Somehow through the sharp ring in my ears I could hear someone apologizing, a voice that sounded eerily similar to Bay, but when I cracked open my eyes from how I'd been pinching them closed, I didn't see him anywhere around me. I had dropped to my knees and was crouched down, curled forward towards the line of cars with my hands over my ears. Looking over at the parked vehicles showed my that Adalwolf was on the ground with Marlisa and Adalard, all three of them crouched like I was, with arms thrown over their heads or hands over their ears, moving slowly and shielding their eyes when they finally lifted their heads in curiosity.
I could feel arms wrapped around me, over my head, shoulders, and back, but it took me a moment to realize what had happened and who was shielding me, the ring in my ears dying down into a hum of screaming and yelling, cursing and crying. I could hear wood cracking, the jet passing again and the ground shaking furiously when another bomb was dropped further beyond the main house, maybe in the field where we'd had our bonfire a few nights ago.
A hand moved from my shoulder and to my head, cradling it, and I turned right to look at Emyr, whose eyes were wide in fear as he looked over me, "Are you okay? Can you hear me? Your ears...," he pulled his hand away from the side of my face, and my eyes flickered down to see the smear of blood on his palm, "The noise must have shocked your eardrums. Is your head okay?"
"I-I'm okay," I assured him, reaching up to my neck where blood had dripped from my ear, "What's going on?"
Emyr's face pinched up and he looked away with grit teeth, appearing as if he wanted to answer, but I turned away before he could say anything, to check on Tobias, who was crouched to my left. His head was lifted a bit so he could check on his people near the cars, but his face looked white and ashy, eyes glazed. He looked just like he had when he'd gotten his concussion, and I reached out to grab his face, turning him towards me so I could look over him and check for a head injury.
"Tobias?"
"You're okay," he breathed, reaching out to my face, probably wiping at the blood on my ears, "Can you still hear me?"
"Yea, yea I can hear you. Your face is pale, did you hit your head?"
"No, I think I'm okay."
"Your shirt is torn," Emyr noted, and I bristled at his words, dropping my eyes from Tobias' face to look over the rest of him.
I don't know how it slipped my mind that he could've been hurt somewhere other than his head, but I felt fear choke me when I caught the frayed tear of his shirt on the left shoulder, reaching out to touch it and cringing when my fingers were stained red.
"Oh god..."
"No, no, I'm fine," Tobias grabbed my hand, squeezing my fingers, "Can't even feel it."
"Move your hand," Emyr leaned over me, pointing, "Your left hand, can you move your fingers?" Tobias lifted his left arm, wincing and wiggling his fingers, the dusty light catching on his wedding ring, "Good, that's good. Debris probably caught you when it came by, hold on," he stood up and walked around us to crouch on Tobias' left, just behind him, his face pinching as he took a gentle hold of his shoulder, "Damn..."
"That bad?" Tobias asked, eyes widening before he turned his head towards the settlement, "Where is everyone? Bryn?"
My panic beat through me again with a vengeance, and I stood up, though Tobias kept a tight grip of my hand, not letting me move away from him as I turned to face the building. The moment my eyes settled on it, I felt everything grow sluggish, even the clouds of dust settling seemed to curl slower around me, and I could hear my own ragged breathing as my blood pumped in my aching ears.
The left side of the large plantation house had been hit, leaving splinters hanging from the roof, shattered glass still falling out of windows. I could hear people coughing, see bodies being dragged from the rubble, and my knees weakened before buckling, though I managed to stay upright, leaning forward as if my body wanted to rush forward to help while my mind was happy to stay put.
"Bryn!" I yelled for the man, figuring Tobias had no energy to, eyes sweeping over the area and trying to figure out if the part of the house that had been hit was where his room was.
I didn't think so, but I couldn't be sure, so I kept searching for him in the crowd coming out from the settlement around back, pouring out of the front door. I saw younger people being herded into larger vans without another question, and it took my mind a bit to catch up with what was happening; that the rebellion was evacuating nonessential people from the hit zone.
