Of Solar And Dark (2018)

27 [E]

Edward Kenning

"What are they doing?" I snap at Martha as she begins to head me towards the back of the buulding, body hunched and head dipped to avoid suspicion. Ignoring me, she motions for Ellie and Kirk to follow her lead but the swell of anger in my chest is too heated to wait for an explanation.

"Martha. What did you tell them to do?" I snatch Martha by her shoulders and give her a shoveful spin so that she's facing me. Her eyes are wide and filled with a silent plea but I'm too shocked by the chaos that slowly unravels along the fence lines.

"I just told them to cause a distraction." Lifting her shoulders in a dismissive shrug, she whirls back, stomping across the grounds.

I have to run to keep up with Martha and when I do, I tug forcefully against her arms, pulling her to a halt.

"Ouch! What do you want, Edward?"

"You're lying, aren't you?" Struggling to ease out of my grasp, Martha shoots me a deadly stare but I ignore her burning gaze, choosing to focus on the more important matter at hand.

"You don't know anything. Let me make it clear- you listen to me and you follow my rules." Martha hisses under her breath when she realises that I'm not giving in to the weight of her stare.

I bare my teeth at her, fingers tightening along where the veins snake under her skin, "You lied about the Fighters. You didn't bring them here to help us with our plan. You brought them here to declare war."

She hitches her brows at me in mock fascination and the sardonic response sets off warning bells in my head as I fight the urge to hit her.

"I'm sorry that you want to see it that way. But they're only here to help us.... or rather, me." Her voice is a grim sneer and more than enough for my fist to drive straight towards her face. The impact against her cheekbones brusies my knuckles and it evoke a shrill scream.

"Edward, what are you doing?" Ellie and Kirk have caught up with us and surprise breaks against their faces like waves crashing against the open ocean, beating against the surface tension.

"Martha," I quickly string together an explanation, "She's getting the Fighters to kill the Resistance members."

Glancing around in doubt, Kirk's stare turns into an arrow of doubt, "What do you mean Fighters? Who are all these people, Martha?"

Stripes of vermiliom begin to prick at the seams of Martha's quivering facade as she lifts her gaze to meet the others' eyes, "They're the Fighters. They're the group that I organised while everybody was laughing behind my back about the idea of it."

"She's making the Fighters and Resistance members wage war on each other even though there's no need to! We already had a perfectly good distraction handed to us on a platter." I snap, my voice hard.

"Martha, get them to stop." Ellie begs softly, her words trembling with fear as she surveys the scene around us- bodies being thrown against bodies and knives and daggers being flung in the air, ripping skin apart and tearing through the air, crusted over with blood.

"No. I started the Fighters and I told them to fight. We're in too deep to ask for a pass now." Martha growls, refusing to meet all of our gazes. Twisting around, she marches across the field to the back where the gate has been unlocked with a vehicle stationed by it, ready to go.

"Where is she taking us?" Ellie questioned me, worry entangling her words.

"We're going to our father's lab. Look, I'm sorry that you and Kirk got lumped into this mess. I swear, if I had known that she was going to-"