Jacks And Jokers

18: On The Other End Of The Spear

"Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your back! Don't make any sudden moves." One of the people behind me said. All three of us started to get to our knees slowly and slid our arms back gently. 

Soon enough they came around and tied us up. Whatever rope they tied was not budging, no matter what struggle I put it through. Soon they lined us up against the wall opposite of the entrance. 

"Who are you, and why are you invading our land?!" The one directly in front of me said. He had a spear that was edging uncomfortably close to my nose. I presumed he was the leader of these people as I remember his voice from earlier. He had medium-length, curly, ginger hair. 

"We're, um..." I slowly sputtered out. I looked down at the spear in my face and contemplated my answer. Should I tell them we're jokers? What if they were with the government? Well for starters if they were with the government they wouldn't be stuck with spears. We'd instead have been gunned down by now.

"Well? Spit it out!" He shouted at me. In response to this, I sat up straighter. As if intimidated by this action he pushed the spear closer. There was a flame in his eyes that said he wanted to plunge it into my skull.

"I'm a joker," I said this all in hopes to confuse him, but confusion was not what I found. All of the aggressors slightly relaxed due to this sentence. Most of them even breathed a sigh of relief.

The redhead in front of me lowered his spear and asked, "Well why didn't you just tell us so?" 

Like we ever had the chance. 

He smiled lightheartedly and helped my up by grabbing the front of my shirt. He untied the knots binding my ropes and quickly went to untie the others.

"So who are you?" Dakota asked behind me. I spin around to see him talking to the redhead as he untied the restraints. 

"Just like you! Social rejects," He said while pointing at a short pudgy kid. "thieves," he said pointing towards someone that looks like the definition of weasel. "And murderers!" He finally rested his arm pointing at a fairly innocent-looking kid. "All of us got that joker card," I looked back at him still confused as to what the situation truly was. "You know," he continued. "The cards that are ripped, torn, and burnt? Unless they've changed that since I was there. God only knows cause I wouldn't want to go back."

"God?" Rien asked.

"Oh, religious stuff. They never really introduced religion to the card stack. The previous kings thought it might provoke violence against the injustices of the unfair society. Something about the government becoming their own god. You'll have to talk to some of our nerds about it." He said 'nerd' with slight disdain.

A lot of this was so hard to unpack. "So there are other jokers? Are they in this town? How have you survived with the aces out there?" I asked.

The ginger-haired kid looked at me and answered with, "Ya. Do you think that everyone that gets out of that hellhole dies? And why would the Aces come out here, it's too dangerous for them? No, most years we just pick everyone up at where they kick the jokers out. That leads me to my own question... Why aren't you guys with Ash? Did he get annoyed  and kick ya out?"

Dakota and I both looked at each other and back at the redhead. 

"Oh ya! You probably haven't met him yet. Sorry!" He started to laugh. For some reason, I was still stuck on the fact that they were about to kill us and now we're his friends. 

"I didn't know there were other people outside of the card stacks. How did you survive?" I asked quizzically. 

"Well that king everyone reveres kicks out people who have the lowest scores. I guess he's dealing with overpopulation." Someone new behind me said. I turned around to see some blonde-haired girl standing next to Rien. "Everyone here and back at camp has been exiled from that utopias 'paradise'. As you can tell, we usually pick up the new arrivals, but I guess we weren't able to do that this year." She continued. 

"Well, as much as I like to inform you about the obvious, we've been here too long. Let's leave." The redhead began again. "We need to get back to camp to avoid detection." He looked around at everyone, then at me. "Newbies, let's go" 

"We have to go get everyone else first." Dakota started. "We have to make sure they're not out here for any longer in case of danger."

"THERE ARE MORE!"  The redhead more of exclaimed than asked. "We'll have to tell Ash about that." He muttered to himself. "Okay newbies, lead us to your friends and we'll leave." 

Dakota, Rien, and I looked back and forth at each other.

"Well, let's go!" Their leader said again. He immediately started walking towards the door. Soon after he reached the exit, and everyone started trailing behind him. Soon our group took lead and headed to where every other joker was hiding. Soon we reached the forest's edge and found the designated spot again.

At first the other jokers were startled at the new presence till I explained who they were.

"So they're not here to kill us like the aces tried to do?" A slightly taller brunette female asked. 

"No. They were previously jokers too." I said. Shortly after these words met their ears there was one simultaneous gasp. "Yea, it's confusing, but we're going to their base. Is that understood?" 

Then the redhead, surprisingly quiet up until now chimed in. "Don't worry. If we were the aces you'd all be safe cause we would've killed your friends on sight without even hesitating to get them to tell us where you were!" Dakota and I glared at him. "What? I was just stating the facts." He said grouchily. "Are you guys ready to leave? If so let's go. I'm too impatient to wait around here any longer." Then he started walking away. All of the jokers looked back at one another and quickly followed the new leader or at least the new guide. 

Everyone was discussing their own conversation. From what I heard they all varied from speculation about the 'jokers' being disguised aces, to excitement about salvation. Most of them fell into that category of 'salvation'. As quick as a rabbit the conversations flipped to the mass and size of the place.

Their 'huts' were the size of houses in the tens, trading carts for bartering lined the streets like ducklings behind a mother, colors popped at every corner, and people, none more than at least 25, were roaming the streets. 

"This is your camp?" I couldn't even be surprised at this point. 24 hours ago I was worried I'd be stuck in the twos, and now I was in a camp of a forcefully forgotten civilization.

Eyes quickly turned towards us as we approached city limits. Colorful clothes, slightly worn shows, and mildly unkempt hair followed our moves as we progressed onwards. Past shops, houses, doors, gardens, and people we got closer to the largest building. It was magnificently beautiful. Not in the stylish forms of the king card stacks, but in its own rustic style.

The doors that I'd only now noticed started to open up. Out walked a kid, maybe a year or two older than me, walked out. He sported very dark brown hair, a sharp jawline, and a semi muscular build. 

"Ash!" Ash, I assume, looked over. "Look who we found." 

That's when I met Ash.

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