Too young for war

chapter 10

"What's going on?" Aaron interrupts, "why does she look like she's about to cry?" He ask the eight people sitting there.
No one answers.

I let go of Kenji.

"Where's Kent?" He continue asking.
"What did he do to her?"

"He's out" a girl says, "he left a little bit ago."

I can see Aaron eyes darken as he processes the information. He turns to Juliette, "please tell me you don't want to stay here anymore"

she drops her head into her hands, "Everyone wants to help—to fight—except for Adam. But they can't leave. And I don't want to leave them behind." She says

Aaron sighs, closes his eyes before speaking, "then stay" he says gently, "if that's what you want. Stay here. I can always meet you"

"I can't" Juliette says, "I have to go. I'm not allowed to come back here again"

"what?" Aaron says getting angry.
"What do you mean you're not allowed?"

"Adam doesn't want me to stay here anymore. I have to be gone before he gets back"

Aaron's jaw tightens.

It's quiet for a while.

"okay," Aaron finally says, "okay" he exhales. "Kishimoto" he says all at once, still looking at Juliette.

"Present, sir"

Aaron tries not to roll his eyes, I notice. He turns towards Kenji,

"I will set up your group in my private training quarters on base. I will require a day to work out the details, but I will make sure you are granted easy access and clearance to enter the grounds upon arrival. You will make yourself and your team invisible and follow my lead. You are free to stay in these quarters until we are ready to proceed with the first stage of our plan." A pause. "Will this arrangement work for you?"

Me and James look at each other excited. But when I look at Kenji he actually looks disgusted. "Hell no."

"why not?"

"You're going to lock us up in your 'private training quarters'?" Kenji says, marking air quotes with his fingers.

"Why don't you just say you're going to put us in a cage and kill us slowly? You think I'm a moron? What reason would I have to believe that kind of shit?"

"that kind of mean kenji, Why would he ever do that?" I ask a little irritated and affected by his words.

he ignores me, must be the situation.

"I will make sure you are fed well and regularly" Aaron says. "Your accommodations will be simple, but not simpler than this," he says talking to everyone in the room.

"The arrangement will provide us ample opportunity to meet and structure our next moves. You must know that you're putting everyone at risk by staying on unregulated territory. You and your friends will be safer with me."

"Why would you do that though?" One of the guys from before asks. "Why would you even help us and feed us and keep us alive? That doesn't make any sense—"

"It doesn't need to make sense" Aaron says.

"Of course it does," a girl sitting on the couch says. She seem to be angry.
"We're not going to walk onto a military base just to get ourselves killed," she snaps. "This could be some sick trick."

"I'll tell you guys one thing, Aaron would not just offer you guys this without actually telling the truth, he isn't lying, and he is of course not going to kill anyone of you." I say clearly irritated by all the arguing.

"it is as simple as he says, no need to make a big deal out of it" i tell them.

"Okay" Aaron suddenly says. And all the attention is on him again.
"Okay what?" Another girl says.

"Don't come"

"Oh" she blinks.

Aaron turns to Kenji

"you are officially refusing my offer then?"

"Yeah, no thanks" kenji says and I pinch his arm.

"hey—" he says.

"Should we get going then?" Aaron look at Juliette then at me.

"But—no—" Juliette panic. She looks at Aaron, then at Kenji and then at Aaron again.

"I can't just leave—I can't just never see them again—" she turns to kenji.
"You're just going to stay here?" She asks, "and I'll never see you again?"

"You can stay here with us" kenji says crossing his arms against his chest.

"You know I can't stay," she says, angry and hurt.

Kenji throws his arms in the air in frustration. "This is bullshit!"

"You know we can't risk staying at base, J. I don't know what's going on between you two, maybe he is different around you and Elena, but I can't put all our lives at risk based on emotions and an assumption." He says,

"Maybe he cares about you, but he doesn't give a shit about the rest of us." He looks at Aaron, "do you?"

"Do i what?" Aaron asks.

"Do you care about any of us? About our survival—our well-being?"

"No."

Kenjis almost laughs. "Well at least you're honest"

"My offer however, still stands. And you're an idiot to refuse," Aaron says. "You'll all die out here, and you know that better than I do."

"Elena—" James whispers to me. I look at him.

"say something, you need to tell them that it's safe for us to come!" He whispers loud enough for only me to hear.

I look over at Kenji.

"So you all would just like to die here instead of staying at a safe place, where you will be served real food, and where you can actually make a change? In my opinion that doesn't sound right." I say looking at everyone.

"my brother is giving you plenty opportunities, and you decline them?? you will have big space to practise and plan everything! And you will all be staying together, isn't that important to you?" I say and I'm definitely not done.

"I know a lot is going down right now, people died, but that's war to you. You can't change what happened! I'm of course not saying you should move on this quick and just forget about the innocent people who died, but you need to look forward, consider yourself lucky to survive and think of it as a chance to make a difference!" I tell them.

all eyes are looking at me, in shock.