Caleb Fast's Blog, page 3

Newsletter: Limit of Infinity Happenings 25.12.20

Sent out 25.12.2020 to 608 fans.

25 December 2020Merry Christmas, everyone!

And Happy New year as well!Writer Update!
The Battle for Allegra books are now dropping, book seven is live right now. Be sure to check it out!

Accolade – Chapter Twenty

Gideon Lennox



West of Paradise, Galatia

Gideon cowers even lower to the ground as a bird suddenly flutters overhead. He casts a longing glance up to the creature and he momentarily wonders how such a helpless and frail creature could survive out here in the hybrid-infested wilds. As he eyes the bird, Gideon watches it hop between a few branches in the tree canopy before it takes flights and abandons him and his companions.

“I’m thinking that the place is abandoned,” Sylvia announces after a few moments of silence.

“Well that much is obvious,” Gideon sarcastically agrees and chuckles.

In front of him the vast concrete structure stands in stark contrast against the greenery around it. Vines, moss, and a massive array of small foliage are beginning to overtake the building and larger plants have long since retaken the area around the building.

The dark grey structure itself if situated in a valley that is surrounded by some smaller hills. Part of the building appears to have given way and fallen into the peaceful river whose banks must have risen since the building’s construction. Gideon isn’t certain, but he thinks that he can just make out the forms of several smaller outbuildings beside the large main building. However, thanks to the large amount of foliage, he can’t be certain.

“I meant there aren’t any hybrids,” Sylvia clarifies with a slightly irritated tone.

Letting out a strained breath, Meghan whispers, “I’m not so sure, something scared the birds on the far side of the complex and it wasn’t us.”

Clearly not dissuaded, Sylvia points out, “Well we can’t just wait here forever,”

“I’m not sure if we should just rush in either,” Gideon reminds her, “We decided to scout things out from up here first for a reason. We don’t have the manpower or the firepower to take on much.”

“Well we’ve got the womanpower!” Meghan exclaims unhelpfully.

Rolling his eyes at Meghan’s comment, Gideon sighs. When no one says anything else, he continues, “If we’re going to go in then we’re going to have to set some traps behind us as we go so nothing can sneak up on us.”

“We’re going to have to find somewhere defendable in there soon too,” Sylvia adds.

Nodding, Meghan agrees, “Yeah, night’ll be here soon, and I don’t want to get caught out in the open again.”

“What do you think this place used to be?” Gideon asks when no one makes any moves to descend from their lookout point. Something about the dark, overgrown buildings added an unneeded amount of spookiness to the entire setting.

“My guess is an old town,” Sylvia ventures a guess, “There are a bunch of old foundations all around that look big enough to have been houses.”

“All Pre-Inundation, I’d bet,” Gideon nods as he finally realizes why he couldn’t make the smaller structures out for sure before—they were just the remains of buildings.

“Yeah,” Sylvia agrees.

Shuffling for a moment, Meghan clears her throat and inquires, “What’s up with the big building though? It seems so out of place out here on its own.”

“Looks like some sort of open-air hangar,” Gideon notes as he looks at a series of large landing pads on top of and attached to the building. Most of the pads are nearly indistinguishable thanks to the plants that made quick work of most of the flat surfaces, but some concrete is still peeking out here and there.

“It’s a spaceport,” Sylvia announces confidently.

“A what now?” Gideon asks with a breathy and confused chuckle.

“It’s where spaceships used to land,” Sylvia answers.

“Spaceships?” Gideon presses, still very much confused.

“Yeah,” Sylvia nods.

Seemingly just as lost as Gideon, Meghan inquires, “You going to let us in on what you’re talking about, or are we just going to have to pretend that we’re following?”

Sighing, Silvia starts, “This little secret is what got me stuck in the Stalwart Program. As it turns out, we’re not alone in the galaxy.”

“You telling us there’re aliens out there?” Gideon laughs as he points to the heavens.

Nodding, Sylvia affirms, “Aliens and a lot more humans like us. The Coalition cut us off from the outside worlds for some reason. My mom let it slip once that there were other planets run by the Coalition and I just had to know more. I wanted to know why they decided to cut us off from everyone else too. They didn’t like me looking around, so they sent me here.”

“What all did you find out?”

“A whole lot of nothing.”

“Nothing? You just told Meghan and I a lot more than we ever knew.”

“But I didn’t figure out why any of this is happening. There are so many other planets that we could live on—why are they keeping us here?”

“Maybe we’re some sort of lifeboat for humanity?” Meghan offers.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Gideon probes, “Lifeboats? Aren’t those supposed to be safe places? Nothing about this planet seems lifeboat-like to me.”

“Well maybe that’s the thing,” Meghan continues down her train of thought, “Maybe they figured that no one would think to check a planet full of monsters for some humans that are hiding out.”

“And who would we be hiding from?” Gideon asks, wondering how Meghan could have come up with this whole scenario.

Laughing at Gideon, Meghan condescendingly answers, “The aliens, duh.”

“From the files I went through, I’d say that’s not the case,” Sylvia shakes her head.

“Then what is it, oh wise one?” Meghan demands in a demeaning voice.

“I don’t know for sure,” Sylvia shrugs, “It sounded like this was all some sort of sick experiment or something. I don’t know. All I can say for sure though is that this isn’t a lifeboat for humanity.”

“Eh, I’m not convinced,” Meghan shrugs back as she turns her attention back to the ruins before them. A moment passes and she rises to her feet and says, “Let’s get down there to find out what’s the big deal.”

That’s it for Now





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Newsletter: Limit of Infinity Happenings 11.12.20

Sent out 11.12.2020 to 586 fans.

11 December 2020
Happy Friday!
Writer Update!
The next four books in The Battle for Allegra are all up for preorder! 

Every book in the series will be available for JUST 99 CENTS for the remainder of the year. Yes, just 99 cents.

If you haven’t started reading the series quite yet, there’s no better time!

Short Story!
Before I go on with the story, I’d like to say that I have fully revamped the layout of this story on my website! It took a TON of work, but not I think it’s perfect. It’ll be a lot easier to navigate now.

Accolade
Chapter Nineteen
West of Paradise, Galatia 
Maverick slowly scans the tree line for any signs of the hybrids. It had been at least an hour since he had seen the last one, but he still felt like he was being watched. He knew there was something hiding in the foliage waiting for him to let his guard down. He knew that the hybrids were better hunters than any of his training had prepared him for.
 
“Looks like that’s the last of them,” Anne announces from behind Maverick.
 
Maverick quickly peeks around the tree that he is leaning against and he eyes the girl for a few seconds. He can tell that she is felling just as tired as he was. Seemingly everyone was spent after their flight from the hybrid attack on their camp and the constant threat of additional hybrid attacks.
 
“You look awful,” Anne points out with a weak chuckle as she closes the remaining distance between her and Maverick.
 
Turning back to the nearest tree line, Maverick sighs. He felt awful. He was certain that he lost people and the fact that he had only found a few of his teammates so far gave him a sinking feeling. He hadn’t even been out here a whole day and he had already lost track of so many people. Sighing, Maverick finally asks, “The last of what?”
 
“Of our people,” Anne clarifies, “There aren’t any more tracks leading this way and no one remembers seeing anyone else that came this way.”
 
“How many people does that put us at?”
 
“Including you and me, six. That Warren Ki’etz guy makes a total of seven.”
 
“Seven…”
 
“But that’s just out of those who came this way, there were people running every direction.”
 
“There’s twenty-one of us and we can’t even account for a third of that.”
 
“Seven is a good starting point though. Besides, there are only minimal injuries among them, so odds are everyone else is also doing pretty well.”
 
“The hybrids didn’t kill us off because they’re testing us,” Maverick points out forebodingly, “They’re seeing if we’re as threatening as Rolland and his crew.”
 
“And they saw that we can handle ourselves,” Anne assures him in return, “We killed at least five of them.”
 
“I won’t believe that we showed them anything until I see our final headcount…”
 
“Where to, boss man?” Warren’s voice echoes down from the treetops.
 
“Any idea where we can find more of our people?” Maverick calls back up to the unseen Warren. The kid had a knack for disappearing no matter how little of cover he had. This ability to disappear made Maverick nervous, but he was happy that Warren was on his side.
 
“I’d say our best bet is to return to camp,” Warren answers. There’s a rustle in the treetops and Maverick catches a fleeting glimpse of Warren as he passes between one tree to the next. Another moment passes before he reports, “Someone’s coming our way.”
 
Wondering if the approaching party might be hostiles, Maverick worriedly asks, “Any idea who?”
 
“I’d guess it’s Rolls and Haley. Astrid’s probably with them.”
 
“None of our people,” Maverick grunts just loud enough for Anne to hear.
 
“We’ll find them,” Anne pledges.
 
“At least we know Sylvia’s one of them,” Maverick sighs, “She’ll be able to keep whoever’s with her alive.”
 
“You think she might have run off to check out that spot on her map?”
 
“No… How’d you hear about that?”
 
“I’m a light sleeper,”
 
“No one is supposed to know about it—”
 
“I know, I know. I’ll keep it that way. But seriously, how can you be so sure that she isn’t doing to check it out? This would be her perfect opportunity. She even went that way.”
 
“She did?”
 
“Yeah. At least, I’m pretty sure she did.”
 
“Anyone else go with her?”
 
“The new guy.”
 
“Interesting…”
 
“Think she might have ditched us to check it out?”
 
“I’m beginning to,”
 
“Well, as you said, she’ll keep everyone alive.”
 
“Yeah,”
 
“So, the six of us plus Gideon and Sylvia is eight.”
 
“Eight out of twenty-one isn’t that great either,” Maverick reminds Anne.
 
“But it’s a start,”
 
“Looks like Rolland found a couple of your friends!” Warren shouts from the treetops, “And he’s with Haley and Astrid, as I expected.”
 
Running through his memories of Roland’s team, Maverick asks Warren, “That leaves two of your people, right?”
 
Warren’s response echoes down from seemingly everywhere, “Yeah, Nick and Julius. They should be fine though.”
 
“Those two should be able to keep our people alive too,” Maverick tells Anne, “Maybe we are better off than I thought.”
 
“There you are!” a new voice calls from above. Maverick quickly recognizes it as that of Astrid, Warren’s twin sister.
 
“Just had to babysit the Domers,” Warren’s voice quietly sounds in reply.
 
