Outside The Box

Chapter Six: Upside Down

       Joss knows where the Infected came from and she never said anything about it? I always knew she was hiding things from me, but not that. Does she not trust me?

       I heard muttering come from in front of me followed by a gunshot. My ears rang and I shuddered. Xavier made an annoyed sound before placing his hands on my shoulders.

       "All the game pieces are on the board, and I won't let my daughter's idiotic decisions make me lose this game. The fate of the world and my family's reputation is at stake. I hope you'll be mature enough to understand that." He said softly in my ear.

       He said more, but my head became all foggy before I fell into the deep and dark abyss.

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       I woke up to be met with Jan's crystal blue eyes. He held the burlap sack in his hand and rope in the other. I laid on the tiled floor with my wrists all red and bruised from the rope. It took me a moment to realize what happened until I found myself vomiting on the floor.

       Jan knelt beside me and waited until I was finished before speaking.

       "I'm sorry." Was all Jan said.

       "Don't you dare say you're sorry." I said with venom in my tone as I struggled to stand up. "Just take me out of this damn building."

       Jan led me silently out of the building, and I noticed that he was the only one left in the area. "Where are your other buddies? Out to kidnap Bex or something?" I mindlessly stroked my sore throat.

       "No."

       "No? What do you mean 'no?' I highly doubt Xavier would send out his lackeys just to kidnap me?"

       "We are only following his orders, Ainz. It was nothing personal."

       "I know. But perhaps you should stop obeying his orders once in a while."

       We rounded a corner, and a busy street came into view. "I can't." Jan said.

       "What do you mean by that?"

       "Ainz..." Jan said my name sadly. "By disobeying Xavier's orders, we aren't just committing insubordination. If we don't follow him then we will die. I have a family I want to protect from him." I glanced at Jan, and he looked at me with worried eyes. He was telling the truth. "People tend to go missing in Xavier's squad before they are swiftly replaced by someone new. Leah and I only made it this long in his squad because of our mindless devotion to him. I know that those that go missing are killed and I never want to see Leah's blood on his hands."

       I remember the gunshot that rang out earlier and now I understand that it was probably a soldier not being "devoted" anymore. I didn't see the body, so I wonder what Xavier did with it?

       "Wait. How come you're the only one escorting me?" I asked as we pushed pass a crowd of shoppers. "Isn't Xavier worried that you'll do something to me?"

       Jan looked at me again before watching ahead of him. "Xavier isn't worried about me anymore. I have been in his squad since I was sixteen and he knows about the people I would lose if I ever tried something. He knows I'll do whatever he orders me to do."

       We made it back to the bar Joss and I found Bex in, but Jan stayed concealed behind the corner of the building opposite it. I glanced back to the bar to see Regina, Bex, and Joss lounging around an armored vehicle. I spun around to face Jan once more. "Thanks for being honest with me. I understand now what pressure you guys are under."

       Jan shook his head. "I was only following Xavier's orders."

       "I know, but eventually you might want to think about disappearing on your own. Or we'll do it for you."

       "Is that a threat?"

       "No, but I can make it one if you want?"

       Jan chuckled slightly before he waved me off and disappeared into the shadows of the building.

       I joined up with Regina, Bex, and Joss at the vehicle with Joss inspecting me from head to toe.

       "What happened to you? Did you fall into a sewer pipe or something?" Joss motioned at my mated hair, my face with crumbling dirt, and my disheveled clothes. She sniffed me, too. "And you smell disgusting."

       I chuckled softly. "I got lost and fell into someone's back porch. You know how weird the houses are around the hillside." It wasn't a very believable lie and I know Joss sees right through it, but it seems she was lying about things, too. Plus, I didn't want Jan to get into trouble with Regina since that would blow Jan's entire cover.

       Joss only glanced at me suspiciously before climbing into the vehicle.

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       We sat on metal benches facing each other in the back of the truck. None of us uttered a word with each other; no doubt all of us were anxious to get home. Regina is personally driving the vehicle accompanied by a few of her squad members. The rest of them stayed behind to keep an eye on Xavier's squad.

       I wonder what Xavier did with the body. From checking the clock in the vehicle before we left, it was only a couple hours in the time I left the bar and when I met back up with the group. Where in the city does one dispose of a body that quickly and undetected?

       The truck abruptly halted to a stop and all of us exchanged confused glances before Regina told us through the small window leading to front to get out of the truck. We obeyed her orders and rounded to the front of the truck to investigate.

       My throat constricted as I realized where Xavier disposed that soldier's body.

       In the middle of the road, the soldier laid limp on his back with a gunshot hole in his head. He was naked from the waist up with a symbol carved into his bloodied chest. An upside-down club like the symbol used in playing cards was engraved into his flesh with the blood around it pooling all over him and the road. I recognize the symbol and so does the entire nation of Glenmont.

       It was the symbol of Renfrew; the nation Glenmont has been at war with for eighty years.

       Xavier knows that we left Banes Point and has already sent out a threat to us, but why did he etch the Renfrew symbol into this soldier, this pawn? I glanced over at Joss, and she did not appear shocked like the rest of us. It seems as if the symbol was all too personal for her.

       She also had the face of someone that was hiding something.