It looked like Dakota was fine from what I saw, unharmed physically, though he was still crouched down and covering his ears, his eyes wide in shock, with Cass hovering over him trying to get his attention. All I could decipher from his position was that he was suffering the effects of severe PTSD, likely from being in bombings before now.
My heart slowly started to settle a bit more when I caught sight of Orion and Beckett running towards them, but there were still people missing, people I'd never recover from losing if I'd truly lost them. I couldn't see Demi or Kailas, Arthur or Malachi, I couldn't see Bryn, and I couldn't see Duncan or Jasper, Diego, Klaus, or Sasha. My panic had me calling out again, desperately.
"Bryn!" my breath immediately caught when my eyes found him standing to the right of the plantation house, one arm lifted to cover his mouth and nose, relaxing even more when I noticed Klaus, Diego, Sasha, and Logan were with him.
Seeing they were all okay sapped the strength I had, and I sank to the ground, turning back to Tobias, whose grip on me had loosened as I was standing, pale face even whiter now as Emyr pressed his own folded coat against his shoulder-blade.
"I'm not a doctor, but I don't think there are any bone fractures or dislocations," he was saying, brow drawn, "That doesn't disqualify the pain of course. Can you feel anything? You may be in shock."
"Praise god for adrenaline," Tobias croaked, and Emyr's lips twitched up in slight amusement as Bryn and the others finally ran up.
"Tobias, shit," Bryn collapsed next to him, grabbing his right shoulder, "What happened? Are you okay?"
"Generally speaking I'm doing great," Tobias offered, "How are you? Did everyone get out?"
"We were in the arena with Carina, Orion, and Beckett when it happened," Bryn answered, "Hans went to grab Anton from the infirmary, but I don't know what part of the house was hit really. Everyone from the Syndicate is okay, I'm pretty sure. Most of them at least."
"Where are Duncan and Jasper?" Emyr asked in panic, looking at Bryn before anyone could even try to answer him, "Take over for me, I need to find them."
"What?" Bryn shuffled over on his knees and placed his hand against the coat pressing against Tobias' shoulder, "I haven't seen them, but-."
Emyr didn't let him finish as he got to his feet and immediately ran for the house. I followed him with my wide eyes, then looked back up at the sky, searching for another pass. It was only really settling in now, but... those bombs had been dropped by the Con Rồng. It was pretty obvious, and really made the most sense, because who else would have the resources, but...
"How the hell did they find us? This makes no sense!" Sasha snapped, hands clenched into fists as he glared at the house, "There's no logic behind this!"
"Calm down," Bryn scolded, "It could have been pure coincidence that this happened."
"Do you honestly think that?" I asked him, eyes wide, my hand still clutched in Tobias', "After everything that's happened so far... you know how smart Bay is... do you really think this is just a coincidence?"
"Carter, don't," Tobias reached up to me with his left hand, despite the way he winced, holding the side of my face, "Don't overthink this, don't put yourself into a panic. This wasn't your fault."
"But just," I reached my own hand up to hold his wrist, "what if I said something before? I can't remember four months of my life, what if I said something while they were torturing me?"
"Not possible," Tobias assured, but I just shook my head.
"But I knew where the rebellion was located, exactly, I could have said something! You know it's possible! This could be my fault!"
"Hey!" Tobias and I both turned at the call to see Emyr returning in our direction, Duncan limping rather heavily between he and a ragged looking Jasper.
All three looked horrible, and I scrambled to my feet to meet them. Jasper's hair had fallen from its usual tie, longs strands hanging in front of his eyes, which were lowered, lips in a tight line; he looked tortured, pained, guilty. I was willing to bet Duncan's state was the cause, as the scotsman was barely able to stand on his left leg. I could see the denim of his jeans had been torn in some spots, soaked red, and the bottom left portion of his shirt was stained in even more blood. His face was pale and his eyes glassy, but he was managing to walk with the help of the two others.