Maverick chuckles at Warren’s use of babysitting and he shakes his head. As sad as it was, he knew that he basically was being babysat. The sims that he had trained in didn’t do a justice to the ferocity of the hybrids. It didn’t do a justice to the fear that their mere presence caused. It didn’t do a justice to how fast they were.
 
Maverick knew that he had been lied to.
 
No, it wasn’t an outright lie, but withholding truths like this was basically lying. Maverick knew that he had been led to believe that the hybrids weren’t as dangerous as they really were and that wasn’t a mistake that he was going to make again.
There’s less of a cliffhanger this week.

Accolade – Chapter Nineteen

Maverick Gracian



West of Paradise, Galatia

Maverick slowly scans the tree line for any signs of the hybrids. It had been at least an hour since he had seen the last one, but he still felt like he was being watched. He knew there was something hiding in the foliage waiting for him to let his guard down. He knew that the hybrids were better hunters than any of his training had prepared him for.

“Looks like that’s the last of them,” Anne announces from behind Maverick.

Maverick quickly peeks around the tree that he is leaning against and he eyes the girl for a few seconds. He can tell that she is felling just as tired as he was. Seemingly everyone was spent after their flight from the hybrid attack on their camp and the constant threat of additional hybrid attacks.

“You look awful,” Anne points out with a weak chuckle as she closes the remaining distance between her and Maverick.

Turning back to the nearest tree line, Maverick sighs. He felt awful. He was certain that he lost people and the fact that he had only found a few of his teammates so far gave him a sinking feeling. He hadn’t even been out here a whole day and he had already lost track of so many people. Sighing, Maverick finally asks, “The last of what?”

“Of our people,” Anne clarifies, “There aren’t any more tracks leading this way and no one remembers seeing anyone else that came this way.”

“How many people does that put us at?”

“Including you and me, six. That Warren Ki’etz guy makes a total of seven.”

“Seven…”

“But that’s just out of those who came this way, there were people running every direction.”

“There’s twenty-one of us and we can’t even account for a third of that.”

“Seven is a good starting point though. Besides, there are only minimal injuries among them, so odds are everyone else is also doing pretty well.”

“The hybrids didn’t kill us off because they’re testing us,” Maverick points out forebodingly, “They’re seeing if we’re as threatening as Rolland and his crew.”

“And they saw that we can handle ourselves,” Anne assures him in return, “We killed at least five of them.”

“I won’t believe that we showed them anything until I see our final headcount…”

“Where to, boss man?” Warren’s voice echoes down from the treetops.

“Any idea where we can find more of our people?” Maverick calls back up to the unseen Warren. The kid had a knack for disappearing no matter how little of cover he had. This ability to disappear made Maverick nervous, but he was happy that Warren was on his side.

“I’d say our best bet is to return to camp,” Warren answers. There’s a rustle in the treetops and Maverick catches a fleeting glimpse of Warren as he passes between one tree to the next. Another moment passes before he reports, “Someone’s coming our way.”

Wondering if the approaching party might be hostiles, Maverick worriedly asks, “Any idea who?”

“I’d guess it’s Rolls and Haley. Astrid’s probably with them.”

“None of our people,” Maverick grunts just loud enough for Anne to hear.

“We’ll find them,” Anne pledges.

“At least we know Sylvia’s one of them,” Maverick sighs, “She’ll be able to keep whoever’s with her alive.”

“You think she might have run off to check out that spot on her map?”

“No… How’d you hear about that?”

“I’m a light sleeper,”

“No one is supposed to know about it—”

“I know, I know. I’ll keep it that way. But seriously, how can you be so sure that she isn’t doing to check it out? This would be her perfect opportunity. She even went that way.”

“She did?”

“Yeah. At least, I’m pretty sure she did.”

“Anyone else go with her?”

“The new guy.”

“Interesting…”

“Think she might have ditched us to check it out?”

“I’m beginning to,”

“Well, as you said, she’ll keep everyone alive.”

“Yeah,”

“So, the six of us plus Gideon and Sylvia is eight.”

“Eight out of twenty-one isn’t that great either,” Maverick reminds Anne.

“But it’s a start,”

“Looks like Rolland found a couple of your friends!” Warren shouts from the treetops, “And he’s with Haley and Astrid, as I expected.”

Running through his memories of Roland’s team, Maverick asks Warren, “That leaves two of your people, right?”

Warren’s response echoes down from seemingly everywhere, “Yeah, Nick and Julius. They should be fine though.”

“Those two should be able to keep our people alive too,” Maverick tells Anne, “Maybe we are better off than I thought.”

“There you are!” a new voice calls from above. Maverick quickly recognizes it as that of Astrid, Warren’s twin sister.

“Just had to babysit the Domers,” Warren’s voice quietly sounds in reply.

Maverick chuckles at Warren’s use of babysitting and he shakes his head. As sad as it was, he knew that he basically was being babysat. The sims that he had trained in didn’t do a justice to the ferocity of the hybrids. It didn’t do a justice to the fear that their mere presence caused. It didn’t do a justice to how fast they were.

Maverick knew that he had been lied to.

No, it wasn’t an outright lie, but withholding truths like this was basically lying. Maverick knew that he had been led to believe that the hybrids weren’t as dangerous as they really were and that wasn’t a mistake that he was going to make again.

That’s It for Now





Take Me to the Home Page

The Battle for Allegra Preorder Announcement

They’re finally up.

Each and every one of the books in The Battle for Allegra – Season One.

Can I just say, “Phew”?

After nearly an entire year since I penned the first word of The Battle for Allegra: Conscripted, we are finally about to see the final book in the season drop.

Admittedly, I’m super excited. As I see it, I have plenty of reason to be too! The completion of Season One means that I will finally be able to drop my first box set of books. What does that mean? It means I’ll be offering all of Season One as one book, rather than ten. That development is still a way off, but I’m nonetheless excited for it.

Now, back to the matter at hand…

The Battle for Allegra Books 7, 8, 9, and 10

I’m releasing each book one week apart. That’s my rapid release schedule and I’m sure that everyone will enjoy that a lot more than the months-long wait for episode six! (Sorry for that.) Season two of my sci-fi saga will hopefully come out more consistently, but I can’t make any promises right now.

Curious what the release dates are? I’ll put that question to rest right now!

Secured

Matthew leads the Glendoveer twins in a raid against the Fulcrum bunker in an attempt to secure Marie’s freedom from them.

Can he make it?

Preorder Now

Harborage

After his raid on the Fulcrum bunker, Matthew needs to get back to safety. He needs to find his safe harbor.

Will the Fulcrum get to him first?

Preorder Now

Revelations

War is full of rude awakenings. It reveals things that people never wanted to find out about themselves and others.

Will Matthew’s discovery destroy him?

Preorder Now

Promotion

Outstanding performance always grants promotion to good soldiers. Being in the commander’s good graces also helps.

What did Matthew do to get a promotion?

Preorder Now





From the Author

I was so excited to finally put these books up for preorder. I’ve been working tirelessly on them for what felt like months. To be rightly honest, I think they encompass some of my best work to date as well! There were so many parts that I just had to stop and smile as I threw myself for a loop or I did something else that I was just so proud of.

I felt as proud as a kid who just got their finger painting put up on the fridge.

My excitement extends beyond my pride in these pieces, however. I was most excited by what Matthew was able to achieve in just a few short books. The completion of Season One really gets things set up for Season Two where–spoiler alert–the war will get even more intense.

Join Matthew as he fights to save Allegra.

Series Information



The Battle for Allegra

The Battle for Allegra takes place on a planet on the outer fringes of the Milky Way. It is a planet that was originally colonized by a largely Greek populace, hence all the cities with names that have Greek origins.

This series is the result of several years of brainstorming and more than a few failed attempts at getting it down on paper. Now, all this time later, it’s finally seeing the light of day.

I wrote this series with several different books in mind.

For starters, one can likely see an immediate link between The Battle for Allegra and Starship Troopers. While The Battle for Allegra is a much more serious military sci-fi, it does have “Bugs” that assault space marine soldiers that are in trenches. The government is also rather terrible as well. This, however, is about where the comparisons can stop.

I also wanted to expand on some thoughts that I had with Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. I thought about how alien invaders that were so bug-like didn’t have to be such advanced beings. I reasoned that there could be some brainless brutes in addition to the smarter aliens that would be leading the attack and building the invasion craft. Because of that consideration, you will see plenty of cannon fodder like the Beet that Matthew took on in First Kill, but you will also see more advanced creatures as the series goes on.

Due to the serious tone of The Battle for Allegra, I quickly discovered that it was becoming a lot like The Red Badge of Courage as well. It was no longer the “what if World War One happened against aliens” plot that I originally wrote it to be. Instead, our hero, Matthew Campbell, finds himself exposed to the horrors of war. Like The Red Badge of Courage’s Henry Fleming, Matthew is anything but thrilled by bloodshed. He immediately discovers his hatred of war. Not only that, he is faced with fears that he never thought he might face.

As Matthew fights on, many readers will see that Matthew’s reluctance to make war is not helped by his propensity to win fights. As he wins each fight, Matthew grows more and more accustomed to the rigors of war as well. This is another issue which I try to give enough thought to within the short story/novelette format that I am writing in.

All in all this series is turning into a thing of its own as I write it. No longer is it a format for me to give backstories to characters that will take part in my science fiction novel series: The Limit of Infinity. Instead, The Battle for Allegra is commanding special attention for itself. It’s its own beast now.

Why is Matthew Such a Good Fighter?

I have seen this question asked more than a few times. I’ve even had some negative commentary because Matthew is fighting without any training.

Beyond this being the entire point of the first book (Matthew is thrown to the wolves without training as a punishment), I did foresee this issue. No one is naturally a skilled fighter that can handle himself and knock big burly men out.

As such, I sprinkled in backstory for how Matthew became the scrappy fighter that we know him as throughout Season One. I will likely continue fleshing him out with brief backstory references and memories throughout the series.

I know it leaves a lot of questions regarding young Matthew, but that is not without intention on my part. Mystery keeps all of us coming for more!

Additionally, I can only slip in so much backstory in a story that is this short. If I do too much then the whole book is memories of our little soldier who’s taking on millions of dangerous alien invaders. Memories and backstory getting fleshed out like that can be boring as everything. I’m not here to bore you, I’m here to entertain you. I’ve got a paper that has Matthew’s full backstory written out and I might share it with the world when I have more books out. However, I won’t be doing that any time soon because it’ll spoil more than a few things!

