I attempt to walk around Delalieu and ignore him but he's very persistent.
"Miss!" He calls after me. "Miss, please!"
I continue to walk when he tries to step in front of me.
"Miss! Please I need to talk to you!"
"Fine, what do you want?" I snap at him.
"Aaron wants you to go with him to some of the compounds."
Seriously, he can't go anywhere without me. I guess that's kind of good though, it means he doesn't completely hate me.
"Okay, fine. just give me a minute. I was just out there and it's cold and wet. I need to change. Tell him to meet me downstairs, ok?"
"Yes, thank you."
I've always found it funny that he calls Aaron by his first name but refers to me as 'Miss'. When I get to my room I throw on a sweater and a pair of sweatpants. I grab my coat and boats and go downstairs. Aaron is pacing and waiting for me. When he sees me he looks up and motions for me to come with his good hand.
"So...." I say. "Where are we going?"
"Out, come on we have to be back soon."
"Ok?" That didn't really answer my question, but I'll go with it. We walk outside and get in a tank. We sit in the back of it having another soldier drive, Delalieu is also here. . Aaron won't look at me so I decide to take the first step.
"Aaron?"
He looks up at me.
"Yes, Y/N."
"Have you, um, made any progress with her case?"
"No." He says the tone of his voice is sharper than a knife. I look up at him sadness in my eyes. He still pretty much hates me.
"Oh ok." I say.
"Well, I don't know, we might have." He seems to realize how he spoke wasn't the best. "We traced a stolen car almost across the sector before it disappeared off the radar."
"That's good, I guess." I say, my voice tentative. He looks back down and starts to read something I can't see.
When we finally stop I climb out of the tank. I look around and see barren fields with nothing on them, only a small settlement to our left.
"That's where we must be going."
Aaron's slung a jacket over his bad arm and walks towards the 'houses'. I say houses in air quotes because they're basically just shipping containers with furnishings. We walk to an abandoned slaughterhouse. There's a hole ripped in the wall where the door should be.
"Would you like to go inside, sir?" Delalieu breaks the silence. I watch the thoughts go through Aaron's head. He nods as a response. Aaron steps inside and I follow. I scan the area for any dangers and see none. I touch the gun in the hidden pocket of my jacket, I made Delalieu make this for me when she got here, I just haven't gotten to wear or use it yet. Aaron is distracted and caught up in his own thoughts when he says;
"I have to get her back." "I stare at him confused at what he said. Delalieu responds to him.
"We have troops across the sector looking for her and we've alerted neighbouring sectors, just in case the group of them happen to cross ove-"
"What!" He spins around to face him, and me. "What did you just say?" his voice is quiet and dangerous. Delalieu has turned a sickly shade of white and green.
"I was unconscious for all of one night! And you've already alerted the other sectors to this catastrophe- and you," He points at me. "Why didn't you stop him?"
I'm about to respond when Delalieu cuts me off.
" I thought you would want to find them, sir, and I thought, if they should try to sell refuge somewhere elsewhere- I'm sorry, sir. I thought it would be safest-"
"She's with two of my own soldiers, Lieutenant. Neither one of them are stupid enough to guide her toward another sector. They have neither the clearance nor the tools to obtain said clearance to cross the sector line." His eyes are flashing with anger.
"But-" Delalieu tries to interject.
"They've been gone one day. They are badly wounded and in need of aid. They're travelling on foot and with a stolen vehicle that is easily trackable. How far could they have gone?" He asks.
Delalieu says nothing.
"You've sent out a national alert and notified multiple sectors, which mean the entire country now knows. Which means the capitals have received word. What do you think that means, Lieutenant?"
For a moment no one speaks, then it hits me. I gasp and cover my mouth. My eyes are wide with horror.
"Sir," Delaleiu gasps. "Please forgive me."
We rush back to the sector as quickly as we can. I follow Aaron to his door as does Delalieu.
"Gather the troops in the Quadrant tomorrow at ten hundred hours, I'll have to make an announcement about these recent events as well as what's to come."
"Yes, sir."
I look between Aaron and Delalieu as he leaves. Then when we're alone I say;
"You know, I could make the announcement."
"Nope and you need to go and finish your work, Y/n." He tells me and then shuts the door, leaving me standing in the middle of the hall in front of his door. My mouth is in an O. I can't believe him I thought things were starting to get better. I roll my eyes at the door and walk away. As I'm walking to my room I see a soldier looking suspiciously close to Kenji. I look at him closer when I remember that he's gone. I keep seeing him everywhere. When I get back to my room I see the red medic call button go off. When one of us presses it the other can see. That's how I end up running back to Aaron's room. He's drifting in and out of conciseness. The chatter of medics around me is so loud. I look to his side table and see the almost half-empty bottle of pills.
"Oh my god."
