The Lost and the Dead Book 1: The Uprising

Chapter XXIII: Imprisoned by Two Sides

I didn't remember much when I was first knocked out by the Shadowlings; all I remembered for when I was out was a conversation between what I believe was the Monarch himself and his men, arguing with one another. Their words were blurry to my ears and it was hard to make out any sort of syllable or full word as a result, but with the few words I did hear, it made me believe that it went something like this:

"What are you doing? Hunter was  completing his trial in front of my followers and yet you dare attack him?"

"But sir, it was HE that opened the doors in that coliseum!"

"How do you know? He was too busy fighting off the fighters we through at him to think such a strategy, and he showed no strange patterns of movement or vocal speech to suggest otherwise..."

"But this has never happened before, not once! The first time the Last Shadow has seen such a catastrophe is when that Hunter came into our walls and and opened the ceilings; sounds a little suspicious if you ask me..."

"Don't let superstition decide the fate of Hunter: he has done nothing wrong; quite the opposite in fact, he pointed out the levers to the ceilings above in which I had forgotten in the-"

"If he knew that they were the levers to control the stadium, he must have done something to knock back the one lever; how else would he had known?"

"It was just a guess; it was actually an EDUCATED guess, he didn't know the purpose and function of those, but he through in their a random call to see if it helped, and it certainly did save thousands of lives..."

"I think he wants you to think that... that he's a friend and not the enemy..."

"He is NOT the enemy!"

"Yeah, but he's friends WITH our enemies to the North AND South, and that alone deserves his death sentence if you ask me..."

"You will not get as much as a single touch on that boy, he did nothing wrong!!"

"I'm sorry master, but I'll have to agree with your chairmen: the first ever accident in Last Shadow history was when he showed up, that is too fishy for my taste on this situation..."

"So, what are we gonna do to him now, huh? We can't kill him: I made a promise to him that I'll sent him free IF he survived..."

"Well, looks like you're going to have break that promise with him AND his followers..."

"Are you trying to disobey me, chairmen?"

"My apologies Master, but we can't allow the risk of letting his friends know that we are here anyway; think of it like this way, if you DO release him back into the wastelands, we would instantly run back to either the NR or the ZC for help, and once he's got the troops, overruns this place, and has his barrel pointed right between your eyes, do you believe that you made the right choice, to sign your own death wish?"

"..."

"This is what I'd thought... Hunter will remain prisoner alongside Alexandria, the dog and the other prisoners before for the rest of his life... unless he wants to end his meaningless life..."

"I like that idea..."

"Excuse me sir, but I got other duties to attend to... got a lot of wounded to heal..."

"Yeah, same here: I'm sorry master, but we can't risk our plan being leaked to the enemy; if that happens, then we are all screwed, and our dreams of unifying this entire planet into one will be crushed... take your time on it."

"..."

That was all I heard before my hearing began to fade; I wasn't sure where I was, who was with me, and where Alexandria and Riley were located, and that was the last concerning thought before I'd felt my brain go numb once more and back into a state of unconscious.