Existing (under editing)

Chapter 26*

For a week or two we stayed incognito. Raids on an unpeaceable pattern. No attacks. No follow up investigations from the guard. It was unlikely they would venture into our sector but the patrols of the city became more frequent, their troops had grown. Questions of whether people were willingly joining the ranks. No higher ups were seen, ones that could be identified. Just the small shrimp that could be easily avoided on sighting. Alma and I joined the raids when we could, although my mother had claimed her as her new disciple, teaching her how to embroider and sew. Alma was thrilled that she could learn a new skill. She also found herself working for Ember on a regular basis in the development of maps and profiling, replacing the sketcher that had unluckily been the man that had gotten his arm shot when we had first arrived. While she was off doing her own thing I found myself falling into a position of one of embers closest wing men along with Mitsugi and his parrot, and an older man in his forties called duke, one of the original rebels. It was widely excepted as I had been seen as a sort of celebrity the way they had chatted up my story, posing me as a hero in my stupid acts that day. I could understand why they would use it and ember as the star to tell it. It gave motivation and hope to these people, only living slightly better than we had been before. I ended up becoming one of the first group to test the Night vision Goggles that were scarily accurate. It meant that we could see things like in daylight. Things the enemy couldn't see. But being out every night meant that Alma and I's schedules only overlapped every now and again. We barely saw each other now, made me miss her a lot. Most of the time I would come back to the room in the early morning to see her sleeping softly there, then to wake in the afternoon and gone. Only the faint whiff of permanent lavender lay on the pillow next to me. It was tearing me apart really solely. Even when I did see her know it was on a raid where we would be preoccupied or... it was just horrible.

Eventually I got a couple of days off as more people had joined in with the raids. The first day I ended catching up on sleep so I could spend the day with Alma.

"Alma..." I whispered in my sleep. Calling for her. She was in my dream. Spinning and dancing, dragging me along as she skipped through the forest. Then we fell together into soft grass. She lay there. The edges of my dream vision fuzzy but her feature clears as could be. I rolled in. Aiming to kiss her perfect lips. Only to come slamming down on the floor. I rubbed at my head, tangled in the sheets. I looked up at the bed. I actually had fallen out of it.

I had gotten up, excited for the day ahead of me I met her in the mess hall at one of the long tables. I met with her at breakfast and them we went to make ourselves at home in the empty court yard, settling in one of the stone chairs.

I took a great breath in. letting my lungs expand wide, then settled into the rock. "I'm so glad to finally be able to spend some time together, it's been a while."

Alma nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I know, crazy right?"

A group of girls walked past, they waved and smiled in my direction, I gave a slight nod back but was a little embarrassed by the attention I was getting. I thought I managed to see a small frown in Alma's face before she gave a little uneasy chuckle. "Popular with everyone here aren't you?"

I laughed, "But I still remember my number one fan the most."

"Who!" Alma shot up, grabbing onto my leg.

I laughed even more loudly as she didn't realise the sarcasm I had placed in my voice. "Pepper of course."

She laughed. "Oh yes, gosh he really did hate you."

"You remember when he made me fall over? Before I knew about how smart he was, I thought I was crazy. How are they going by the way?"

"Morin flew in the other day, says there camping up in a cave. Found a stream with some fish in it further up. Pepper said Hunter hates it but they have to eat somehow. For animals it's ok to eat others, I still can't get used to it though."

"Did you ever think that they may not understand each other?"

"Once, and some cant, I think it just depends. I think they mostly rely on body language though rather then actually trying to communicate."

"Makes sense. How's it going with my mum?"

Her cheeks flushed red. "Oh she explained the thing, about like what animals do... but about consent and stuff, but people keep talking about love. But I still don't understand it. What is it Lucas?"

"Ah," I was kind of at a loss, I scrabbled through my brain for possible conversation Segway changes as my heart bet loudly in my chest. I didn't know what to say but then one of the girls, around our age from the group that had greeted us earlier, approached us. Her manner very shy and her cheeks flushed.

"Hey, ah, Lucas, I'm Melanie, um." She fiddled with the shabby rim of her skirt. "Could I talk to you? I hope I'm not interrupting something."

I looked at Alma but she nodded. "It's alright ill just wait."

I got up and followed Melanie to one of the other benches on the other side of the court yard. We sat down as some kids played marbles off to the side of us. I watched as Alma still sat at her bench, oh her feet were bare. I smiled. She really did avoid shoes at every cost.

"So um, I was wondering..." Melanie started, trying to get my attention. She sat very still, her voice was shaky but I nodded encouragingly. I could see her friend hidden off to the side as the light from the glass above caught on their earrings. I watched as Melanie played with one of her own. It had been a popular thing back when I was still here. Girls would pierce them themselves. Studs made from old necklaces and bracelets that could be found in certain sectors, or in return for doing odd jobs for guards when you were younger, it was a thing that a lot of the lazy ones would do because they couldn't be bothered themselves.

Melanie herself was pretty. Her skin was tanned dark brown from the days of working in the sun for so long and her short black hair could barely hold still behind her ears. She was like most of the girls here.

"I was wondering if maybe, if you would like... I would definitely like... to start seeing each other... maybe. Only if you want to." She managed to get out. I looked at her and then back at Alma in the distance. She had started playing pop scotch with a bunch of kids. She almost blended in with her tiny height, but the length of her dreads swayed at her waist, bouncing with her movement. Her curls on top going wild. She was the complete opposite of Melanie, nothing like I had ever seen before. I grinned a little as her smile as she clapped and encouraged the children as they played. She was what I wanted, and I don't think I could change it.

"Melanie right?" she nodded. "Look I'm sorry, I kind of-"

"It's her isn't it? That one from the wild. I told Jessie you were together-"

"No." I butted in, seeing the embarrassment and the hysteria bubble to the surface.

"But you are both so close. You even sleep together." I could even see tears starting to well in the corners of her eyes.

I took her hand, then tried to let him down slowly, even though my heart was pulling my eyes to watch Alma. "Look, there isn't anything between Alma and me but... not that you're not a nice girl or anything, and I'm flattered but with everything going on and..."

She looked up, doing her best not to let out a sob. I could see her chin start to quiver a little. "Of course. It's ok. I understand. I would be the same after hearing what your sister went through, would make anyone reluctant. Well..." she stood up. "Thankyou for being so nice about it." The she ran off, her friends following in tow.

"Wait, what did my sister go through?"