The Impossible War

Chapter 13

I could hear the alarm going off from my camp. Someone must've gone to check on me and I wasn't there. Fear washed over me at the thought of what would happen if we were discovered here. "Go, run. Get back to your camp. There's no saying whether your camp is doing the same thing nor is there a way of knowing what will happen if you stay." I said as I turned to Jewel. She nodded and helped me up. "Promise we'll meet back here in two days. When the moon is high. Please." She had a desperate look in her eyes. "Okay, promise," I assured her.

With that, she turned and fled into the darkness towards Jaunty and I made my way back to camp. It took a little while but I made it back just as everyone was getting ready to march out. Everyone had a look of revenge in their eyes before I stepped into the light of the camp. "Whoa, guys! What's going on here?" I managed to shout over the camp's commotion.

Everyone froze in their tracks and looked back at me. There was a pause before a wave of relief washed over my clan. Within thirty seconds of speaking my three friends were by my side once again. "Where the hell were you?" Hero snapped. This startled me because he never snapped at me before. "I went out for a walk. Is there something wrong with that?" Raine stepped in before Hero could respond, "No there's nothing wrong with that, however, it would've been nice to know, considering recent events." "You could've been kidnapped again, and who knows what would've happened this time." Hero growled.

"Hero relax. She's fine," Armor shot off, "What's with the anger man?" Hero just glared at Armor and stopped talking. "What was all the commotion about?" I asked trying to break the tension. "Well Hero here decided to go check on you but you weren't there, so he riled everyone up and he was ready to march on Jaunty right then and there. You were lucky enough to come back before anything bad could happen." Armor explained.

"Well, that's good. I don't wanna fight for a while, especially not against Jaunty." I stated. "Understandable. Just please tell us next time, so we can send someone with you." Raine pleaded. I looked at her, "No, I can take care of myself. I can tell you that I'm going out but no one is to come with me. I like my alone time." My three friends just looked at each other, almost as if they were agreeing that they wouldn't let that happen. "Hey! Either you let me go alone or I don't tell you at all. It's that simple." I demanded.

They all looked at me with shocked looks on their faces. I never shouted at them. The only time I ever shouted was when someone was messing with the group and wouldn't listen to the rest of them. "Okay, fine." Armor said, "However, if you're out at night and you're not back by sunrise, we're sending a search party and you will be followed. Deal?" I paused for a moment to consider this before making my decision, "Deal." Frustrated but satisfied with my agreeance to be back by sunrise when I go for my walks, we all walked back to our tent in silence.

I have two days until I see her again. What happened right there? She was so close to me, almost as if she wanted me to stay next to her forever. No, that's only you wishing she did. Are you crazy? She would never wanna be with someone like you, you lowlife. By the time I finished the argument with myself I was back in my space of our tent. "Good night guys," I called. "Night," the twins responded, "Sleep well." Hero didn't respond but I didn't care. He was probably still upset about the situation so I let him be. I walked over to my cot and sat down to think about what everything meant.

Why was Jewel even as far out as the tree? It is in our piece of the town. I mean I was out there by accident but at least I was on my side of our own little world. She looked like she was just thinking and that was where the thinking lead her. Why didn't she just run when she saw me? She didn't know who was standing there until I stepped into the light. I guess I'll just have to ask her when we meet up again.

My thinking was interrupted by movement from somewhere in the tent. Knowing that the others were heavy sleepers I got up to go see what was going on. I picked up on of my knives that was laying in my chest and peered out into the center of the tent. Hero was in the center of the room looking over different weapons and camouflage. "What are you still doing up?" I questioned him. Hero jumped up, "Oh, uh, nothing. Just inspecting our stuff." He was hiding something. I stared at him as I put away the knife into my pocket. "Hero, it's late. What's your deal?" "Nothing..." he started to say before he saw that I wasn't buying his story, "Fine, I'll tell you but you can't stop me." I nodded and proceeded, "I am making sure I have the gear needed for a sneak attack. I'm tired of the Outsiders being seen as scum. I wanna show that we're a force to be reckoned with."

"No, you can't do that Hero. We want to stop the fighting, not prolong it. That has always been our goal." "No, Ekon, that has been everyone's DREAM. That's all it ever will be. A fucking dream. It's time to wake up. If you think you can make friends with enemies, especially Jaunty, then they must've beat you harder than I thought because you just can't!" He argued. "You are supposed to be with me. That's how it was supposed to go. We would destroy our enemies and rise to the top, you'd rule with me. But then you, you just had to be heroic and save the girl, and then she tried to take you from me." "You're delusional! You're my best friend and that's all I have ever seen you as. You're family." At this point, the twins walked out from their parts of the tents to see what all the yelling and the commotion was about.

Hero was red with anger while the twins were confused. "Why? That is my only question." Raine mumbled, still half asleep. Hero stepped behind me as I opened my mouth to respond and placed his hand directly on my back wounds making me grimace, "If you tell them anything, I will kill the girl in front of you...no, even better, I'll have you kill her." He whispered into my ear. After pausing before responding to Raine to process what Hero had just said, I came up with an answer, "Sorry guys, I was wanting to walk around the camp real quick and Hero denied me the pleasure because we all need sleep. I didn't mean to wake you guys." "It's fine, we're going back to sleep now. You two should as well. Night." Armor said before he and Raine walked back to their rooms. "Night." I called back. I turned around only to have Hero in my face. He grabbed my arm and dragged me into my room. "Well now, that girl might've been a good thing because now I can bend you to my will. This will be fun." Hero said with a twisted grin on his face.