The Proteus Trilogy: Book One: Warrior

Chapter 4

Today is one of our few days off, when we don’t have any classes. The instructors call it a holiday. For myself, I don’t care what it is. It’ll work for my plan. I clued Lee in on it, and, after making a few modifications, she decided to help me.

It’s been about a month since the night that the Eagles and I made our pact, and so far, there have been two more deaths. As well as that, we’ve found out that the third group is calling themselves the Dragons. They don’t like the Wolves at all, since they’ve killed several of their group, but they don’t like us or the Eagles either, since we took out a couple of their number as well.

Besides them and the Wolves, there are a couple groups that mostly keep to themselves, but I’m not sure how long they’ll last, especially if my plan doesn’t work. That’s why right now, I’m walking down the hallway, towards the Wolves territory, with not a weapon in hand, but a piece of paper. Lee and Corith agreed to accompany me. The girl who wrote up the pact between my group and Corith’s is here as well, but I still don’t know her name.

I push that to the back of my mind as we see the first Wolf guard. He sees the four of us, and takes off down the hallway toward their room. We follow him and come to the door to their room. We can’t open it, so I politely knock on it.

A few second later, it slides open, revealing 1304 and 1222, with several of their allies. None of them have weapons in hand, but I know that they’ll be close, even though they’re not allowed during the day. Without a word, I hand the piece of paper to the 1304, turn on my heel, and leave, before any of them can speak.

A few minutes later, we’re outside the Dragon’s headquarters, and I hand them a similar piece of paper.

We go to the dining hall, and sit at one of the tables we’ve prepared. None of the instructors seems to be upset that we have reorganized the dining hall, so that three tables are in a triangle with seats all around them. There are three leaders from the Wolves, three from the Dragons, and two from ours.

The only thing I’m not sure of, at this point, is how many of them will show up.

About fifteen minutes later, I get my answer. From the Wolves, 1222, 1304, and another boy I don’t recognize.

The Dragons send two girls and one boy. Of course, the Eagles send Corith, and my group sends me, and Lee is an honorary leader.

It’s 10:07 AM, and so we have lots of time before lunch for this meeting to run it’s course. The tension is almost visible between the Dragons, Wolves and us. So many of us want to kill each other, but for myself, I just want to make as many people as possible survive as long as possible.

1304 addresses me, “What did you want us here for, 1498?”

The other leaders nod in assent. I clear my throat somewhat nervously. “Well, as I’m sure all of you know, about fifteen people have been killed over the past couple of months, since Phase 2 started. I called this meeting to, hopefully, slow down that rate.”

One of the Dragons speaks. “How do you plan on doing that?”

Now for the hard part. “Well, I was sort of hoping that all of you would agree not to kill each other.” My statement is met with stunned silence. “No? Alright then, does anyone have any suggestions?”

No one raises their hand. Finally, 1222 speaks. “Even if were a good idea to stop fighting, none of us would.” Her allies growl in agreement, as do the Dragons.

Corith raises his voice, “Then why don’t we strike a compromise? Instead of all out war, or complete peace, we have scheduled battles, so that we aren’t constantly backstabbing each other in the middle of the night.”