mark neared the edge of the Nest, and they took off running. Having fallen behind, Rebecca and I rushed to catch up, and my heart jumped into my mouth on seeing Kellen take a punch in the melee of a fight.

"Back it up!" I threw my body into the middle of the brawl. "What's going on?"

Panic gripped me; I had run into the midst of a mutiny. The victim was Leon, who would have been doing the 5 a.m. checks around the camp borders with Jackson. Nearby, Jackson was in the dirt, nursing his jaw.

"What is happening here?" I repeated with a steely tone, despite feeling wobbly under the gaze of the Trifecta's attackers.

"We're tired of this!" It was one of the larger senior boys that spoke, eyeing me with the same spite he'd been roasting Leon alive with moments earlier. "No one's telling us anything. We have to stay in those damned huts all day, we're hungry all the time, and it's fucking cold!"

"Don't you think we're tired of it too? I'd love to be in Jamaica right now, but that's not possible, Dean. I'm hungry too. All the damn time, because I barely eat, so you all can have more―same with them!" I flung an arm out, gesturing wildly at Leon and Jackson. "And the huts are there to keep you out of the wind, at least it's warmer in there."

"Why do we have to listen to you?"

"So, now I'm the bad guy for giving a shit about everyone's safety?!"

Dean's stance changed and I knew where this was going. Fine. He had energy and frustration to expel. I could do with letting out some steam too.

"You sure you want to do that, Dean?"

Jackson's warning made Dean charge me and I ducked his wildly thrown arms. I swallowed any fear I might have felt; Fight Night, a million years ago now, had damaged that fearless part of me. With the wardens I was blindly lashing out like a caged animal with nothing to lose. With Dean, the outcome mattered, and with frayed nerves, my panic stricken mind processed only one thought, dance. Not fight back, no, but dance. Good job, brain!

"We're not hiding anything from you guys, Dean. There's nothing to tell you that we haven't already."

I pirouetted out of the way of a punch and back-sprung away from him. Gulping down a deep breath, I tried to push the nerves down. When he attacked me this time, I used a combination of dance and karate to side step, duck, back-bend, and generally avoid being hit.

"Why did we even have to leave the school, huh?"

Oh, that? He grabbed my leg and shoved, sending me sprawling to the ground. I scrambled up, but not fast enough, and his fist and all his momentum caught my side. I winced as I pivoted, swinging away from him.

"The wardens were going to kill us." I heaved the words out wishing one of the others would field the damn questions. Feel free to jump in anytime Mark, Jackson, Leon or—wait, where the hell was Kellen? 

I swiped my leg under Dean, and when he lost balance, lunging towards me, I dug an elbow into the back of his neck, pushing him downwards. I just needed him to stop.

"Bullshit!" He grunted.

In my effort to keep him down, my awareness slipped and I found myself on the ground with him. We struggled for a time, both trying to gain the top spot, growling and grunting and―BOOM!

Kellen stood there with a gun in his hand. What? As I stood, helped up by Jackson, whose jaw was already purpling, I noticed the blood running down the side of Kellen's head.

"That's enough!" Kellen stared murderously down at Dean. "Nicole's not lying. Corbis wants to use us as drug testing guinea pigs, till we're all dead. You don't want to stay? That's fine. Leave. Take your chance at survival. But stay away from us and everyone else. We don't need you bringing death into the camps."