End of Days

Change of Plans

(18)

I wake up to rustling outside my door. I can't help but lay in bed for a moment and think back to everything that happened yesterday. It's hard to believe that in just twenty-four hours we changed leadership in our group and two guys basically professed their love for me. A sudden knock on the door snaps me out of my own head. I open the door to see Alec standing on the other side. "Hey Mazy, everyone wants to meet and see what Enzo can tell us about the compound. Nolan wants us to meet in that same room." I nod, motioning for him to come in. I quickly put on my socks and shoes before grabbing my sweatshirt and following Alec out of the room. We quickly make our way up the stairs and down the hall to the little room.

    I notice that we are the last two to make it in, the others are already in a chair. Nolan is sitting on the far end next to Enzo who is standing next to a white board. I quickly sit between Blake and Alec, keeping my eyes off Enzo. "You okay?" Blake whispers to me. I glance at him and nod looking back down at Nolan who gives me a reassuring smile.

    "Remind me again why we are trusting a single thing this ass has to say to us?" Sage asks from her seat opposite Blake.

    "Because he's feelings for Mazlynn is causing him to turn on his people. It's actually really common, the feelings of romantic love stimulate a different part of the brain and form a stronger connection than the bond of nationality and sense of obligation to serve one's' country." Elijah blurts out then looks around at everyone with a small smile.

    Nola stares at Elijah for a second before taking a deep breath and turning to Sage, "I think he actually wants to help now, so let's at least hear him out. Alright, what do you have for us Enzo?" Nolan turns to face Enzo. I look up just in time to meet his eyes before they flicker to Nolan.

    "Katoka, the president of the Republic of Amly, sets up in the top floor of the tallest building in a town named Lincoln in Nebraska."

    "Lincoln? That'll take close to 12 days to walk there." Elijah chips in, standing up and walking over to the map on the wall. He rolls the map of Minnesota up and reveals a map of America. After a moment he puts his finger about two inches from the border. "That's about where Lincoln is. People are exhausted from all the walking we've done, hell it seems like that's all you folks have done."

    "Maybe Marcell isn't such a good place to go then?" I chip in, "we'd only be moving further from it." I stand up and join Elijah by the map. "May I?" I ask, he nods and lets the Minnesota map fall back into place. I look at the different cities before remembering our little family trip to Rochester to visit our cousins. "What about Rochester? It'll be a longer walk now, but we won't have to back track. They have tons of hotels and apartment buildings there. It would be the same as Marcell." I point out. Elijah lifts the map again and nods slowly.

    "It would slip the trip. Eight days to Rochester, about another ten to Lincoln. That's still a lot of walking. Will we be in Rochester for awhile?" Elijah asks looking around.

    Sage nods and speaks up, "yeah, teaching you to shoot when we didn't have much time is one thing, but now we can get some real training done. Fighting included not just shooting, not even all of us have that kind of training. Some guys here have served, I could get them to set a little training schedule. Make sure we are ready."

    "How long would that take? The longer we wait to attack the higher the chance of them finding out you've turned." Nolan points out.

"If we go now they will wipe us out in ten minutes. We need to have at least a little training under our belts." Sage points out.

"I could show you how they're trained. It would make it a little more fair and I think I could get through it in four or so days." Enzo offers.

"I think we are all missing a big point here. There's no way people can walk for eight days straight then just jump into training. Not to mention after that walking for ten days" Alec points out. "What if we walked half the day trained the other half. Just stopped town to town, spend the night and leave the next morning."