"How many of those did he take?" I ask the room.
"We don't know." A medic tells me.
"Oh, Aaron," I whisper to him. "What have you done?"
I pull up a chair beside him again and get ready to stay the night.
"I'm sorry, dear, but you can't stay tonight. We have to tie him down and keep monitoring him to make sure his body doesn't seize on him. It seems that his wound has gotten infected." An older woman tells me.
"Oh, ok." I attempt to choke back the lump in my throat and control the tears threatening to spill over. I get up and return the chair to his office, if I was more like Aaron I might have insisted on staying, but I'm not. I walk back to my room and turn on the shower. My room may not have cameras but it does have a few microphones, I've tried getting Aaron to take them out but he said Dad would be pissed. I strip off my cold clothes and step into the embrace of the warm water. I sigh at the warmth filling my body. Tears are still streaming down my face but get lost in the water pouring down me.
When I get out I don't bother drying my hair. Instead, I pull on my pyjamas and collapse on my bed. I stare at the ceiling of my room and attempt to fall asleep. It doesn't work though. I only get, like, 4 hours of sleep altogether. I kept waking after nightmares. I would hear Kenji's screams and the gunshot, then see Aaron on the floor and barely breathing with his arm bleeding and Juliette standing over him holding him down and slowly killing him. When I do get up it's 5 in the morning. Aaron and I would be getting ready for our day right now. So I get up and change into proper clothes. I brush my teeth and attempt to cover the dark circles created by my lack of sleep. I walk to Aaron's room. Almost no one is in the hall, some guards are still on their night shift, but the medics have temporarily left. I slip into his room undetected and grab my chair from yesterday. I sit beside him and hold his unwounded hand. If he wasn't grimacing at any small movement he might have looked sort of peaceful, I give him a small kiss on his forehead. I only get to sit with him for 15 minutes as another medic comes in and pushes me out. When I get out I go to the kitchens to try to get something for breakfast. It might be too early, though. I walk through the halls and watch the base start to wake up. It makes me sort of happy to watch it. I've lived here for almost a year, I think maybe longer.
"Miss?" I hear from behind me. I turn around to see Delalieu. I sigh and say;
"Yes?"
"Your father is here."
My eyes have gone as wide as saucers. A look of horror passes over my face when he continues;
"He would also like to talk to you. He's in the dining room."
My breathing has picked up and I'm trying not to hyperventilate.
"Deep breath, deep breath." I tell myself.
"Thank you, Lieutenant." I say to him. The butterflies in my stomach startup and my palms start sweating. I start my way down to the dining room. It's too early for this. When I get there he's sitting at the head of the table. I sit in a chair sort of close to him.
"Hello, father." I say, hoping that my voice has no emotion in it.
"Hello, Y/n. How have you been?" He never asks how I am, something's up.
"Fine, and you?" I respond.
"Good. I heard about Aaron's little accident and your meltdown."
My meltdown, in front of Aaron and Kenji and multiple other soldiers.
"Oh, did you." I try to keep an innocent sound in my voice as if I've done nothing.
"Yes, and you were defending another soldier. I thought I told you about relationships with soldiers, I did, no?"
"Yes, you did."
"Then why did you come to the interrogatee's defence?"
"Because he didn't know anything, if he did he would have said it."
"And you're sure of that?"
"I was, yes."
"Ok, it wouldn't have happened if you had listened to me. If you had kept your emotions in check."
"I know father."
"I'm disappointed in you, now I need to go talk to your brother."
I'm was almost at my breaking point and seeing my father pushed me past it. I try to keep my face a neutral expression but it doesn't work.
"No!"
"No?" He asks me. A mix of anger and curiosity crosses his face.
"He's, uh, sleeping right now."
"So? I don't care, I'll wake him up."
"No, don't you hear me, Father, You will not go see him. He needs his sleep! He needs to get better! I can't lose him!" I shout at him. He storms over to where I am and grabs my hands.
"Listen here Y/n, you are not in charge here, I am. And if you ever speak to me like that again then I will make sure you won't see him ever again. Do you understand?"
My throat is clamped down with fear so I nod at him and he lets me go.
"Good." He almost purrs. "Now let's go see you brother, shall we?"
I follow after him like a lost puppy almost like Delalieu follows me and Aaron around. When we get there Aaron is still asleep, though I have a feeling he's faking it. His eye almost twitches open. My dad sees it.
"Well, isn't this embarrassing. My son, tied down like an animal."
I take another deep breath as Aaron slowly opens his eyes. He looks between me and dad, when dad asks;
"Did you really think I wouldn't find out?" He moves closer to Aaron's bed.
"You have Delalieu whimpering apologies for disturbing me, begging my men to blame him for the inconvenience of this unexpected visit."