"What happened?" I demanded once they were close enough, and Emyr carefully slipped away from Duncan, allowing him to lean fully against Jasper, who had an arm wrapped around Duncan's waist, reaching over to hold his side when Emyr stepped back.
"We got caught out in the settlement," Duncan explained in a grunt.
"They were arguing as per usual," Emyr stated, keeping one hand on Duncan's shoulder, "Fucking idiots, the both of them, I can't leave them alone for shit."
"We were fine," Duncan tried to counter, but Emyr just glared at him.
"Neither of you are children anymore, you need to start acting your age and get the fuck along!"
"It's hardly my fault this dumb cod got in the fucking way," Jasper snapped, "He's a fucking bother any way you look at it!"
"Oh is that so?" Emyr tested, "Is that why you're clinging to him?"
Jasper's eyes widened, and they appeared even bigger behind the lenses of his glasses, his cheeks tinting pink as he tried to yank away from Duncan, not getting far with the way the other man kept slumping and limping, holding his foot off the ground.
"He's not letting go! He's using me as a human crutch! I didn't ask him to grab me!"
"God's sake, you're right, let me just step away and stand on my own, because I can do that right now," Duncan snarled.
Bryn leaned away from Tobias, keeping a hand against his shoulder as he cast a glare at the three men, "I'm sorry, but is this conversation necessary to have right at this moment?" he demanded, "My boss is bleeding out from a wound I can't really dictate the severity of, and you three are whining about getting along like grade schoolers? There's a mad man trying to bomb us, so if you wouldn't mind?"
"Sorry," Duncan was the first to apologize, and I really wasn't surprised by that; he was a polite man after all.
"We need to leave," Bryn said, and I backed up so I could crouch in front of Tobias again.
"So where are we supposed to go?" Sasha asked, turning to us as Adalwolf, Adalard, and Marlisa shuffled over to us, the doctor dropping down beside Tobias.
"Ah you stupid child," he hissed, and Tobias chuckled.
"Can't hardly feel it, doc, give me a shot of something and I'll be as good as new."
"Don't be brainless, you need stitches, you could get an infection with something this deep," he patted his coat before pulling out a roll of gauze, "This is all I have on me, and it appears the bomb totaled the infirmary area of the building, so we've lost key supplies, but there are boxes still in the van."
"We have morphine, gauze, bandages," Adalard helped, standing up and hurrying over to the open trunk of the van, "What do you need?"
"Nothing right now," Adalwolf said, looking over at Duncan, "I'll have to check him over too. Just eyeing you, you've lost too much blood. You might need a transfusion."
"Well gosh that's the best news I've heard all day," Duncan said, closing his eyes, his head tilting back, "At least now I know why I'm seeing double."
"That's even worse," Adalwolf offered, and Emyr squeezed Duncan's shoulder tighter as I took an unsteady breath and ducked my head, lifting a hand to rub my face.
"I'm sorry. This is my fault. I shouldn't have come here."
"For the last time, this was not your doing," Tobias scolded me, reaching out to hold my hand again, "There was no way. Just because you can't remember doesn't mean you're somehow responsible for giving this location away."
"What?" Emyr gaped, and I winced, turning my head away and staring down at where my hand was clutched in Tobias'.
"How is this not my fault? I can't remember a thing, who's to say I didn't somehow-."
"No, don't even think that," Emyr snapped, moving away from Duncan and towards us instead, "This is not your fault, do you understand? Whatever you may think, everything about this is not your fault. You are the least guilty out of everyone. You're a victim, you don't deserve any of this," his eyes moved to Tobias next, "You need to go back to wherever you're from, as soon as possible, before anything else like this happens. That's what you wanted to do in the first place, so do it, take Carter and get him out of here. Get him somewhere safe."
I could feel a sense of unease at the tone of his voice, the panic on his face, but no one answered him. I think we were all too startled to. Emyr was a generally calm person, he wasn't one to just snap like that. All I could think about was how something was so, so very wrong with all of this. Getting conveniently bombed by the Con Rồng, right when we'd decided to leave this entire situation and go back to Europe, somewhere Bay would never even think of looking for me. For any of us. Why?