Additional Series Info

Every book in The Battle for Allegra will be at least ten thousand words. I found that this was the shortest length that I could write in while still having the book go somewhere. That being said, I have no intention of writing books that will stop prematurely at that point. I will (and I have) written books in this series that were longer. As it stands, my average word count is about 13,000 words so far. The longest book is just shy of 19,000 words!

This series started out as my own personal sandbox to declare the war that I have been wanting to write about for quite some time now.

I wanted a sci-fi with trenches. Mud. Blood.

I wanted one with big old mechanized legions.

One with bug-like aliens that were just a wee bit harder to kill than real life insects. …Alright, that’s an understatement. I made them so they’d be insanely hard to kill.

I wanted to create characters who were adverse to conflict and have them get guided to the ways of war by battle-hardened individuals.

I wanted to make a science fiction coming of age story that was moving. One that tugged on the heartstrings. One that included more than a little war.

I wanted to write a story that played out like a TV show because who doesn’t like that?

With all of that in mind, I wrote The Battle for Allegra. I chose the novelette format over that of short stories, novellas, and novels because 10-20 thousand words seemed to fit the “TV show” timeslot a lot better while still telling a worthwhile story. Short stories were just way too short to smash in enough stuff. Novels and novellas on the other hand were too long for what each episode demanded. So, by happenstance, I ended up landing in the “novella” category for most of the books in this series.

If you haven’t picked up The Battle for Allegra yet, here’s a link to the series page on Amazon so you can join right in on the defense of an entire planet.

The Battle for Allegra Series Page

Accolade – Chapter Eighteen

Gideon Lennox



West of Paradise, Galatia

“I’m serious, I think we lost the hybrids,” Gideon declares as he digs his heels into the soft earth underfoot.

Sylvia had led Gideon through the forest at a full sprint for what must have been fifteen minutes and they had only just slowed down about five minutes ago. Since they had slowed down, Gideon had done his best to slow down his heartrate and be as quiet as possible in order to listen for any signs—or more accurately sounds—of danger.

“Shush,” Sylvia repeats the same order that she had given Gideon easily a dozen times now.

“I’m not moving until you say what’s really going on,” Gideon shakes his head as he crosses his arms. He is not about to follow Sylvia any further because he can tell that Sylvia is hiding something again.

“Come on, just a little bit further,” Sylvia begs.

Frowning, Gideon shakes his head again, “No, just tell me where we’re going!”

“Just trust me on this,” Sylvia pleads, “We have to do this!”

Worried, Gideon quietly asks, “Are you taking me to the place on your map?”

“Yes! Now please, let’s go!”

“Aren’t we supposed to stick with the rest of our team?”

“Maverick wasn’t about to let us go there any time soon, so I had to take matters into my own hands.”

“And you just had to drag me along?”

“You’re in this just as deep as I am,”

“Yeah, because you tricked me into coming with you.”

“I didn’t trick you, I just said you should follow me.”

“And then you led me all the way out here. I’m heading back to camp and I think you should come with me. The others might need us!”

“They’ll be fine without us. What they do need is for us to find out what was so important that my mom slipped us a secret map.”

“I don’t know if it’s wise for use to go out on our own like this, you saw the hybrids.”

“We have to do this,” Sylvia maintains as she approaches Gideon.

Turning slightly, Gideon warns, “I’m serious, I’m heading back.”

“We’re basically halfway there, let’s go!” Sylvia implores Gideon as she takes his hand and tries pulling him along.

“There’s no way we’re halfway,” Gideon points out as he gives Sylvia a skeptical look. It was one thing to lead him astray, it was entirely another to lie outright.

“Half of the battle was getting away from Maverick,” Sylvia shrugs without actually admitting how much further they had to walk.

“I don’t care how hard you think that was, what matters is that we get back with the team. I won’t tell Maverick your plan and we can try it again later when we know that everyone is safe.”

“Or we could just go now and be back before anyone misses us. Just in and out really quick, no one has to know that we weren’t being chased the whole time!”

“How about this: We go just a little bit further and find a high point to see just how easy this trip of yours will be. Once we do that, we double back and meet up with the others.”

“Well if we do that then we might as well go the whole way!”

“I’m not about to abandon our team just because of some secret message! I know it sounds promising and all, but did you think that it might take a long time for whatever your mom marked it for to happen? What if she’s planning on meeting us there or dropping supplies? There’s no knowing how long we’ll have to wait!”

“It could be a secret abandoned base that we could take over too.”

“Well if we found a good vantage point then we might be able to better judge that.”

“Is there any way I could convince you to come with me if it was something really cool?”

“No! We really need to find the rest of the team. Besides, I am sure that it isn’t safe to just have the two of us out here, not with the hybrids out and about.”

“Whatever,” Sylvia scowls as she spits out the word. Spinning around and marching off the way she had been going before, Sylvia’s shoulders slouch slightly and she gives in to Gideon’s compromise, “Let’s go find a lookout point.”

Not wanting to let Sylvia down too much, Gideon tries to reason with her, “Hey, I’m sorry we can’t do this, but you know it’s the right thing to do.”

Sighing, Sylvia shakes her head and says, “I’m done talking about it.”

“Sorry,” Gideon squeaks, worried that he already lost one of the few friends that he had out here.

Sylvia grumbles something that Gideon doesn’t catch, and he decides to follow her in complete silence now. As he saw it, the only thing worse than the awkward silence that is so thick that he could cut it with a knife was breaking the silence. Trying to break the silence before Sylvia did was destined to end badly.

•••••••••••••••

“Did you hear that?” Sylvia asks after several minutes of hiking. By now, she and Gideon are nearly halfway up a steep hill that they hoped would give them the vantage point that they needed.

“No,” Gideon answers, happy that Sylvia finally spoke up. He always hated when things were left on a bad note.

“There’s something following us,” Sylvia whispers as she drops to a crouch.

“What is it?” Gideon whispers back. Looking around, he hopes to catch a glimpse of whatever was tracking them. Before he has a chance to look around as much as he wanted, Sylvia gives his arm a sharp tug and he falls on top of her. Clumsily trying to pull himself off of Sylvia, Gideon sheepishly says, “Sorry, you caught me by—”

“Quiet!” Sylvia urges as her head snaps back to the direction that she had been looking at when she asked if Gideon heard anything. When Gideon continues trying to get away, Sylvia takes a hold of his hand and stops him. When he gives her a quizzical and concerned face, she simply says, “Hold still.”

Gideon rolls his eyes and he pulls away from Sylvia’s grasp long enough to begin pulling himself off her when someone shouts from behind, “I knew it!”

“Really Meghan?” Sylvia demands as she shoots up to her feet, “I was about ready to shoot you!”

Looking like she is ready to start screaming, Meghan fires back, “Well I couldn’t just let you take Gideon out to who knows where without following you, now could I?”

“You could just mind your own business for a change!”

“Mind my business? I had dibs!”

“I don’t care who you have dibs on, Gideon and I are checking something out!”

“Not without me you aren’t.”

“Hey, hey, let’s quiet down a bit,” Gideon butts in, “We don’t want the hybrids on our trail.”

Without turning to Gideon, Meghan snaps, “You can’t shut up, this is between us.”

Surprised by Meghan’s bluntness, Gideon can’t help but counter, “No, you can shut up. Sylvia and I are getting to the top of this hill and then we’re heading back. Nothing you say will change that and I don’t care what you think about it either!”

Meghan’s eyes grow wide for a moment before a smirk tugs at her lips. Raising an eyebrow, she starts, “Woah, I think—”

“Zip it,” Gideon cuts Meghan off. Turning to Sylvia, he instructs, “Let’s go.”

“With pleasure,” Sylvia nods as she gives Meghan a mocking grin and then starts back up the hill.

Knowing that he couldn’t just leave her and knowing that there was power in numbers, Gideon invites Meghan, “You can follow us if you’d like. If not, you can wait for us down here.”

“Oh, I’m coming with,” Meghan responds quickly, and she closes the distance between her and Gideon.

Meghan tries to grab Gideon’s hand, but he quickly pulls it away from her. Shaking his head, he tells her, “I don’t think so. I’m not your boyfriend and, if you keep acting like this, I never will be.”

“Keep acting like that and no one will want you,” Sylvia chimes in.

“Not helpful,” Gideon grunts as he follows Sylvia. For one reason or another, the two ladies seemed to have some bad blood between them, and Gideon didn’t want to dig any further into that open sore.

•••••••••••••••

Looking around, Gideon can’t help but take in a deep slow breath. Seemingly the entire world seems to stretch out on all sides of him. Endless rolling hills, gullies, and valleys of emerald remind Gideon of the pictures of the open waters of the ocean. Above the emerald ocean the blue skies above stand as a reminder to Gideon that he isn’t living under a dome of concrete and steel anymore. Instead, there’s just about nothing standing between him and the infinite skies above.

Gideon’s two companions are still not speaking to each other. Not only that, they aren’t talking to him either. He had initially thought that the silence would eventually lead to a sort of peace, but now he isn’t so sure.

“Well, Sylvia, we got you your high point,” Gideon announces, finally breaking the silence.

“I don’t see anything,” Sylvia frowns as a slight scowl crosses her face. She looks around for several moments before she points to an area further along and says, “I think “I’ll be able to see better over there.”

“Be careful,” Gideon warns, “The hill’s pretty steep.”

“I know,” Sylvia snaps.

Gideon feels offended by Sylvia’s shortness at first, but he quickly realizes that she is deep in thought. She breezes past him and makes for the small bluff that she had pointed out without another word.

“I thought you said that you were heading right back after we got up here?” Meghan whispers to Gideon as she watches Sylvia march away.

“We’re trying to see if we can see something from up here,” Matthew tells her.

Drawing even closer, Meghan asks, “What are we trying to see?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Gideon shrugs as he sidesteps away from Meghan. Looking back over the landscape that he can see through the surrounding foliage, he continues, “All we know is that whatever it is, it’s important.”

“So important that we don’t know what it is?” Meghan asks skeptically.

Shrugging once more, Gideon admits, “I have no idea what it is supposed to be. All I know is that Sylvia’s mom slipped me a map and that we should be able to get a fix on what it is from here. If not, then we head back, no matter what Sylvia says.”

