The Girl and The War

Chapter Sixteen- Sam

"Kayla?" Theresa said "Shes.. she's alive?" I saw tears pool up in her eyes and fall down her face.

"Yes." I responded. "She's alive, she..she was raised by the General." Adam and Theresa grabbed each others hand. "She thinks that you guys died in the war eleven years ago." I continued.

"But she's okay?" She asked

"She's fine," Margo said "if anything she's spoiled." They seemed so relieved by our news.

"But you guys didn't tell her that we were alive?" Adam asked. I glanced at Margo again.

"Even if we thought that was a good idea, which we don't cause it could get us in trouble, we haven't seen her in weeks since the ball." Margo said. "We aren't allowed to anymore."

"Why?" Adam asked. Margo was about to explain the story but I cut her off.

"The General thought we were bad influences. I would have told her earlier about you two, after I  saw you guys here the first time, but I didn't even know you were her real parents." The four of them stood in silence for a minute.

"You can't tell her, not if it will put her or the two of you in danger." Theresa said.

"But Theresa-" Adam started to say.

"No Adam, it's a bad idea." She said. "I just wish she knew how much we love her." I felt terrible. This all seemed so worthless. The Gilman's were trapped in the cell, and Kayla was who knows where with no knowledge of their horrific lives.

"What do they want you to tell them?" Margo asked again, "why are you so important to them?" The Gilman's sat in silence for awhile.

"We know where the Mestorium is." Adam spoke.

"The what?" I asked.

"Of course you guys have no idea what it is." He said "There's a lot of things the Allegiance withholds from you all, you have no idea." He paused for a second "thirteen years ago the seven leaders of the rebels, which included my wife and me, created a powerful weapon. This weapon is powerful enough to destroy an entire country if used. Including everything underground." I thought about our base and how everyone here thought that being underground was the safest place possible.

"We didn't want to use this weapon, because of how many innocent people would die if activated. We made it as a precautionary, if we were left with no choices." Theresa continued. "The seven leaders all agreed that the Mestorium would be hidden in a safe location which only the seven of us had access to. That night we were met with an attack. No one made it out alive except the two of us." She finished glancing at her husband.

"The Allegiance wants to locate the weapon and use it on the Rebels, they want to wipe out everyone, associated with them. Even children." Adam said. "We can't let it happen, we should of never made it in the first place." He said putting his hand on his face.

"So the General has kept us down here for years, torturing us, trying to get us to reveal the location. We always thought that he had killed Kayla, otherwise we assumed they would have used her against us, leaving us with no choice but to tell them where it was." Theresa added. I thought about that for a moment.

"He loves Kayla like his own daughter." I said recalling how angry he was at me when he caught us in the sky room.

"He might seem gentle to her, but he is a terrible man and has done terrible things. The last eleven years I've witnessed him torture and kill hundreds of rebels, and he always forces us to watch." Adam said.
I couldn't imagine being them. Suffering like that for so long. For the first time in my life I doubted my loyalty to Allegiance. I've never heard any stories of the rebels doing such things to their prisoners of war.

"I...I don't know how to help you." I told them.

"You could help us escape." Adam said.

"But how? The base is crawling with shoulders, and you can only leave the base with permission from a high ranking officer and you need a key card to access the door." Margo said.

"We can make a plan, with your help." Theresa said. "It would be risky, and if you two are caught, you will likely be executed for treason." I glanced at Margo. I wanted to help them but I didn't want to die.

"I'll help you." Margo said finally. I wasn't sure why she was so adamant in freeing them. She had been from the second she knew of their existence. Margo glanced at me. "Sam?" I thought about Kayla, and how she had that picture of her parents the night of the ball. I thought about my own parents, and how I would have done anything to have saved them.

"I'm in." I told them.

    The four of them agreed that they didn't have enough time tonight to discuss the plan, as it was already 0400 and the other recruits would be woken up soon. Margo and I agreed that we would return a  week from today with as much information on the base that we could get. Then the two of us quickly returned back to the dorm.

    I slept for about an hour until Sargent Redwall's familiar scream broke me out of my sleep. Training with a good night sleep was already hard enough, but on an hour of sleep, it was miserable. Margo and I were suffering big time for it. During the jungle course Charlie started asking me pquestions:

"Man where did you go last night? I woke up at like 0200 and you were gone." I jumped the wall and started climbing up the rope next to him.

"I was probably in the bathroom." I lied

"For an hour? That must have been one hell of a shit bro." He said. I didn't respond. Finally after hours of torturous exercise, lunch came around. It was just a basic ham and cheese sandwich, but I had no complaints. I was in the middle of arguing with Charlie about the difference between there, they're and their, when I heard a familiar scoff behind me. Lieutenant Streeter. Great.

"Lieutenant." I said, of course with a salute.

"The General request's your presence." He said while glaring at me. I glanced at Margo. Had we been caught sneaking to the dungeons last night?

  Just like the last two times I followed Lieutenant Streeter, who wasn't exactly courteous before, was nothing but steely now. He made sure to let every door he opened close on my face as we walked. Finally we made it to the Generals office. I knocked as usual and waited for the come in, but it never came. I glanced at the lieutenant who looked like he was ready to throttle me. I carefully opened the door and saw the General sitting there reading some sort of file.

"Sit." He said without looking up. I obeyed. We sat there in silence for a few minutes until he finally looked up. "You know I hate you right?" He asked.

"Yes sir." I said. I recalled what the Gilman's told me last night. How he himself tortured hundreds of rebels. I had a whole new feeling of fear sitting there in front of him.

"Unfortunately my daughter doesn't or you wouldn't be here." He paused, as if waiting for me to say something. I didn't. "Today's her birthday but I'm sure you know that." I didn't. "Well she refuses to celebrate with us, so I thought that maybe you could accompany her to dinner, supervised of course." I wasn't sure how to respond. Of course I wanted to see her, but I didn't know if this was some sort of trick.

"Okay sir." Was all I said. He glared at me for a few seconds.

"Come by the suite at 1800, and please for the love of God wear something decent." I nodded. We sat there for a few more seconds seconds. "Okay get out."

"Yes sir." I said and returned back to lunch to where Charlie was eating and Margo was nervously waiting. She raised her eyebrows. I gave her a thumbs up. We were safe. For now.