Naihabi Ridge

Chapter Thirty-Two - The Battlefront

Oriole

His eyes were a bright tangerine that I had strangely adored up until now, like a warm flame to my cold heart and an anchor in the never ending sea of my emotions. But now, as he stood in front of me, enveloped in dirt, blood, and bandages, I didn't see the compassion in his gaze, nor any tenderness in his touch. He looked callous and beaten, and his eyes... the once alluring flame in them had become a raging fire, the anchor and stability I had known hidden behind this new untamed ferocity.
    
Was the figure in front of me, standing in a path of his own destruction, really Avi?
    
The dust cloud behind him moved sluggishly with the soft wind and I sucked in a breath.
    
"What happened here?" The Warden strode out from behind me and I jumped through my wits, my heart leaping up to my throat. She flung her arm toward the gaping hole and let the other hang at her hip. "What is this?"
    
The fire in Avi's eyes was distinguished immediately as he raised his uninjured hand and began fumbling over his words, but the Warden shook her head once and answered herself. "Not part of the mission!"
    
But then she let her hands rest on her hips and just gave the gaping hole a thoughtful look. "How did you even..."
    
"Romia?"
    
I swiveled around at the raspy voice and saw a man, crumpled on the floor and covered in bloodied bandages complete with a mat of stark white hair and a set of astonishing orange eyes. Just like Avi's.
    
The Warden was as still as a statue and Avi stared past her shoulder curiously. My gaze switched frantically between the three people and finally landed again on the man. I sensed a tense atmosphere and shuddered as the silence dragged on.
    
"Quinn?" The Warden finally spoke as she took a step forward.
    
"We have to get out. The experiments and—and the torture and—"
    
"Quinn, we're leaving here. The escape mission is underway." Her voice was soft and gentle and a pang of jealousy ran through my fists. Why was she only harsh to me?
    
"Come with us," she moved forward and reached her hand out to him, but he recoiled and she froze.
    
"Are you really Romia?" He asked suspiciously as he regained his composure, then he shot a look at her and I saw the same merciless gaze as Avi'd had, only this man's eyes were feral like a rabid animal, uncontrolled and dangerous.
    
Before I knew what I was doing, I was standing between the Warden and the man, the blade the Warden had given me in my hand and pointed at the man's neck.
    
The room was still.
    
"Oriole!" The Warden grabbed the knife from my hand and threw it away.
    
I watched it land with a clink and skitter across the floor. Then my gaze snapped back the man. "We should go."
    
I had said it facing the man, but everyone knew it wasn't directed toward him by the low growl in my voice. He held my gaze, the fierce animosity still in his expression, and I held his. He knew I would win even without a knife.
    
"Master Romia," said Avi, who still stood at the back of the room with the sunlight flooding in behind him, "We need to rejoin the battle."
    
My stomach lurched. The battle. I looked at the Warden for her response, but she had already gone past me and straight back to the man to help him up. I rushed forward, but paused when she brought her hand up.

"Let's go," she said quietly.

For a moment, they just stared at each other, then the man nodded slowly and got to his feet with a stumble. She slung his arm around her shoulders and he leaned on her. Inwardly, I scoffed. He couldn't even stand by himself. I let them walk past me, then I caught Avi's eye again.

I looked away. I didn't know who I could trust anymore.

Avi turned and followed the Warden and I followed him. I stepped over the rubble from the wall, then felt the full extent of the desert heat again as the sun beat down on us from the blinding sky.

Immediately, I was able to see the battle, not just hear it, and my stomach dropped, my throat becoming tight. All the blood...

Was this our blood?... or theirs?

I bit the inside of my lip and kept forward, driving my stare toward the ground in front of me and to the people I was following, but the group had stopped. Apparently, the man—Quinn?—had stumbled. Which wasn't surprising. He probably couldn't even take the battle.

I cursed inwardly. Who was I to say that?
   
