Wars and Lies

Chapter Seventeen

Silence filled the air. What's going on? I'm not dead. How am I not dead? I heard the guns go off. I slowly opened my eyes. I looked down and there's no blood so the bullet didn't hit me. I looked up and there's a large thick piece of metal in front of me and holding this large was the last person I expected to see. "Ashton? What then?" How is he here? I looked over and saw Christopher holding two shields over Brandon and Emily. Ashton and Chris throw the shields and pull-out guns and start rapidly firing at Sinead's and the other's feet to make sure they keep back. None of the guards start firing so I guess they only had enough bullets to kill us. I start to feel someone messing with my cuffs. "Who's there?" I say as I start to wiggle.

"It's me. Now keep still."

"Steph?"

"Yes." Stephanie set me free then got to work on the others. Not too long later, everyone's free. "Let's go, follow us." Ashton shouted.

"You're just kids you can't stop me!" Sinead screamed. We ran as fast as we could as the guards raced after us. We sprinted out the back door of the building and snuck our way through town avoiding the guards.

We reached a beach on the north side of the city. We ran the entire way here. Our legs and lungs are on fire. I've never ran so fast or been so scared in my entire life. I haven't been able to fully process what's just happened. We were almost executed but then Ashton showed up out of nowhere and saved us. Ashton ducked into a nearby cave and everyone followed. Have they been living here? We reached the back of the cave and there's makeshift beds made from blankets and lots of empty food wrappers and cans. There's a few battery powered lanterns scattered around which are 100% needed as we're so far back that without them it would be pitch black. "We've been hiding here since we left. We pretended to leave so we could sneak around and try to find out what's really going on. We found out about Sinead two days ago." Ashton explained.

"Sorry we left but we thought it was the best way to find out what's going on. I'm sorry things went bad and the way they did but we needed it to be convincing, that's why we didn't tell you. I'm sorry." Steph apologised and I was expecting Ashton to as well but instead he remained silent and stared at the floor.

"Charlotte and Charlie went home. Charlotte found her mum shortly after we left but unfortunately, Charlie wasn't able to find his so to keep him out of danger, Charlotte's mum offered to take him with her and return him to his tribe." Ashton stated.

"Good, they're far too young to be involved" I added. "How'd you find out about Sinead?"

"We broke into her room and found a diary hidden in a vent that said she caught her dad cheating on her mum when she was eleven, fifteen years ago apparently. Her mum passed away from an illness a year later. She blames her dad for causing her mother stress and making her illness worse. Sinead wants revenge and said she'll stop at nothing to get it." Ashton said.

"Why didn't you come tell us straight away?" Brandon asked

"We were going to but my dad's chest got tight and collapsed so we needed to get him back here and we didn't expect Sinead to act so fast," Ashton replied.

"Speaking of dad's, how's mine? Is he alive and okay?" Stephanie asked and I can see Emily and Brandon in the corner of my eye waving their hands and shaking their heads no.

"It's fine, it happened and there's nothing I can do to change that. Your dad's fine Steph." I said.

"What's going on?" Stephanie and Ashton asked.

"My dad's dead. Sinead slit his throat in front of us." I answered.

"I'm so sorry Katie. Sinead will pay." Ashton stated.

"Thank you. She will and I know just how to do it. Sinead says we're just kids so let's fight like kids," I explained my plan: my idea is to surprise them and use loads of childish pranks and traps that they won't be expecting and even use child-ish weapons such as a sling shot. It's not the best plan but they won't be expecting it and we just need to get to Malcom to let him out and then we can get to the weapons storage and free the others. That's when we can plan a real attack and go after Sinead. The others were at first reluctant to agree but eventually got onboard. "We'll leave at sunset as then we can also use the cover of night to protect us." Brandon said.

"My chest is feeling tight so I'm going to go for a walk," Christopher said.

"You okay dad? Want me to come with you?" Ashton asked, worried.

"I'll be fine. You lot prepare and get rested. We don't have a lot of time," Christopher replied as he left the cave.

"Dad's right. We need to gather our strength. There's some food and water but it's not much, we haven't been able steal more." Ashton said.

I grabbed Sinead's diary and left the cave; I want to know as much as possible about her. Flicking through shows she has so much anger for her father and completely blames him for her mother's death. Malcom doesn't seem like a cheater. There's a couple of pages on how she's manipulating this guy who's madly in love with her. She says she has no feelings for him at all but finds it fun to play with him and get him to do whatever she wants like her daily tasks. Proves even more that she's a psychopath. It also says about how growing up she wanted to be a painter, she's even added an oil painting of a deer and it's actually really good. This diary shows two sides to her.

"Hey, thought you'd be hungry," Ash said as he sat next to me and tried to hand me half a sandwich.

"No thanks." I didn't look up and kept reading.

"I'm sorry about your dad."

"Thanks." I still didn't look up. I don't really want to talk to him.

"That's not the real thing I want to apologise for."

"Then what is?" I said in an angry tone.

"I want to apologies for what I did to you. I'm guessing you hate me for leaving and to be honest I hate myself. It broke me to leave and have to listen to you cry. I could hear your voice break and your heart shatter. I did it to protect you but if I I'd just stayed I could've saved you so much pain and try to protect your dad. I'm so sorry it's all my fault. I'll never be able to forgive myself." Ashton started to tear up.

"I thought you left me Ashton. You said we weren't friends. You broke me."

"I know I did. I wish I could take back the things I said, I wanted to make it believing but I went too far. I know I did and I hate myself for it. Katie you're my best friend and I love you more than anything. All I want to do is to protect you."

"I understand why you left and it's clever but you really hurt me." I'm crying now to.

"I know and I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

"Ash I forgive you."

"I promise I'll do everything to protect you and get you and the others home safe. I promise." I hugged him and he gave me a massive bear hug back. His hugs have always been comforting and always made me feel safe. What he did really hurt me but he did it because he cares.

"I know you will. Like you said you've never broken a promise."

"And I'm not about to start." Ashton let go and I really didn't want him to. I can't imagine losing him again or any of my friends. "Come on let's go help the others prep, I bet Steph's not even helping," Ashton laughed. Ashton jumped up and helped me up to.

We spent the rest of the time prepping. Ash was only half right about Stephanie, she helped for the first hour but then got bored and sat there winding Emily up about her crush on Brandon and kept pushing them into each other. Brandon's oblivious to it as always but I think Ashton's starting to catch on. It felt nice and almost like it's back to normal having us messing around and having fun.