“And if we do see something?”

“Then we still head back. Maverick said he wasn’t ready for us to go out here, so we have to respect his wishes.”

“But you’ve already come this far,”

“Yeah, that wasn’t my choice.”

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s forcing you along.”

“Whose side are you on?” Matthew asks with a chuckle as he looks over to where he had left Meghan, “Sylvia’s the one who’s trying to stretch the rules here. I don’t need you doing that too!”

“Well, I’m just saying,” Meghan shrugs, “We’ve come this far, after all. If this is as close as we’re going to ever get, then this is a bit of a waste. Might as well go the whole way!”

Not convinced, Gideon shakes his head and argues, “The others might need us. We can’t just walk away from them.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine without us.”

“We can’t be sure of that,”

“They’ve got Maverick, they’ll be fine.”

“Come over here and check this out!” Sylvia beckons from her spot on the butte. Without skipping a beat, she takes a hold of a tree branch and uses it to lean out over the steep ravine below her.

Curious, Gideon walks over to Sylvia, Meghan in tow, and he scans the wilds around them. There are less trees obstructing his sight, but he still fails to see anything. Frowning, he continues searching as he wonders what Sylvia might be looking at.

A minute passes before Sylvia asks, “Do you see it?”

“Nope,” Gideon shakes his head, “All I see are trees.”

“Trees and trees and trees,” Meghan affirms.

“Well you’re not looking close enough then,” Sylvia says matter of factly as she motions for Gideon to come closer to the edge.

Reluctant, Gideon takes a few baby steps and he eventually is close enough to Sylvia that he can finally follow her gaze and see the smallest chunk of grey in the distance. The grey stands right about where he knew the map directed and he can’t help but feel concerned that Sylvia and Meghan were going to go on ahead whether he liked it or not.

“What is it?” Meghan asks from behind Gideon.

Gideon turns around and sees Meghan approach and then everything seems to slow down.

Overhead, something cracks.

Underfoot, there is a rumble that nearly throws Gideon to the ground. Sylvia loses her grip on the branch and Gideon manages to catch her before she falls out of reach and he pulls her back to safety.

The ground then gives out and the tree that Sylvia had been hanging from begins falling down into the ravine. Its roots pick up the earth that Gideon and the others are standing on and they slide down the suddenly steep ground.

In a moment, Gideon is tumbling down the hill with Sylvia still in his arms. He wraps himself protectively around her and he ventures a glance uphill.

Following closely after him, Gideon sees Meghan is also falling. Not only that, the massive tree is chasing all of them down.

The back of Gideon’s head slams into a tree or rock and lights play along the edges of his vision. He tries to remain conscious, but the effort is seemingly futile. A moment later, his world goes black.

•••••••••••••••

“Ah, my head,” Gideon grunts as he reaches up to his temples and rubs them gently. The action ends up doing more harm than good and he quickly rips his hands away. Looking down at the hands that had just harmed him, Gideon notes that they are smeared with a light coat of blood. Swallowing, he nervously wonders just how bad off he is. Knowing full well that it would hurt, Gideon rubs his bloodied hands off on his shirt and then he gently presses against each hemisphere of his skull. Once that’s done, he realizes that most of the blood and the searing pain is isolated to the base of the back of his skull.

“You’re awake, good,” Sylvia says from somewhere behind him.

Gideon slowly sits up, an effort which causes his blood to pound inside of his tender skull. He winces with every heartbeat for a few seconds before the pain eases off slightly.

Ahead of him he sees a small creek. The creek burbles along happily as if nothing is amiss. Both upstream and downstream the small flow of water disappears under the dense foliage of plants that are too greedy to let even the smallest drip of water past their branches’ reach.

Taking a slow breath, Gideon quietly asks, “Where’s Meghan?”

“She’s behind you, she still hasn’t woken up, but she’s fine,” Sylvia answers.

“And you’re alright too?”

“Yeah, thanks to you.”

“How long was I out?”

“Like thirty seconds,” Sylvia chuckles, “Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything.”

“My head hurts, how bad is it?”

“It doesn’t look too bad… your hair’s matted with blood though. Want me to take a closer look?”

Nodding ever so slightly, Gideon hesitantly answers, “Yeah, but please be gentle.”

“Gentle is my middle name,” Sylvia announces jokingly before she shuffles over beside him.

Gideon holds his breath and he clamps his eyes shut as Sylvia’s fingers slowly begin exploring the tangles of Gideon’s hair. He can tell that his hair is wet with blood thanks to how much of it is sticking to his head. With even the gentlest of touches, Gideon can’t help but flinch and try to jerk his head away from Sylvia.

After two minutes of trying, Gideon pulls away and stands. The pain was too much to continue suffering through. Shaking his head, he announces, “Alright, that’s not working.”

“Sorry,” Sylvia frowns as she offers him a remorseful half-frown. She looks down to her hands and then wipes Gideon’s blood off on her pants before she tells him, “It looks like you didn’t get it too bad. You got a big old gash on the back of your head and then a few smaller ones but your skull’s fine.”

“Will I need stiches?”

“You probably need them,” Sylvia answers. Looking around, she shrugs and points out, “But that’s probably not going to happen out here. We’ll have to settle with just bandaging you up.”

“Alright, can you help me with that?”

“If you stay still this time, sure.”

Gideon complies to Sylvia’s wishes and she quickly bandages up his head. Thanks to where his injury was, Sylvia’s bandages end up wrapping around most of Gideon’s head in order to keep the gauze firmly against the back of his head. She makes sure to leave gaps in the wrappings so he can breathe, drink, and see though.

“No one’s going to check on me?” Meghan groans as Sylvia finishes up with Gideon’s bindings.

“Nice try, but I already did,” Sylvia says without taking her attention off the fabric that she is repositioning out of Gideon’s mouth.

“I was hoping Gideon would,” Meghan grumbles to herself.

Chuckling, Gideon can’t help but wish that he hadn’t heard Meghan’s hopes. Sylvia’s eyes seemingly twinkle as she lets out her own suppressed and strained giggle and then flashes a toothy smile for the briefest moment.

“So… what’s the plan then?” Gideon asks once Sylvia finishes. He glances over his shoulder and sees that Meghan is busy poking around at the root ball that had nearly landed on top of them.

“Well…” Sylvia starts as she casts a longing glance over her shoulder at a denser part of the foliage. She looks back at Gideon and purses her lips before she says, “You won’t like what I’m thinking.”

“You’re planning on heading to the structure?” Gideon asks forebodingly. He knew that Sylvia’s resolve had only been strengthened by the fall, she was going to see what the grey thing that they had seen was.

“Yep,” Sylvia nods, “And I don’t think we’ll be finding a way back to the others any time soon.”

Frowning, Gideon looks up the steep embankment that they had fallen down. If they really tried, Gideon is confident they could make it up, but the effort seemed a tad reckless as well. As he watches the hillside, more dirt slides down. Sighing, he reasons that trying to climb back up was likely just as reckless as continuing along with Sylvia’s plan.

“Well, we lost some of our gear,” Meghan points out. She tugs on a strap that is sticking out from under the largest portion of the root ball, “My pack’s buried. Without it, I’m down to just two mags and whatever’s left in my gun.”

“If we wait, the others might come for us,” Sylvia announces after a sigh. Gideon can tell that she doesn’t like the idea but that she’s willing to go along with it if she was told to do so.

“I think we should check the structure out,” Gideon declares, “We’ve come this far. Besides, I don’t think we should risk heading back in case we come across one of the hybrids. If we’re lucky, we might find some extra gear in there too.”

That’s it for Now!





Take Me to the Home Page

Accolade – Chapter Seventeen

Roland Dixon



West of Paradise, Galatia

Rolland and Haley sit a few paces away from the nearest cliff face with a small fire to their backs for warmth and to keep the hybrids away. Ahead of them, they watch as the sun slowly begins peeking over the hills to the east. The sky above is glowing orange as if the sun were igniting the atmosphere as it shone on their humble planet. The hills and forests are painted a breathtaking green as the trees are awakened to yet another sunny day. As far as Rolland is concerned, life is good.

The duo sit in silence as the sun tentatively creeps upward, almost like it had forgotten how to rise and was relearning the skill. Once it is nearly a third of the way above the horizon, Haley quietly asks, “I don’t know if your dad would approve of bringing the Domers to the village.”

“And why’s that?” Rolland asks without taking his eyes off of the sunrise. He and Haley always liked to watch as the sky became a work of art every morning. Rolland had always reasoned that he liked it more than Haley, but she seemed content to wake up early and enjoy the view with him.

“Their leader, Maverick, clearly doesn’t have their respect,” Haley quickly points out, “I mean, several of his own people tried to kill him yesterday!

“From what I heard, it sounded like a longstanding rivalry,” Rolland points out. He takes a long, gentle breath as he watches the sun emerge the rest of the way from the hills that had hidden it. He didn’t know how, but the sun always seemed to speed up for the final moments of its rising.

“And how are we supposed to know that more of his people won’t try to do the same?” Haley presses. She sighs as she looks away from Rolland and toward the sunrise and she stares at it in silence. Rolland can tell that she is choosing her words carefully, so he opts to keep silent and let her think. After a minute or so, Haley finally says, “You know how much I like to help people. There’s just something about these people that seems off. They’re hiding something big, and I know you can sense that too.”

“Yeah, they’re hiding things, but Maverick says it’s nothing we should worry about.”

“And you took him at his word?”

“We don’t have a lot of other options.”

“No, we have plenty of options. They are the ones who are limited. We can leave whenever we please.”

“Can we though? You and I both know that leaving Maverick and his team out there would eat at us. It’d kill the twins too.”

“Well, have you talked to them about it? I’m sure they’d see things our way.”

“Julius and Nick talked to the two of them…”

“And?”

“Well, Astrid seems to have taken a liking to one of them.”

“And Warren?”

“Well, he likes another one of them. He says she’s the one for him.”

“What does Astrid say about her guy?”

“I actually didn’t hear that one. I don’t even know who it is.”

“Well, I guess our hands are tied then.”

“Well, it doesn’t help that Nick and Julius both have crushes on the same Domer.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they don’t know that they’re vying for the same girl though. I think it’d be best if we let them find that out on their own too. You and I have bigger things to worry about.”

“True, true,” Haley slowly nods.