"You're all okay," it was Kailas who spoke, pulling all of our attention as he hurried towards us with Demi close to his side, a look of stale fury on his face, "Any major injuries?"
"One or two," Tobias answered, "We'll live, but something tells me it wouldn't be wise to stay much longer," he turned to look at Kailas, "I understand if you're attached to the place, considering you've spent such a long time building up the rebellion and creating a safe haven for your people, but we've all been compromised. We can't stay here if we want to keep our foothold against the government. We've slipped far enough as it is."
Kailas seemed to cringe at that, shutting his eyes and bowing his head, "We've planned for this, don't worry," he assured, and Tobias sat a bit straighter.
"You never brought up having a contingency plan in place."
"We never thought we'd have to use it in a million years," Cass stated, coming up on Kailas' right with Malachi and Arthur.
Arthur was carrying a child it looked like, maybe four or five years old, and I remember him addressing the boy as Raiden at some point, but I'd never met him before. The kid seemed to be shaking as Arthur cradled him, his little face hidden against Arthur's neck, tiny hands curled into his coat at his shoulders and his legs wrapped around his waist as the doctor kept an arm around his back to help keep him up. I took a bit of comfort from knowing at least the children were alright.
For a minute I was worried about Dakota, until I looked over and saw he was still crouching down over by the rest of the cars, his hands over his ears and his head down. Orion and Beckett were hovering on either side of him, but even from this distance I could see tears on his face. I could only imagine what he was remembering at this point...
"Care to tell us?" Bryn asked, prompting more information about their second base, and Cass hummed.
"Better to not say anything out loud right now, but," Cass was scribbling something onto a pad of paper, tearing it out and handing it to Bryn, "These are the coordinates. Keep them to yourself, memorize them. We'll have to split up and shuttle out soldiers and citizens equally. We're getting the children and the people not in the military out first, the people who aren't attuned to fighting. They'll be driven in waves towards a location separate from our second base."
"We should've done that a long time ago," Arthur noted bitterly, "Having military and civilians in the same area was foolish. It put innocent lives in danger. They didn't sign up for this, they just wanted somewhere safe to go."
"That's why we have this plan," Kailas said, arms folded, looking at Tobias, "The Syndicate was coming for military aid, which is why we gave you the coordinates leading to our contingency military base, but it's quite a ways away. If you'd prefer, you're free to join the citizens of the settlement to a more peaceful and likely safer location. I know you're worried about Carter, and being injured the way you are-."
"If you're going to suggest I take a sick leave, you'd do well to stow the words," Tobias interrupted with a chuckle, "You're correct, we came to provide military aid, and that hasn't changed," he pushed himself to stand, though his left arm hung at his side, his right hand clinging to his upper arm, "We'll follow you to the second location."
"We need to leave soon," I worried, rising to my feet, "The Con Rồng does passes of five every half hour. It's a scare tactic. They drop five smaller charges before giving the target a moment of false reprieve, luring them into a sense of security. Their second run always carries the most damage, we need to be gone by then. The citizens at the least."
"Understood," Kailas turned to Cass, who nodded without a word and turned as if to pass along the information.
"What are the casualties?" Sasha asked, and Kailas exhaled through his nose as Arthur answered, petting back Raiden's hair.
"It was almost disturbingly accurate, as if they knew to aim towards the infirmary," he said, eyes down, "We lost a surgeon, Dmitri Panaiotievich, and a number of citizens who were just volunteering, as well as the majority of the patients resting," he closed his eyes completely, "Your soldier, Hans Franke, ran in when I was leaving, but..."
Tobias tensed up before his shoulders slouched, "Anton was recovering from a fight," he noted, "Don't tell me..."
I heard Bryn's breath hitch as Arthur nodded, "He was sleeping when it happened, so he didn't feel anything, but he's gone."
Tobias sighed, and I heard Adalwolf give a grunt, "A more peaceful death than he deserved," he gruffed, and I turned to gape at him as he turned his back, mumbling to himself as Bryn lifted a hand to his temple and Tobias stared at the doctor with a particular look in his eye.