I snapped to attention as the gunshots paused for a half a moment, then the Warden's lone battle cry called us forward toward wherever the carts must've been. For the most part, we stayed to the furthermost parts of the battle, but the Warden shouted at the surviving rebels, telling them to keep fighting, keep running, keep winning.

But even as they shouted back, giving her their most powerful battle cries, more were shot, more were stabbed, more lost their fight. More died. More and more and more...

Keep running.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and screamed at the top of my lungs. I thrust my fist into the air and my eyes burned with tears I wouldn't allow myself to release. I would carry on in honor of my colleagues, my teammates, and my friends. I would carry on in memory of the rebels.

I whooped again, running faster, and soon I caught up to Avi. I let out a short laugh, just realizing how pathetic I looked, and then I grabbed his uninjured hand and thrust it into the air. Somehow, that didn't make me afraid anymore.

For a moment, I allowed myself to forget all the death and destruction, and I ran faster, pulling him alongside me, and even if for only a single second, I had all my thoughts tied into one, decided goal.

We were leaving this place.

I spotted a white lump around the corner of the summoning building and I swiveled around to confirm my hope with my peers. The Warden had caught sight of it as well, and she had a beaming smile on her face.
    
This was it, I knew it. It had to be. I ran ahead, faster, stronger, and I felt the heat pulsing through every vein in my body. I was a human, the weakest of them all, and I was not going to give this stupid thing any less of my effort.
    
With a huff, I came upon the lump, which was a large white sheet covering what had to be the carts.
    
With my chest heaving and my adrenaline high, I began to yank the sheet off. Soon, Avi and Quinn joined me, pulling and pulling and pulling, and finally, the last corner of the sheet fell to the sand.
    
Three large wooden carts lay beneath it, big enough to fit thirty refugees and with just enough food to trek the desert. But my attention turned to the Warden again. Where had she gone?

My eyes scanned the battlefield behind us, searching for her familiar stance and prowess in war, her definitive figure and striking beauty, and it didn't take me long to see her stopped about fifty feet behind us, her sword whirling and a crowd of fallen soldiers around her. I understood immediately that she was our acting defense and leaped straight into the nearest cart, my feet landing with a thump on the poorly-constructed wooden floor.

Avi glanced behind him once before calling the retreat for our rebels. His voice wasn't very loud, but when Quinn joined in, together they might've been able to convey the signal. I raised my eyebrows as I shoved all but one of the bags I had with me between a loose floorboard and then off I went to unjam the wheels.

Surely, after only a minute or so, heavy breathing and victorious shouts could be heard from a few refugees who had heard the call. I glanced up at Avi as he waved his arms up above his head, signaling the retreat.

Then, as I dug my fingers into the sand to get the stopper out, I heard a commotion from the battle and caught sight of the Warden pausing, suddenly without opponent. I squinted, pulling my hands out from the sand, and I noticed that most of the battles had stopped. For the most part, only refugees were left to wonder what had come over the military. A weak, almost unnoticeable smell wafted in with the desert heat and I raised my head to identify it.

Then the realization hit me like a cannonball and I dove under the cart just as the whole world detonated. Fire, heat, and an earsplitting blast like thunder from the heavens. In a big fwoosh, the remnants of the summoning building were enveloped in a cloud of pure fire and demolition. I clenched my teeth, my hands over my head, and the cacophonous noise kept replaying in my ears with a deafening ringing. My brain felt like it would split open. I let out a pained moan and squinted my eyes shut even harder as the cloud of dust burst outward toward our carts. I felt each grain of sand hit my skin, each scalding hot and forceful from the explosion. I shook my head, not wanting to realize what this explosion meant.

That smell, so faint yet sharp, had been gunpowder. The other smell, alcohol.

And someone had added flame.

————— • —————

Ooh, the tension rises... :O

Well, question number three: what is your favorite game? What do you think Avi's favorite game is?

There are no wrong answers.