"Unexpected alright." I mutter under my breath. Both sets of eyes flicker towards me, one filled with worry, the other with anger. But instead of reprimanding me he continues talking to Aaron.
"This is not the kind of mess you can conceal. You're an idiot for thinking otherwise, both of you are." He undoes the restraints holding Aaron down.
"Sit up, son. You should be well enough to function now. You were too stupid to rest when you were supposed to and now you've overcorrected. Get up this is ridiculous."
I'm still standing in the corner trying not to move, like if I don't move he can't see me, can't hurt me.
"You know, I've actually heard an interesting story about you. Would either of you like to hear it?"
Both mine and Aaron's hands are shaking.
"Private 45B-76423. Fletcher, Seamus." He pauses. "Does the name sound familiar?"
The one Aaron shot. When Kenji noticed me.
"Imagine my surprise when I heard my son had finally done something right. That he'd finally taken initiative and dispensed of a traitorous soldier who'd been stealing from our compounds. I heard you shot him right in the forehead." He laughs as if it's funny. "I congratulated myself- told myself that you'd finally come into your own, that you'd finally learned how to lead properly." Aaron not me. I let out a small breathy laugh that no one notices. He continues;
"I was almost proud. That's why it came as an even greater shock to me to hear that his family was still alive." Was, past tense. He claps his hands together. "Shocking, of course, because you, of all people, should know the rules. Traitors come from families of traitors, and one betrayal means death to them all."
He puts a hand on Aaron's chest. Worry is starting to etch its way onto my face.
"It's funny," He continues, thoughtful now, as if. "because I told myself I'd wait to discuss this with you and your sister. But somehow this moment seems right, doesn't it? To tell you two just how tremendously disappointed I am. Though I can't say I'm surprised," He sighs. "In a month you two have managed to lose two soldiers and couldn't contain a clinically insane girl, upended an entire sector, and encouraged rebellion among civilians. And somehow I'm not surprised at all."
I try not to let any of this bother me at all. My shoulders sink at the disappointing long list of failures we've acquired. It is getting pretty long. And yet my father continues to talk;
"But what's worse than all of this is not that you've managed to humiliate me by disrupting the order I'd finally managed to establish. It's not even that you managed to get yourself shot in the process. But that you would show sympathy to a family of traitors. I mean I would expect that of Y/n, especially after her meltdown at the price of a soldier and the girl. But it's unforgivable, even for you two."
My head is filled with things I don't want. My thoughts and feelings feel like too much for one person.
"Oh, and I also tracked down Fletcher's wife and children. I heard they sent their regards, you know before I had them killed." He has the most awful smile on his face almost daring a reaction out of Aaron. "But, I went to visit them. And it seems that the wife remembered you. She said that you went to visit them before all this... unpleasantness occurred. You were always visiting the compounds, she said. Asking after the civilians."
I can see the anger, sadness, and horror on Aaron's face.
"Get out." We ned up saying at the same time. My father looks between us and laughs.
"These are my kids! Meek, pathetic fools. Some days I'm so disgusted by you two that I don't know whether to shoot you myself. Then I realize," He pints to Aaron. "That you would like that and you," He points at me. "Would cry. And then be able to blame me for your downfall? And I think no, best to let them die of their own stupidity."
I am trying not to let any emotion show, but my lip is already bleeding from biting it.
"Now tell me, what happened to your arm. Delalieu seems as clueless as the others."|
Neither of us says anything.
"Too ashamed to admit you were shot by one of your own soldiers, then? And what about the girl? How did she escape? Ran off with one of your soldiers, while both of you stood by."
My face feels tight and Aaron's hands are shaking. I have half-moons dug into my palms from my fingernails. My father leans into Aaron and whispers in his ear, I can't hear them so I only hope Aaron won't do anything.
"I'm going to kill him." Aaron says. Father laughs, howls almost. He misses the hair on Aaron's head.
"Much better, so much better. Now get up we have work to do."
He looks at me as he leaves the room. He can see the blood on my lip and hands. I need to go clean up. Aaron is still staring at the ceiling.
"Why'd you let him in?" He asks me.
"I tried to get him not to come to you, I stood up to him."
"Are you crazy? What did he do to you."
"Nothing that bad just grabbed me and told me that he was in charge."
"God, your insane. You shouldn't have said anything. Now out I need to change and you need to clean up the blood."
I walk out of his room and straight back to mine. I turn on the cold water and wash my hands and face. I look at the cuts across my hand. They start bleeding again.
"I'm going to have to wrap this." I sigh and reach for the bandages under the sink. When I'm done I start to clean up the mess that I've made.
A/N this is the biggest chapter yet!!!!!!! 3011 words!! hope you enjoyed it and are ready for the next one, also sorry this took so long to get out, I had major writer's block😛 lol. See you soon!!!!