"What about Hans?" Bryn asked, lifting his eyes at the sound of boots scuffing the ground.
The named soldier was trudging towards us, blood staining the front of his shirt as well as the sleeves up to his elbow, a dark expression on his face as his eyes snapped to the side, locking on Logan, who simply stared back, as if daring the man to speak. For a moment I thought Hans would just pass, but instead he stopped.
"This was your doing," he revealed, and Logan's head tilted to the side in an almost cute way, "If you hadn't sparred with him-."
"You call that a spar?" Bryn interrupted, "Anton was no match."
"He's not the one who picked a fight! That psycho!" he pointed at Logan, "He just went batshit! There's something wrong with him!"
Everyone turned to look at Logan, rather offhandedly, like they were just glancing at him because Hans was making a scene, but I caught the look on Demi's face. I imagine he'd never really looked at Logan before, not clearly, he was probably too busy with Kailas; but now that he'd taken the time to meet Logan's eye, recognition clashed in his own, and a gun was in his hand before I could open my mouth to calm him down.
"Demi!" Kailas had his hands lifted as the ex-assassin positioned himself in front of the rebellion head, golden eyes wide as he aimed his gun directly at Logan, who countered by drawing his own gun.
Malachi reacted by pulling Arthur back several large steps, arms wrapped around he and Raiden, and Tobias turned so he was shielding me, his own eyes wide.
"What are you doing?" Arthur asked, keeping a remarkably calm demeanor considering his friend was aiming a gun at someone.
"I was thinking how strange and convenient it was, that they'd find us now of all times... and even before, how they managed to find you at the warehouse... I think I get it now," Demi said, eyes narrowing, "The rebellion was infiltrated by a Con Rồng spy."
There was a quick pause before Sasha piped up, "What, and you think that's Logan?" he asked.
Demi snarled, his lip twitching as his hand lifted to the scar on the right, "He's one of them."
Logan winced, his hold on the gun wavering, and Bryn stepped forward, holding his arm up to provide a rather weak shield between he and the angered former assassin, making it much worse by stating, "We already know."
Demi's eyes widened even more, and Tobias took a step to stand at Bryn's side, helping to explain the situation how he could, "Carter recognized him after a few weeks here, but we've already discussed it as a group. He's not a threat to us, in fact we consider him an ally."
Logan looked completely startled, dropping his arm entirely so the gun was hanging loosely in his hand, gaping at Tobias, but Demi didn't look at all happy with the situation, and Hans held his hands up.
"When did we discuss this? He's a spy?! When did any of this happen?!"
"What the hell's going on?" Duncan mumbled a little, looking worse and worse by the minute, and Jasper shook his head as Emyr lifted his hand to cover his mouth and nose, eyes wild with emotion as they snapped between Demi and Logan, nothing but uncertainty and confliction in his eyes.
"What do you mean he's one of them?" Kailas asked gently, and Demi's hand curled into a fist against the little scar.
"His last name is Thompson, he was recruited after me. He's like me, an assassin, trained exclusively by the Con Rồng. There's no other explanation, he's a Con Rồng spy. How else is any of this possible?!"
"What's going on here? I leave for a few minutes and now Demi is trying to kill someone else?" Cass sighed as he returned to the newfound chaos, followed by Carina, Orion, Beckett, and Dakota, who looked a bit better, but was still pale.
"Something about a spy...," Arthur said softly, watching Logan, who was taking small steps backwards.
"Okay, whoa, calm down," Cass held his hands up, eyes wide, "Let's take this slow. Tell me the situation."
"I won't argue that this is convenient," Tobias offered, "Being targeted like this, but how can you just assume we have a spy?"
"Are you calling me an idiot?" Demi asked, glaring at Tobias, who scoffed a little.
"I'm saying you're jumping to conclusions."
"It could have been me," I argued, "When I was being held captive, I could have said something during those months I can't remember."
"No, I don't think so," Demi decided, and I shook my head.