Haley and Rolland remain silent for several minutes when Rolland suddenly gets and idea, “You know what?”

Haley jumps slightly at Rolland’s suddenness, but she recovers and asks, “What?”

“I think we—” Rolland is about to say that he thought that it couldn’t hurt to bring Maverick and the others back to their village when he is cut off by the sound of an explosion and some gunfire.

Rolland and Haley’s heads both snap back as they look to the source of the blast. When they see that the explosion had been in the direction of the camp, they both leap to their feet. Haley quickly tumbles to the ground and Rolland quickly helps her back to before he leads the way back toward the camp.

As they make for the camp, Rolland can hear the sounds of multiple weapons firing. As far as he can tell, seemingly everyone over there is shooting.

“Do you think Maverick’s friends came back to finish him off?” Haley questions as she and Rolland tear through the brush in a race for their companions.

“There’s no way they could have gotten that close without our noticing them…” Rolland answers, mostly in an effort to reassure himself. He had absolute faith in his team, there was no way they would suddenly be so bad at standing guard. At least if they were still alive… Rolland shudders at the thought of losing one of his teammates. They were his closest of friends. He grew up with them. To lose one of them, any one of them, would be the same as losing part of himself.

“There’s too much shooting for it to be Maverick and his team turning on us,” Haley notes, “They’re clearly fighting something.”

“I know,” Rolland agrees with a nod.

Before either of them can say another word, another massive explosion sounds, followed by several smaller blasts. Rolland suddenly fears that the Coalition might have sent in one of their gunships after them. But how could they have found us? There’s no way they would have tracked us. Unless one of Maverick’s people betrayed us to them… Rolland begins to get angry at the last thought when he suddenly realizes the improbability of it. If Maverick or one of his teammates betrayed them, then they wouldn’t be there to be shooting right now, and there were far too many weapons firing for it to just be the remainder of Rolland’s team.

“We got one!” Rolland hears a voice shout out triumphantly from somewhere in the firefight ahead.

“There are plenty more to be worried about!” another voice snaps before another blast sounds.

“What are they fighting?” Haley wonders aloud as she and Rolland slow down considerably. There was no use in charging into the middle of a fight if you didn’t know what was going on.

“I don’t—” Rolland’s voice catches in his throat when he sees a dead hybrid laying on the ground a short way ahead of them. Much of the creature had been blown away, leaving quite a few burns on its shredded flesh.

“Why would a hybrid of come after us now?” Haley wonders aloud, “After all this time?”

“Get out of the way, Gideon!” Astrid’s voice cries. A moment later, the sound of Astrid’s favorite gun sounds amidst the sound of the battle.

“Think you can climb on of these trees?” Rolland asks Haley as his heart lurches. Haley happened to be quite averse to combat like this. Not because she didn’t believe in fighting, but because she physically couldn’t fight. Thanks to her injuries, firing a gun was immensely difficult. If it were anyone else, it would be impossible, but Haley had found a way to shoot, despite all her shortcomings. But the problem remained that she couldn’t fight well in a heated scene like the one they would be heading into.

“You and I both know I can’t” Haley shakes her head, “Besides, I can’t just hide while you and the others fight for your lives.”

“But—”

“I’m going. Don’t worry, I won’t leave your side!”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” Rolland bemoans as he passes his well-used sidearm to Haley. If Haley were to follow him, then he wouldn’t be able to move around as quickly as he would have liked. Not only that, but he also wouldn’t be able to run into the heat of the fight since he didn’t want to risk Haley’s life. He knew he could make it out fine, Haley he wasn’t so sure about. The hybrids would likely target her if they took notice of her thanks to her frailties.

Seemingly sensing his thoughts, Haley quips, “This way I’ll keep you out of the worst of it.”

“Don’t make me regret this,” Rolland says as he purses his lips. Raising his rifle, he mentally prepares himself for anything. He takes a slow breath to steady himself and, breathing it out, he continues toward the fight.

•••••••••••••••

Rolland coughs as a thick smoke hits him the moment that he bursts through the final bush into the clearing that he had been camping in the night before. Ahead of him, fires are burning wildly and the forms of quite a few hybrids lie dead. Several of the hybrids look like they had been caught in explosions while others were mowed down with bullets. The ground underfoot is thick with bloodied mud from the slain creatures.

Just a few paces away, one of the hybrids is gorging itself on the flesh of another hybrid. Without hesitating, Rolland dispatches the beast with three well-aimed shots to its back. The hybrid crumbles to the ground without much of a struggle and Rolland nods approvingly at his work. He knew how to kill hybrids, it was one of the few things that he had had to teach himself, his father had shown him just about everything else that he knew.

“Rolls!” Astrid calls from her perch in a nearby tree.

Rolland waits a moment as Astrid shoots at an unseen target before he asks, “What happened?”

“Hybrids came out at first light,” Astrid answers as she scans her surroundings for any additional hostiles that hadn’t been cut down. She frowns when she doesn’t see anything and she then continues, “One of Maverick’s people sounded the alarm. Everyone split up from there.”

“Why’d they split up?” Rolland asks, concerned. Smaller groups were a lot easier for the hybrids to pick off.

Astrid quickly shimmies down her tree and she replies as she works her way down, “Some of Maverick’s people made a run for it when the hybrids blitzed the camp. Maverick then sent some of his people after them while the rest of his people stuck around to put down the remaining hybrids.”

“Oh,” Rolland breathes. Splitting into small groups was one thing, they could actually defend themselves from hybrids, albeit not as well as one large one. Single people making a run for it on the other hand was as good as a death sentence. Being as capable of hunters as they were, hybrids could make quick work of lone targets.

“Rolland?” Haley asks, drawing Rolland away from his worries.

Looking over to Haley, Rolland sees the concern in her eyes. Her emotions quickly become his and he hesitantly asks, “What?”

“What about Flin?”

“He probably made it home by now,”

“It’s a long trip though.”

“These hybrids didn’t come from the northwest though,” Astrid offers, “So they couldn’t have gotten him.”

“But he’s never been good with directions,” Rolland maintains as his heart sinks. If he had just kept his cool, then he wouldn’t have sent Flin off on his own all those hours ago.

“We stuck markers on the paths, only an idiot could have gotten lost,” Astrid shakes her head, “Now, we’ve got more urgent matters to attend to right now, so snap out of it. We gotta worry about the here and now, that’s what we can change. We can’t change the past.”

“Fine,” Rolland gives in. He didn’t like the idea of forgetting about Flin, but Astrid was right. Right now, everyone depended on him and he couldn’t let them down.

“We need to find everyone,” Haley adds with a nod as she slowly looks around their clearing.

Rolland joins Haley in the survey and he can’t help but feel discouraged. A knot forms in his gut and he catches his breath when he realizes that the sounds of fighting are coming from seemingly every direction. There was no knowing where he should start.

Likely seeing that Rolland is unsure of where to start, Astrid announces, “Maverick and a few others took off to the north, Nick and Julius went east with a small group, and a lot of the other guys went south.”

“And where’s Warren?” Rolland asks.

“I don’t know,” Astrid shrugs, “He’s probably around here somewhere though. You know how he is.”

“There one second, gone the next,” Haley nods knowingly. Warren had a history of stealthily sneaking around and disappearing all the time.

“So, what’s the plan, Rolls?” Astrid finally asks.

“I don’t know Ash,” Rolland admits, “Maybe we should go after the Domers that went south. Warren, Nick, and Julius know how to handle themselves, and I bet Maverick does too.”

Nodding, Haley picks up her pack after finding it nearby and she urges, “Alright, let’s get moving then!”

Astrid glances over to Rolland and gives him a look that says how they shouldn’t bring Haley along since she would only slow them down. Noting the logic in her thinking, Rolland inquires, “Shouldn’t someone stay behind in case anyone comes back to the camp?”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Haley shakes her head. She had clearly seen through Rolland’s ruse. Adjusting her pack, Haley continues, “Let’s go, time is of the essence.”

“You heard her,” Astrid nods, giving in a lot faster than Rolland would have liked her to. She starts off after Haley who is already blazing a new trail to the south.

“I guess we’re moving then,” Rolland whispers to himself as he quickly finds his own gear and then closes the distance between him and the girls. He stops at the edge of camp and looks back to it wistfully. Sighing, Rolland asks himself, “Why couldn’t this just be an easy day?”

•••••••••••••••

“Where are our horses?” Rolland asks worriedly as he follows the two girls away from their camp.

“The hybrids got them,” Astrid answers flatly, “They were the first thing that were targeted.”

“Oh,” Haley sounds, her sadness evident. Since she had spent so much time tending to the horses over the years, she had really taken to them.

Rolland’s heart breaks momentarily at the hollowness in Haley’s voice as her sadness momentarily becomes his own. Out of all people to lose something in this attack, Haley should have been the last in line. She had already gone through so much. Frowning, Rolland moans before he offers a weakhearted joke, “Well, my dad is definitely going to ground me for this one!”

Astrid looks back to Rolland and shakes his head, signaling that now wasn’t the best time to joke around and he returns the look with one that said that he was just trying to make Haley smile. Shaking her head, Astrid turns back around and continues following Haley who is still dead silent.

Several minutes pass by at a snail’s pace as Rolland resists the urge to speak up. As much as he wanted to say something, he couldn’t bring himself to after Astrid’s correction. It just wasn’t a good time right now, he could tell that now.

“Astrid?” Haley says suddenly, making Rolland jump slightly.

Stopping behind Haley who is now standing still, Astrid asks, “What?”

“These tracks don’t look very promising,” Haley answers as she points at some tracks that Rolland can’t quite see.

Craning his neck around the girls, Rolland is greeted with the sight of several sets of footprints which are spaced far enough out and depressed deep enough that he can tell that those who left them behind were running for all they were worth. However, what was most worrying was the large webbed prints that followed the same trail. A hybrid was tracking the group of kids who ran this way. Broken branches on either side of the path show Rolland and the others some even more frightening news—the hybrid was massive. The largest he had ever seen, without a doubt. Judging by the broken foliage, the creature was at least four meters tall and two meters wide. Up until then, the biggest creature he had ever seen was only about half that size.

As Haley and the others continue staring, Haley quietly breathes, “I sure hope Maverick’s people are alright…”

Take Me to Chapter Eighteen





Take Me to the Home Page

Accolade – Chapter Sixteen

Maverick Gracian



West of Paradise, Galatia

“Alright, run that by me again,” Maverick requests as he stares at Sylvia through his bleary eyes. He closes his eyes as he yawns and then he does his best to rub the crusty junk out of his eyes.

