Brave Fear (boyxboy)

Chapter 40

Zane found himself shivering.

He and his friends took cover behind a small building, probably a home to one of the people caged by the guns in the field before them. "Stay here," he whispered to Trip. "Don't get caught."

Mallory shifted her weight from foot to foot, nervous. Zane knew that if Mallory was agitated there was something to worry about. "Guys, there are a lot of them,"

Marcus leaned out to look. "It only looks that way because they're spread out all over the place. It's just another tactic of Wawrzynski's. There are only two jets, and they only hold about forty or fifty soldiers each."

"But we have no weapons besides these weird abilities. Some of us can't protect ourselves from bullets with them. You can't protect yourself from bullets." She fixed him with a glare.

He glared right back. "It would be stupid to attack head-on," he told them. "Even if they are far apart." He leaned back over to look out once more. "That's why we are not going to attack head-on."

"What are we supposed to do, then?" Joseph demanded.

"Take out the jets, mate," he said. "There's two of them, and a couple punches from your steel form to the control consoles will likely render them useless."

And, in that instant, when their plan was being formulated, many things happened at once.

A New Vancouver soldier fired once into a large circle of people, and a woman screamed in agony and fell to the ground. The crowd surged forward in defiance, and the soldier was overwhelmed. All across the field, the Londoners rioted, pushing back against the oppressive soldiers. Shots were fired.

The next thing that happened startled Zane even more. Doors were flung open around him and his friends, including the door of the small building they were leaning against. Battle cries echoed across the field as ragtag soldiers dressed in varying gear poured out of London and into the field, armed with guns and tasers.

And a man popped his head out the window above them and said in a cheery Russian accent, "Hello!" He dropped out of the window, landing on his feet before them, his legs bending to absorb the impact against the cobblestone street. His black hair contrasted the white shirt he was wearing and his hazel eyes scanned the eight people before him. He was quite older than them, probably in his early twenties, around Trip's age.

Trip watched in fascination as the man straightened up, tugging his shirt down from where it had ridden up. Zane almost laughed at the hilariously awed look on the man's face as he watched the stranger point to Daisy and Anastasia.

The stranger's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. "Daisy?" he asked in surprise. "Anastasia?" His heavily lilted accent made it partially difficult for Zane to decipher his words. He did, however, speak english very well.

Daisy narrowed her eyes in skepticism, and then they widened in joy. "Dmitri!" she shrieked, throwing her arms around her brother's head. "What are you doing here! I thought you were still in Moscow."

Dmitri shrugged. "When you two got taken, I made it my mission to find out where you went."

"They didn't tell you?" Anastasia asked incredulously.

Her older brother smirked. "Of course not," he said. "Anyway, I searched a bunch of databases from other large cities and found that letter from New Vancouver that asked for sets of twins." He paused and scrunched his eyebrows as if trying to remember something. "I heard of some kid in prison from Rio that got sent there, so I went to Rio to try and locate her family."

Zane glanced at Mallory. She was grimacing. He wondered who all knew about her past, but if they didn't they sure did now. Marcus's hand was laid across her arm in a gesture of compassion and comfort.