"How can you be sure?"
"You're not that kind of person. Even unconsciously, you'd die before giving away innocent lives," he returned his glare to Logan, who was looking down at the handgun, "but you know him like I do, Carter. You trained him."
"Wait, stop," Carina's eyes were wide as he shouldered past Cass, "You're not seriously saying Logan is the one who told the Con Rồng where this base is? That he's a spy? There's no way!" Carina was bristling, "He has nothing to do with them! You're the one they trained into a Puppet!"
Demi didn't so much as flinch, clearly unaffected by the insult, "How much exactly do you know about him?" he asked, looking over at Carina, Orion, and Beckett, "How did you meet him?"
"He was...," Carina trailed off, and Orion picked up for him.
"Just wandering," he answered, "We sort of just bumped into him by chance. I don't... really know why he stayed with us, because at the time he seemed against being around us at all. Or around people in general. We all asked him to stay and he'd just snarl and walk off, but he stuck around, followed us at a distance, and ended up just... joining us."
"So you don't know a thing."
"It's not like we can have conversations with him," Orion argued, looking fully irritated, "He's helped us out of plenty of tough situations, he's protected us at the expense of his own safety, so whether we know about his past or not doesn't matter; he's our friend."
"He used to work for the Con Rồng," Demi revealed, "You know that already?" Tobias nodded, "Then you know Carter was his handler, and mine. We trained together, fought each other, because he was the only one who could match my strength and skill. I was a ghost, but he was a trump card. He was on equal footing with me even before he started training."
"Oh, so he's stronger than you?" Tobias asked, pouring gas on the flames like an idiot, and Demi looked tempted to turn the gun on him.
"You idiots knew exactly who he was, and you didn't even bother to tell us?!" he asked, "He could be a leak, you could have killed us all!"
"You're panicking for no reason," Tobias said back calmly, and Demi eyed him.
"How can you be sure he didn't do it?"
"Well for one thing, how could he have contacted them?" Tobias asked, "Even then, he couldn't exactly give any helpful vocal reports. We'd be able to trace radio calls or even suspicious activity through the white noise between stations. There's no way we would have missed it."
"Besides," Bryn added, "He's never alone. He's always either in the settlement helping with repairs or training with Carina. He wouldn't have had any time to himself to sneak in a message to the enemy."
"You're conveniently forgetting after hours when the rest of the world is asleep?" Demi asked, and Bryn opened his mouth before closing it.
I suppose it would have been weird to just come out and say he was always with Logan at night without looking suspicious, but I figured keeping face was the least of their problems when Demi seemed set on shooting Bryn's lover between the eyes. Still, that was exactly why I couldn't let anything happen. Logan had been nothing but genuine and caring this entire time, he'd been protecting Bryn, even longer than I realized. Beyond that, I knew the truth of what really happened to him. I couldn't just let him die, I couldn't let Bryn lose him.
"What are you doing?" Demi asked when I stepped up to position myself directly in front of Logan, "Move aside, you're not the one I want to shoot."
"We'll take on responsibility of him," I spoke for the entire Syndicate, holding an arm out.
Bryn, who was almost never surprised, gaped at me with an open mouth, and Tobias blinked a few times in rapid succession, though the corner of his lips quirked up, like he was proud of me for my spontaneously and frankly reckless unplanned decision.
Demi just narrowed his eyes, "The Syndicate seems to have a bad habit of harboring degenerates."
"Well, we were born of a street gang," Tobias tried to help me, shrugging, "You can't be surprised."
"Just listen, you're right about Logan being part of the Con Rồng, but let me ask you something. Did you ever find it strange that he just stopped showing up to train one day?" Demi eyed me wordlessly, and I continued, "That's because he was becoming an unstable soldier. He kept turning on us while we were training him, he wouldn't comply, he was completely rogue and couldn't be controlled, so Vinet decided to just get rid of him. That's why he can't speak, because his throat was torn when the collar was cut off," I felt a bit better at the way Demi was slowly lowering his gun, eyes cast down, "He was the first to fight back, but he's not part of the Con Rồng. He's as much a victim as you are, he hates them as much as you do, and all he's been trying to do now is atone for his mistakes, and Roy's. He's not a spy, and he's certainly not our enemy."