“Gideon and I figured out why my mom gave him the flashlight,” Sylvia starts.

Maverick nods and interrupts, “I got that, what was the bit about the map through? Are you sure it’s actually a map?”

“Absolutely certain.”

“What’s so important about where the map is showing?”

“Well, I’m assuming my mom intends to meet us there.”

“I thought you said she couldn’t visit you?”

“She can’t. It sounds like she’s going to make a run for it with the rest of my family.”

“And what if it isn’t a rendezvous point?”

“Then it must be a supply cache or something else of importance.”

“Do you think we might be able to split off from Rolland and his team long enough to check it out?”

“They seem friendly enough, maybe we could take them with us.”

“We only just met them!”

“And they stuck their necks out for us before they even met us. You know deep down that they are good people.”

“That doesn’t mean that we should bring them in on something that could potentially get the rest of your family killed. Think about what could happen if someone overheard your mother’s plan!”

Clearly not convinced, Sylvia quickly points out, “She doesn’t seem too terribly worried about it, she told Gideon enough of it that she could have been shot the moment he told the wrong person.”

Shaking his head, Maverick groans, “I don’t like this one bit.”

“What if we waited a few more days to check out the spot?” Sylvia presses anxiously.

Maverick can tell that this meant a lot to her, but he still wasn’t convinced that going straight to the location Sylvia had told him about was the wisest course of action. Frowning, Maverick asks, “Was there any indication of when we should get there?”

“No,” Sylvia admits as her head drops down in defeat.

“That’s strange,” Maverick breathes, mostly to himself. He purses his lips as he slowly nods in thought.

“What do you think about it?” Sylvia inquires cautiously. Maverick can tell that Sylvia still wanted to check the spot out, but he really couldn’t bring himself to agree to such a plan so soon.

“I don’t like it, it just seems too… convenient? I don’t know, something just doesn’t seem right about all of it.”

“What if it’s where my mom wants us to set up our campsite? Maybe she scouted out a good spot and wants us somewhere she can find us when she makes her move.”

“If it was then why didn’t she tell Gideon about it? She barely told him anything as far as I can tell.”

“She probably thought that we would just follow her directive without question. Maybe she thought we would see it as a Godsend, you know?”

“Maybe,” Maverick shrugs, “But we can worry about all that later. Right now you need sleep and I need to stand watch.”

“Will you think about it?”

“You know I will,” Maverick pledges with a chuckle. He was a thinker and everyone knew it. Hardly a second went by that he wasn’t thinking about something important that could shift the tide of his future.

Sylvia looks Maverick in the eyes for a few too many seconds before she abruptly spins around and makes for her bedroll. Once she is a few paces away, Maverick lets his shoulders slouch a bit and he lets out a slow breath. He knew that he would have to check out the spot that Sylvia is now so intent on visiting but he didn’t like the thought of it. According to Gideon, the flashlight had been in the hands of Paradise’s guards for a while. There was a chance that they might have tampered with the lens that Sylvia said was etched on and they could have made the map themselves. For all he knew this could be a part of an overly elaborate trap.

Maverick shudders as the next thought hits him, What if this is all a plot to frame Sylvia’s mother and get her killed? What if they use this as an excuse to enlist Sylvia’s siblings into this horrible, star-crossed mission to reclaim the planet?

Maverick decides to pace as he considers his next moves and he circles the camp several times. After nearly a half-hour of fruitless plotting, Maverick leans against a tree a short way off from the fire that one of Rolland’s people are tending to. Something was keeping him from forming a worthwhile plan. As he saw it, it had to be something about the mix of the fresh air, Maverick’s newfound freedom, and the events of the day.

Maverick’s mind wanders to what he could do to regain his focus when his eyes begin to wander. He cocks his head slightly when he sees that Sylvia had moved her bedroll much closer to where Gideon is sleeping, and his heart skips a beat. Is Gideon stealing Sylvia from me? Maverick asks himself as his muscles tense up noticeably. Releasing the tight fist that he made, Maverick realizes that his face had flushed as jealousy momentarily overtook him. Cocking his head slightly, Maverick thinks, I’m not even dating Sylvia, why should I care? I’m not even into her! We’re friends, sure but—

“Hey, mind if I ask you a question?” Maverick hears a voice ask from behind him.

Jumping slightly, Maverick is ripped away from his thoughts. Turning to the intruder, Maverick does his best to act unfazed, “Go ahead, Rolland.”

“Can you tell me what the fuss is about with that flashlight?” Rolland quietly asks. He looks around and adds, “I wasn’t eavesdropping or anything, I just caught Sylvia and Gideon with it, and they were very interested in it. Should I be worried about anything?”

“I don’t think it’s anything to be worried about quite yet,” Maverick shrugs, there was no use in lying about it. Maverick wasn’t even sure what the map could mean, and he wasn’t about to visit its location either. That was a task for another day. Maverick glances to the person who is tending the fire and whispers, “But can you keep the flashlight thing between you and me?”

“Sure,” Rolland nods as he gives Maverick a strange look.

Maverick is sure that Rolland is wondering what the big deal was, but he hoped that he wouldn’t ask too many more questions about it. There were still too many variables and unanswered questions for Maverick to be able to pull together one cohesive thought about the whole thing.

“Hey, Rolls, you taking over for me?” the person at the fire asks before either Maverick or Rolland can say something else to each other.

“Just a sec,” Rolland requests. Turning back to Maverick he asks, “Think we need to talk about what’s going on now, or do you want to put that off until the morning?”

“I can’t get anything done right now so let’s make the most of our time,” Maverick shrugs. In a way, he is happy to have a distraction to pull him away from the torrent of conflicting thoughts that are racing through his head right now. Briefing Rolland on what I knew might help me to gather my thoughts. I’m not getting anywhere on my own. Plus, it can’t hurt to pick Rolland’s brain on everything he knows about life out here, Maverick reasons.

“Yeah, I’m taking over for you,” Rolland tells the person at the fire before he motions with his head for Maverick to follow him to the fireside.

“So, where would you like me to start?” Maverick asks, knowing that Rolland would be a lot more forthcoming with information if he answered all of Rolland’s questions right off the bat.

“Well, first I’d like to know what the deal was with your friends who shot at you,” Rolland quickly replies, “But I really want to know everything.”

“That’s quite the steep request,” Maverick chuckles. Taking a seat by the fire, Maverick then proceeds to fill Rolland in on everything—or at least everything that he thought wouldn’t endanger Sylvia’s family.

Take Me to Chapter Seventeen





Take Me to the Home Page

Accolade – Chapter Fifteen

Gideon Lennox



West of Paradise, Galatia

“Hey, wake up,” Sylvia’s voice urges, drawing Gideon out of one of the deepest sleeps that he had ever had.

Feeling a mix of confusion, surprise, and, quite frankly, sadness, Gideon looks around for a short moment before his eyes settle on Sylvia who is squatting beside him. Gideon lets out a low groan before he presses his palms firmly against his eyelids. He rubs his eyes roughly until he sees lights playing on the insides of his eyelids as he asks, “What do you want? I took first watch.”

Gideon rolls his head about for a moment until he pops his neck and he lets out a content sigh. Taking a deep breath, he stretches and then he feels someone’s firm grasp on his arm. Opening his eyes, Gideon looks over and sees that Meghan at latched onto him once again. Frowning, Gideon groans and shakes his head. He had ensured that he didn’t have to watch over the camp with Meghan because he didn’t want to sit through her talking at him the entire time. Things worked out perfectly for him. Or at least he thought they did. Meghan must have finished off her night watch and then snuggled up to Gideon who was dead to the world at that time.

Sylvia lets out a giggle before she teases, “I was wondering if you knew that she did that. Jake had the watch before me, and he said you guys looked too cute together, so he didn’t want to wake you either.”

“Well, thanks for waking me up,” Gideon nods appreciatively to Sylvia as he worms his arm out of Meghan’s steely grip. The task of freeing himself was a lot easier this time around because Meghan was asleep, but that didn’t mean that her grip was any les firm.

“Well, that isn’t the real reason why I woke you up,” Sylvia admits. She glances over her shoulder and Gideon sees that one of Roland’s people is tending a nearby fire. Sylvia watches that person for a moment before she whispers, “I think I figured something out about the flashlight.”

“And why couldn’t it wait?” Gideon asks tiredly as he rubs his face again. He hoped that whatever it was that Sylvia was on about could be quickly resolved so he could get back to sleep—albeit on the other side of camp and away from Meghan.

“Because it has to be dark for this to work,” Sylvia replies unhelpfully. She tugs on Gideon’s shirt and urges, “Come on!”

“Why can’t you just show Maverick this?” Gideon inquires groggily from his spot. He had already warmed up the small sleeping mat and blanket that he is tucked between and he didn’t like the idea of leaving their warm embrace.

Seemingly unfazed by Gideon’s question and lack of movement, Sylvia cheerfully replies, “Because I wanted to figure it out with you.”

Not another one, Gideon thinks as he takes a deep breath. Shaking his head, Gideon looks up to the heavens and lets out a silent, teasing prayer to God, One crazy girl is more than enough, thank you. How about a normal one instead? Groaning, Gideon convinces himself to rise to his feet and he follows Sylvia to the edge of camp. She then slips into the tree line that encircles the small clearing and Gideon stops dead in his tracks. Concerned, Gideon queries, “And where are we going exactly?”

“There’s a cliff over here that we need to go to,” Sylvia explains as she pulls out her flashlight.

“A cliff.” Gideon sounds, saying it as more of a statement than a question. Rolling his eyes, Gideon resolves to entertain Sylvia’s escapade and he follows along the rest of the way in absolute silence. After trekking far enough through the woods that the camp’s fire is out of sight, Gideon feels a nervous shiver shoot down his back. He had come this far away from the others and he had left his backpack and, more importantly, his weapons back there. Fearing what might be lurking in the shadows, Gideon clears his throat.

“We’re here,” Sylvia announces before Gideon can say anything.

Perplexed, Gideon asks, “So, what’s so important about this cliff?” He closes the distance between him and Sylvia and he then peers down the steep cliff at the deep darkness below. He thinks he can hear the faintest echo of a small stream’s burbling that reaches up along the sheer cliff walls, but he can’t be certain.

