To Be A Hero

Chapter 58: Castle

He's drained, emotionally and mentally, and he needs his rest too. I value his wellbeing much more than I do my own, so I stay awake while he slowly falls asleep.

He looks peaceful this way, stuck in the abyss of dreamland. But I just don't know if I can send myself there, not now, not when my mind can't stop thinking of what we must do in order to stop the Minister. I mean, we have to stop her. She's quite literally put the whole country against us!

I'm thankful New Canton has stood with us. We need them. We need the reinforcement. We need the support, and New Canton has about 26,000 people total. Their numbers will help us, but only if we can come up with a plan. I know Janine will come up with something. She always does. Janine is smarter than all of us, but I don't know how how many backup plans she has, or if the Minister has backup plans prepared.

My eyes burn, and I know-I know I should sleep. I know I should close my eyes and rest, but I don't want to. I can't. The people I love are in danger. How am I supposed to sleep when-

Sam mumbles something under his breath, and I sigh. I know Sam's right. I know I'll be no use to anyone if I don't rest. I know I won't help anyone if exhaustion takes over while working with Tom. He is very dangerous, and the last thing we need is to lose control over him.

Plus I need to be at full alertness when it comes time to take down the Minister. I want to be alert. I want to enjoy this. I want to enjoy bringing her evil ass down.

I look over at Sam, smiling at how peaceful he looks. I've decided. I'm taking the Minister down for him, for Sarah and Adora, for Anna. The Minister is a terrible person, and she's done terrible things.

I'm going to make sure she pays for them.

So I close my eyes, finding some relief in the darkness that comes, although I feel rather cold all of the sudden. Really cold, especially at my feet.

When I open my eyes again, I'm not longer in the coms shack. I'm in a cave. It has different markings in the wall, and while I don't understand them, I feel like, maybe a subconscious part of me does, and there's a sense of awe and amazement as I look them. But there's something else-this cave, it's full of water. Well, sort of. Not really. The water goes just past my ankles, and I gasp, not just from the cold, or the sudden fear, but from the voices ringing in my head, or is it my headset? Either way, they hurt. No, they don't hurt. I just don't want to hear them.

They're distracting me.

They're annoying me.

I hear Steve laugh.

"Oh, yeah, they said you'd say that."

"We have evidence," Janine replies. "Why else would we risk everything to come down here?"

"...I like to be on the winning side."

"Good Lord. Dr. Lobatse is quite correct. Either you cannot tell right from wrong, or you simply don't care. It's pure self interest with you. Your eight, again."

I grit my teeth in hopes to distract myself as I hear gunfire. I try to keep focused on what I'm seeing, but it does nothing. The fear though, inside me it grows, the cold water still lapping around my ankles. That's also a part of the distraction, but I can find myself being annoyed with it, because I'm scared.

There's a lot of muffled dialogue. I can't make it out, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

"And if you're wrong?" Maxine asks.

"Then we'll have died fighting," Janine says. "Ready?"

"Ready," Steve says.

"Ready," Maxine says.