"Why are you being so insistent?" Demi asked, and I paused before answering.
"Because I'm like you, too. Just a victim trying to atone for my mistakes. You and Logan are the way you are because of me. If I can make it even a bit better by protecting either of you, then I will. You and he were my responsibility..."
Demi continued to watch me for a moment before dropping the gun completely, "One of us still is," he decided, stowing the gun away, "I'm still convinced we have a rat, so until we settle things, the Syndicate will take responsibility of Logan."
"You have got to be kidding me!" Carina snapped, "He didn't do anything!"
"That needs to be proven," Demi stated, and Carina motioned towards Logan.
"So he's nothing but a prisoner now?!"
"This is a similar situation as with Diego, and he's not a prisoner at all," Tobias stated, "Consider it protective custody."
Diego, who'd been hiding behind Klaus the entire time, dared to stick his hand out for Logan, "Welcome to the club, we've got hot guys here, take your pick."
Logan just snarled and slapped his hand away before turning around completely, handing his gun reluctantly to Klaus when prompted to do so, and keeping his back to the rest of us as the area began to settle from the tense atmosphere. Carina, Orion, and Beckett were all watching him with unreadable expressions, but none of them looked at all angry or upset. Just confused and worried for Logan, which I could understand.
"And you're just going along with this?" Carina asked Kailas, who glanced at him before sighing again.
"If it will settle the animosity, then yes. For now our main priority should be getting everyone out of here before the next pass. We've already wasted enough time arguing over it."
"How much time do we have left?" Cass asked, and Kailas shook his head, looking up at the sky.
"How are the evacuations coming?"
"Kids are all out, we shuttled them in the biggest van before getting the older civilians. A few cars are pretty packed, some of us might have to hike out on foot, but there's one car waiting for us."
"We also have that jeep Carter gave us," Dakota added somewhat weakly, "That can easily fit five people, with more crouched in the back if need be."
"The van we drove here can fit eight," Adalwolf noted, pointing over his shoulder at the black van where Adalard was leaning, "and we still have the copter stashed a few miles from here."
"It might not be safe to use in this current situation," Bryn warned, "but we have a second car the Syndicate brought that can fit a smaller crew as well as some supplies. On that note, we still have a lot of cases hidden away in a certain warehouse, and our jet is making it's way back with more Syndicate soldiers and supplies."
"That's good," Kailas sighed a little, turning fully to speak with Cass and Malachi, "So we'll have enough cars. The injured are top priority, thankfully the kids got out quickly," he looked back at me, "Do you think we have enough time to get supplies still inside?"
I shook my head, being as bluntly honest as I could, "We need to leave, now."
Kailas stared down at the ground for a moment before looking over at the plantation building, which had been their home for so long. I understood his hesitation, the way he just stared as the building smoked from the busted up building. The area was silent for too long before Kailas turned back.
"Let's go," he said, and everyone immediately started to split up.
"Klaus, take the drivers side," Bryn pointed at the eight-seater van, "I'll take the passanger side. Tobias, Carter, take the middle aisle, Logan and Diego in the back with Sasha."
"I'll take the second car," Adalwolf said, "As long as Tobias keeps pressure on his shoulder, he should be fine, but I need to take a look at Ross immediately. Adalard, take my place and help Tobias," Adalard nodded as Jasper and Emyr helped Duncan towards the second car, "Marlisa, Hans, and Reiner will ride with us. Give Marlisa the coordinates, she'll drive us."
"Take this," Adalard called from the trunk of the van, tossing a radio to Adalwolf, "Channel two, stay in contact, we'll try and take the same road out. What medical supplies do you need?"
"The red case," Adalwolf answered, taking the box that Adalard handed him before turning to us, "Don't die before I can look you over, Tobias. Let's get out of here."