“It’s where I figured this out,” Sylvia replies as she shines her flashlight at the cliff face opposite of her and Gideon.

Gideon stares at where Sylvia is shining her light and he frowns. Nothing seemed too important or threatening to him over there. Shaking his head, Gideon prompts, “I don’t see anything, what’s so important?”

“Look at the light itself,” Sylvia urges excitedly.

“I’m looking and I don’t see anything.”

“Look harder, just at the shadows the light makes.”

“It would be easier if your flashlight didn’t have scratches on the lens.”

“That’s the thing!” Sylvia exclaims as she hops up and down in joy.

Completely at a loss, Gideon scans her and feels like she is making some sort of a joke. In return, Sylvia is smiling broadly, and she seems completely on the level. Still confused, Gideon says, “Okay, I’m really not getting this.”

“My mom must have made these scratches!” Sylvia explains as she scratches at the lens of the little red flashlight that Gideon had delivered for her.

“Lenses get scratched all the time, what makes you think that these are special?”

“My mom wouldn’t have risked everything to pass along a beat-up flashlight. This has got to mean something.”

“Like…?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I brought you along.”

“…To look at scratches on a flashlight lens?”

“Yeah,” Sylvia nods. Seeing that Gideon is not very entertained at the notion, Sylvia’s smile drops. She looks at him with pleading eyes and, with a desperate voice, she asks, “You don’t think I’m making something out of nothing, do you?”

Gideon is about to speak his mind and say that Sylvia was making a big deal of nothing when he stops himself. Logically speaking, Gideon didn’t think the flashlight was as important as Sylvia’s mother made it sound. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. It was poorly made, and the light it provided was faint. But then Gideon felt something in his gut nudging him. Something that told him to hear Sylvia out and entertain her. Giving in to the inner urging, Gideon requests, “Can I see it?”

Sylvia hands the flashlight to Gideon and she watches him expectantly as he shines the flashlight around for a few seconds. Anxious, Sylvia presses, “So?”

“Well, there definitely is something about the way these scratches are here,” Gideon observes as he trains the beam of light on a surface a lot closer to them than the cliff wall was. Squinting, Gideon examines the scratches and frowns. There was something vaguely familiar about a few of the lines. Gideon glances around and his eyes lock onto a good-sized rock that had a very flat face. Approaching the stone, Gideon shines his light and uses it as a projector screen. Without a jagged surface casting strange shadows, the scratches on the lens made a lot clearer of an image.

“What is it?” Sylvia asks, still perplexed.

Gideon reaches down to the map that he had hung around his neck. He glances between it and the faint projection before him several times before he tentatively asks “Does this look like anything familiar to you?”

“Yeah,” Sylvia breathes as she stands behind Gideon. She leans forward a bit and Gideon flinches slightly as her chin brushes against his shoulder. Sylvia continues staring and she eventually cocks her head to the side, inadvertently headbutting Gideon in the process. She and Gideon both jerk away from one another as they laugh and Sylvia promptly apologizes, “I got in the zone there, sorry!”

Still chuckling Gideon assures her, “I was too.”

“So, do you know what it is supposed to be then?”

“I think so!” Gideon exclaims happily as he holds his map out for Sylvia to see. Nodding, he explains himself, “If I’m right then the flashlight is showing us a place where this mountain and this river and this stream are all present on the map.”

“And that would be right there,” Sylvia acknowledges as she points at a small point on the map that Gideon is holding up.

“Exactly,” Gideon agrees happily. It seemed like Commander Hayes was a lot more cunning and resourceful than he had started to think she was. The initial lack of results with the flashlight had really taken the wind out of Gideon’s sails but now he felt very encouraged. In his heart, Gideon felt like he could fly all the way to the location on Commander Hayes’s map.

“I’m going to tell Maveric,” Sylvia exclaims as she spins around.

“Tell Maverick what?” Roland asks from seemingly out of nowhere.

“Woah, how long have you been there?” Gideon demands as he instinctively steps between Roland and Sylvia. Sure, he didn’t have a weapon but that wouldn’t stop him from standing in the way to protect her from a potential threat.

Roland scans Gideon and Sylvia for a moment before he replies, “I just got here; Warren woke me up a little bit ago when you two took too long to get back to camp. He wanted me to make sure that you guys were safe.”

“We’re fine,” Sylvia assures Roland, “We just had to slip away to check on something.”

Gideon is still holding the red flashlight and he does his best to casually slip it into his pocket. He didn’t know Roland yet and he didn’t quite trust him. Sure, Roland was a lot easier to trust than Danni and Jason were, especially since he and his people saved Gideon and the others, but that just felt too convenient for Gideon. It wasn’t often that things worked out that well just because.

“So, what were you going to tell Maverick?” Roland asks in a friendly tone. In many ways, he sounded like he was just trying to start a casual conversation.

“We think we have a map,” Sylvia reports, seemingly convinced that Roland had no bad intentions. Gideon looks back to her and she gives him a reassuring nod.

Roland gives Sylvia and Gideon a curious look before he presses, “And what’s so important about this map?”

“Ah—” Sylvia starts before she clamps her mouth shut. She is now standing beside Gideon and he can see Sylvia’s face twist slightly as she thinks. After a beat, Sylvia admits, “I don’t know, but it’s from my mother.”

“And why did you have to come this far out to look at this map?” Roland asks.

Gideon can’t help but see the reasoning behind Roland’s question and he looks to Sylvia expectantly. When Sylvia fails to answer Roland Gideon decides to press the matter, “Yeah, why did we have to come all the way out here?”

“Well, I needed it to be dark enough for us to see the light so we could find out that it was a map,” Sylvia eventually answers, clearly hiding something.

Roland seems to pick up on the fact that Sylvia is withholding something, and he frowns. He shakes his head ever so slightly before he changes gears and says, “Well, next time please be sure to tell your watch buddy where you’re going. You can’t just go out on your own like this.”

“Got it,” Sylvia nods. She gives Roland a look that silently tells him to leave and he quickly picks up on it and does so. Once Roland is out of sight, Sylvia turns to Gideon and lays it all out, “I know we can trust Roland and his people, but I don’t know about our own team. There are a few people that I thought were loyal to Jason, but they still stayed behind with us. I already told Maverick about them and he thought the same thing. Be sure to watch your back.”

“Why don’t you tell Roland about them?” Gideon asks, “They could just as easily turn on him and his team as they could turn on us.”

“He doesn’t need to know everything about us this soon,” Sylvia answers quietly.

Gideon lets out a half chuckle as he gives Sylvia an incredulous look. She returns the look and Gideon goes on to explain his thinking, “I’m pretty sure Roland can tell that our team isn’t as close-knit as it ought to be. He witnessed Jason and the others shooting at us, after all.”

“But he might overreact if we tell him that we might still have some bad actors with us.”

“He seems pretty level-headed. I think he could handle the news.”

“Well, I’ll have to run that by Maverick first.”

“Go for it,” Gideon nods. Yawning, he asks, “So can I go back to sleep now?”

Take Me to Chapter Sixteen





Take Me to the Home Page

Accolade – Chapter Fourteen

Maverick Gracian



West of Paradise, Galatia

“Just let him help us!” Sylvia begs as a few more bullets tear through the foliage that they are still hiding under.

Maverick scowls at Sylvia for a moment before he shakes his head. He didn’t like it, but he really didn’t have any other option right now. He would have to enlist the help of some strangers that may or may not turn on him once Jason and his group were out of sight. Maverick takes a long, slow breath before he calls out to the one who called himself Roland Dixon, “And you won’t shoot to hit any of them?”

“Thank you,” Sylvia nods to Maverick before they both turn to watch the tree that Roland is currently behind.

“If you don’t want us to then we won’t” Roland sounds in reply with his own pledge. Roland then calls out to somewhere behind Maverick and those remaining in his team, “You heard it, light them up!”

A moment later, dozens of bullets are whizzing through the air back toward Jason and the other turncoats. Maverick rolls over onto his back and he looks toward the little knoll that the shooting seems to be coming from and he can’t help but nod in appreciation. Even with the muzzle flashes from all the weapons fire, Maverick still can’t pinpoint exactly where the shooters are. Nearly ten seconds pass before the gunfire dies down markedly and that is when Maverick realizes that Jason’s team had stopped shooting at him.

“Come on, you’re clear!” a girl’s voice calls from the little lookout that all the shooting had come from.

“It’s now or never!” Roland calls from behind his tree. Maverick looks over in time to see Roland’s form slip away from his hiding spot and then tear his way back up the little hill he had come from before he disappears into the foliage. A moment passes before he sticks his head back out of the dense greenery to look at Maverick and the others and asks, “Are you coming or not?”

“If they were going to shoot us, they would have done it by now,” Sylvia announces before she abruptly rises to a crouch. Still crouching, she then pulls Maverick up and presses, “They know the lay of the land better than we ever will. Maybe they can teach us a thing or two that the Sims couldn’t.”

Maverick is about to warn her about the need for caution when Sylvia spins around and makes for where Roland and his team are. Sighing, Maverick offers up a quick prayer that things wouldn’t go south, and he orders, “Fall back, team.”

“You heard the man, move it!” Jake quickly calls out. At that, everyone starts following Sylvia and after a few seconds, Jake gets Maverick’s attention and he points toward Tyson who is clutching a growing red spot on his shoulder.

“Tyson!” Maverick quickly yells as he races over to his friend. As he approaches, Maverick sees that Tyson also has a bandage tied around his thigh and blood is seeping through that as well.

“I’m fine,” Tyson grunts as he limps after the others as fast as he can go.

Maverick is about to say something when his voice catches in his throat. Instead of forming a sentence, all that rises from his throat is a whimper. Maverick wasn’t ready to see one of his people get hurt, not like this. The fact that the injury came at the hand of someone that was on his team a few minutes earlier made it that much harder for him to deal with.

“If you need anything, just tell me,” Maverick requests after several more moments pass. He has a sinking feeling in his gut that Tyson was a lot worse off than he let on.

“I told you, I’m fine,” Tyson snaps. He grimaces slightly, as if the effort of responding pained him and he then clenches his eyes shut. His frown deepens as he opens his eyes and seemingly realizes that this isn’t all part of a bad dream.

