Out Of The Ordinary

Chapter 24

            "Okay, men, attention!" Kade commanded, looking nothing like the guy I'd met in a different dimension. He had changed from a joking, fun-loving person to a more… disciplined, respectful man. I had to say that I was sort of mourning the old side of him, even though we needed this one.

            Kade paused before speaking again, looking everyone in the eye. "Now, you've trained for this, you all know what you need to do. Are you ready?" A roar went up over the crowd and I cracked a smile. Even now, in the face of battle, we were still strong. We would remain standing, I knew that. I was just afraid of what the end result would be.

            As many guesses as we all took at the battle and Jared, none of us really knew what to expect. Gabe, Travis and I were the only ones that had been on the inside and even that was only for a few seconds, definitely not enough time to get a good look at the plans. The biggest advantage Jared had over us was that he'd had a spy with us.

            We all stood still as bombs and fire rang around us. It was unbearable so I went to stand with Luke, who looked as bad as I felt. His mind barrier was down so I was able to get a peak. Guilt, concern, worry and anger flooded over everything else and that was all I could hear. That and a… readiness. He was ready to fight.

            "Luke?" His gaze snapped up to mine but  relaxed once I put my arms around his shoulders. "Hey, it's okay, we'll be fine." He didn't answer immediately, just looked at the army he'd helped assembled.

            "You know, we only got about three quarters of the citizens out of there and in the castle. The rest were… lost." That hit me hard. I didn't move either but tired to hold back the tears.

            It was silent for another second before Luke spoke again. This was probably the last time we'd speak alone until the battle… or ever. I knew the latter was a possibility but with the death count already pretty high up there, I couldn't even begin to imagine what would happen is there was no Luke.

            "They're up to the lower parts of the town, your highness!" a voice called out. I thought I heard a sigh out of Luke but I couldn't be sure. He excused himself before walking over to the guy who'd spoken and I was left alone again.

            And I was left with my thoughts, which were quickly overriding everything else. The smell of smoke and fumes were all around me, the sounds of an army prepared for battle and the thought of more dead didn't help the emotions already going through my head, but I couldn't stop them.

            What I felt over almost everything was guilt. I could’ve saved them, done something to save those people. They were my citizens, I was supposed to help them! But here I was, doing nothing while people were getting ready to fight for me and my kingdom. And I was just… here.

            "Hey…" a voice came up behind me. I didn't bother looking to know it was Kade. I just stared at the men. By now they were just fixing up their uniforms, checking the guns, stuff like that. They all looked and seemed calm and confident but their thoughts were a completely different story. Everything from fear to a desperateness to win and get back to their family, or even a completely cocky confidence. It was heartbreaking.

            "Look, they've trained hard. Even though we don't really know what we're facing, we'll be prepared for anything. Don't worry about." Even Kade had the confident shell and it was a little harder to see the fear in his mind, the doubt, but it was there. It was all there, multiplied by a million. This was Kade's army, over everything else.  And, just like me, he felt an obligation to them. It was justifiable, but completely unneeded. These guys could protect themselves.