Still worried, Maverick keeps an eye on Tyson as they close the distance between them and the small hill that everyone had disappeared over. Before too long, both Maverick and Tyson slip through the dense foliage and are greeted by the sight of Roland’s team and everyone from Maverick’s team that hadn’t left with Jason. Maverick can’t see everyone, thanks to the thick brush, but he can see a good portion of those around him.

Sylvia emerges out of seemingly nowhere and she teasingly whispers to Maverick, “Took you long enough to get here.”

“Is this everyone?” Maverick asks as he peers through the greenery at those around him. He still can’t make out every face, so he turns his attention back to Sylvia.

Frowning, Sylvia nods and says, “Yeah, it looks like Jason took eight of our people with him. Besides them, everyone is accounted for.”

“Is anyone else hurt?” Maverick inquires as he looks back to Tyson who is currently getting his arm attended to by the ever-resourceful Anne. Maverick chuckles when he sees that Anne is using a sock as a bandage.

Shaking her head, Sylvia answers, “Nope, just Tyson, by the looks of it.”

“We need to get moving,” Roland announces, interrupting all the various conversations that are going on between Maverick’s people. Maverick looks over to where Roland is, and he sees several of Roland’s people standing behind them with their weapons in hand. For a group of ragtag group of guerrillas, they seemed to be very competent. All eyes shift to Roland and he continues when he sees that he has everyone’s attention, “We’ll lead the way to one of our campsites and you all can decide what you would like to do from there.”

All eyes then shift to Maverick and he can tell that they are silently asking him what to do. In response, Maverick scans Roland and his people for a beat before he says, “Sound like a plan.”

“Good,” Roland nods as he starts to turn.

“And thanks for the save,” Maverick quickly adds. Having finally met one of the savages, his feelings toward them have changed. They clearly were not the monsters that he had been told they were. In fact, if anyone was a monster, it was Jason and his people.

Roland pauses and then turns to face Maverick. Shaking his head, he admits, “You’ll have to thank my team for that, it was their idea.”

“Oh?” Maverick asks, his interest piqued. He is about to thank the rest of Roland’s team when Roland starts talking again.

“Yep, I was wanting to start heading home. They convinced me that we needed to follow you and your people.”

“Well, I’m thankful for that,”

“Yeah, it definitely worked out for the best. Saving lives beats resting at home most any day.”

“So, you have a home out here?” Maverick asks, letting his curiosity get the best of him. He had only heard bad things about the savages of the wilds before now and after hearing Roland talk, he had so many questions rising to the surface.

“Of course, I have a home,” Roland laughs, “We’re not savages—oh wait, I get it. Umm…”

Roland trails off as he chuckles to himself and then one of the girls beside him picks up where he stopped, “We all live in a good-sized village not too far from here. Our society isn’t too unlike your own, except we don’t send our people out into the wilds to die.”

“Haley!” Roland snaps warningly as he gives her a look that could cut stone.

“I said what I did,” Haley shrugs dismissively as she shifts her attention to the woods around them. When Roland fails to say anything else to her, she distances herself a short way from Roland and the others. She then takes the reins of two of the horses that some of Roland’s people had been leading along.

“What did she mean by that?” Maverick asks after several awkward moments. To validate his question, he goes on to explain, “We were trained by the best of the best, so we definitely were not sent out here to die. Our mission is to tame the wilderness for our people.”

Roland looks over to face Maverick and he frowns. He weighs what he is about to say next when he waves for Maverick to come closer to him. Once Maverick is a lot closer, Roland replies in a quiet voice that no one else can hear, “You may have training, but not everyone that the Coalition sends out is that lucky. There are many groups of your people that have been sent out here without the training or the means to defend themselves. Many of these groups are families.”

“What?” Maverick asks, confused, “What do you mean they are sending out families?”

“We don’t know why they are sending out families for sure,” Roland admits, “But we do know that the Coalition attacks those that they exile. Haley”

“We were told that it was you that attacked our people,” Maverick snaps.

Roland shakes his head before he resumes what he was saying, “Haley is one of the exiles. Her family was killed when a Coalition ship bombed them. She’s the sole survivor.”

“What?” Maverick asks once again. He stops dead in his tracks and Roland pauses a brief moment before he leaves Maverick there in the middle of the path.

The Coalition is killing its own people? Maverick asks himself as he weighs the plausibility of the accusation. Under normal circumstances, he would have shrugged off the possibility of such a statement, but he couldn’t this time. He had had his own doubts in the integrity of the Coalition for some time now. Those doubts had first come up when he heard about how so many members of his team had been ripped away from their parents without any notice. Those doubts were strengthened when someone pointed out the absurdity of sending children out to take on monsters that career soldiers feared to face.

“What do you mean you have something for me?” Maverick hears Sylvia’s voice ask from behind him.

“Your mother gave me something when she dropped me off at Paradise,” the newcomer, Gideon, replies.

“My mother?” Sylvia asks taken aback, “Is everything alright?’

“Yeah,” Gideon replies, “She says that she’s coming for you.”

“But she can’t do that!” Sylvia whispers harshly.

“She knows what doing so would mean, but she seems to have a plan in place.”

“But how does she think she is going to find me?”

“She gave me this… she told me that you would be able to figure out what needs to be done from there.”

“What?” Sylvia says aloud. She is about to say more when she literally runs into Maverick who had yet to move. Sylvia and Maverick both fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs and laughter. After a short effort, Sylvia jumps to her feet an apologizes, “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

“No, it’s my fault,” Maverick shakes his head as he rises to his own feet. Brushing off some dirt, Maverick finally pulls himself out of his head and he starts walking after Roland and the others. When Gideon and Sylvia begin following him, he asks, “So, what did Gideon give you?”

Gideon looks over to Sylvia with a face the pleaded with her to not say anything, but Sylvia ignores it. Picking up a red flashlight from off the ground, Sylvia replies, “This.”

“A flashlight…” Maverick remarks as Sylvia hands it to him. He examines it thoughtfully for several moments before he unscrews a few parts. Looking at the compact battery pack and a few other odds and ends he frowns. Nothing seemed important enough to smuggle it into Sylvia and risk being exposed. Feeling quite discouraged, Maverick puts the flashlight back together and muses, “I wonder what’s so important about it.”

“To be honest, I expected there to be a map inside it,” Sylvia admits as she opens it up and takes a look for herself.

Laughing, Maverick agrees, “Me too!”

“Wait, but why did your mom have me bring it in then?” Gideon asks, his confusion evident, “She said that you would know what to do with it.”

“I don’t know…” Sylvia admits as she plays with the small device.

“Maybe it’s a transceiver?” Gideon offers, “Maybe she’ll use it to track you down?”

“I didn’t think of that,” Sylvia nods, “Maybe.”

Maverick, Gideon, and Sylvia chitchat for some time after giving up one their pursuit to figure out what the flashlight was for. The truth of the matter was that they had no idea why Commander Hayes made such a big deal about it. As far as any of them could tell, it was just a flashlight. Even Gideon’s transmitter idea failed to hold water since they all knew electronics well enough to see that the flashlight was just that.

As the three of them spoke they exchanged countless stories. Maverick found himself laughing far too many times as he noted just how much he and Gideon had in common. Sure, they had quite a few differences too, but no one was just like another person. Even twins had their differences.

After a very long hike, Maverick checks his maps and he compares them to his surroundings. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get his bearing, he does his best to peer through the tree canopy at some nearby mountains and he gets a rough bearing off of the mountains’ peaks. After several minutes of struggling, Maverick has a few bearings to go off of and he plots them out on his map. Smiling, Maverick realizes that he and the others are now well over twenty kilometers from Paradise, which meant they were safe.

“Alright, our campsite is just up ahead,” Roland announces after what felt like an eternity. After such a long hike, Maverick was thankful for the extensive training that he and the other Stalwarts went through.

“How are you doing, Tyson?” Maverick asks as he examines his friend. He had made sure to keep Tyson in front of him the whole time in order to ensure that he didn’t get left behind.

Tyson huffs before he replies, “Going good, can’t wait for dinner.”

“Are you sure?” Maverick presses. Tyson had kept up with everyone pretty well, likely thanks to the crutch that Anne made him, but that seemed like it just gave him the means to put on a strong front for everyone else.

“Yep,” Tyson responds shortly.

Maverick frowns as Tyson waddles a little faster to get away from him. He can tell that Tyson was hiding something, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Frowning, Maverick decides to let it go and he shrugs. There was nothing he could do for Tyson if Tyson didn’t tell him anything. Shrugging, Maverick turns to Gideon and he asks, “And how are you doing? I know you haven’t been on a hike like this before.”

“I should be fine,” Gideon assures him, “I was in track, so my legs can take quite a lot of punishment. It’ll take more than a long hike to take me down.”

“Hiking and running are two very different things,” Sylvia warns.

Gideon lets out a loud laugh before he declares, “You’re telling me!”

Sylvia gives Gideon a weird look and she asks, “What?”

“My legs are on fire right now,” Gideon admits. Still laughing, Gideon rubs his shins for a moment before he reaches down to his ankle. Wincing slightly, he admits, “I think I rolled my ankle a hundred times today.”

Sylvia lets out a laugh at Gideon’s joke. Shaking her head, she warns, “You’re definitely going to be hurting in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Gideon lets out a pained chuckle. He and the others take a few more steps and they emerge into a good-sized clearing where Roland and his team are preparing the campsite for the night.

Spirits seem to be high and everyone is happily chatting with one another. Anne is currently engaged in conversation with Haley whom she seems to have befriended over the long trek. The rest of Maverick’s team is also engaging with Roland’s team as they join in on the setup efforts.

“They actually did it,” Meghan whispers to herself as Maverick, Sylvia, and Gideon draw near. She is sitting near the edge of the group where she is rocking slightly in a fetal position. Her eyes are wide, and her face is pale as she stares blankly ahead of her.

The group grows quiet as they take in what Meghan had reminded them of. Jason, Danni, and seven others, had all left them. Not only that, but they also shot at them as they left. Not only had they shot at them, but they actually hit Tyson. Despite Tyson’s assurances, Maverick isn’t sure if his friend will actually pull through this one. They didn’t have a med ward where Tyson could heal up, they were out on their own.

“We all knew they wanted to leave us,” Maverick offers, “We just didn’t expect them to do it like they did.”

Frowning, Sylvia offers, “Well, they’re gone now, so we’re safe.”

Take Me to Chapter Fifteen





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